> The small form factor phones simply do not sell.

And still in every phone topic people complain about phones being too big... I'd love to have a smaller affordable smartphone.

Same here. And I have a friend who keeps his small IPhone because they stopped building smaller phones, too. There is a demand, maybe not that big.

For me, I want to be able to operate the phone with one hand, and the large screen makes it difficult to reach all the spots on the screen even with large hands. I do operate my Fairphone 5 with one hand, but it is super awkward and at some point, the phone will fall into a gully because I cannot hold it tight while navigating.

And I wouldn't mind 2mm more thickness if this means the cameras are flush with the back and the battery is larger.

I was in the same boat and literally this week bought a Pixel 8. It's a 2 year old phone but with the extended support period that's no longer a problem, and being old means you can get it new for about €300 or refurbished for even less.

The other option is the Samsung S2x line, which you can apply the same strategy to.