My memory is from around 1998-1999 when I did some research to buy my first phone. From memory, I think that at that point Ericsson was winning that race in the more affordable end of the market, with models that I remember being smaller than Nokia models from the same time, such as:
In the end I realised that size was not the most important factor for me so instead I got a Motorola 8700 [1] which I didn't enjoy using, then sold it shortly after to get a Nokia 5110 [2] which I liked very much.
https://www.businessinsider.com/drug-dealers-are-buying-noki...
https://photogallery.indiatimes.com/gadgets/phones/most-icon...
Yes I forgot about Ericsson, same era.
Funny how these are now classified dumb phones, while they have some odd niche market yet :-)