[vijayboyapati]

I've owned an EVO, a Note 2 and a Nexus 5. The form factors being small, large and medium-to-large, respectively. I went from small to large, and while I thought the Note 2 had fantastic specs, it was too unwieldy for me and I decided to downsize to the Nexus 5. I still find the Nexus 5 a bit unwieldy with one handed use, but it's at least possible. Which brings me to my current conclusion: I want a smaller phone which doesn't give up too much in the screen resolution. Which brings me to my question: What makes ideal specs for you? Here's what I want, but cannot seem to find (something is always missing):

* Size: 4.9" screen

* Resolution: 1080p (it's really hard to find any phones this size with this resolution, which is disappointing because the PPI is possible, especially given the quad HD resolutions being slapped on phones now).

* SD expansion slot: One thing I really liked about the Note 2 that the Nexus phones don't have. I could upgrade with a 64G SD card which didn't cost much. 32G can fill up pretty quickly with videos and photos and it's annoying Google has a philosophy which shuns SD cards.

* Battery: At least 2600mAmp (should last at least one day).

* Stock android: No bloatware and no touch-wiz. This isn't as important as the other considerations though.

* CPU: This doesn't matter too much to me. 99% of what I do doesn't need a latest generation processor

* Memory: 2G is fine. Memory again isn't the main thing that's bothering me about the current android offerings.

What really bothers me is no-one is catering to this market segment and the trend is increasingly into the phablet market.

[FlyingLawnmower]

it's not perfect, but something in between the Sony Xperia Z3 and Z3 compact sounds like what you're looking for.

Xperia Z3 has 1080P screen, 3Gb ram, 5.2" screen.

Xperia Z3 Compact has 720P screen, 2GB ram, 4.6" screen.

Both have microSD expansion, both have very solid processors and battery life, and sony's android is a very lightweight add-on to stock android.

Maybe a slight compromise in either direction will get you close to what you need?

[vijayboyapati]

Yeah definitely, and thanks for the great recommendation. The Z3 is getting close, but still slightly too big. The Compact is the right size, or even a touch small, but it sacrifices the resolution. It's very cool that it's water proof though. My Note 2 died in a hot tub!

[izacus]

The Compact is supposed to have excellent 48hour+ battery life as well.

[lstamour]

Upgrade the Nexus 5 to L and all you're missing in this list is the SD Card slot, which, given the 802.11ac support you shouldn't miss. At this point, my wifi speed tests on the Nexus 5 outpace my SD Card slot read tests by 5x or more. ;-)