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Why the official requirement? Just because you don't want the device to be abandoned? Or is there some other "official" value-add I'm unaware of?
I'm going to ignore the "official" requirement because I think your task might actually be impossible with that req.
I use an Xperia XZ1 Compact with LineageOS 20.
4.6" screen. Very similar in dimensions to the iPhone 5/5S, which had 4" screens (just a tiny bit winder, maybe a mm taller). Headphone jack. microSD slot with support up to 512GB. Side fingerprint sensor. Decent (not modern flagship quality, but also not an AI "image" generator) camera. Band 66 support (though no band 71). And a notification LED!
Sony only supported it with two software updates (big surprise) ending with Android 9 (Pie). The Sony website lets you unlock the bootloader with a self-serve portal. You can use the Xperifirm tool to flash stock software & firmware, and custom roms work as usual with flashing, TWRP, etc. The SD card makes custom ROMs an even simpler process.
Note that you need the US firmware for cellular band & network compatibility, but you can copy the two files related to fingerprint sensor usage (
system_X-FLASH-ALL-C93B.sinandvendor_X-FLASH-ALL-C93B.sin) from CE1 (chinese) or UK firmware into the US firmware, flash it, and you'll get US firmware with a functional fingerprint sensor.There's recent builds of Lineage 17,18,19, and 20 (unofficial, unfortunately) with relatively few compromises. Gapps versions and MicroG versions seem to get published once every month or two by the unofficial maintainers. Yes, they're unofficial. But they've been publishing new builds every month since 2019. And allegedly the only reason they haven't gone official is because Lineage puts some restrictions on packages you can include in official releases.
There's also HavocOS and a relatively recent /e/OS build, if you're into that.
Unfortunately my mobile provider (Google Fi) has some compatibility issues with these ROMs, but there seem to be dozens-to-hundreds of happy users out there. The modem has a tendency to crash when signal is completely lost, so if you live in the middle of nowhere like I do, I don't think I would recommend it. But if you live in a city or a country with competent infrastructure you should be fine.
The call microphone has a shitty physical design; it uses sound piped into a single, very long, very tiny hole in the bottom of the phone, next to the USB-C port. Guess what? Over time that tends to fill with dust, and then people can only hear you on calls if you hold the phone at the perfect angle, shout, or switch to speakerphone, which uses a different mic. Fortunately you can clean it pretty easily with a SIM card ejector.
TL;DR this is literally the last reasonably sized phone by a major manufacturer you can use as an actual smartphone with custom ROMs. And there's a good amount of custom ROM support out there.
The other one I would seriously look at is the Pixel 4a, but it's definitely above your size requirement. It might be more useful if you list a height limit or width limit to the phone size instead of a screen size limit -- for instance, I won't use anything taller than 135mm. But the iPhone SE (2016), XZ1 Compact, and iPhone 12/13 Mini all satisfy that requirement, despite having 4", 4.6", and 5.4" screens, respectively. Aspect ratios and bezels are weird!
The official requirement is there for 2 reasons:
Makes sense. I can confirm there's a nice step-by-step procedure for the XZ1C, and it's been tested by at least dozens of folks, some of which have multiple devices.
I've also looked at the Atom L myself, please post a review if you do end up getting it and using a custom ROM on it! I chose the XZ1C over it because the Atom L is literally 2x the thickness of the XZ1C, which is already as thick as I'd like a phone to be. I'm curious if the thickness will bother you at all, and just how good the unlocking and custom ROM experience is on such a niche phone.
I will. I don't have an issue with the tihckness, as I'm currently using a Unihertz Atom which is just as thick but has a 2.4" screen and absolutely no custom ROM support.
(I just realized the screens of almost all "small screen" phones are literally 4x as large as the one I'm using!).
Really cool, thanks.
This seems like a great way to try lineage without a huge commitment.
Looks like the XZ2 Compact is only 5" and still has LOS support.
Official, too! And I believe the predecessor, the Z2 Compact, also has official Lineage support.
Sadly the XZ2 did away with the headphone jack and has a (subjectively) shittier design. But it is still smaller than any modern phone by a fair margin.
definitely recommend the xz1 compact, running lineage os 20 on it and very happy with it!
just need to make sure to update the stock firmware to android 9 before flashing the ROM otherwise there will be a lot of issues!
Have you had any issues with crashing modems on your cellular provider? I'm curious if my issue (works OK for a few days after flashing Lineage over stock, then the cell modem totally dies and the wifi crashes every minute or so) is limited to Google Fi. Sadly Fi's international data is really valuable for me so I can't switch to another MVNO, but it would be nice to know if I have the option.
after installing lineage os properly (i.e. from android 9 not 8) i haven't had any issues with my modem. might just be a google fi problem which is a shame 😔
Thanks! I'm also trying a new Fi SIM, mine is pretty old and I know that older SIM cards can cause issues sometimes. So far so good!
Excellent points. As an ex-user of the XZ1C, I like to surprise people when I show them that I don't need a sim card ejector when travelling. The sim card tray is such a neat feature.
Since it is now my spare phone, i'm a little tempted to try one of the many custom roms out there. However the rooting / downgrade procedure has always kept me away.
How do you find the camera quality? I remember reading a long time ago about drm keys being wiped during the rooting process. Is it still the case?
It turns out that the DRM keys only matter on Android 8 (Oreo) -- on 9 (Pie) and on all custom ROMs, they don't matter. I think. Camera quality certainly seems fine to me -- comparable to my 2016 iPhone SE, that is, acceptable but not beautiful.
It seems nobody really cares about the DRM keys any more unless you're hellbent on reselling your XZ1C with the capability of taking high quality photos on Oreo. A pretty niche thing these days!
Because the DRM keys don't matter any more, no need to root or downgrade. You probably have to factory reset, but you should be able to take a backup and install a custom ROM. Lineage 17.1 and 20 have both treated me well, and introduce some nice new features and conveniences along with improved app compatibility now that Pie is so old. A tough sell on a daily driver, I know, but if you're contemplating a phone upgrade anyway, this might get you a couple more years out of the XZ1C!
Thanks for the detailed explanation. I doubt I'll ever need to downgrade it to Oreo so it'll be nice to try out a cuatom rom. I have heard quite a bit of /e/ os and it might be interesting to try it for myself.
The XZ1C has a lot of features I value. The small size, a 3.5mm plug and a camera shutter button. I've since upgraded to the Asus Zenfone8, but I still find it to be too big unfortunately. :(