The "compact" camera market is a lie. I have wanted to get rid of my smartphone and downgrade to something smaller and simpler. The one thing tying me to it is

The "compact" camera market is a lie. I have wanted to get rid of my smartphone and downgrade to something smaller and simpler. The one thing tying me to it is the camera. I use it on a regular basis to take quick photos of family or events around me. If there were a compact camera on the market, I would happily carry around a phone and a separate camera in my pocket. No such thing exists. Every so called "compact" camera is significantly larger, bulkier, and heavier than any phone on the market. I get it, they have optical zoom lenses and that takes up space. Most of the time I don't want that but there are no options for it. But even the body of the camera without the zoom lens is significantly thicker than a phone. Near as I can tell, the dimensions of the compact camera have not changed since the last time I bought one, which would have been around 2006. The one thing I can say is that camera still works just as well as it did 16 years ago. Maybe new ones take better photos, but in the meantime, I've gone through probably a dozen different cell phones. Sure would be nice to have a truly compact option though.