It is all a matter of what you want a device to do (I know it seems obvious).
I had a couple of what you could call a "smartphone" before "smartphone" existed (Sony Ericsson P900/P910), which anyway had a battery that normally lasted a couple days.
I have an (ageing) Samsung Note, but what I now use daily (since a few years) and carry with me at all times a Nokia 1280:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_1280
I can make and receive calls and SMS', it is tiny and extremely robust, it has been dropped countless times without any damage (shell and battery just "explode" and you have to find all the pieces and then reassemble it), battery lasts days, it simply fills most of my needs, without having to carry with me at all times a (bulky and fragile) smartphone.