Whats the “least smart” phone I can get away with that will record strava and allow emergency phone calls.
Don’t want internet browsing/social media capability.. just a small device to take to track rides/gps and call/text.

Strava is rubbish on phones from what i understand, i stopped using mine and use a GPS watch instead and it has been more accurate
for reference, i was using a Huawei( cant spell it) p20

It’s either a smart phone, or not a smart phone.

You just need to find a phone that fits your budget & not use the other capabilities it has to offer.

Regarding the ‘small device’ requirement. How small? Most phones nowadays are pretty large, but the only way you can get around that is to buy an smaller old phone second hand like a Samsung Galaxy S5 Mini, but I wouldn’t really recommend that as it will be running an old version of Android that at some point won’t be supported by Strava.
I know this because I was using my old Sony Xperia T for strava while running & all of a sudden it stopped working because strava updated the app. I then nicked my Wife’s old Galaxy S5 Mini which worked well, but it’ll only be a matter of time before it doesn’t work.

Maybe you’d be better off with a budget GPS device and a non-smart phone?

The other advantage of using a dedicated GPS device is if the battery goes flat you still have a phone you can use in emergencies..

Something like the Garmin Edge 25?

I’ve used a motorola moto E 2nd gen 4g for mapping, routing, strava , endomondo etc for the last few years. No probs. Great battery life. Small, cheap – just got another as back up for £30. Original phone is 4 years old & a bit bashed about, but still does the job.

“upgraded” to a Sony Z5 compact – fast, pretty, but the most unreliable piece of junk known to man, backed up by the worst so called warranty known to.. Has black screen of death in 6 months gentle use – not had years on MTB handlebars like the moto e…

A good phone will have a more accurate GPS than a watch. But the phone is more likely to put somewhere with less access to the sky or have software that mucks things up

I can’t help but think that if you really don’t want a smart phone then don’t buy one. You’d be better off with burner phone and some form of stand alone gps. You can get an old etrex for pennies. But a basic modern watch is probably the answer. Assuming you have something at home to sync to.