Abstract: Abstract: Taste and textural attributes of foods have been changed as a result of the storage after harvest in the fruit production. This study aims to explore the physiological quality and texture of the four varieties of characteristic small apples after harvest, particularly for a better shelf life. Four varieties of small apples ('Longfeng', 'Jinhong', 'Saiwaihong', and 'Yinv') were used as the experimental materials. Some indicators were measured at room temperature (20±1℃) to comprehensively scored, including the fruit hardness, soluble solids, titratable acid, vitamin C, ethanol and acetaldehyde contents, ethylene, puncture parameters (pulp hardness, pulp work, rupture force, and yield force), and TPA parameters (brittleness, cohesion, elasticity, stickiness, and chewiness). The results showed that the hardness, titratable acid, and vitamin C content of various small apple fruits decreased continuously, where there was only a small change in the soluble solid content. Among them, the 'Longfeng' fruit presented excellent storage performance, indicating relatively decreased hardness, titratable acid, and vitamin C content. By contrast, the 'Saiwaihong' fruits behaved with the lowest storage performance, where the hardness decreased the most, and the quality decreased rapidly during normal temperature storage after harvest. There was also a great decrease in the hardness and vitamin C content of 'Jinhong' and 'Yinv' fruits. Furthermore, there was a peak in the ethanol and acetaldehyde contents of 'Jinhong' and 'Yinv' fruits, but a slow upward trend was generally observed in the rest small apples. The ethylene release of different varieties of small apple fruits increased first and then decreased, indicating a respiratory peak. The respiratory peaks of 'Longfeng', 'Yinv', 'Jinhong', and 'Saiwaihong' fruits were 12, 6, 10, and 8 days, respectively. The puncture and TPA parameters of small apple fruit showed a downward trend. Among them, the 'Saiwaihong' fruit decreased the fastest during storage, followed by 'Jinhong' and 'Yinv' fruit, and the 'Longfeng' fruit was the slowest. Correspondingly, the storage performances of different varieties of small apples were ranked from high to low as the 'Longfeng', 'Jinhong', 'Yinv', and 'Saiwaihong', according to the comprehensive score. Therefore, the fruit qualities after harvest were also ranked in the descending order of the 'Jinhong', 'Saiwaihong', 'Yinv', and 'Longfeng', in terms of the comprehensive score of various indexes. Nevertheless, the qualities of small apples after 14 days of normal temperature storage were ranked in the descending order of the 'Longfeng', 'Jinhong', 'Yinv', and 'Saiwaihong'. Consequently, the quality of 'Longfeng' fruit decreased the slowest during storage, while the quality of 'Saiwaihong' fruit decreased the fastest. As such, it was recommended that the best shelf life of 'Saiwaihong' and 'Jinhong' was 8 days, while that of 'Longfeng' was 12 days, and that of 'Yinv' was 3 days, according to the physiological qualities (such as fruit hardness) and fruit taste during normal temperature storage. An excellent taste and the lowest loss of nutritional value were achieved in the four varieties of characteristic small apples during the best shelf life. The finding can also provide a theoretical reference to formulate the best storage shelf life of characteristic small apples.