In this paper, a low complexity hybrid smart antenna system with directional elements and reduced-size digital beamformer is proposed to combat the inter-symbol interference (ISI) problem over frequency-selective fading channel. For the conventional smart antenna system with omni-directional elements, it utilizes the full-size digital beamformer to suppress interference and obtain the optimum performance. However, the proposed hybrid smart antenna system with directional elements can be split the linear array receiver for two branches. One branch is the subarray system with non ISI interference, which can be used for maximum ratio combiner (MRC). Another branch is the reduced-size subarray system with the ISI interference, which can use the reduced-size optimum beamformer to suppress interference. Finally, the output signals of the two branches can be combined to detect the transmitted signals. Simulation results confirm that the proposed low complexity system can provide robust performance under the multipath fading channel.