Are “Slim” smartphones about to make a comeback? I doubt it.

What yr is that this? Are ultra-slim telephones about to come back again in style after a decade away? If the most recent rumors are to be believed, they’re. Apple is claimed to be getting ready an iPhone 17 “Air” subsequent yr, and Samsung a Galaxy S25 “Slim” as a part of its upcoming flagship launch.

It’s early days for these rumors, so take them with a pinch of salt. The hypothesis doesn’t even recommend simply how trim Apple and Samsung plan to make these fashions — they may very well be slim solely by a marginal comparability to their siblings. I wouldn’t precisely name the 7.6mm Galaxy S24 a piece, and would shaving 0.5mm off actually make the telephone really feel that a lot totally different? Completely not. Nonetheless, earlier makes an attempt to slim down handsets noticed rarities like 2014’s vivo X5 Max find yourself thinner than 5mm. If Apple and Google can get that far, they’d be quite a bit trimmer than at this time’s main flagships. The query is: However why?

Nicely, for starters, large Chinese language manufacturers are proudly owning the house. Check out latest inexpensive telephones just like the HONOR 200 Lite, which is available in below 7mm, and the OPPO Reno12 Professional, which is only a hair over. Equal large-display iPhones and Galaxys are all nearer to 8mm and even thicker when you attain the identical worth brackets as these manufacturers. Whereas many customers may not even discover a tiny bit of additional heft to their telephones, Apple and Samsung have their eyes on the profitable, aesthetically pushed Chinese language market, the place each millimeter saved counts for additional fashion factors. Slim telephones may very well be their golden ticket.

For Apple, the iPhone 17 Air can also be reportedly a precursor to its long-awaited foldable ambitions. The telephone is rumored to function a thinner and extra environment friendly Novatek OLED panel, which might be an essential growth for making any iPhone foldable as transportable as current rivals. The HONOR Magic V3, for example, is simply 4.35mm skinny when opened flat and 9.3mm closed, and the HUAWEI Mate XT Final measures an identical 4.75mm. Whenever you’re primarily folding a telephone in half, thinness issues rather a lot.

For Samsung, which already has its well-established Z Fold and Z Flip strains, a Galaxy S25 Slim may additionally be tied to its foldable ambitions. The Galaxy Z Fold Particular Version has taken the Z Fold 6’s comparatively chunky closed thickness from 12.1mm right down to 10.6mm. Bringing these identical enhancements to a standard flagship kind issue provides a simple technique to at the very least seem revolutionary in at this time’s largely stale {hardware} market.

After all, slim telephones depart much less room for key {hardware} specs. Batteries need to be thinner, which implies sacrificing capability, though that’s a bit much less of an issue with fashionable battery developments. There’s much less room for beefy warmth sinks, seemingly important with at this time’s high-performance chips. To not point out the chance of bigger digicam bumps or buying and selling down for smaller, inferior sensors to suit them in. You merely can’t have all of it.

Thinness is the antithesis of a high-spec smartphone, which is little question why the iPhone 17 Air is rumored to fall towards the decrease finish of Apple’s next-gen portfolio. Exterior of a foldable, it’ll probably take years earlier than Apple can take a skinny kind issue as much as the ultra-premium tier. Even then, a thicker telephone would all the time have the ability to pack extra in. Nonetheless, with the iPhone Mini out to pasture and Plus fashions struggling for mindshare, a fairly inexpensive Air mannequin would possibly discover a hotter reception.

Likewise, Samsung is struggling to discover a key differentiator between its more and more related baseline flagship and Galaxy S FE fashions. Maybe a Slim with extra inexpensive specs would stand out? It’s value a punt, I suppose.

Or maybe not. There’s no clear indication that customers are insatiable for notably pocketable telephones. Numerous makes an attempt at compact fashions have didn’t ring a bell with customers regardless of reviewing nicely and having at the very least a distinct segment following. Simply have a look at the aforementioned iPhone Mini or Sony Compact fashions; the gross sales quantity simply isn’t there. Slimmer telephones aren’t addressing the exact same sub-6-inch display screen market, in fact, however they by no means actually took off when the system was final tried a decade in the past, both. I don’t suppose all that a lot has modified since then.

Battery life, images capabilities, and affordability nonetheless rank extremely on client wishlists. Slimmer telephones are unlikely to satisfy any a kind of wants in addition to present fashions do, not to mention all of them. Whereas thinness issues for foldables, it’s not such a problem for the basic glass slab. Nonetheless, I’ll be joyful to be stunned, if these telephones turn into actual, that’s.