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

What yr is that this? Are ultra-slim telephones about to come again in style after a decade away? If the most recent rumors are to be believed, they’re. Apple is claimed to be making 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 chunk, and would shaving 0.5mm off actually make the cellphone really feel that a lot completely different? Absolutely not. Still, 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 fairly a lot trimmer than at the moment’s main flagships. The query is: But why?

Well, for starters, massive Chinese manufacturers are proudly owning the house. Take a have a look at current reasonably priced telephones just like the HONOR 200 Lite, which is available in underneath 7mm, and the OPPO Reno12 Pro, which is simply a hair over. Equivalent large-display iPhones and Galaxys are all nearer to 8mm and even thicker when you attain the identical value brackets as these manufacturers. While many shoppers 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 market, the place each millimeter saved counts for further type 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 cellphone is rumored to function a thinner and extra environment friendly Novatek OLED panel, which might be an vital growth for making any iPhone foldable as moveable as present rivals. The HONOR Magic V3, as an illustration, is simply 4.35mm skinny when opened flat and 9.3mm closed, and the HUAWEI Mate XT Ultimate measures a comparable 4.75mm. When you’re basically folding a cellphone in half, thinness issues a lot.

For Samsung, which already has its well-established Z Fold and Z Flip traces, a Galaxy S25 Slim may also be tied to its foldable ambitions. The Galaxy Z Fold Special Edition has taken the Z Fold 6’s comparatively chunky closed thickness from 12.1mm down to 10.6mm. Bringing these similar enhancements to a conventional flagship type issue gives a simple approach to no less than seem modern in at the moment’s principally stale {hardware} market.

Of course, slim telephones depart much less room for key {hardware} specs. Batteries have to be thinner, which suggests sacrificing capability, though that’s a bit much less of a downside with trendy battery developments. There’s much less room for beefy warmth sinks, seemingly important with at the moment’s high-performance chips. Not to point out the chance of bigger digicam bumps or buying and selling down for smaller, inferior sensors to match them in. You merely can’t have all of it.

Thinness is the antithesis of a high-spec smartphone, which isn’t any doubt why the iPhone 17 Air is rumored to fall towards the decrease finish of Apple’s next-gen portfolio. Outside of a foldable, it’ll possible take years earlier than Apple can take a skinny type issue up to the ultra-premium tier. Even then, a thicker cellphone would at all times have the ability to pack extra in. Still, with the iPhone Mini out to pasture and Plus fashions struggling for mindshare, a moderately reasonably priced Air mannequin may discover a hotter reception.

Likewise, Samsung is struggling to discover a key differentiator between its more and more comparable baseline flagship and Galaxy S FE fashions. Perhaps a Slim with extra reasonably priced specs would stand out? It’s price a punt, I suppose.

Or maybe not. There’s no clear indication that customers are insatiable for notably pocketable telephones. Countless makes an attempt at compact fashions have failed to strike a chord with shoppers regardless of reviewing effectively and having no less than a area of interest following. Just 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 market, after all, however they by no means actually took off when the system was final tried a decade in the past, both. I don’t assume all that a lot has modified since then.

Battery life, images capabilities, and affordability nonetheless rank extremely on shopper wishlists. Slimmer telephones are unlikely to meet any a kind of wants in addition to present fashions do, not to mention all of them. While thinness issues for foldables, it’s not such a problem for the traditional glass slab. However, I’ll be pleased to be stunned, if these telephones end up to be actual, that’s.