Amid the throngs of humanoid robots, automotive ideas and futuristic shows at Cellular World Congress in Barcelona, dozens of individuals swarm round one specific stand. From a distance, it seems to be one in all many cubicles showcasing yet one more smartphone lineup. However a better look reveals what everybody’s eagerly attempting to get their palms on: a remarkably slim cellphone in contrast to something I’ve ever seen.
On show is Tecno’s Spark Slim cellphone idea, a handset that measures simply 5.75mm thick (skinnier than a regular pencil) and weighs solely 146 grams, in response to the corporate. After ready about quarter-hour for my flip, I choose up the coveted cellphone and am immediately amazed. It is mild as a feather and but does not really feel like one thing I can snap in half. I do my very own visible thickness take a look at by pulling a pen out of my backpack and evaluating it: the Spark Slim is in reality notably thinner.
Tecno is not the one firm that appears to imagine slim is in. A number of halls down, Samsung is displaying its Galaxy S25 Edge, which stays simply out of attain behind a barricade, surrounded by a equally impenetrable crowd of keen spectators. Particulars on that cellphone, from specs to launch date, are simply as slim as its look. However reviews counsel we’ll see it someday this 12 months.
Oppo, too, has launched the Discover N5, which it calls the “world’s thinnest book-style foldable,” measuring simply 8.93mm thick when closed and 4.21mm thick when opened. The scale and form blew me away after I examined it, and helped assuage a few of my reservations concerning the practicality and bulkiness of different foldables. And maybe one of many largest rumors main as much as the anticipated launch of the iPhone 17 lineup is a possible iPhone “Air,” a thinner (and presumably lighter) model of Apple’s handset.
The Tecno Spark Slim cellphone idea is thinner than a pencil. It felt tremendous mild in my hand.
However a thinner cellphone, whereas a cool flex, can result in drawbacks. Much less house usually means a smaller battery, and due to this fact shorter battery life. Digital camera {hardware} can get scaled again, too, resulting in decrease picture high quality. Cupboard space can equally take a success. These are all main concessions for cellphone patrons, who nonetheless rank battery life, digicam high quality and space for storing amongst their prime priorities.
Pushing the boundaries might be disastrous, as Samsung realized when it opted to slim down the design of the Galaxy Notice 7, just for units to begin smoking and for the cellphone to in the end be recalled. Telephone makers additionally must maintain sturdiness on the forefront, particularly if patrons are paying a reasonably penny and anticipate their units to final.
“You may’t simply be skinny; you need to nonetheless have all of the bells and whistles of a premium cellphone,” Nabila Popal, senior director of knowledge and analytics at IDC, tells me at MWC. “The query is, how are OEMs [phone makers] going to attain that with out compromising the opposite extra vital options like battery and digicam?”
The Galaxy S25 Edge is coming, we simply do not know when — or some other particulars.
That’ll be the problem as extra corporations undoubtedly lean into the skinny telephones development. But when it isn’t essentially what shoppers have requested for in droves, why trouble slimming down units?
“For probably the most half, it is an try for OEMs to distinguish,” Popal says. Whereas generative AI was the clear spotlight-grabber throughout final 12 months’s MWC, it is change into so ubiquitous that this 12 months, the main focus has been extra about technique and implementation. Due to this fact, cellphone makers have to discover a new strategy to stand out, and an eye-catchingly slim and interesting mild system is a method to do this.
This strategy appears to be working in locations like China, the place corporations like Honor, Xiaomi and Huawei have all debuted slim premium units (which regularly double as foldables, too). However Popal provides that simply because one thing resonates in China does not essentially imply it should in different elements of the world, as shoppers in China are usually extra receptive to distinctive telephones than they’re in America. Nevertheless it illustrates that, at the very least someplace, slim telephones are already putting a chord.
Apple releasing a thinner cellphone may very well be significantly advantageous, particularly because it struggles to distinguish its iPhones from one another, says Anisha Bhatia, senior analyst of client platforms and units at GlobalData.
“For instance, the iPhone 15 Plus mannequin presently occupies an unsure place in Apple’s lineup, wedged between the bottom mannequin and the extra feature-rich Professional and Professional Max variations, Bhatia says. “This ambiguity has led to confusion amongst shoppers, who battle to distinguish the Plus fashions primarily based on worth proposition and have set. Gross sales information signifies that the Plus fashions have underperformed compared to different iPhone variants.”
Then again, one thing flashy like a skinny iPhone is simpler to tell apart, and will have a greater shot at capturing the eye — and {dollars} — of consumers.
The Oppo Discover N5 is an instance of a skinny cellphone the doubles as a foldable, measuring simply 8.93mm thick when closed and 4.21mm thick when opened.
So in a number of 12 months’s time, will the very telephones that MWC 2025 attendees eagerly crowded round be of their pockets and palms, now capturing pictures of no matter is deemed the following tech innovation? Will skinny telephones change into ubiquitous and win?
“Thinness just isn’t going to be essential, however it’s positively a characteristic that makes a cellphone really feel extra premium, and it is a good to have,” Popal says.
What was as soon as revolutionary usually turns into the norm. Only a few years in the past, a much bigger cellphone display was thought-about a particular characteristic, however has now change into customary. Alternatively, foldable telephones have largely stayed area of interest, much more than 5 years after the debut of the Samsung Galaxy Fold. Slim telephones may go down both route; it is simply too early to foretell, Popal says.
Additionally, what’s outdated is new once more. The development towards thinner telephones harkens again to the recognition of Motorola’s authentic Razr, which turned a popular culture phenomenon upon its launch in 2004 due to its slim construct, distinctive form and trendiness (who would not need a scorching pink cellphone identical to Paris Hilton’s??). Motorola’s been working to recapture that zeitgeist by reviving the Razr cellphone line within the type of a foldable smartphone.
Again to the current day, even when skinny telephones do not find yourself going mainstream, which may not be such a nasty factor, Popal suggests.
“I’d argue, why do you need to make it the norm? Preserve it area of interest, maintain it premium,” she says. “The earlier it turns into a norm, the earlier the profitability goes.”
And the earlier crowds transfer on to swarm across the subsequent large (or slim) factor.
Watch this: First Take a look at Samsung’s Shock Galaxy S25 Edge
