Amid the throngs of humanoid robots, automotive ideas and futuristic shows at Cell World Congress in Barcelona, dozens of individuals swarm round one explicit stand. From a distance, it seems to be one in every of many cubicles showcasing yet one more smartphone lineup. However a more in-depth look reveals what everybody’s eagerly attempting to get their arms on: a remarkably slim telephone in contrast to something I’ve ever seen.
On show is Tecno’s Spark Slim telephone idea, a handset that measures simply 5.75mm thick (skinnier than an ordinary pencil) and weighs solely 146 grams, in response to the corporate. After ready about quarter-hour for my flip, I decide up the coveted telephone and am immediately amazed. It is gentle as a feather and but would 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 actual fact notably thinner.
Tecno is not the one firm that appears to consider 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 telephone, from specs to launch date, are simply as slim as its look. However reviews recommend 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 dimensions and form blew me away once I examined it, and helped assuage a few of my reservations concerning the practicality and bulkiness of different foldables. And maybe one of many greatest 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 telephone idea is thinner than a pencil. It felt tremendous gentle in my hand.
However a thinner telephone, whereas a cool flex, can result in drawbacks. Much less house typically means a smaller battery, and subsequently shorter battery life. Digital camera {hardware} can get scaled again, too, resulting in decrease picture high quality. Space for storing can equally take successful. These are all main concessions for telephone consumers, who nonetheless rank battery life, digicam high quality and space for storing amongst their high priorities.
Pushing the bounds could be disastrous, as Samsung discovered when it opted to slim down the design of the Galaxy Observe 7, just for units to start out smoking and for the telephone to in the end be recalled. Cellphone makers additionally need to preserve sturdiness on the forefront, particularly if consumers are paying a fairly penny and count on their units to final.
“You possibly can’t simply be skinny; it’s a must to nonetheless have all of the bells and whistles of a premium telephone,” Nabila Popal, senior director of information and analytics at IDC, tells me at MWC. “The query is, how are OEMs [phone makers] going to realize that with out compromising the opposite extra necessary 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 firms undoubtedly lean into the skinny telephones pattern. But when it is not essentially what shoppers have requested for in droves, why hassle 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 develop into so ubiquitous that this 12 months, the main focus has been extra about technique and implementation. Subsequently, telephone makers must discover a new option to stand out, and an eye-catchingly slim and interesting gentle machine is a technique to do this.
This strategy appears to be working in locations like China, the place firms 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 would not essentially imply it should in different components 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 least someplace, slim telephones are already hanging a chord.
Apple releasing a thinner telephone could possibly 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 at present 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.”
However, one thing flashy like a skinny iPhone is less complicated to tell apart, and will have a greater shot at capturing the eye — and {dollars} — of buyers.
The Oppo Discover N5 is an instance of a skinny telephone the doubles as a foldable, measuring simply 8.93mm thick when closed and 4.21mm thick when opened.
So in just a few 12 months’s time, will the very telephones that MWC 2025 attendees eagerly crowded round be of their pockets and arms, now capturing images of no matter is deemed the following tech innovation? Will skinny telephones develop into ubiquitous and win?
“Thinness shouldn’t be going to be vital, however it’s undoubtedly a characteristic that makes a telephone really feel extra premium, and it is a good to have,” Popal says.
What was as soon as revolutionary typically turns into the norm. Only a few years in the past, a much bigger telephone display was thought-about a particular characteristic, however has now develop 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 might go down both route; it is simply too early to foretell, Popal says.
Additionally, what’s previous is new once more. The pattern towards thinner telephones harkens again to the recognition of Motorola’s unique Razr, which turned a popular culture phenomenon upon its launch in 2004 due to its slim construct, distinctive form and trendiness (who would not desire a sizzling pink telephone identical to Paris Hilton’s??). Motorola’s been working to recapture that zeitgeist by reviving the Razr telephone 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 might argue, why do you wish to make it the norm? Hold it area of interest, preserve 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 massive (or slim) factor.
Watch this: First Have a look at Samsung’s Shock Galaxy S25 Edge