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 among many cubicles showcasing one more smartphone lineup. However a better look reveals what everybody’s eagerly making an attempt to get their arms on: a remarkably slim cellphone in contrast to something I’ve ever seen.
On show is Tecno’s Spark Slim cellphone idea, a handset measuring 5.75mm thick (skinnier than a typical pencil) and weighing solely 146 grams, based on the corporate. After ready about quarter-hour for my flip, I decide up the coveted cellphone 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, the truth is, notably thinner.
Tecno is not the one firm that appears to consider slim is in. A couple of halls down, Samsung shows 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 stories counsel we’ll see it someday this 12 months.
Learn extra: Better of MWC 2025: Reasonably priced Telephones and Cool Digicam Ideas
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 in regards to 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 gentle in my hand.
However a thinner cellphone, whereas a cool flex, can result in drawbacks. Much less house typically means a smaller battery, and subsequently shorter battery life. Digicam {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 cellphone consumers, who nonetheless rank battery life, digicam high quality and cupboard space amongst their prime priorities.
Pushing the boundaries could be disastrous, as Samsung realized when it opted to slim down the design of the Galaxy Notice 7, just for gadgets to start out smoking and for the cellphone to in the end be recalled. Telephone makers additionally need to preserve sturdiness on the forefront, particularly if consumers are paying a fairly penny and count on their gadgets to final.
“You’ll be able to’t simply be skinny; it’s a must 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 every other particulars.
That’ll be the problem as extra firms undoubtedly lean into the skinny telephones pattern. But when it is not essentially what customers have requested for in droves, why trouble slimming down gadgets?
“For essentially 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 target has been extra about technique and implementation. Due to this fact, cellphone makers have to discover a new approach to stand out, and an eye-catchingly slim and interesting gentle gadget is a method to do this.
This method appears to be working in locations like China, the place firms like Honor, Xiaomi and Huawei have all debuted slim premium gadgets (which regularly double as foldables, too). However Popal provides that simply because one thing resonates in China would not essentially imply it can in different components of the world, as customers in China are typically extra receptive to distinctive telephones than they’re in America. Nevertheless it illustrates that, not less than someplace, slim telephones are already hanging a chord.
Learn extra: MWC 2025: The Weirdest Telephones We have Seen in Barcelona So Far
Apple releasing a thinner cellphone might be notably advantageous, particularly because it struggles to distinguish its iPhones from one another, says Anisha Bhatia, senior analyst of shopper platforms and gadgets 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 customers, who wrestle 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.”
Alternatively, one thing flashy like a skinny iPhone is simpler to differentiate, and will have a greater shot at capturing the eye — and {dollars} — of buyers.
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 arms, now capturing pictures of no matter is deemed the subsequent tech innovation? Will skinny telephones develop into ubiquitous and win?
“Thinness isn’t going to be essential, however it’s undoubtedly a function that makes a cellphone really feel extra premium, and it is a good to have,” Popal says.
What was as soon as revolutionary typically turns into the norm. Just some years in the past, a much bigger cellphone display was thought-about a particular function, however has now develop into commonplace. 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 pattern towards thinner telephones harkens again to the recognition of Motorola’s unique Razr, which grew to become 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 cellphone similar 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, 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 huge (or slim) factor.
Watch this: First Take a look at Samsung’s Shock Galaxy S25 Edge
