Amid the throngs of humanoid robots, automotive ideas and futuristic shows at Cellular World Congress in Barcelona, dozens of individuals swarm round one explicit stand. From a distance, it seems to be one among many cubicles showcasing yet one more smartphone lineup. However a more in-depth look reveals what everybody’s eagerly making an attempt to get their arms on: a remarkably slim cellphone not like 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, in accordance with 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 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 yr.
Learn extra: Better of MWC 2025: Inexpensive Telephones and Cool Digital camera 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 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 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 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 area typically 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 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 may be disastrous, as Samsung discovered when it opted to slim down the design of the Galaxy Notice 7, just for gadgets to begin smoking and for the cellphone to finally be recalled. Cellphone makers additionally need to hold sturdiness on the forefront, particularly if consumers are paying a fairly penny and anticipate their gadgets to final.
“You may’t simply be skinny; you must 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 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 corporations undoubtedly lean into the skinny telephones development. But when it isn’t 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 yr’s MWC, it is change into so ubiquitous that this yr, the main target has been extra about technique and implementation. Due to this fact, cellphone makers have to discover a new option to stand out, and an eye-catchingly slim and interesting mild system is a method to try this.
This method appears to be working in locations like China, the place corporations 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 does not essentially imply it’ll in different elements of the world, as customers in China are usually extra receptive to distinctive telephones than they’re in America. However it illustrates that, at the very least someplace, slim telephones are already putting a chord.
Learn extra: MWC 2025: The Weirdest Telephones We have Seen in Barcelona So Far
Apple releasing a thinner cellphone may very well be notably advantageous, particularly because it struggles to distinguish its iPhones from one another, says Anisha Bhatia, senior analyst of client platforms and gadgets 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 customers, who wrestle to distinguish the Plus fashions based mostly on worth proposition and have set. Gross sales knowledge signifies that the Plus fashions have underperformed compared to different iPhone variants.”
Then again, one thing flashy like a skinny iPhone is simpler to differentiate, 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 just a few yr’s time, will the very telephones that MWC 2025 attendees eagerly crowded round be of their pockets and arms, now capturing photographs of no matter is deemed the following tech innovation? Will skinny telephones change into ubiquitous and win?
“Thinness will not be going to be a must have, 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 typically turns into the norm. Only a few years in the past, a much bigger cellphone display was thought of 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 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 foul factor, Popal suggests.
“I’d argue, why do you need to make it the norm? Maintain it area of interest, hold 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
