Apple, Samsung turn to thin phones to lure upgraders

A decade ago, it wasn’t uncommon for smartphones to radically change shape and size within the space of a year. Back then, it was comparatively easier for the big phone makers to justify breathless yearly marketing events to pitch the designs, and consumers eager to upgrade camped overnight to get their hands on the new models as soon as possible.

These days, aside from the relatively niche folding phone segment, design is a lot more static. But Apple and Samsung will this year try to recapture some of that old excitement with an innovation that feels straight out of 2015: extremely thin phones.

One of many unofficial iPhone 17 Air renders circling the internet, based on leaked images and specs.

While Apple will no doubt introduce an iPhone 17, 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max at its big annual reveal this year, it’s widely rumoured to also be preparing an iPhone 17 Air, which offers a big screen but a very skinny frame. This would replace the under-adopted Plus model, a replacement for the anemic-selling Mini phone. Apple is clearly hoping it can do better with a phone that can slot into skinny jean pockets.

Meanwhile, Samsung has its version of the same idea in the Galaxy S25 Edge, which it briefly mentioned while unveiling the rest of the S25 lineup last month. All we know about it is that it will be released this year, and that it is skinny. It was displayed at the S25 event in a strictly no-touching manner for event attendees to gawp at.

So, are these slender phones just thinly veiled attempts to encourage upgrades in an era where decent phones can satisfy users for as long as six or seven years? Or are they legitimately useful inventions?

The Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge (right) next to metal slabs represented the thickness of the S23 and S24.Credit: Bloomberg

Telsyte analyst Foad Fadaghi said they could be both; with the smartphone market being extremely mature and consumers only upgrading every four years or so, manufacturers need to produce a range of different models to keep the hype up around their brands.

“It’s about having something that’s different from a person’s current handset, to encourage them to look again,” he said.

“Often it doesn’t take that much when a handset has become quite old, for the new model to appeal,”⁣ he said. “The manufacturers are trying to create as many reasons as possible for people to repeat purchase.”

The push for thinness is nothing new. Following the bulky first touchscreen phones of the 2000s, every year brought thinner phones as manufacturers competed to produce the slickest device possible.

But this also limited improvements to battery life and cooling. Build quality was a problem too, most notably seen with the 2014 iPhone 6 lineup — which remains the thinnest generation of iPhones — where the frame could become irreversibly bent.

Apple’s iPhone 6 is the skinniest and most fragile model the company has produced. But materials and design have improved a lot since then.

Things became somewhat more balanced after that. A desire for more power, more durability, better battery life and more capable cameras has seen phones expand again, represented in Apple world as an increase from 6.9mm thick on the iPhone 6 to 7.8mm on the iPhone 16, and even to 8.3mm on the iPhone 16 Pro Max.

The iPhone 17 Air, if supply chain analysts are to be believed, may cut things down to 5.5mm.

For Samsung, things are a bit more complex as it has a far more diverse back catalogue of phones, including ultra-thin foldables. But for stable, non-folding phones, the thinnest appears to be the 2015 Galaxy A8 at 5.9mm, whereas the latest S25 is 7.2mm, and the S25 Ultra is 8.2mm. The S25 Edge is rumoured to be 6.4mm.

In either case, such a slimming would necessarily come with compromises, and, while we won’t know exactly what they are until the phones are officially revealed, we can take a decent guess.

Less body space means a smaller battery, which either means a shorter battery life or more efficient processing, and my bet is on both. Expect the S25 Edge and 17 Air to need charging more often and have less brute power than the Ultra and Pro models. Running hotter is a possibility, too.

Another thing that takes up a lot of space is the camera. We can see that the S25 Edge has just two rear cameras down from the Ultra’s four. Leaked images of 17 Air casings show just one rear camera, plus a wide Google-style camera bar that’s likely there to help stabilise the thin body. Anyone hoping for a phone that looks like a thin piece of card that you can slip in your pocket will be disappointed because the camera units are likely to be at least as thick as current phones.

This all paints a picture of devices that have the same drawbacks as foldable phones, without the benefit of folding. But then again, we’re yet to hear about their virtues from Apple and Samsung.

Fadaghi said that, even if the latest flavour of iPhone or Galaxy doesn’t take off, the new models could be useful for the brands.

“They need something new to promote and create a halo around. Even if the product doesn’t sell well in the first year or the second year, it potentially gets people talking about why they like their existing handset or the new design,” he said.

“In the long term, it might not matter as much for the manufacturers. A lot of it is about keeping people interested in thinking and talking about the platform, in terms of it originality and innovative approach regardless of whether or not it sells many in the first year.”

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