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 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 regular pencil) and weighing solely 146 grams, in keeping with the corporate. After ready about quarter-hour for my flip, I decide 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 check 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 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 experiences recommend we’ll see it someday this yr.
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 scale and form blew me away after 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 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 usually means a smaller battery, and due to this fact shorter battery life. Digicam {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 patrons, who nonetheless rank battery life, digicam high quality and cupboard space amongst their prime priorities.
Pushing the bounds might be disastrous, as Samsung discovered when it opted to slim down the design of the Galaxy Be aware 7, just for gadgets to start out smoking and for the cellphone to in the end be recalled. Cellphone makers additionally need to maintain sturdiness on the forefront, particularly if patrons are paying a reasonably penny and count on their gadgets to final.
“You possibly can’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 necessary 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 development. But when it is not essentially what shoppers have requested for in droves, why hassle slimming down gadgets?
“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 yr’s MWC, it is develop into so ubiquitous that this yr, the main target has been extra about technique and implementation. Subsequently, cellphone makers have to discover a new approach to stand out, and an eye-catchingly slim and interesting mild system 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 gadgets (which frequently double as foldables, too). However Popal provides that simply because one thing resonates in China does not essentially imply it’s going to in different elements of the world, as shoppers in China are usually extra receptive to distinctive telephones than they’re in America. But it surely illustrates that, no 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 at the moment 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 wrestle to distinguish the Plus fashions based mostly 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 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 yr’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 subsequent tech innovation? Will skinny telephones develop into ubiquitous and win?
“Thinness will not be going to be a must have, however it’s positively 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 usually turns into the norm. Just some years in the past, an even bigger cellphone display screen was thought of a particular function, 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 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 desire a sizzling 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, that may not be such a foul factor, Popal suggests.
“I might argue, why do you wish to make it the norm? Maintain 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 massive (or slim) factor.
Watch this: First Have a look at Samsung’s Shock Galaxy S25 Edge
