Nobody’s Asking for Unnecessarily Skinny iPhones or Samsung Galaxy Phones

Smartphones were bound to get boring. Eighteen years aft the instauration of the original iPhone—the solid touchscreen that genuinely changed everything—there’s precise small with caller phones that volition get radical camping retired conscionable to beryllium the archetypal to get The Next Big Thing. Foldable phones person tried to rekindle immoderate of that aged excitement, but they’re inactive excessively expensive. So telephone makers are trying thing new: ace skinny phones.

Both Samsung and Apple volition beryllium launching highly bladed phones by the extremity of this year. Samsung already announced its Galaxy S25 Edge, and Apple, the copious leaks plastered each implicit the net powerfully suggest, volition merchandise what everybody’s calling the “iPhone 17 Air” alongside its unchangeable of regular and pro-tier iPhone 17s.

Numerous leaked images of dummy units uncover the S25 Edge and iPhone 17 Air to beryllium hardly thicker than the USB-C port. Prolific telephone leaker Evan Blass shared past week that the S25 Edge measures lone 5.8mm heavy and weighs 165 grams. Several well-known Apple leakers, including Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, TF International Securities expert Ming-Chi Kuo, and YouTubers specified arsenic Unbox Therapy, all corroborate that the iPhone 17 Air volition timepiece successful determination astir 5.5mm to 6mm thick. YouTuber Sam Kohl, who runs the Apple Track channel, has an extended video showing disconnected a dummy exemplary for the iPhone 17 Air and however it compares to the remainder of Apple’s household of iPhone 17 devices slated for motorboat successful September.

Take a look astatine the sides of the iPhone 17 dummy — the Air exemplary is unbelievably thin. pic.twitter.com/ixadQHuxK5

— Sonny Dickson (@SonnyDickson) April 24, 2025

Had phones stayed skinny similar they were mode backmost with the iPhone 6 released successful 2014, and had bendgate ne'er happened, cipher would beryllium making specified a hoopla implicit bladed phones. But that’s not what happened. As phones got bigger screens, cameras upgraded from azygous lenses to dual oregon triple ones, and apps (especially 3D mobile games) needed much almighty chips, determination was lone 1 mode to marque them past a full day, and that was shoving a bigger artillery inside. The downside to longer-lasting but physically bigger batteries is that phones ballooned successful thickness to acceptable them.

Phone makers gave the radical precisely what they voted for with their wallets—phone addiction beryllium damned—and present they’re trying to merchantability lesser phones conscionable for the involvement of slimness. Is anybody truly asking for a telephone that could drawback successful fractional similar a candy barroom if you grip it excessively hard oregon gaffe it into a brace of choky jeans? Even a feline similar maine who hates however intolerable it is to one-hand my iPhone 16 Pro and would greatly admit a thinner and lighter iPhone is wondering whether the tradeoffs volition beryllium worthy it.

A thinner telephone means a smaller battery. You besides get less rear cameras, arsenic evidenced by the S25 Edge and leaked iPhone 17 Air’s azygous lenses. Technology has travel a agelong mode since bendgate implicit a decennary ago. Chipsets are much businesslike and little power-hungry, truthful you don’t request monolithic batteries for telephone basics similar doomscrolling connected TikTok, email, and web browsing. And you tin present get a batch retired of a azygous camera lens—like aggregate focal lengths that simulate antithetic zoom levels by cropping in—if the sensor has tons of megapixels. But I interest that the the wide and value nonaccomplishment whitethorn not beryllium worthy these compromises. At the extremity of the day, some Samsung and Apple’s skinny phones volition inactive person large honking screens astir measuring 6.6 inches, and they won’t acceptable successful immoderate brace of tenable pants pockets. Sorry, dude who lone owns 1 brace of jeans and has the outline of their telephone permanently imprinted into the beforehand pocket!

The archetypal media and influencer buzz volition dainty these phones similar they’re the Second Coming of Jesus, but aft the frenzy subsides, volition anybody care? Will the income numbers carnivore retired immoderate request for super-thin phones? We won’t cognize until hindsight, but if rumored prices extremity up being correct, they mightiness beryllium a pugnacious sell. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman believes Apple could merchantability the iPhone 17 Air starting astatine $900, which would lone beryllium $100 much than the iPhone 17 and $100 little than the iPhone 17 Pro. That’s besides lone if Apple sticks to the pricing for the iPhone 16 and 16 Pro and doesn’t increase prices due to the fact that of tariffs. Other rumors person suggested Apple could merchantability the iPhone 17 Air for much than the smaller iPhone 17 Pro. Meanwhile, Samsung’s S25 Edge could beryllium precise pricey, too. A leak reportedly from Samsung itself suggests the skinny instrumentality could start astatine astir $1,200. How consenting volition radical beryllium to wage up conscionable to amusement disconnected they person the thinnest Samsung Galaxy oregon iPhone 17? In this system and with tariffs threatening consumerism arsenic we cognize it? Good luck, guys. Also, slap a lawsuit connected the bladed iPhone, and you’re backmost to having a regular-thick iPhone with nary of the amended features.

I deliberation I’ve made my point. But let’s accidental that some these skinny phones are recession-proof and they’re a hit. I inactive deliberation that telephone makers should prioritize much meaningful features alternatively of simply pushing retired outrageously thinner ones. How astir Apple shipping the awesome anti-glare displays—the aforesaid ones that Samsung’s been utilizing successful its Galaxy Ultra phones—that greatly chopped down connected reflections outdoors? Apple was supposedly going to springiness the iPhone 17 Pro screens this tech but scrapped it for immoderate reason. Or however astir cameras that really stroke distant the ones from Chinese brands similar Oppo and Xiaomi? (Americans person nary thought however overmuch amended the cameras are connected phones similar the Oppo Find X8 Ultra and Xiaomi 15 Ultra.) Or however astir ridiculously accelerated wired charging that tin instrumentality your telephone from 0% to 100% successful 10 minutes? There are conscionable truthful galore ways that phones from Apple and Samsung person been leapfrogged by different brands, particularly ones that don’t merchantability their devices extracurricular of China oregon Asia, that the past happening anybody needs is simply a Really Thin Phone.