Slim is in, or so smartphone makers would like you to believe this year. Two of the biggest phone players, Samsung and Apple, are rumored to be working on ‘Slim’ variants of their flagships, the Galaxy S25 Slim and the iPhone 17 Slim. Even beyond the ‘Slim’ moniker, we’re seeing many smartphones routinely chase thinness as an aesthetic design choice. But the elusive question remains: Do you, as a consumer, really care about your phone’s thickness?
Let’s be clear: smartphone makers have chased thinness on smartphones for decades, so it’s not a new phenomenon. The OPPO R5 from 2015 was razor-thin at just 4.85mm, making it the thinnest smartphone of modern times. As you’d expect, the thinness came at a cost, and the cost here was the battery that was just 2,000mAh on this phone that barely lasted for half a day before giving up.