Most people don’t buy a new phone every year. At this point in the life of most smartphone lines, the changes they go through year-over-year are minor at best. Gone are the days of dramatic redesigns and huge leaps in performance. Smartphones are a commodity, even if some of them are still priced as a luxury.
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The big AI push for the Samsung Galaxy S24, the Google Pixel 9, and the iPhone 16 was at least, in part, an attempt to find a new reason for people to buy new phones, but it’s still unclear how successful it’s actually been. Whether it’s improved the slowing growth of the smartphone market, the focus on new software features over hardware shows how much they’ve stagnated; they’re regularly upgraded, but only with a new chip or camera sensor.
Both Samsung and Apple are rumored to have settled on the same solution to this problem — new smartphones with dramatically thinner designs. It’s an exciting idea on its face, but it puts the focus in the entirely wrong place. You shouldn’t indulge in the thin phone resurgence, and here’s why.
Samsung and Apple go thin
A possible Slim Galaxy S FE replacement
The rumors that Samsung is working on a new, thinner phone started with a report from Korean news organization ET News, which cited multiple industry sources with knowledge of a Galaxy S25 “Slim” set to arrive not long after Samsung’s normal S25 phones.
Samsung produces more smartphones than any normal person can keep track of, but for a good while now, its Galaxy S phones have come in four different varieties: the entry-level Galaxy S, the step-up Galaxy S+, and the premium Galaxy S Ultra, with a more affordable and streamlined Galaxy S FE arriving some time after.
The FE or Fan Edition, as a fourth phone, usually addresses the Samsung customer who didn’t jump on the bandwagon with Samsung’s normal numbered release. It’ll get you some premium features at a discount, while sporting the new design language of its generation. The Galaxy S “Slim” seems poised to take that fourth spot, maybe at a premium, but definitely with an eye-catching design meant to win over anyone who isn’t moved by a vanilla Galaxy S25.
There aren’t a ton of details once you get beyond the phone’s existence, but there are rumors that make sense. Ice Universe, a Samsung leaker, claims that all the Galaxy S25 models (including the Slim, presumably) will ship with the Snapdragon 8 Elite, a more powerful Qualcomm chip Samsung has already started using.
The leaker also suggests that the Galaxy S25 Slim could ship with an “Ultra” camera, which some have taken to mean it will have a 200-megapixel sensor like the Galaxy S24 Ultra.
That’s not a ton to go off of, but Samsung has been slowly thinning out some of its phones over time. One of the few changes introduced with the Galaxy Z Flip 6 was that it was ever so slightly thinner than before. Thinness is a growing trend, from Huawei’s new phones and Honor’s new skinny foldables, to rumors of an Apple iPhone 17 Slim.
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Galaxy Z Flip 5 |
Galaxy Z Flip 6 |
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Open: 165.1 mm x 71.9 mm x 6.9 mm |
Open: 165.1 x 71.9 x 6.9 mm |
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Closed: 85.1 mm x 71.9 mm x 15.1 mm |
Closed: 85.1 x 71.9 x 14.9 mm |
In the case of Apple’s phone, the company is attempting to replace the iPhone Plus with something that will sell better, Bloomberg reports. Apple’s trying to create a new phone with a flashy look that won’t match up with the iPhone Pro or Pro Max, but should appeal to someone who cares about how their phone looks.
According to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the new device could come with a smaller 6.6-inch display and might be made with new materials so that it can have a smaller frame, but it should otherwise share the A-series chip of the normal iPhone 17.
Slimness comes with benefits and trade-offs
A new design could prove to be impractical
Those kinds of aesthetic changes don’t come without a disadvantage. Samsung and Apple will do everything in their power to not make this the case, but a thinner phone naturally leaves you with less room for a larger battery. The fact that the rumored iPhone 17 Slim could ship with a smaller screen implies some compromises are already being made.
These phones will look different because they ultimately exist to squeeze the last few drops of phone sales blood from the stone, not because these thinner designs will make using the iPhone 17 or Galaxy S25 better.
That’s not to say new advancements won’t naturally be attached to these engineering achievements. Apple’s first in-house 5G modem will reportedly be in the iPhone 17 Slim and is one of several ways Apple is saving space on the new design. I wouldn’t be surprised if Samsung did some wild material science to make its thinner phone possible, too. And yet, even with those benefits, I still can’t help seeing this as a headphone jack moment.
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It’s subtler, but the fast acceptance of smartphones without headphone jacks feels similar because it was also a trade-off sold as a benefit. Sure, it’s nice to not have a cable attached to your phone to listen to music. But it sure seems like removing headphone jacks mainly happened so it would be easier to sell wireless earbuds. What do we give up in the long term for a thinner smartphone?
And yet, even with those benefits, I still can’t help seeing this as a headphone jack moment.
We need phones that work first, and look cool second
If you translate ET News’ report, one of the things it mentions is that Samsung’s S25 Slim is a test. If it goes over well, it could influence the direction of the company’s future phones. There’s little reason to help that happen when there are so many other ways the average smartphone can get better. Whether that’s having a battery that lasts for multiple days on a single charge or being simpler to repair and easier to use for an even longer period of time.
A smartphone is the most personal device that most people own, but it still has to be functional first and foremost. New features should start from what will make a phone better to use first, and how it looks second. Nothing about Samsung or Apple’s plan sounds like they’re doing that.
