Ultra-fine smartphones: this is why this fashion effect could really change the situation

The technical platform faced by today's smartphones, we regularly talk about it on Digital. They are powerful, with very bright screens, complete photo blocks and high capacity batteries. If they often improve in small touches on most of these points, they currently come up against the impossibility of bringing a technical “revolution” to a mature market, which now allows users to keep their terminal much more than two years.

To distinguish themselves, the manufacturers of mobiles rely on IA features-that is to say on the software. We can also consider that the last real technical break in the world of the smartphone dates from the introduction of folding screens. Part of them also tries to meet a paradoxical requirement: the desire for compactness. The valve devices (the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip series, the Motorola Razr, but also the Xiaomi Flip Mix or the Magic V Flip de Honorlimited to marketing in China) are certainly aimed at nostalgic for the valve laptop, but much more to those who wish to be able to slide their smartphone in a pocket and not to cling to a heavy model.

Here is a somewhat long introduction that brings us to a trend today: ever thinner smartphones. While the IPhone 17 Air The subject of persistent rumors have been the subject of the late 2024, several manufacturers have rushed into the breach. The first is none other than Samsung who, from Unpacked in January 2025 (when his Galaxy S25,, S25+ And S25 Ultra) showed his own vision of “fine smartphone”. The device has been talking about him for several months under the name of Galaxy S25 Slim, and no luck, it is under that of Galaxy S25 Edge that the South Korean intends to market it. But between the need not to phagocyter the sales of other S25s and undoubtedly complex technical development, Samsung takes its time, so that it is said today that its smartphone – which officially, we do not carefully know anything about the technical sheet! – will be presented in May 2025.

In parallel, the Tecno brand (very popular in Asia and on the emerging markets) went there from its little buzz during the Mobile World Congress 2025with a Spark Slim thick of only 5.75 mm. A smartphone so fine and light (146 g) that the manufacturer has chosen to voluntarily weigh it down in order to avoid a “toy” effect.

Without too much bad faith, here are the reasons why it seems to us that we must be interested in this trend … not so new.

A redesigned ergonomics

We write “redesigned”, but the trend of fine smartphones is not unprecedented. She was already in the spotlight over ten years ago, when Oppo proposed for example a R5 Measuring only 4.85 mm thick! But at the time, smartphones were much smaller than they are today, and easier to handle with one hand. Those who are equipped with high screen terminals (between 6.6 and 6.9 inches most of the time) dressed in a shell know it: use is not really convenient when you have small hands. The ultra-fine (we speak less than 6 mm thick, when the premium mobiles often exceed 8 mm) improves grip while keeping a comfortable display surface. Let us add that finer smartphones are less annoying in a pants pocket – you know the traditional wear of the jeans of those who place their smartphone in their front pocket. And more finesse is synonymous with more lightness, using innovative and robust materials, not only plastic: going below 150 grams while enjoying a large screen, which does not want it?

Really usable folding smartphones

Producing fine smartphones is also being able to offer folding models that really merge with conventional terminals. Manufacturers are already increasing the efforts to go under the bar of the centimeter thick, and some (Oppo with its Find N5,, Honor with his Magic V3) already succeed, while the other models still struggle to be so compact. But the advent of ultra-fine smartphones promises more: the democratization of folding mobiles merge with standard models in terms of format and weight.

Technical challenges finally met?

It is undoubtedly the most interesting. To produce fine smartphones, manufacturers are necessary to take up real technical challenges. And there are many: it requires opt for compact batteries, probably at silicon-carbon (densest than their lithium-ion counterparts), to maintain autonomy worthy of the name despite reduced measurements. But so that autonomy does not suffer from this finesse, it is also necessary that the designers of mobiles manage to master the heating of their products, which is not a thin Case: In other words, getting started on the fine smartphone market is for manufacturers the obligation to innovate. With the prospect of improvements that will not fail to concern the “classic” terminals in their wake.

If it is necessary to conclude this overview, it is by recalling that in our opinion, to increase the finesse of smartphones, in itself, is not a priority. But, in addition to the fact that this race for finesse relaunches the emulation between the largest manufacturers, which in general benefits the end user, it could stream on all the formats of devices. And, who knows, lead to the return of “mini” models which we have still not really mourned!