Phone makers have sought speed, camera performance, and battery life for years. But for 2025, a new metric emerged: thinness. Apple’s new iPhone Air is its thinnest phone ever, with benchmarks not only against current rivals but also against previous record-holders. The engineering challenge is intimidating to shave millimeters off without sacrificing strength, performance, or battery life.
The iPhone Air’s 5.6mm thinness is thinner than any current Android flagship, but it is not the thinnest phone ever made. The newcomer is part of a tradition of super-skinny handsets that have pushed the boundaries of miniaturization. Some have been celebrated as design marvels; some have been criticized for compromises. Here’s how the iPhone Air measures up in the bid to make smartphones pathetically thin.
1. Apple’s Thinnest iPhone Yet
At 5.6mm, the iPhone Air breaks Apple’s own record for the iPhone 6 of 2014. It is less heavy than most flagships today at 165 grams, despite having a 6.5‑inch OLED Super Retina XDR display with 3,000 nits peak brightness. Apple reinforced the titanium frame and applied Ceramic Shield 2 on the front for triple the scratch resistance of earlier models. The company boasts that it is “more durable than any previous iPhone,” a direct reaction to fears born during the bendgate era.
To achieve this shape, Apple relocated key components into a raised camera “plateau” and removed the SIM tray, leaving the phone eSIM-only everywhere in the world. The result is a flat, minimalist form that will feel noticeably different from chunkier iPhones, a deliberate move towards extreme portability.
2. Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge: Almost, but Thicker
Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge has a thickness of 5.8mm, the closest slab competitor. Its titanium unibody and Gorilla Glass Ceramic 2 front hold their own against Apple’s focus on toughness, and its 6.7‑inch display has a higher pixel density of 513 PPI. At 163 grams, it is lighter than the Air.
But Samsung’s design choices are telling of compromises: a smaller 3,900mAh battery and no telephoto camera. The Edge’s flat‑edged body and thicker camera hump leave it more bulky in hand, despite the nearly identical measurements on paper.
3. The Foldable Factor: Honor Magic V5 and Galaxy Z Fold 7
Foldables complicate thinness rankings because their unfolded forms can be dramatically thinner than slabs. The Honor Magic V5 is quoted at 4.1mm in the open state, but independent caliper readings recorded it at 4.47mm. Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 7 unfolded at 4.35mm, beating only the Oppo Find N5 by 0.01mm.
These phones demonstrate the manner in which hinge engineering and silicon-carbon battery technology enable large-screen form without excessive bulk. However, both are greater than 8.8mm when folded, reminding users that pocket feel is more than about the headlining number.
4. Historic Record-Holders: Oppo R5 and vivo X5 Max
The Oppo R5 stunned in 2014 with a thickness of 4.85mm, sacrificing the headphone jack to accomplish it. Weeks later, vivo’s X5 Max pushed the benchmark to 4.75mm without sacrificing the jack, a engineering sleight of layering components that is still yet to be surpassed by non‑folding phones.
These devices highlight how a decade-old engineering achievement still sets the benchmark. The fact that no slab phone since has beaten the X5 Max underscores the difficulty of going thinner without compromising usability or structural integrity.
5. Huawei’s Mate XT Ultimate: The Thinnest Ever With a Twist
Huawei’s tri‑fold Mate XT Ultimate measures an astonishing 3.6mm when fully unfolded thinner than most USB‑C ports. This is achieved by stacking three flexible display layers, which makes the folded thickness a hefty 12.8mm.
Despite its radical form, the Mate XT packs a 5,600mAh battery and flagship‑grade internals. It illustrates that extreme thinness can coexist with high performance, but often requires a departure from conventional form factors.
6. Component Packaging and Thermal Trade-Offs
The A19 Pro chip that Apple shares with the iPhone 17 Pro family supplies the Air with superior processing power. Yet, the lower internal space restricts thermal dissipation, and concerns arise with regard to long-term performance under heavy loads. The Snapdragon 8 Elite from Samsung has similar limitations in the S25 Edge.
Both companies localized heat-generating materials into bolstered areas, a design move that allows thinning but could affect comfort during lengthy periods of gaming or video recording.
7. Battery Life: Design vs. Endurance
Apple promises “all‑day battery life” for the Air, with a benchmark of 27 hours of video playback, and also introduced a $99 MagSafe battery pack, exclusive to this model. Samsung’s S25 Edge leverages efficiency gains to compensate for its smaller cell size, while foldables like the Honor Magic V5 carry over 5,800mAh without getting thicker than 9mm when folded.
The slenderness-to-endurance ratio remains precarious. There are battery accessories that can extend runtime, but they ruin the aesthetic advantage of an ultra-slim device.
8. The Aesthetic and Market Significance
The launch of the Air iPhone suggests that Apple is competing to lead the thinness trend, not just reacting to it. In pricing the Air at $999 and withholding some features such as a single camera on the rear it makes the Air a design-oriented product for those customers who care most about portability and looks.
This takes the form of a style seen in phones like the Tecno Spark Slim, at 5.93mm in weight, where looks take precedence over feature list. In both cases, the beauty lies in the appearance and tactile impression of holding an object that feels precariously, or maybe even impossible, thin.
iPhone Air is a stunning piece of engineering, reclaiming Apple’s claim to thinness supremacy and besting all present slab rivals. But it’s also a wake-up call that ultimate records remain with ancient myths and radical foldables. In the pursuit of millimeters, every design choice is a trade-off among beauty, strength, and usability a trade-off that will keep shaping the next generation of smartphones.
