Mint Explainer | Is Apple’s iPhone Air bringing slim phones back in style?

The iPhone Air, however, is different—apart from its ultrathin design the smartphone also boasts a more powerful processor. Are super-slim phones back in vogue?

Why did Apple make an iPhone Air?

Apple has been experimenting with different formats and variants of the iPhone, its primary revenue driver, since the iPhone 12 mini of 2020. It discontinued the small-screen, compact iPhone due to low demand, with analyst calls citing a lack of general demand for a small display in a mobile-first internet world.

For the past three years, Apple has offered a ‘Plus’ variant instead, hoping to address the need for a large display. But, according to analysts, a lack of differentiation hurt sales.

The iPhone Air, launched with Apple’s iPhone 17 lineup, has plenty of features differentiating it from the rest of the pack—thus presenting a new approach from the company to try and push more buyers towards a higher price point than the entry-level iPhone.

Isn’t the iPhone Air similar to the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge?

Yes, absolutely. Samsung launched an ‘Edge’ variant of its flagship Galaxy S25 smartphone lineup in January. In comparison with the iPhone Air’s 5.6mm thickness, the Galaxy S25 Edge measures 5.8mm.

In fact, Apple’s product lineup now closely resembles that of Samsung’s—the latter also sells a ‘standard’ Galaxy S25, a ‘Plus’ model with a larger display than the base device, and an ‘Ultra’ model with high-performance specifications. Priced onward of ₹1.1 lakh, the S25 Edge is one of the slimmest Android smartphones in the market.

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Are there other such phones in the market?

Yes, but few. The most notable is Chinese brand Oppo’s Find N5—a foldable smartphone. While the device is nearly 9mm thick when folded, it measures only 4.2mm in thickness when kept open like a tablet.

Other device makers are also looking to join this trend. Smartphone brand Tecno, owned by China’s Transsion Holdings, mimicked design renders of the iPhone Air to create its own take on slim phones with a reported thickness of 5.75mm. Its design is uncannily similar to the iPhone Air.

Why did phone brands stop making slim phones?

There are multiple reasons why slim phones stopped being the norm. For starters, building the chassis of a sub-6mm smartphone is complicated in terms of the engineering it requires. This, in turn, means higher cost of development.

More specifically, though, while slim phones were regular 11 years ago, they stopped being mainstream as brands focused on packing more features into smartphones.

Displays larger than 6 inches require a larger phone body and a bigger battery—which is typically thick and prevents phones from being too slim. Plus, demand for better phone cameras led to brands packing in larger image sensors, which too take up space.

But doctors and experts have signalled that such devices—typically measuring 9mm and weighing over 200 grams—could pose long-term health issues as smartphone use increases exponentially.

Is there a market for slim phones?

The jury is still out on whether slim phones would find takers. Per market reports from South Korea in June, Samsung has decided to reduce global production volume of its Galaxy S25 Edge due to weak sales. While the ‘Edge’ performed better than the ‘Plus’ variant, the uptake was nowhere near what the company had hoped for.

That said, analysts say it is too early to make a call on whether the iPhone Air may work. Apple’s iPhones are the single-most selling consumer gadget in the world, and have an overweight impact on how they influence the market and consumption trends.

Given that Apple’s sales surge in India is driven also by a perceived social impression of the brand, iPhone Air’s unique design in a premium finish may help it carve a market for itself—and, in turn, for competitors too. All of this, however, will only play out in the weeks to come, as sales commence from 19 September.

Does the iPhone Air signal a design shift for Apple?

Potentially, yes. Keen observers of Apple have said that the iPhone Air could be a precursor to the general design language that the company may follow in future.

While the camera bar design on the iPhone Air was popularized by Google’s Pixel range of phones, Apple’s implementation of it in a slim form factor may find its presence across its entire range of smartphones next year.

Others added that the iPhone Air’s slim design could be a precursor to Apple preparing its engineering and design lines for making a foldable smartphone—which the company has been rumoured to be working on for a while now.