While observing the coverage of the iPhone Air, a thought struck me.
I couldn’t remember the last time I had heard that tired old joke about thin phones. You know, the one about them becoming so thin that they would disappear entirely.
The jokes and discussions about how thin our phones could be were a thing of the past, or so I thought, until Samsung and Apple tried to give it another go with the Galaxy S25 Edge and iPhone Air.
I hate to admit it, but the 5.6mm iPhone Air is an impressive engineering achievement.
While it’s not as thin as the 4.2mm-thick Oppo Find N5, Oppo has an insignificant presence in the US compared to Apple. The iPhone Air might as well be the thinnest phone around for American buyers.
However, all this renewed discussion feels pointless. Nobody wants ultra-thin phones; let’s have short phones again.
Short phones are dead, but I miss them
A brief age of comfortable phones dawned in 2020
In September 2021, I replaced my Google Pixel 2 XL with an iPhone 13 Mini. While this autumnal fling didn’t last long (I replaced it with a Pixel 6 in January 2022), I was left with two thoughts that have stuck with me ever since.
The first was that I would never own an iPhone again if I could help it. The second was the perfect size.
Even to this day, I think fondly of how the 5.18-inch iPhone 13 mini fit in my hand. I could comfortably reach the whole screen with my thumb without stretching.
After using the 6.22-inch Pixel 2 XL, it felt like a weight I hadn’t been aware of had been lifted.
While the iPhone 13 Mini was the last of the short-lived Mini line, smartphone sizes didn’t dramatically increase in the following years.
The Pixel 8, which serves as my daily driver, measures a reasonable 5.9 inches tall. This was one of the key reasons I bought it.
However, Android phones still aren’t “small.” The 5.78-inch-tall Samsung Galaxy S25 is about the smallest you can expect from a new smartphone. In the hand, it’s fine, but a far cry from the iPhone 13 Mini.
The argument for small phones
Comfort and practicality
If you’ve been toting around a Google Pixel Pro or a Samsung Galaxy Ultra model for years now, you may find the idea of a 5.4-inch display abhorrent.
However, I am here to tell you that you don’t need all that screen real estate.
While I’ll occasionally watch YouTube videos and play games on my phone, I rarely need the entire screen at once. Most of my time is spent reading, on social media, or listening to music.
What’s the point of having an enormous screen if I only use a fraction of it at a time?
There’s also the portability to consider. I loved how the iPhone 13 Mini would fit anywhere comfortably. I didn’t have to work to extract it from tight jeans pockets; there was always plenty of room. Thumb strain was a thing of the past.
Sure, it wasn’t ideal for gaming, but how many of us regularly play graphically intensive games on our phones?
The argument against thin phones
They don’t solve the problems of a big phone
I was baffled by the launch of the Samsung S25 Edge. Who exactly was Samsung marketing this phone to? We didn’t know, and neither did Samsung, as the Edge line has apparently been discontinued due to lackluster sales.
The iPhone Air is a more impressive work of engineering, but Apple is also cutting production as its sales have struggled to match the rest of the iPhone 17 models.
It doesn’t look like anyone wants an ultra-thin phone, and I don’t blame them. We stopped seriously discussing phone thickness over a decade ago.
The Galaxy S7 I bought in 2016 was thinner and lighter than my Pixel 8, but not by any practical difference. An ultra-thin phone doesn’t bring anything new to the table.
Apple’s landing page for the iPhone Air claims that it’s just 5.6mm thick and weighs a mere 165g. Big deal, my Pixel 8 weighs 187g.
I can tell you firsthand that the 20g difference means nothing in day-to-day use. As for its thickness, it makes the phone futuristic and easy to carry, but its 6.5-inch display is still too big.
Ultra-thin phones are a pointless diversion
I’ll admit that while these ultra-thin phones aren’t selling well, neither did the iPhone Minis.
In the September 2022 quarter, the iPhone 13 Mini made up just 3% of iPhone sales, compared to 16% for the 13 Pro and 21% for the 13 Pro Max. The iPhone 13 Mini didn’t sell well, so Apple discontinued it. Fair enough.
However, while bigger iPhones are more attractive to buyers, the Android market is different. The Galaxy S25 Ultra made up 48% of S25 sales, but the base S25 model came second with 31% of sales.
There’s a bigger appetite for smaller phones in the Android community. Hopefully, Google or Samsung will acknowledge this and finally make a phone that is comfortable to use with one hand.
