You may have noticed that smartphone companies are in a race to design the thinnest/slimmest ever smartphone, but the world’s slimmest smartphone had already been there almost a decade ago which most smartphone users have completely forgotten.
Back in May, Samsung launched the galaxy S25 edge, a truly flagship smartphone wherein everything is engineered under 5.8 mm of thickness and fits 3900 mAh battery inside, but later Apple designed the Apple iPhone Air with a thickness of 5.5 mm it outsmart the galaxy S25 edge and most of the smartphone users wrongly believe it to be the slimmest smartphone in history.
The VIVO X5Max, the world’s thinnest smartphone.
Back in 2014, Oppo launched the Oppo R5, which was 4.9 mm thin. Moreover, the company did not sacrifice any hardware-based feature to achieve this level of thinness. This biggest sacrifice we get to see on a slim smartphone is the battery. The Oppo R5 had 2000 mAh battery, littery a small battery, but back in time, 2000 mAh was neither less nor huge since this much battery capacity used to be considered as normal and given in most smartphones.
If you see this battery capacity with today’s perception, then 2000 mAh is just a few hours of scrolling, but bear one thing in mind that we have come so far and have seen a huge jump in the battery department, which simply means old smartphones were not as smart as today’s smartphone.
Back in 2012, I remember the days of using the Nokia 5233 which had 1320 mAh battery and later in 2016, I used the Xiaomi Redmi 2 which had 2200 mAh battery. It seems the battery capacity has slightly been going up every next year if you notice a huge jump in battery capacity from Nokia 5233 to Xiaomi Redmi 2.
In spite of all, Oppo R5 holds second position in the ranking of the world’s slimmest smartphone since there is/was one more smartphone which is entitled to hold the title of world’s slimmest smartphone. The VIVO X5Max, a smartphone wherein everything is engineered under 4.8 mm of thinness and fits 2300 mAh battery, a truly razor thin smartphone which has crossed every limit of slim design, but this smartphone has completely been forgotten in this era.
VIVO X5Max was launched just a few days after the launch of Oppo R5 in the same month of 2014, which implies that era was the same as today’s when smartphone companies raced to design ever slimmest smartphone and endorse it as an innovation, but unfortunately it never worked because slim smartphone comes with multiple downsides in hardware based-feature.
The VIVO X5Max had two hardware feature which iPhone Air lacks.
Despite being slimmer than the iPhone Air the VIVO X5Max had some useful hardware-based feature which we dont see in iPhone Air.
- 3.5 mm headphone jack
- SIM Card Slot
Are slim smartphones really a necessity?
Slim smartphones were never demanded nor will they be in the future, as they don’t add benefits to usage. Smartphone companies are endorsing them as an innovation and smartphone users are paying attention and viewing it the way company advertise because sometimes users have a tendency to have something unique. That’s why they are trapped into such a type of marketing strategy.