According to several rumors and insider information, both Apple and Samsung are said to be working on “Slim” models of the iPhone 17 and Galaxy S25 flagship smartphones, but both companies are running into the same problems. In short, there would be two obstacles when trying to design such a thin phone: the motherboard and the battery.
iPhone 17 Slim, thin at any price
It seems that Apple has managed to solve the problem of the motherboard, with the main impediment now being the reduction of its manufacturing costs, according to user yeux1122 of the Korean social network Naver. The company reportedly tried to include new technology for the phone’s battery, but due to the high volume of units required, as well as other issues, it will opt for common materials found in current batteries.
The end result should be an iPhone 17 Slim with a thickness of about 6 mm. For comparison, the iPhone 16 Plus model (the Plus models will apparently be abandoned in favor of the new Slim models) has a thickness of 7.8 mm, and the Pro models even 8.3 mm. Also, the iPhone 17 Slim model would use an OLED panel with a diagonal of 6.6 inches (smaller than the 6.7 inches of the current Plus model). Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo expects this iPhone 17 Slim to account for 5-10% of all iPhone shipments next year.
The Galaxy S25 Slim could define the design for the S26 range
In the Samsung camp, the upcoming Galaxy S25 Slim model is supposed to replace the FE edition and will benefit from a special design, a kind of test for a potential redesign of the Galaxy S26 series, should it prove popular. Rumors say that Samsung would have run into the same problems as Apple.
Industrial production of thinner motherboards for these devices has reportedly been delayed due to a lack of certain components at the supplier level. On the other hand, Samsung would have made progress in terms of using new materials for the batteries of these phones. Until this moment, we have no clear information about how thin the terminals in the Galaxy S25 Slim range should be; the thinnest member of the S24 family is the base model, with a thickness of 7.6 mm.
Both the iPhone 17 Slim and the Samsung Galaxy S25 Slim are expected sometime in the second half of next year.
Source: GSM Arena
Source: www.go4it.ro
