If you still need convincing about the tech industry's current obsession with thinness, check out these images from Oppo's recent social media marketing spree, which has been busy hyping up the slimness of its upcoming Find N5 foldable by comparing it to Apple devices, including an iPhone 16 Pro Max and an M4 iPad Pro.
The latest images shared by the Chinese company suggest that when opened up, the Find N5 is about half as thick as an iPhone 16 Pro Max, which is 8.25mm thick. The image makes the device look barely thicker than its USB-C port. Indeed, Find series product manager Zhou Yibao has suggested that the obstacle to making it any thinner is now "the limit of the charging port."
That would seem to back up Oppo's claim that the Find N5 is the "world's thinnest foldable" – a title currently held by the Honor Magic V3, which is 4.35mm thick when unfolded. Reports suggest the Find N5 is around 4mm thick. For reference a USB-C port is 2.6mm at minimum. The company has previously compared the Find N5 to two Chinese yuan coins and a stack of four ID cards. Recently surfaced images also show that the device will have a cut-down camera bump on the back.
If you've been following our coverage, you've probably heard that for the upcoming iPhone 17 lineup, Apple is expected to replace the standard iPhone "Plus" model with an iPhone "Air," so-called because of its purported thinness.
According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, the iPhone 17 Air will be about two millimeters thinner than the current iPhone 16 Pro, putting it at around 6.25mm, which would make it Apple's thinnest iPhone to date. Analyst Jeff Pu has also suggested that the upcoming iPhone will be around 6mm thick, but The Information has said it will be between 5mm and 6mm thick.
Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo believes that the iPhone 17 Air will be 5.5mm thick at its thinnest point, which likely means that it will have a 5.5mm chassis with a thicker rear camera bump area.
The thinnest iPhone we've seen so far was the iPhone 6, which measured in at 6.9mm. iPhones got thicker with the iPhone X and beyond, as Apple increased thickness to provide more space for the battery, camera lenses, Face ID hardware, and more.
Oppo has not officially specified the launch date for the Find N5, which is expected to be re-branded as the OnePlus Open 2 for its US release, but it is set to be released sometime in February. Apple's "iPhone 17 Air" will likely launch alongside the rest of the iPhone 17 series around Apple's typical mid-September time frame.
