Apple was hoping for success for the third time after the disappointing sales performance of both the iPhone mini and the iPhone Plus.
So far, headlines about the popularity of the iPhone Air have caused a tremendous sense of déjà vu. Nikkei says there is “virtually no demand” for the phone and analyst Ming-Chi Kuo expects production to be cut by 80%.
At least unsold units don’t take up as much shelf space, I suppose. That’s more than can be said for the boxes of unloved Vision Pro headsets.
Still, a flop is a flop. And it’s been such a flop, reports DigiTimes, that Chinese OEMs like Xiaomi and Vivo have canceled their own plans to make super-thin handsets. Considering that everyone usually sticks with Apple’s design decisions (even after initially mocking them!), the same must be the case with sales Really bad.
However, it’s not just about Apple not being able to sell a fourth iPhone variant. Samsung also introduced the super-thin Galaxy S25 Edge earlier this year, and it has just as big problems.
What do these two phones have in common? The most obvious is the slimness. In the battle of the tape measures, Apple’s 5.64mm thickness takes a narrow victory against Samsung’s 5.8mm, but honestly, those are the kind of differences you can’t measure at first glance.
We are sure that this thinness is what consumers want, and that may be true in an abstract sense. But as real-world tradeoffs come into view, people vote with their wallets and buy something better for less.
The Cost of Thinness
That’s because the Galaxy S25 Edge and iPhone Air have a few other things in common beyond thinness, all of which are negatives. In short: reduced functionality, smaller batteries and a price that I would charitably describe as “optimistic” rather than my first and ruder adjective.
Let’s tackle them one by one. First, the cut-back functions. Had the iPhone 16e not been released earlier this year, this would be the first numbered Apple phone since the iPhone 8 to feature a single rear camera. Other cuts include a single speaker in the earpiece, no physical SIM tray, and one fewer GPU core in the A19 Pro chip compared to the Pro models. Oh, and it doesn’t run as fast either due to the weaker heat management.
While the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge makes fewer compromises to the ultra-thin dream, it’s still the only member of the Galaxy S25 family that doesn’t have a telephoto lens – arguably the most useful camera around. So you literally pay more for less.
When it comes to endurance, a thinner phone means less space for battery capacity. To be completely fair to Samsung, the Galaxy S25 Edge’s 3,900mAh cell is only 100mAh smaller than the regular S25’s, so I’ll give it a pass, but Apple doesn’t pull the same punch. The iPhone Air has a paltry 3,149 mAh battery, compared to the 3,692 mAh battery in the iPhone 17. The Pro models, on the other hand, have a capacity of 4,000 and 5,000 mAh respectively.
In fact, the battery life is so much better that Apple introduced the MagSafe battery pack if you’re willing to fork over an extra $99 at checkout (which is a bit crazy when you can get the best portable chargers for a fraction of that).
By the way, if you added the battery for $99, you’d spend at least $1,099 total. The same asking price as the much better equipped iPhone 17 Pro. The Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge costs the same $1,099 without the battery, just $200 less than the Galaxy S25 Ultra.
That’s a ridiculous price, no matter how well either phone fits unnoticed in the pocket of a pair of skinny jeans (something I reluctantly admit isn’t of much importance to me).
Go Big or Go Home (To Recharge)
I actually find the disappointing sales figures of the iPhone Air and the Galaxy S25 Edge reassuring. People prefer substance over style and that gives me heart.
As someone who used one of the pre-iPhone smartphones in the mid-2000s, I can say with certainty that current models are sufficiently thin and any attempt to shave off a few more millimeters before battery technology catches up is an exercise in self-sabotaging diminishing returns.
We’re largely in a good place now and most people have come to terms with the fact that the 30-day cell phone batteries of the 90s are a thing of the past. Now everything charges via USB-C, which is really not a problem. I can’t reach less than five USB-C cables without even getting up from my desk (that’s not really helpful considering my iPhone is the last generation to use Lightning, but you get my point).
A few years ago there was an unfortunate campaign to promote smartphones with the staying power of 90s feature phones. The result was monstrosities like the 18,000mAh Energizer phone: a cell phone that looked like a laptop power bank with a screen attached, proving that it’s not just the ultra-thin models on the market that go haywire from time to time.
Apple and Samsung’s regular flagships have decently sized batteries that last long distances – notably the Galaxy S25 Ultra and iPhone 17 Pro Max – but for people who hate wasting time on the charger, the newly released OnePlus 15 is the answer. It has a huge 7,300mAh battery that lasts for three days on a single charge and charges from empty to full in half an hour thanks to the included VOOC charger.
But really, any other iPhone or anything from the best Android phones list will do the job just fine. Keep buying them, and before you know it, ultra-thin phones will go the same way as HD DVD, Sony Glasstron, and other overpriced, forgettable tech flops. Bring it on.
