Once upon a time anything in the vicinity of 10mm thickness was considered thin for a gadget. Today that benchmark has almost been halved as phones shave off millimetres to become style statements. Here’s a look at five phones that might not always outperform the competition, but almost always make the others look oh-so-fat.
4.75mm
Rs.32,980
Officially the world’s thinnest phone, the just arrived Vivo X5Max has managed to attain its slimness without too many major hardware compromises. This phone has an expandable memory and a 3.5mm audio jack. It comes with a 5.5-inch full HD Super AMOLED display. It is powered by an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 processor, backed by 2 GB RAM and 16 GB storage. The phone also comes with good twin cameras (13-megapixel, or MP, at the rear and 5 MP in front) and Vivo’s extreme Hi-Fi sound. If there is a compromise, it is in the battery, standing at a relatively low 2,000 mAh, which means it cannot last long. Keep your portable charger handy if you are a heavy user.
4.85mm
Rs.29,990
It might have held the crown only briefly, but the Oppo R5 was the first notable phone to cross the 5mm thinness barrier. The R5 packs in some decent hardware—it features a full HD 5.2-inch AMOLED display and is powered by Qualcomm’s octa-core Snapdragon 615 processor, backed up by 2 GB RAM and 16 GB storage. It has a 13 MP rear camera and a 5 MP front-facing one. A decent rather than exceptional performer, it comes minus expandable memory and, more noticeably, a 3.5mm audio jack (you need to plug in an adaptor to the micro USB port to use wired headphones). And at 2,000 mAh, its battery will not last you a day of heavy use. The svelte look will, nevertheless, turn heads.
5.1mm
Rs.18,990
It made it to the Guinness world record book last year as the thinnest phone before the likes of Oppo and Vivo took away its crown, but the Gionee Elife S5.1 remains a gorgeous phone. And one of the best options for those looking for a phone that is thin without burning a massive hole in their wallets. For its price, it has decent specifications too. It comes with a 4.8-inch Super AMOLED display of 720p resolution and is powered by an octa-core MediaTek processor. Some might frown at the 1 GB of RAM but it is a sound performer and has 16 GB storage. It comes with an 8 MP camera on the rear and a 5 MP front-facing camera, both of which are steady rather than spectacular performers. The battery is relatively small at 2,050 mAh but, surprisingly, saw us through a day of use. Yes, it might remind some of the iPhone 6 in terms of design but that is hardly a bad thing, is it?
6.5mm
Rs.20,390
This phone has been around for a while, but it’s still a good big-screen device. The 6.4-inch screen (this is the biggest screen option among the phones listed here), packing in 1,920x1,080 pixels, allows for a phablet-esque usage experience. While it may not be possible to type an SMS with the same hand that is holding the phone, the slimness does make it easier to hold, or slip into your trouser or jacket pocket. It packs in a big 3,050 mAh battery, and the quad-core processor clocking at 2.2 GHz packs in enough power to run the latest games and multiple apps smoothly.
6.7mm
Rs.38,900
It has never really fought on the “thinness” stakes but Samsung showed the world that it too could come up with thin devices when it released the Galaxy Alpha last year. The phone, built around a metal frame, was a sight for sore eyes. Although powered by the Exynos octa-core processor, with 2 GB RAM and 32 GB of storage, the Alpha’s technical specifications are relatively modest for its high price. The 4.7-inch display is brilliant Super AMOLED but is a 720p HD affair, and while the 12 MP rear camera took great pictures, the 2.1 MP front-facing one was a bit of a let-down. Round that off with a battery that was among the smallest in its price segment (1,860 mAh) and no expandable memory, and many wondered why Samsung was charging a flagship price for the device. One look at it, however, and you knew the answer: the amazing design.
What you lose out on when you buy an ultra-slim phone
With the notable exception of the iPhone, thin phones in recent times have tended to deliver mid-segment performance for a relatively high price. That trend seems to be changing, slowly and steadily, with performance improving. But that trim figure still does involve some sacrifice:
u Ultra-thin phones generally come with smaller batteries, to keep the thickness and weight of the device down
u Forget about removable back panels—most ultra-thin phones are unibody and keep the battery firmly locked in
u Heating seems to be a bigger issue in thinner phones because the components are tightly packed. It’s nothing to be paranoid about, but things can sometimes get uncomfortable if you are playing games or using GPS for navigation
u As their frames thin out, the cameras tend to jut out from the back in some cases. Not only does this look odd, it could also mean that when placed on its back on a flat surface (like a table), there is a greater risk of scratches to the camera lens.
