The rumor mill has been working overtime lately with reports of Apple’s upcoming foldable iPhone, but there are obviously plenty of brands out there that already make foldables. Samsung unveiled the Galaxy Z Fold Special Edition foldable a few months ago, a limited-edition ultra-thin foldable only available in Korea and China. Well-connected insiders say Samsung will use the same design for the Galaxy Z Fold 7 this year, which would be a big development for the Korean giant.
The Galaxy Z Fold 6 measures 5.6mm unfolded and 12.1mm when folded. The Galaxy Z Fold SE cuts these measurements to 4.9mm and 10.6mm, respectively. It’s an amazing achievement for Samsung, but it still pales in comparison to what Honor has been doing.
The 2023 Magic V2 foldable was thinner than the Fold SE. Unfolded, it measured just 4.7mm, while the folded thickness was 9.9mm. The Magic V3 successor that Honor launched last year is even thinner at 4.4mm and 9.2mm in thickness, respectively. I thought it would be rather difficult to go thinner than that, and Samsung proved it’s no easy feat to match Honor’s ambitious design.
But while the Galaxy Z Fold 7 isn’t expected to shrink even more compared to the SE, we’ll soon see a foldable phone that’s supposedly even thinner than Honor’s slim foldables. It’s called the Oppo Find N5, and it should be unveiled next month.
Oppo is one of the companies that pressured Samsung into stepping out of its comfort zone when it comes to foldable phone design. While the Korean giant delivered tiny iterative updates for its Fold and Flip models, Oppo came out with a Fold-type design that widened the display in the folded state so you could actually use it comfortably. Then, Oppo made a Flip-type phone with a large cover screen.
Samsung had to get behind these designs once the competition delivered them rather than leading the market.
If the following teaser is to be believed, Oppo will further push the envelope in foldable phone design. The image shows an unfolded foldable phone with a thinner profile than a regular pencil.
As you can see above, the camera module can’t be seen, which will add some thickness to a part of the phone. Also, a foldable phone thinner than a 7mm pencil wouldn’t be exactly new. The Galaxy Z Fold 7 will also be thinner than a pencil. The current Fold 6 is thinner than that.
Luckily, we have another Oppo Find N5 teaser that will give you a better idea of how thin the unfolded handset will be.
According to the video above, which shows a Find N5 unit under a piece of paper, the next-gen Oppo foldable phone is slightly thicker than four ID cards from China, each measuring about 1mm. It’s almost as thick as two 1-yuan coins measuring 2mm each.
Therefore, the Oppo Find N5 will be about 4mm thick when unfolded or thinner than the Honor Magic V3. Folded, it should measure about 9mm, which is thinner than the V3.
I now expect Honor to develop an even thinner V4 model this year, considering what Oppo is doing with the Find N5. Then again, I’m also slightly worried about the trend. How thin is too thin for smartphones and especially foldables?
We want these phones to be as durable as possible, which might explain Samsung’s hesitance to match its Chinese counterparts. I say that as an iPhone owner looking forward to the ultra-thin iPhone 17 Air and the foldable iPhone that might follow it.
If the Oppo Find N5 is unveiled in February in China, we might see it arrive at MWC 2025. However, that doesn’t guarantee an immediate European launch for the foldable.
