Apple unveiled its new iPhone 5 on 12 September 2012, claiming that it is the “thinnest smartphone in the world, with an all-new 7.6 mm anodized aluminum body that is 18 percent thinner and 20 percent lighter than iPhone 4S”. This claim is dubious at best.
While the iPhone 5 is indeed thinner and lighter than the iPhone 4S, Apple may have missed that the iPhone is not the only smartphone in the world.
Huawei’s Ascend P1s is 6.7mm thick, making it nearly a full millimeter thinner than the iPhone 5. There is also the lesser known Chinese phone, the Oppo Finder, which at 6.65mm is one of the thinnest phones in the world.
Apple may have excluded Chinese based phones in its comparison, but the company must have known that the Motorola Razr is thinner than its new iPhone.
The new Motorola Razr, which the company says has an “impossibly thin design” at 7.1mm, is also thinner than the iPhone 5. Motorola’s LTE-capable Droid Razr, which is 7.1mm thick, is also thinner than the iPhone 5.
The ZTE Athena, which is yet to be released, currently claims to be the thinnest smartphone in the world with a profile of just 6.2mm.
Apple iPhone 5 claim
| Manufacturer | Dimensions | Depth |
| ZTE Athena* | Uncertain | 6.2 mm |
| Oppo Finder | 125 x 66 x 6.65 mm | 6.65 mm |
| Huawei Ascend P1s | 127.4 x 64.8 x 6.7 mm | 6.7 mm |
| Motorola Droid Razr | 130.7 x 68.9 x 7.1 mm | 7.1 mm |
| Motorola Razr | 130.7 x 68.9 x 7.1 mm | 7.1 mm |
| Motorola RAZR XT910 | 130.7 x 68.9 x 7.1 mm | 7.1 mm |
| Apple iPhone 5 | 123.8 x 58.6 x 7.6 mm | 7.6 mm |
*Is yet to be launched
Some commentators have highlighted that the smartphones which are currently thinner than the iPhone 5 have a thicker section for their cameras, which means that the iPhone 5 is in fact the thinnest smartphone.
However, this merely means that that the iPhone 5 has the thinnest ‘thick point’ of all smartphones, and not that it is the thinnest smartphone ever.
Globally accepted standards for mobile phone dimensions, used by respectable websites like GSM Arena, points to the fact that the iPhone 5 is simply not seen as the thinnest smartphone in the world.
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Who cares if it is thinner anyway? My galaxy s2 is thin enough. I don’t feel a compelling need to have a thinner phone.
Of all the things my phone does being the most thin is not one I rate that highly.