Galaxy S25 Ultra could beat iPhone 17 Slim to the punch with thin, light design

The drive to have the thinnest and lightest handset on the market has seemingly been a driving force for major phone manufacturers like Samsung and Apple. 

A new leak from regular tipster Ice Universe claims that the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra "will be the thinnest and lightest of all Ultra flagship phones." They added that this includes the recently released Google Pixel 9 Pro XL and the upcoming iPhone 16 Pro Max (h/t to Tech Radar).

The leak maven did not provide specific details on how light or thin the Galaxy S25 Ultra might be, but they have posted renders and previously talked about how the Samsung flagship phone's thin stature.

Here's the initial problem: we can't compare the S25 Ultra and its alleged thinness with the much-rumored iPhone 17 Slim, as there haven't been any dimensional specs released. 

Potentially, the iPhone 17 Slim might be as thin as the 2024 iPad Air (6.1mm thick) or even the super-thin 2024 iPad Pro (5.3mm). Could Samsung shave two to four millimeters off the Galaxy S24 Ultra to make a super thin phone? That is a big ask when most iterative changes are in the .1 to .5mm range.

However, we can compare currently released generations to see where the S25 Ultra might go. Since our only new flagship is the Pixel 9 Pro XL, we can compare it to the already-released Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra — the S24 Ultra measures 8.6mm thick and 233 grams. The new Pixel 9 Pro XL is just barely thinner and lighter at 8.5mm and 221 grams. 

To go back a generation, the Pixel 8 Pro is thicker than the S24 Ultra at 8.8mm. The question is whether Samsung is comparing its measurements against the current Pixel 9 generation or next year's Pixel 10 series.

While the display is getting larger on the iPhone 16 Pro Max, the next Apple flagship will supposedly weigh only 225 grams but may be slightly thicker than the 8.3 mm-sized iPhone 15 Pro Max.

Alongside whatever component upgrades Samsung makes, the Korean company will need to do some serious finagling to fit everything into a smaller package. This is especially true if the new phone gets an extra large battery to power Qualcomm's next-gen Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 chipset.

Now, you may have seen Chinese phone maker Honor teasing Samsung about the thinness of their phones. It is true that Honor's phones, like the recently released Honor 200 Pro, are already thinner than Samsung's best effort, which is 7.7mm thick. The upcoming foldable Honor Magic V3 is supposed to be .36 inches when folded up, just barely larger than the Galaxy S24 Ultra.

However, with Honor being banned in the U.S. and mostly locked to the Chinese marketplace, it's easy to see Samsung ignoring its thinness efforts in a more direct attempt to compete with Google and Apple.

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