When I first met the Oppo R5, I was astonished by how thin a smartphone can be. At 4.85mm, the phone is an incredible piece of gem, and it makes the 5.2-inch display extremely easy to use as well thanks to its extremely thin bezels. After that, I started pondering, do I really need that slim form factor? Does it make sense for a phone to be so thin?
When a smartphone gets thinner, its internals are more soldered than ever, of course we are not talking about swapping RAMs or processors just like our PCs, but more to how reliable it is to be protected from shocks and bumps, let alone the phone being bent. If a phone gets too thin, cooling is also a major concern, phones such as the Oppo R5 has implemented its own patented heat dissipation technology onboard, how it will perform in extreme temperature conditions is still very questionable, and we haven’t really got that proof of concept from the company itself.
In addition, you’ll have to sacrifice battery capacity when you have a slim smartphone, take the iPhone 6 for example, it has a small 1810mAh battery while the Oppo R5 has a 2000mAh battery. In other examples, we can also refer to some extremely slim powerbanks out in the market. I personally have big hands and I don’t mind having a more bulky smartphone, but not too bulky of course, my real issue slim smartphones is the feel of gripping the device itself, it just feels weird and not complete.
Of course, until I get myself a unit of the Oppo R5 and use it as my daily driver, I’ll soon begin to know if a super slim factor will be a requirement for my next smartphone purchase. What say you? Do you think super thin smartphones are a gimmick or it really helps? Share with us.
