Your next smartphone should be thicker, not thinner

Smartphones like the Oppo Find X9 Ultra prove that a slightly thicker phone isn’t a flaw – it’s the reason it’s actually good.

For the better part of a decade, the smartphone industry has been chasing thinness like it’s the ultimate sign of progress. Every launch cycle brings another round of applause for shaving off a fraction of a millimetre, as if that alone makes a phone better. 

But the truth is, thin phones aren’t improving the experience any more. In many cases, like with the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge and iPhone Air, they’re making it worse.

After spending the past few weeks using the Oppo Find X9 Ultra – a phone that is unapologetically thick, weighty and, by modern standards, a bit of a brick – it’s not hard to question why we’re still pretending thinness is the goal.

The trade-off we keep ignoring

At 9.1mm thick and 236g, the Find X9 Ultra is not trying to win any design awards for slimness. Put it next to something like an iPhone Air and it feels noticeably chunkier. But that extra bulk isn’t wasted space – it’s there for a very good reason.

It’s the reason why the phone packs a 7050mAh battery that comfortably sails through a full day – and then some – without anxiety. It’s the reason there’s room for a genuinely versatile camera system, with large sensors across multiple focal lengths instead of one standout lens and a couple of token extras.

It’s even part of why the device feels more durable in the hand, especially with materials that prioritise grip over gloss.

In other words, the thickness is the feature. 

Thinness for whose benefit?

The push for ever-slimmer phones made sense once upon a time. Early smartphones were bulky, awkward and pretty uncomfortable to use over longer periods of time. But we crossed that threshold years ago. Today’s ‘thick’ phone would have been considered impressively slim not all that long ago.

So, what is this all for?

It’s certainly not for battery life, that’s for sure, with ultra-thin phones struggling to last all day with even light use. Users, whether commuting, travelling, or just dealing with patchy signal in rural areas, benefit far more from endurance than from shaving off another 0.8mm.

It’s not for camera performance either, where as much as manufacturers hate to admit it, physics still play a massive role. Bigger sensors and better optics need space, and there’s nothing you can do to change that fact.  

The reality is that thinness has become a bit of a technical flex for companies, and something they can tout on a spec sheet, rather than actually being useful for consumers. 

The illusion of premium

There’s also a perception problem here. Thin phones are often marketed as more premium, as if engineering restraint is superior to capability – but that idea is starting to feel outdated.

What actually feels premium in 2026 isn’t how thin a phone is, it’s how little you have to think about it. It’s about not worrying about your battery before heading out for the day, or second-guessing whether the zoom lens will hold up. 

And, by that logic, slightly thicker phones like that Find X9 Ultra that solve these problems are far more premium than wafer-thin phones that introduce them. 

A shift that needs to happen

The Oppo Find X9 Ultra isn’t perfect; it’s big, it’s heavy, and yes, some people will prefer something lighter and thinner. But it makes a compelling argument that we’ve been optimising for the wrong thing.

Instead of asking “how thin can we make this?”, manufacturers should be asking “what do we gain if we stop trying?” Because right now, the answer is quite a lot; better battery life, better cameras, better durability and, ultimately, a better all-round experience.

Thin phones aren’t inherently bad – I really enjoyed using the S25 Edge – but the industry’s obsession with them is. And if devices like the Find X9 Ultra are anything to go by, it might finally be time to move on.