In 2025, I put three ultra-slim smartphones to the test, and unfortunately, they all fell short of expectations. The iPhone Air, Galaxy S25 Edge, and Motorola Edge 70 all had their flaws, making them less than ideal choices for most consumers. Both Apple and Samsung’s offerings seemed to come with a high price tag for a subpar user experience.
Okay, that might be a bit harsh, but the iPhone Air, Galaxy S25 Edge and Motorola Edge 70 are all flawed to the extent that most people should avoid them. Where Apple and Samsung’s models were concerned, you’d be paying a premium for a sub-par experience.
While Honor is launching the Magic 8 Pro Air in China on 19 January, it appears to be an outlier. All signs point to there being no Edge phone in the upcoming Galaxy S26 series, while poor sales of the iPhone Air have supposedly (per DigiTimes) caused Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo to halt production of their own ultra-slim phones.
As someone who was disappointed by ultra-slim phones on three separate occasions last year, you’re probably thinking this is music to my ears. And it was – until I saw the Xiaomi 17 Air’s leaked specs.
The ultra-slim phone I’d been waiting for?
Of course, there are plenty of caveats when we’re looking at leaks of a phone that won’t ever come to market. There are no guarantees that the leaks are even accurate, let alone that they’d make their way into the final device.
But if Weibo leaker Bold Panda is to be believed, the Xiaomi 17 Air would’ve set a new standard for ultra-slim phones, coming in at just 5.5mm.
With a 6.59-inch display, it would’ve sat between the 6.5-inch iPhone Air and 6.7-inch Galaxy S25 Edge and Motorola Edge 70.
Fellow leaker Digital Chat Station has built on this, suggesting a lightweight chassis somewhere between 160g and 169g.
The dual rear camera setup would also have included a 200Mp lens – potentially the same 3.7x periscope telephoto as the Xiaomi 17 Ultra. While we don’t have much to go on here, Xiaomi’s photography prowess suggests that stills could’ve been up there with the very best camera phones.
I really believe this is the phone that would’ve changed my mind about the category
Battery capacity is quoted as under 6000mAh, but that suggests it was still larger than 5000mAh, and comfortably bigger than the 4800mAh Motorola Edge 70 – the largest cell we’ve seen in an ultra-thin handset so far.
The other big selling point would’ve been the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip, which would’ve made it the most powerful ultra-slim Android phone to date.
Digital Chat Station goes on to say that “internal assessments suggested there was no market for ultra-thin phones”, which may well be true. But it’s a shame we won’t get the chance to see how good it could have been in real life. I really believe this is the phone that would’ve changed my mind about the category.
In the meantime, all hope rests on the Honor Magic 8 Pro Air, and even that might not make it out of China.
If you don’t mind a thicker device, our guide to the best phones you can buy includes some excellent options.
