Chinese smartphone maker Vivo has teased that it is readying a new handset which is less than 4mm thick. The firm claimed the feat via its Sina Weibo account (the 'Chinese Twitter') as it described its upcoming smartphone as half the thickness of an Apple iPhone 5/5S.
Last week we saw the smartphone screen with the slimmest bezel available claimed by LG. Some readers questioned the practicality of such a component; many users grip a smartphone and obscure those edges of the screen - so aren't interested in much smaller bezels.
In a parallel race to the smallest bezel, smartphone makers have been gunning for the slimmest handset title. Apple launched its iPhone 6 duo back in September with the new large displays on offer giving customers something that was "bigger than bigger" but also slimming its designs down to as little as 6.9mm thick.
Since that time there have been several thin smartphone feats claimed. Last week Oppo revealed its R5 smartphone which is just 4.85mm thick. Then, at the weekend, we heard that rival Chinese mobile maker Vivo will effectively trump Oppo's yet to be released slim smartphone marvel with its as yet unnamed handset, measuring under 4mm thick.
Vivo published a trio of 'photos' of the new sub-4mm thick handset, some of which show it in comparison with an Apple iPhone 5/S. With the aid of the pictures Vivo claims that its new smartphone will be about half the thickness of Apple's previous gen iPhone which measures 7.6mm. That's a thickness of around 3.8mm or 0.15-inches.
Last week's Oppo R5 had pretty good specs despite its slimness but one might conclude that battery life is one of sacrifices made to aid the slim profile. It packed a 2,000mAh battery to provide the juice for the Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 Octa Core processor, 2GB of RAM and 5.2-inch AMOLED full HD display. It remains to be seen what compromises Vivo might include in its design to create its stunningly slim 3.8mm smartphone.
