Skip to main content

Now it’s just getting silly: Vivo rumored to make a 3.8mm thick smartphone

vivo thinnest smartphone news xshot
Chinese smartphone brand Vivo could be working on a very, very slim new smartphone. An image posted to the Weibo social network shows an almost unfeasibly slim device sitting on top of an iPhone 5S. According to this report, the Vivo phone will be half the iPhone’s thickness, at 3.8 millimeters.

Vivo Thin SmartphoneIf this is all accurate, the Vivo phone will easily surpass the current thinnest smartphone in the world, the Gionee Elife S5.1, by a sizable 1.3 millimeters. No, it’s not much if we were talking about the distance between you and the TV, but it’s quite a lot when it comes to a smartphone. Don’t forget, that sliver of metal and plastic has to house a whole lot of tech.

Related Videos

There’s no confirmation or further information on Vivo’s phone, so it should be treated as nothing more than a juicy rumor for now. Vivo, perhaps not the best known Chinese phone manufacturer, has held the title of thinnest smartphone before with the 5.75-millimeter thick X3, and is no stranger to making cutting edge hardware. The Vivo XPlay S3 was the first phone to officially arrive with a 1440p, Quad HD touchscreen. It debuted nearly five months before the LG G3 launched.

Vivo Thin Smartphone ComparisonWhile not everyone wants an incredibly thin smartphone, the title of “world’s thinnest” has changed hands several times over the past few years, and it is a claim to fame many manufacturers seem to covet. Regardless, shaving millimeters off the thickness of a phone is a considerable engineering challenge. Squeezing in any kind of sensible battery becomes ever harder as the phone gets thinner, and the iPhone 6 Plus has taught us structural rigidity can sometimes be an issue.

Whether the super slim Vivo phone ever becomes reality remains to be seen. Can smartphones as we know them really get any thinner? More importantly, do we want them to?

Editors' Recommendations

Vivo S12 Pro rumored to launch as the V23 Pro in markets outside China
The Vivo X70 Pro+'s screen. Credits: Vivo official.

Vivo earlier this year released its Y32 model on its China-based website, and said it would be launching the S12 Pro on December 22. Since the S-series is exclusive to China, the upcoming smartphone is expected to face stiff competition from the Huawei P50 Pocket, which was also released during the holiday period. However, it is important to note that Vivo S-series products are often rebranded under the V-series of smartphones for international consumers.

What that means is that the soon-to-be-launched Vivo V23 Pro is simply a variant of the S12 Pro. The V23 Pro first appeared on the Google Play console, and was set for a January 2022 release. So far, all of the specs of the V23 Pro are very similar to the S12 Pro. A more recent leak was shared via Ishan Agarwal on Twitter.

Read more
Vivo’s new Origin OS to launch December 9 with tons of new features
The Vivo X70 Pro+'s screen. Credits: Vivo official.

Vivo has confirmed that it will be launching its Origin operating system on December 9. It is set to replace the Funtouch OS that is currently active on Vivo devices. 

The team at Vivo first announced the creation of a new OS in November on the Vivo Philippines Official Blog. As per the company's initial announcement, "the OS adds a ton of enhancements [that allow] users to relish in an elevated, futuristic experience." 

Read more
Here’s when your Vivo phone will get the Android 12 beta update
The Vivo X70 Pro+ being taken out of a pocket.

Google officially released Android 12 for its Pixel phones alongside the launch of the Pixel 6 series. The release came after the company had already uploaded the source code to Android Open Source Project earlier this month. Now non-Google manufacturers are now detailing their Android 12 beta release timeline for the devices. Vivo is the latest company to reveal when its phones get the Android 12 beta, joining others like Samsung, OnePlus, Oppo, Realme, and Xiaomi.

Vivo announced a list of 30 smartphones that will get Android 12 beta in the coming months. The smartphone list varies from the top-of-the-line Vivo X70 Pro Plus to the budget offerings like the Vivo V20 and Vivo V20i. Here's the comprehensive list of when your Vivo phone will get the Android 12 update:

Read more