Future iPhones, Apple Watches and MacBook Pros could be the thinnest smartphones, watches and laptops in the industry, but will they also be larger?
The new M4-based iPad Pro was just the beginning. Featuring a slim profile measuring just 5.1mm, it’s the thinnest device Apple has created thus far in what could be a sign of things coming over the next few years.
Mark Gurman wrote in the latest edition of his Power On newsletter for Bloomberg that the new tablet marks the “beginning of a new class of Apple devices.”
iPhones, Apple Watches, and MacBook Pros coming down the pike in the future should be categorized as “the thinnest and lightest products in their categories across the whole tech industry,” Gurman learned from his Apple sources.
Apple might slim down iPhones, Watches and MacBooks
The Information recently reported that a new iPhone 17 model coming in 2025, codenamed D23 internally, will be “significantly thinner” thanks to a “major redesign” akin to the iPhone X in 2017. Gurman has confirmed this leak with his own sources, deeply entrenched within Apple.
I’m obviously speculating, but it seems Apple will be able to significantly slim down future phones, watches and tablets thanks to the following factors:
- Improved batteries that take up less space
- Further miniaturization of chips
- Making devices bigger
A larger device has more room inside the enclosure for components.
Larger but without bigger batteries
In Apple’s case, that doesn’t automatically translate into bigger, longer-lasting batteries. Apple designs its devices with very particular use cases in mind, which dictates how long their batteries are going to last.
A good example is the iPad. It was introduced in 2010, but every single model released to this date sports the same battery life. iPads are designed with a 10-hour battery life in mind because there’s plenty of room inside for batteries.
With iPhones, not so much. There have been various iPhone sizes over the years, all with different run times. The same is true of Apple Watches and MacBook Pros. If Apple wants to slim down its watches and laptops, one way to do it would be by making them bigger without using longer-lasting batteries.
Increasing size to reduce thinness
For what it’s worth, Gurman says thinner iPhones, MacBook Pros and Apple Watches won’t compromise battery life or new features. At any rate, spreading the existing internal components across a larger area would help reduce the thinness.
To that end, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicted on Medium today that this year’s Apple Watch will be thinner and have a bigger display than previous models.
According to Kuo, the Apple Watch Series 10 lineup will be thinner while increasing case size from 41mm to 45mm and from 45mm to 49mm, making the devices comparable in size to the Apple Watch Ultra with its 49mm case. Other analysts have said that this year’s iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max could grow their displays from 6.1 inches to around 6.3 inches diagonally, and from 6.7 to 6.9 inches.