The cult of thinness

Super thin phones represent end-stage smartphone innovation. Next up: smart glasses.

- BY PETER GRIFFIN

Every September, the world gathers, virtually or otherwise, to watch Apple unveil its latest pocket rectangles with the suspense usually reserved for coronations or space shuttle landings. Last week's proclamation: behold the iPhone Air, Apple's thinnest smartphone yet, with a supersized price tag of $2149. It's like a normal phone, only skinnier. I half expected it to float away when Apple boss Tim Cook held it up.

This phone is only 5.6mm thick. But what's remarkable isn't so much that achievement as what the engineering accomplishment represents: the end of the line. Squeezing a little more physical thinness out of the humble phone feels like the last trick left in a format that has otherwise stopped surprising us.

It has never been easy to make a smartphone thinner without it bending like a chocolate bar left on a dashboard. You may remember "Bendgate" back in 2014, when some owners of the newly released iPhone 6 found it developed a slight curve after placing some pressure on it, such as slipping it into a tight jeans pocket.