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Companies hope that this year, like last year, will be remembered for AI breakthroughs in smartphones. However, there’s another trend this year that I expect we’ll not forget: the era of the thin phone.
The OPPO Find N5 pushed the boundaries of thickness in folding phones, and now Samsung has done the same in smartphones with the Galaxy S25 Edge. Ahead of the rumored iPhone 17 Air’s debut in September, Samsung’s latest flagship has already ruined thicker phones for me.
At first glance, the Galaxy S25 Edge may be considered a downgrade compared to its siblings. It has the smallest battery and one less camera, but as the adage goes, seeing is believing. In this case, it would be more apt to say that holding is believing.
There’s room for improvement, but the Galaxy S25 Edge is a beautiful phone that you can only appreciate once you hold it. When you do, you may forgive its shortcomings.
Nirave is a veteran tech journalist and creator at House of Tech. He’s reviewed every Samsung flagship phone and more than 1,000 phones over the past 20 years. A heart attack at 33 inspired him to consider the Impact of Technology on our physical, mental, and emotional health. Say hi to him on Twitter or Threads!
Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge: Price and Availability
The Galaxy S25 Edge was first teased at the Unpacked event for the Galaxy S25 launch on January 22, 2025. The official launch happened on May 13, 2025, with the phone officially on sale as of May 30, 2025.
There are two storage options available, both of which come with 12GB of RAM. The base model comes with 256GB for $1,099.99 (UK £1,099 / AU$1,849), while the 512GB model costs $1,219.99 (UK £1,199 / AU$2,049).
Unlike its siblings, it doesn’t come in a huge range of colors, and there are no Samsung.com exclusive colors, but it is available in three hues: Silver, Jet Black, and Icy Blue.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge: Design & display
- The S25 Edge is extremely thin at 5.8mm.
- It weighs 25% less than the Galaxy S25 Ultra.
- It has a titanium frame, an IP68 rating, and Gorilla Glass front and back.
If there’s one reason to buy the Galaxy S25 Edge, it’s the design, and in particular, the thickness. Measuring 5.8mm thick (excluding the camera bump), it’s currently the thinnest flagship phone, although it is still much thicker than the OPPO Find N5, which is 4.21mm thin when unfolded. For comparison, the Edge is between 1.4mm and 2.4mm thinner than the rest of the Galaxy S25 lineup.
It’s not just about the thickness, as arguably the more impactful feature is the weight. At 163 grams, it’s just one gram heavier than the regular Galaxy S25, but features the larger display of the Galaxy S25 Plus and the primary camera of the Galaxy S25 Ultra. The Galaxy S25 Plus weighs 27 grams more, while the Galaxy S25 Ultra is a whopping 55 grams more, or over a third of the total weight.
These numbers may seem inconsequential, but they are core to the Galaxy S25 Edge offering. It combines the best features of the Galaxy S25 series into a phone that’s thinner, lighter, and much more pocket-friendly.
Once you hold the Galaxy S25 Edge in your hands, the thin profile and light weight quickly assuaged many of my concerns around missing features, the smaller battery, or the lack of a telephoto lens. I didn’t realize that phone thickness was important to me until I used the Galaxy S25 Edge.
Beyond the design, you get a structure that Samsung has refined over the past few years. There’s a titanium build that feels extremely premium, and it’s paired with Gorilla Glass Victus 2 on the back. Despite some concerns about the thickness, especially considering other phones in history that have been thin and bent easily, the Galaxy S25 Edge has shown no signs of bending easily during daily usage.
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The 6.7-inch display on the front is protected by Corning’s new Gorilla Glass Ceramic 2, which is virtually identical to the Ceramic glass used in the Galaxy S25 Ultra, but lacks the anti-glare finish. The display is identical to the one found on the Galaxy S25 Plus, further highlighting how the Galaxy S25 Edge captures many of the best parts of its siblings in an entirely new device.
Having used the Galaxy S25 Edge for almost two weeks, it’s become increasingly harder to use any other phone. The design may not feel that impressive on paper, but once you hold it, you’ll quickly realize that this is a special phone. If phones have been too big or heavy for you, the Galaxy S25 Edge may be the solution you’ve been looking for.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge: Specs & performance
- Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy is fast, fluid, and fantastic.
- Excellent flagship specs sheet
- The battery is the smallest in the range but still lasts a day.
For the most part, the Galaxy S25 Edge features the same flagship hardware as the rest of the Galaxy S25 lineup. It’s equally the best and the worst parts of this phone, especially considering one of the biggest concerns, the battery.
First, the good parts. The Galaxy S25 Edge is powered by the same Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy processor as the rest of the lineup, offering flagship performance as expected. I’ve used it for light gaming, heavy multitasking, and more, and there have been no signs of lag or slowdown.
The result is incredible performance, and the higher clock speeds on the Galaxy variant Snapdragon 8 Elite mean it is the most powerful Android phone on the market.
|
Category |
Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge |
|
OS |
One UI 7 (up to seven OS upgrades) |
|
Display |
6.7-inch QHD+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X, 120Hz LTPO 2,600 nits peak brightness |
|
Processor |
Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy |
|
RAM |
12GB |
|
Storage |
256GB, 512GB |
|
Rear Camera 1 |
200MP wide, f/1.7, 24mm, OIS, PDAF, 0.6µm |
|
Rear Camera 2 |
12MP ultrawide, f/2.2, 13mm, PDAF, 1.4µm |
|
Selfie Camera |
12MP, f/2.2, 26mm, PDAF |
|
Audio |
Stereo speakers |
|
Connectivity |
Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, NFC, 5G, USB-C (3.2) |
|
Protection |
IP68 |
|
Battery |
3,900mAh |
|
Charging |
25W |
|
Dimensions |
158.2 x 75.6 x 5.8mm |
|
Weight |
163g |
|
Colors |
Titanium Icyblue, Titanium Silver, Titanium Jetblack |
In daily usage, there’s not a huge difference between this and the Snapdragon 8 Elite used in other phones, but it should be future-proofed for longer. Samsung is promising seven years of software and security updates for the Galaxy S25 Edge. With AI playing a significant role in the current and future smartphone featureset, the Galaxy S25 Edge should remain extremely capable even at the end of this period.
There’s also the huge set of features that you’d expect from a flagship phone, including an under-display ultrasonic fingerprint sensor that’s fine, albeit not as good as rival flagships I’ve used. There’s also support for Snapdragon Satellite, which means the S25 Edge can send and receive SMS messages via satellite when your cellular network isn’t available.
That’s the good, but it comes at a price: the battery. Even Samsung can’t beat physics, and the big display, flagship specs, dual camera, and thin profile meant there would be a compromise. In this case, it’s the battery and charging, but it’s not as big as it sounds on paper.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge: Battery Life & Charging
- All-day battery life, but only one day.
- Slower charging than you’d expect.
The Galaxy S25 Edge features a 3,900mAh battery, 100mAh smaller than the base Galaxy S25, and significantly smaller than the Galaxy S25 Plus (4,900mAh) and S25 Ultra (5,000mAh). When Samsung first revealed the battery capacity, I expected this to be my biggest challenge, but as it turns out, this is only partially true.
Like many phone makers, Samsung has been promising all-day battery life on its phones for many years, and most phones deliver with some charge remaining at the end of the day. The Galaxy S25 Edge also delivers all-day battery life, but it gets dangerously close to needing a recharge before the end of the day.
Battery life isn’t phenomenal, but it’s also not as bad as you would expect.
Everyone’s usage varies, so what does all-day battery life look like? Charging to full at 11 a.m. (having forgotten to charge it overnight), the Galaxy S25 Edge lasted a total of 28 hours on a full charge with just under seven hours of screen time and around seven percent battery remaining. It’s fairly representative of the maximum battery life you can expect, and that was with light gaming, a lot of streaming, web browsing, and some calls, with half the day on Wi-Fi and half without.
The battery life meets my expectations for moderate to heavy usage in a day, and should be sufficient for most users. However, it’s much harder to excuse the slower 25W charging, which takes around 80 minutes to charge the phone. Samsung opted against including the 45W charging from the S25 Plus, despite the S25 Edge costing more, which is harder to accept considering the price.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge: Cameras
- 200MP primary camera from the S25 Ultra.
- 12MP ultrawide camera.
- No telephoto lens, quality degrades after 2x.
The Galaxy S25 Edge has two rear cameras. The main one is 200MP and is supposedly the same camera found in the Galaxy S25 Ultra, but reduced in size by almost 40%. The ultrawide is the same 12MP ultrawide found in the Galaxy S25 Plus.
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The Galaxy S25 Edge offers a 2x ‘zoom’ achieved through an in-sensor crop, as well as 4x and 10x zoom options, with 10x being the maximum. At 2x, the camera is still fairly capable, but above this, the images do not feel like they were captured by a flagship phone.
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At higher resolutions, the OIS is somewhat ineffective, and the camera is unable to compensate for the loss of detail. Instead, you get photos that have slight motion to them and lack the finesse of other cameras. You also need the larger pixel size to compensate for light in low-light conditions, so the 12MP photos tend to be the best overall.
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There is good news: if you take mostly portraits, the Galaxy S25 Edge has the same excellent portrait mode, including Color Point, my favorite portrait mode feature of any phone, as the rest of the Galaxy S25 lineup. There’s also 8K video at 30fps, 4k at 120fps, and FullHD video that can capture slo-mo videos at 240fps.
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The Galaxy S25 Edge boasts mostly flagship camera specs on paper, but while the main camera does leave me wanting, it remains more than capable. If you want the best smartphone camera, you have no choice but to look at the OPPO Find X8 Ultra or Galaxy S25 Ultra. However, if design is important and you don’t mind a camera that’s just good enough, the Galaxy S25 Edge is great.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge: Software and AI
- Android 15 with One UI 7 on top.
- Seven years of software and security updates.
- Samsung DeX, Galaxy AI, and Gemini included.
As with every company, AI plays a significant role in the Galaxy S25 Edge experience. Unlike Samsung’s past Edge phones, such as the Galaxy S6 Edge and its waterfall display design, there are no exclusive software tricks on this phone. Rather, you get the same, great One UI 7, Galaxy AI, and Gemini experience that you’ll find across the rest of the lineup.
That includes a smooth interface with bubble-like, rounded edges; a split notification center and quick settings similar to iOS; an app drawer that can finally be laid out vertically in alphabetical order; and greater consistency with other Android devices. I’ve been a fan of One UI for many years, but One UI 7 feels better than ever before.
Another great addition to the software is the deep partnership between Samsung and Google. Instead of competing visions, the Galaxy S25 Edge — and the rest of the Galaxy S25 lineup — use Google apps (like Messages) as default, and have been the first phones to get many new Google Gemini features like Circle to Search.
Paired with Galaxy AI features and Samsung’s fantastic image editing capabilities, you have an accomplished AI suite, even if it somewhat relies on you needing to invest heavily in the Galaxy ecosystem. Samsung and Google have figured out how to work together, and the result is a software experience that’s akin to the old Google Play Edition in its seamless and streamlined nature.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge: Competition
The Galaxy S25 Edge is the first commercially available ultra-thin flagship candybar smartphone, although Apple is also expected to launch the iPhone 17 Air later this year.
At 5.8mm, the Galaxy S25 Edge is not the thinnest smartphone overall, however. Companies like OPPO and Honor have both launched ultra-thin folding phones, such as the Find N5 and Honor Magic V3, measuring 4.21mm and 4.35mm, respectively. However, when it comes to non-foldable phones, the Galaxy S25 Edge is truly unique in its thin build.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge: Should you buy it?
You should buy this if…
- You are tired of thick or heavy phones in your pocket
- You want a big screen and camera without the weight
- Design is more important than raw specs to you
You shouldn’t buy this if…
- You want the absolute best camera or battery life
- You want a dedicated telephoto camera for enhanced zoom
- You don’t want to make any compromises
If the Galaxy S25 Edge weren’t the thinnest smartphone you can buy right now, the answer to this question would likely be no; there are enough trade-offs that this isn’t the best phone you can buy right now. However, the thinness makes this incredibly appealing, and far more so than I had expected.
Going into this review, I had three primary concerns: the battery life, the build quality, and the camera. Everything else was likely to be extremely solid. Having spent time with the Galaxy S25 Edge, it delivers on two out of the three, but the camera falls short.
Yet, for some people, this could be the ideal phone. If you want the best of the Galaxy S25 Ultra and S25 Plus without the thickness or weight, the Galaxy S25 Edge could be perfect.
Personally, the Galaxy S25 Edge has changed my thoughts on slim phones. There will always be trade-offs, but the Galaxy S25 Edge shows that a thin phone can be great. There’s room for improvement, but this phone has me smitten.
Holding is believing
The Galaxy S25 Edge demonstrates that thin phones can still offer impressive specs. It offers the best of the Galaxy S25 series in a truly special design. Holding is believing, and when you hold the S25 Edge, you won’t want to put it down.
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