Hands on: I hung out with the Galaxy S25 Edge and it is the cellphone for Samsung followers who complain about Samsung telephones

Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge overview: Two-minute overview

The Galaxy S25 Edge is the cellphone for Samsung followers who wish to complain. Does your Galaxy S25 Plus really feel too thick on your tight denims and small arms? Is the Galaxy S25 Ultra too heavy on your bag? The Galaxy S25 Edge is exactly the cellphone you need, nothing extra and nothing much less.

The Galaxy S25 Edge is the answer to a quite simple formulation. Take a Galaxy S25 Plus. Shave 1.5mm off the thickness by eradicating the zoom digicam and shrinking the battery. Add a 200MP digicam sensor. Wrap it in titanium. Voila: Galaxy S25 Edge!

Seriously, that’s it; that’s the entire cellphone. The Galaxy S25 Edge has the identical Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy chipset inside, with the identical 12GB of RAM because the Galaxy S25 Plus. There’s an even bigger vapor chamber for improved cooling, however we’re speaking a couple of minuscule house made barely much less so.

Even although it’s skinny, this isn’t a cellphone it is best to expertise on paper. You have to get your arms on a tool to see simply how skinny and lightweight it feels. I spent a few hours with Samsung to get hands-on time with the brand new Galaxy S25 Edge, so I can inform you what to anticipate: count on slightly bit.

It feels slightly bit thinner and slightly bit lighter than different telephones I’ve used. Just slightly bit. It’s not the thinnest cellphone ever. Even Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 6 is thinner when it’s open; it’s simply the thinnest ever Galaxy S cellphone.

It’s not even near the thinnest flat smartphone ever. The Vivo X5 Max from 2014 was greater than 1mm thinner than the Galaxy S25 Edge at lower than 4.75mm.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge hands-on: the thinnest Galaxy S cellphone ever – YouTube

Watch On

The Galaxy S25 Edge gained’t spark a revolution. It will not make your present cellphone look fats. There will probably be different skinny telephones – Apple’s long-anticipated iPhone 17 Air is predicted to launch later this yr. But I don’t count on a Pixel Edge, or a OnePlus Edge.

Holding the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge instantly put me in thoughts of previous Samsung telephones. Foremost, the traditional Samsung SGH-U100 Ultra 5.9, an extremely skinny cellphone Samsung launched in 2007 on the sundown of function telephones. That was the final time I bear in mind Samsung making a cellphone whose predominant function was being skinny.

That cellphone shocked onlookers. Nobody may consider Samsung may make such a skinny cellphone. You puzzled how there was house for the buttons to maneuver; it felt so skinny.

That’s not true of the Galaxy S25 Edge. It’s very skinny, however no person goes to be shocked. I count on the response will probably be extra like ‘huh, that’s fairly skinny,’ and never ‘WOW, what a THIN PHONE!’

That’s okay, as a result of the Galaxy S25 Edge is priced proper for a subdued response. The cellphone is a little more costly than the Galaxy S25 Plus. You lose some battery and a few zoom, however you achieve a a lot better digicam. Plus, you might have the thinnest Galaxy S!

What’s the profit? Samsung says the Galaxy S25 Edge is simpler to carry than the Galaxy S25 Plus. I had an iPhone 16 Pro Max in my pocket to match, and the Edge was positively a lot thinner and lighter than the largest iPhone. Easier to carry? Maybe slightly, however I hold my cellphone in a case anyway.

All eyes now flip to Apple to see if it will possibly ship a fair thinner iPhone 17 Air to beat the Galaxy S25 Edge. With a 5.1mm iPad Pro in the marketplace, it appears seemingly that Apple will launch a fair thinner cellphone, but when it packs cheaper cameras or lacks flagship options, it gained’t match the skinny new Galaxy.

Which brings me to some large issues in regards to the Galaxy S25 Edge – everyone goes to place this cellphone in a case. Samsung is providing its personal skinny circumstances, however any case will add bulk. The cellphone is sturdy, but it surely’s not army commonplace rugged.

With a good thing about solely a millimeter or so, you’re already paying extra for much less battery life and fewer cameras. If you slap a case on it, can you continue to really feel how skinny it’s? Not as a lot.

My second concern is that that is the slimmest Galaxy S cellphone… in the present day. The Galaxy Z Fold 6 is thinner, so we all know that even thinner telephones are doable. Will tomorrow’s Galaxy S26 be simply as skinny as in the present day’s Galaxy S25 Edge? Is a 5.8mm cellphone impressively skinny in the long term? If you’re going to maintain this cellphone by means of years of updates, I doubt it’s going to really feel as skinny because it does in the present day in two years.

With that in thoughts, the Galaxy S25 Edge doesn’t stand out. It’s skinny, but it surely isn’t going to blow anyone away. It’s the thinnest Galaxy S in the present day, however not the thinnest cellphone ever, and never even the thinnest cellphone Samsung makes proper now.

However, it scratches an itch. If you have been contemplating the Galaxy S25 Plus, you possibly can spend a bit extra and get a thinner, arguably cooler cellphone. But coolness, like being skinny, doesn’t final perpetually.

I want there was one thing distinctive to this cellphone to make it stand out from the remainder of the Galaxy lineup, however I’m unsure what that needs to be. Even a brand new theme or some Edge-related widgets would have been a pleasant addition. It simply seems like in any other case this cellphone launch is all about giving us the right compromise, with no new advantages.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge hands-on: Price and availability

• Starts at $1,099 / £1,099 / AU$1,849 for 256GB and 12GB of RAM
• That’s $100 / £100 / AU$100 greater than the Galaxy S25 Plus

The Galaxy S25 Edge is accessible for pre-order now, and it needs to be in arms by May 30, assuming the present world financial local weather causes no delays. That was a query I heard Samsung of us discussing, however they don’t anticipate any issues.

The cellphone will are available three colours: black, blue, and silver. You can get it with 256GB or 512GB of storage, and Samsung may have a deal at launch to double the storage at no cost. Both fashions embody 12GB of RAM inside.

The Galaxy S25 Edge slots in properly between the Galaxy S25 Plus and the Galaxy S25 Ultra on Samsung’s worth ladder. It additionally prices greater than an iPhone 16 Pro, however lower than an iPhone 16 Pro Max.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge hands-on: Specifications

The Galaxy S25 Edge has many of the similar specs because the Galaxy S25 Plus, with some Ultra inspiration thrown in. It has the vital Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy processor that made the Galaxy S25 Ultra such a winner.

The digicam is a 200MP sensor, however Samsung mentioned it’s not the very same sensor discovered on the Galaxy S25 Ultra. Megapixels don’t imply something, it’s the sensor measurement that actually issues, so I’m assuming there’s a smaller sensor on this cellphone than its larger Samsung brethren.

The Galaxy S25 Edge has a 3,900mAh battery, which is far smaller than the 4,900mAh cell within the Galaxy S25 Plus. Samsung says we should always count on higher battery life than the Galaxy S24, however not as a lot longevity because the Galaxy S25 gives.

For charging, the Galaxy S25 Edge tops out at 25W, slower than the 45W charging that the remainder of the Galaxy S25 household can use. There is wi-fi charging, no less than, together with reverse wi-fi energy sharing.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge hands-on: Design

• Thinnest Galaxy S ever, thinner than any iPhone
• More Galaxy Ultra than Galaxy Plus

Samsung could be promoting the Galaxy S25 Edge quick by evaluating it freely to the Galaxy S25 Plus. In reality, with its titanium body and muted colour choices, it feels extra like a waifish Galaxy S25 Ultra. In any case, the cellphone is clearly a current-generation Samsung system, whereas veering only a bit from the formulation.

The digicam bump appears to be like, frankly, extra just like the leaked design of the iPhone 17 than the present Galaxy S25 household. It’s not small portholes, it’s a complete bar that appears to be hooked up to the again of the cellphone.

The look is decidedly much less polished and clear than the same spherical bar that holds the Google Pixel 9 cameras. Google’s cellphone appears to be a single block of metallic, whereas the Galaxy S25 Edge appears to be like like items caught collectively.

The cellphone is just not very symmetrical, and it doesn’t appear to have the identical match and end because the Galaxy S25 Ultra. On the underside, USB-C port is centered, however the speaker port and the SIM card slot are each haphazardly aligned. The SIM card holder doesn’t even appear to suit completely flush with the cellphone on a few of the models I noticed, as you possibly can see in my photograph under.

I fear about this cellphone. I fear that it’ll bend simply, even with a titanium body. I fear that the protruding digicam will make the lens glass extra weak in a fall. I fear the hole between the digicam bump and the again of the cellphone will collect ugly mud and dirt.

I’ll really feel higher if our overview unit proves stable, so verify again quickly as soon as we’ve had a possibility to run this cellphone by means of an intensive battery of assessments.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge hands-on: Software

• All of the Galaxy software program you realize…
• Nothing particular to the Edge, however loads of Galaxy AI

Samsung’s OneUI 7 is trying good on the Galaxy S25 Edge, working on high of Android 15. All of Samsung’s software program tips are right here, together with the Edge panels, which now sport some AI choice instruments. You may even hook this cellphone as much as a monitor, keyboard, and mouse and use the Samsung DeX desktop setting.

I’m a giant fan of DeX, so I used to be thrilled to see it wasn’t left off. The Galaxy Z Fold 6 inexplicably lacks DeX, so I used to be nervous it could be sacrificed for thinness. Nope, DeX is right here, together with all of Samsung’s software program options. The infinite layers of Settings menus. The large flotilla of bloatware.

Image 1 of 6

That latter might be only a regional selection, as a result of not each Galaxy S25 Edge I noticed had the identical software program preloaded, however a few of the units have been jam-packed with junk. There have been tons of rubbish video games, together with service software program, additions from Microsoft and Google, after which the Samsung folder of apps.

There was a short time when it appeared like Samsung was pulling again its software program bloat, however these days have been washed away with the tide.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge hands-on: Cameras

• 200MP predominant digicam, however not the identical because the Ultra
• 12MP extensive lens with macro capabilities

The digicam on the Galaxy S25 Edge is simply what I hoped to see… I hope. We knew that Samsung can be lowering its digicam load from the triple-lens system on just about each different Galaxy cellphone apart from the Galaxy Z Flip sequence. I hoped for one large predominant digicam with a giant sensor, and that might be what we acquired with the 200MP sensor on the Edge.

I don’t count on high quality on par with the Galaxy S25 Ultra and its 200MP predominant digicam. Samsung says the sensor is just not the identical, and it could not inform us what sensor it is utilizing or the dimensions of the sensor.

A tiny sensor lower into 200 million items is not going to produce high-quality photographs. Megapixels don’t matter, what actually issues is the dimensions of the sensor, and it’s seemingly the Edge sacrifices some sensor measurement in comparison with the Ultra.

The advertising may say this cellphone has 2X ‘optical high quality zoom,’ however in actual fact Samsung is utilizing the 200MP sensor to simulate a wide range of zoom lengths, after which enhancing the outcomes with AI.

I form of want extra telephones would use this system, paired with a bigger sensor, as a result of I believe we’d get higher images than we do from in the present day’s 5X zoom lenses mated to teeny-tiny sensors.

We’ll see if Samsung can pull off a satisfying digicam with solely two lenses as a substitute of three. It can’t be too good, after all, or else you gained’t wish to purchase the Galaxy S25 Ultra, nonetheless the costliest within the Galaxy S household.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge hands-on: Battery

• 3,9000mAh battery is smaller than even the Galaxy S25
• Battery life gained’t be nice, and charging will probably be slower

The Galaxy S25 Edge packs a 3,900mAh battery inside. That’s a lot smaller than the 4,900mAh cell within the Galaxy S25 Plus – it’s nearer to the smaller Galaxy S25, which makes use of a 4,000mAh battery inside.

In reality, Samsung says battery life will fall someplace between the Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S25, and you’ll get a full day of regular use out of this cellphone. So, it gained’t be nice for a cellphone this large, however it is going to be acceptable. That’s an anticipated trade-off for a a lot thinner cellphone.

@techradar
♬ stellar (Sped Up) – .diedlonely & énouement

What I didn’t count on was slower charging. I hoped for a charging miracle, possibly even quicker charging speeds than the Galaxy S25 to make up for the smaller battery.

If I may cost this cellphone to full in half-hour, I wouldn’t thoughts that it will possibly’t final all day on a single cost. But with solely 25W charging, Samsung says half-hour will get me simply over midway, to 55% charged.

We’ll know simply how lengthy the cellphone can final after we’ve examined it in Future Labs and given it a full overview. For now, don’t purchase this cellphone anticipating nice battery life. Buy it for the type.

You may additionally like…