I’d love to go behind the scenes of a major tech company’s R&D department one day. A lot of new hardware challenges my assumptions of what people want from technology. In the case of Samsung, I agree wholeheartedly that phones are getting too big. But I would’ve tackled height before thickness.
Which is why I’ve been surprised by the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge. It’s not the perfect solution to phones getting too big for pockets, but it’s a step in the right direction. One-handed use hasn’t been completely solved, but pockets around the world will breathe a collective sigh of relief.
Concerns about weaker performance are largely unfounded, and the S25 Edge’s battery is completely fine for moderate users like me. Its camera array is also superb, barring one omission, which may not even be that big of a deal for a lot of people.
I was sceptical about companies making phones thinner. Now I’m eager to see how the burgeoning form factor evolves.
Table of contents
- Why a slimmer phone?
- Specifications and price
- Design
- Performance
- Battery life
- Camera
- Who is the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge for?
Why a slimmer phone?
Keen to find out why Samsung tackled thickness as the new frontier for phones, I found this Bloomberg interview with Blake Gaiser from Samsung’s American team the most enlightening.
“We’ve been hearing from our customers over the last few years that weight and hand feel is something very important to them,” Gaiser said. “As phones are getting bigger and heavier, they’ve really been looking for something that would just disappear in their pocket.”
As we all know now, Samsung’s answer to those customer requests is the Galaxy S25 Edge. “Pocketability” has been a buzzword used by Samsung in recent years as part of its push into foldables, led by the Galaxy Z Flip and Galaxy Z Fold devices. Instead of a different form factor entirely, the focus is now on reducing the footprint of a tried-and-true formula.
The good news is that the slimmer form factor hasn’t dulled Samsung’s signature AMOLED screen technology. Co-opting the same tech used by the Galaxy S25 Ultra, Samsung’s thin handset looks equally sharp and bright, with excellent contrast levels that make text and imagery pop. It’s one of the best – if not the best – phone displays I’ve seen.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge specifications and price
| Display | 6.7-inch QHD+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X 3120 x 1440 resolution 120Hz refresh rate |
| Dimensions | 158.2 x 75.6 x 5.8 mm 163 grams |
| Processor | Snapdragon 8 Elite Mobile Platform for Galaxy |
| Storage and memory | 256GB / 512GB storage 12GB memory |
| Cameras | 200MP rear wide camera: f/1.7 12MP rear ultra-wide camera: f/2.2 12MP front camera: f/2.2 |
| Battery and charging | 3,900mAh 25W wired charging Qi2 wireless charging |
| Connectivity | USB-C 3.2 Wi-Fi 7 Bluetooth 5.4 Nano SIM eSIM NFC |
| Network bands | 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G (sub-6) |
| Software | Android 15 One UI 7 |
| Durability | IP68 rating |
| Price (RRP) | $1,849 (256GB) $2,049 (512GB) |
| Warranty | Two years |
| Official website | Samsung Australia |
Design
It’s impossible to miss how different the Galaxy S25 Edge feels compared to its full-sized contemporaries. I use an iPhone 16 Pro Max every day and, as much as I think it’s a great phone, it’s too damn big. Holding the larger iPhone one-handed for extended amounts of time is uncomfortable, and it sits uncomfortably in my jeans pocket.
That’s not a problem with the S25 Edge. 5.8mm of thickness compared to 8.25mm may not look like much on paper until you hold it in your hand. 163 grams versus 227 is also considerably different. With the iPhone 16 Pro Max in my pocket, I noticed it every time I moved my leg. On more than one occasion, I completely forgot the Galaxy S25 Edge was in my pocket – that’s how different it feels.
The thin chassis looks and feels great, but the S25 Edge is still a tall phone. Its gorgeous 6.7-inch AMOLED display is only slightly smaller than the 6.9-inch screen sported by both Samsung and Apple’s flagship phones. While the thinner build makes it slightly easier to use one-handed, it’s still tricky to reach the far corners of the screen.
As a righty with average-sized hands, reaching the top or bottom-left corners with my thumb still proved uncomfortable. I’d love a smaller-sized phone with a similarly lightweight build, but the battery life would likely take a hit (more on that later).
An unexpected drawback of the thinner form factor is that it’s tougher to pick up off a surface when placed face down. With less phone to grip onto, I had a tough time lifting the S25 Edge up without feeling like it’d slip out of my hand. A quick and important disclaimer, however: Samsung didn’t provide a case with my loan unit, which might’ve helped add a bit of grip.
I also don’t recommend placing the phone on its back, at least without a case. The protruding rear cameras cause an odd imbalance, making the phone wobble in place for a few seconds. It’s not as dramatic as Homer Simpson’s body fat analysis test, although it’s similarly amusing (and horrifying) to watch.
Performance
Using the same Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset as the S25 Ultra, the Edge doesn’t lack in performance. It may be slimmer, but it’s no less powerful. Swiping between apps is smooth and responsive, while heavier workloads presented minimal issues.
Based on various benchmarking apps, the S25 Edge is undeniably a powerful phone. It doesn’t outpace the iPhone 16 Pro Max in terms of raw processing power, but it’s still one of the fastest phones tested on GadgetGuy. To be clear, that should be the expectation of a nearly $2,000 handset, but it’s no less pleasing to see the bar cleared.
| Device | Geekbench 6 CPU Single-Core | Geekbench 6 CPU Multi-core | Geekbench 6 GPU |
| iPhone 16 Pro Max | 3,350 | 8,021 | 32,719 |
| Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge | 2,896 | 9,956 | 19,166 |
| Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra | 2,360 | 8,911 | 14,671 |
| Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 | 2,328 | 7,231 | 15,646 |
| Google Pixel 9 Pro XL | 1,961 | 4,736 | N/A |
Similar performance carried over to gaming, as simulated by 3DMark’s benchmarks. The S25 Edge even scored higher than the iPhone 16 Pro Max on the Wild Life Extreme benchmark. However, it’s not a perfect one-to-one comparison because Android devices use the Vulkan API, while iOS runs on Metal. It’s still a great indication of Samsung’s graphical prowess nonetheless.
| Device | Wild Life Extreme benchmark |
| Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge | 5,459 |
| iPhone 16 Pro Max | 4,748 |
| Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra | 4,531 |
| Samsung Galaxy S24 FE | 4,014 |
| Google Pixel 9 Pro XL | 2,572 |
Battery life
Here comes the part where everyone thought the Galaxy S25 Edge would fall over. A 3,900mAh battery capacity is tiny by modern standards – even the Galaxy Z Flip 6 has a bigger battery!
There’s one word that adequately describes the battery life of this slim phone: fine. It’s really not that big of a deal. You won’t see multi-day usage to the extent of a Google Pixel 9 Pro XL or a Motorola Edge 50 Fusion, but I didn’t have much to complain about.
On a full charge, after a day at the footy, taking photos and scrolling social media apps at regular intervals, the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge still had 58% battery life remaining. I’m not someone who smashes through hours of screen time on my phone, but I consider that totally fine for average use.
For some more standardised testing, a 20-minute stress test using 3DMark’s Wild Life Extreme benchmark drained the battery by 16%. That’s a big drop, albeit while simulating high-end mobile gaming, which would quickly drain most phone batteries. As an aside, the Galaxy S25 Edge felt warm after the stress test, but not hot, suggesting that the heat dissipation did a decent job.
Perhaps unsurprisingly considering the thin build, the S25 Edge showed a fair bit of variability throughout the stress test. As time went on, its performance gradually dropped but not alarmingly so; it’d still be able to play most games comfortably.
With a full battery, an hour of YouTube video playback at 50% screen brightness and audio volume saw the S25 Edge drop to 96% of its capacity. That’s a little lower than some phones but still completely acceptable.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge camera
With a 200MP main camera sensor and a 12MP ultra-wide lens, the Galaxy S25 Edge isn’t lacking for photography firepower. Except if you like the flexibility of a telephoto lens, which is a notable omission here.
Your alternatives here are to use the digital zoom function when snapping a photo, or taking advantage of the 200MP sensor and cropping in afterwards. Neither are like-for-like replacements for a dedicated telephoto zoom lens, which is the only real disappointment the S25 Edge’s camera array brings.
Otherwise, it’s a potent photography phone that takes great snaps in a variety of situations. If anything, it skews slightly towards oversaturated colours, which is a common preference among the various Android handsets I’ve tested over the years.
Before I get too stuck in the weeds, here’s your regular reminder that the following photos have been compressed to a lower quality to save space.
Taking the phone to the footy, I snapped a variety of indoor and outdoor shots to see how the Galaxy S25 Edge fared in different conditions. Colours looked bright and vibrant; the strong green hues strikingly contrasted the clear blue sky during the game.
I missed having a telephoto lens able to punch in using optical zoom. Cropping 200MP photos revealed an impressive level of detail in distant objects, like the writing on the Adelaide Oval scoreboard. However, the same level of detail was not present when zooming into people, whose features looked fuzzy and indiscriminate.
There wasn’t much difference in quality between the 200MP and 12MP ultra-wide sensors during the day, which was great. Naturally, the difference in megapixels meant that I couldn’t zoom in much on photos taken using the ultra-wide sensor without getting distortion, but that’s not what it’s built for. It’s called “ultra-wide” for a reason, after all.
Indoors, the Galaxy S25 Edge’s main camera looks great in decent lighting. It shows a good range of lighting without entirely flattening the image. The benefits of the 200MP sensor came up again when finding the price tag of a jumper not visible without zooming in.
Back at home as the daylight faded, getting photos of my cat proved a bit tricky. She’s not the sort to sit still, so some of the pictures came out blurry. When she sat still, however, I took some nice photos using what little natural light was available.
Photos of my Lego flowers also looked lovely; the colours are deep, and there’s a nice shallow depth of field produced when getting close to the subject.
As much as I’d love a telephoto lens, especially for a nearly $2,000 phone, the cameras the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge does have are great.
Who is the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge for?
The Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge is a compelling evolution of the smartphone concept. Its slim form factor is an excellent rebuttal to phones getting too big for pockets, although it’s still too tall to comfortably navigate one-handed.
Samsung made minimal compromises in making the S25 Edge. It’s powerful, speedy, and a treat to look at. I miss having a telephoto lens, and the price is steep, but everything that counts either meets or exceeds expectations.
If there was a similarly thin handset with the height of a base Galaxy S25 or iPhone 16, I’d seriously consider it as my next phone.
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