- Striking design, super light
- Excellent performance
- Great primary camera
- Inconsistent battery
- No dedicated zoom lens
- Expensive
Samsung's Galaxy S25 Edge is one of those devices you need to experience in person to truly get. In photos—even in comparison shots—it doesn't look that thin. It doesn't have the same wow-factor as a foldable. It looks like any other phone.
That changes when you get your hands on it. It becomes so much more apparent just how thin it is. But more importantly, how light it is, especially for its size.
After using the Galaxy S25 Edge for a week, other phones feel noticeably heavier. Clunkier. It's a testament to Samsung's striking industrial design.
Unsurprisingly, trade-offs had to be made to make a phone as thin and light as the Galaxy S25 Edge. The two big ones are a smaller battery and fewer rear-facing cameras. Some of the compromises are very much a case of form over function.
At the same time, the Galaxy S25 Edge is Samsung's second most expensive non-foldable device, priced between the Galaxy S25 Plus and Galaxy S25 Ultra. You can buy a more capable phone for the money, but it won't be as impressive.
While the Galaxy S25 Edge's sheer cool factor may be enough to sway some, it's important to understand what you're getting yourself into.
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A light delight
The 5.8mm thin design might seem like the most impressive design spec on the Galaxy S25 Edge, but it's the weight that makes the practical difference. At 163 grams, it's 55 grams lighter than the Galaxy S25 Ultra, and 64 grams lighter than the iPhone 16 Pro Max.
As someone who likes using phones with a large display, the difference is impossible to miss. Whenever I picked up the iPhone 16 Pro Max I use as my daily driver, I was struck by its weight.
Weight isn't typically an important factor when deciding what phone to buy, but it's been really nice testing the Galaxy S25 Edge. It's easier on your hands and less noticeable in your pocket.
It's worth noting that the standard Galaxy S25 is slightly lighter at 160 grams, but that does have a much smaller screen. The Galaxy S25 Edge is more of a Goldilocks solution: lightweight but with a big screen.
Better than expected battery
As aforementioned, the Galaxy S25 Edge's design choices required compromises. The one with the most potential to cause problems is battery life. The Galaxy S25 Edge only has a 3,900mAh battery. That's 100mAh smaller than the standard Galaxy S25, and 1,000mAh smaller than the Galaxy S25 Plus.
While 3,900mAh is a very small battery for an Android phone in 2025, the Galaxy S25 Edge lasted longer than I expected. I think moderate users should comfortably get a full day per charge, but it may not be the best pick for those hammering their phone all day.
What makes judging this a bit tricky is how inconsistent my testing results have been. There have been days when I'd taken the Galaxy S25 Edge down to 20% at around 10pm with four or so hours of screen time, but then I've also had days where between six and eight hours would have been possible.
Last Sunday, I racked up around four hours of screen time on the Galaxy S25 Edge, but only drained it down to 50%. This time was mostly spent reading articles and playing Marvel Snap, I didn’t listen to music, didn't get too many notifications, and was at home all day.
Contrast this to the day after, where I spent two hours listening to music while exercising, had notifications firing all day, but had drained the phone to 20% with a similar amount of screen time.
At the worst, I'd say you can expect around 4.5 hours of screen time from the Galaxy S25 Edge. That's not bad. It's certainly not as short as earlier iterations of the Galaxy Z Flip, for example, and on par with a device like 2023's iPhone 15 Pro. You'll get through the day, but you might not have much of a buffer. In some cases, you may need a top-up. For most, this will still be workable.
And hey, in some cases, like if you're just scrolling through the internet, the battery might last even longer. The Galaxy S25 Edge isn't a phone you buy for its battery like the iPhone 16 Pro Max, but it isn't as much of a trade-off as I expected.
Camera confusion
The Galaxy S25 Edge's camera situation is where things get a little tricky. While it only has two lenses on the back, one of them is the same kind of 200MP lens you'll find on the Galaxy S25 Ultra. This is the first time Samsung has put a 200MP lens on a device other than its "Ultra" flagships.
As such, the main camera is a step up from the Galaxy S25 and Galaxy S25 Plus. While it's not best-in-class, it takes great photos in most situations. The latest Apple and Google devices tend to be a little more reliable when it comes to taking consistently sharp photos of moving subjects, for example, but Galaxy S25 Edge doesn't do a bad job by any measure. My main issue is that night mode photos can end up with weird artificating in the sky, and colours can sometimes end up looking oversaturated.
The real consideration with the Galaxy S25 Edge camera is versatility. While you get a solid 12MP ultra-wide lens (the same as on the Galaxy S25 and Galaxy S25 Plus, rather than the new 50MP ultra-wide from the Galaxy S25 Ultra), those are your only two lenses. Most phones in this price bracket have three.
You can get decent results from 2x and 4x digital zoom on the primary lens (at least in good lighting), but you're not going to get the same kind of images that you can from the 5x optical zoom lenses that have become common on other flagship phones.
Galaxy S25 Edge camera samples
Check out these camera samples taken on the Galaxy S25 Edge. Click or tap on any photo to see a larger version.
Little niggles
There are a few other smaller compromises to consider. While the display is lovely, it is quite as nice as what you'd get on the Galaxy S25 Ultra. It doesn't have the same anti-reflective tech, and it also isn't as durable.
The Galaxy S25 Edge's front display is protected by the Gorilla Glass Ceramic 2, which is rated for drops of up to 1m. The Gorilla Glass Armor 2 found on the Galaxy S25 Ultra is rated for 2.2m, for comparison.
Even if you're careful with your phone, the Galaxy S25 Edge seems to be a little less scratch-resistant than other devices. My review unit has picked up a few tiny micro-abrasions on the display from a week of day-to-day use. While these are all but invisible unless you're shining a bright light directly on the screen, my iPhone 16 Pro Max is still mostly pristine eight months on, as is my Galaxy S24 Ultra from last year.
And lastly, the speaker isn't very good. It's not awful, but it is tinnier than you'd expect from a premium device, and lacks depth. This is easily the smallest red flag here, but it's worth considering if you're someone who watches videos on your phone without using headphones.
The other good stuff
Of course, it's also worth calling out the specs Samsung hasn't compromised on with the Galaxy S25 Edge. It still has 120Hz refresh rate and Quad HD+ resolution on the display. It has a titanium frame, like the Galaxy S25 Ultra, which should be more durable than the aluminium found on the Galaxy S25 and Galaxy S25 Plus. It's powered by a top-end Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset paired with 12GB of RAM.
The usual premium fixings like wireless charging, eSIM, and IP68 water resistance. Samsung is also promising seven years of operating system and security updates, which is best in class (along with the Pixel 9 family) for software support.
And since it's 2025, Galaxy AI naturally makes an appearance on the Galaxy S25 Edge. You get every feature found on the other Galaxy S25 phones, and nothing much has changed. Now Brief is still kinda useless, while live translation in phone calls continues to be the most interesting feature.
If Galaxy AI features are something that appeals to you, it's worth noting there's still a big question around pricing. Every mention of Galaxy AI comes with fine print that states the feature will be free until the end of the year, but Samsung has yet to provide any guidance around what happens next.
When Galaxy AI features need more computational power than the phone can provide, the processing is offloaded to a cloud server. Every time you use that kind of feature, you cost Samsung money. Some Galaxy AI features run directly on device, but it would make sense that Samsung would stop subsidising the ones that don't eventually.
The frustrating thing is Samsung's lack of clarity. Galaxy AI has been a big marketing bullet point for Samsung's phones over the last 18 months. We're almost halfway through 2025, but we still don't know what will happen with Galaxy AI at the end of the year. Customers paying the high price for this phone deserve better, especially if they're buying the device for a feature that might soon become blocked by a paywall.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge—Final thoughts
The Galaxy S25 Edge is Samsung's most interesting phone in a while, and my personal favorite.
Thinner and lighter might not seem like groundbreaking changes, but it's nice when the tech you use gets out of your way. Sometimes that's as simple as a phone being less noticeable in your pocket and gentler in the hand.
While the Galaxy S25 Edge's design has required compromises, Samsung has deftly negotiated them. You might only get two cameras, but the primary lens is great. The battery life is far from the best around, but not short enough to be a deal breaker for everyone. (I'm sure there are many who just want the best battery possible, and the Galaxy S25 Edge is not for them.)
The Galaxy S25 Edge reminds me of the iPhone mini in a way, and in a way, realises the same vision differently. Instead of making a smaller flagship phone, Samsung has madea thinner one. You get a large screen, but in a form factor that feels more compact. For me, it's easy to see the appeal.
Like the iPhone mini, I don't think the Galaxy S25 Edge is for everyone, but I think there's a market that will absolutely adore it.
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Alex Choros
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