Galaxy S25 Edge Review: Slim phones aren’t new. We’ve seen them come and go over the years, from Motorola’s to some early Oppo experiments, all chasing thinness as a headline feature, often at the cost of battery life, performance, or durability. So when Samsung announced the Galaxy S25 Edge, a phone just 5.8mm thick, my first thought wasn’t “wow,” but more of a cautious “Okay… what’s the catch this time?”
Before we get to the details, let’s put things into perspective. The Galaxy S25 Edge isn’t trying to be a compact phone, it’s still got a large 6.7-inch screen. What sets it apart is how light and minimal it feels in hand, despite packing what Samsung claims are top-tier internals: a flagship chipset, a 200MP camera, and a titanium frame with Ceramic protection. On paper, it sounds like a contradiction: thin, powerful, and premium, but maybe that’s the whole point. While it’s a bold claim, it’s also a bit of a balancing act. It’s less about mass appeal and more about offering a different kind of flagship. Not one built for gamers or heavy-duty users, but for people who value design, comfort, and the experience of using something that feels different.
Who is this even for?
I asked Samsung about who do they think the S25 Edge is for and while they avoided calling it a “niche” product, their official answer boils down to: “People who want a beautiful phone that still performs like a flagship.”
But is there any real demand for thin phones? There’s very little data for us to conclusively support this and while there may not be huge consumer demand for thin phones, there is curiosity, especially in a market where phones keep getting heavier. Samsung wants to own that slim segment before someone else does it better. It’s a halo product. Something that makes the Galaxy S brand feel more design-forward and boundary-pushing. They essentially told me: We’ve learned how to shrink and strengthen tech from foldable, and now we’re applying that to slab phones.
The S25 Edge is a phone that exists to show what’s possible when you prioritise form and finish over raw power and endurance. Whether that pays off in the long run is another question entirely, and for all intents and purposes, Samsung may just be testing the waters with this design. But the idea, at least, is interesting.
Design & Build: A disappearing act
The first thing you notice about the Galaxy S25 Edge isn’t the camera, the titanium chassis, or even the display. It’s the weight, or rather, the lack of it. At just 163 grams and 5.8mm thick, it feels more like a prop phone than a fully loaded flagship. And that’s not meant as an insult. It’s striking how quickly you get used to the lightness, to the point where I genuinely had moments of panic wondering whether I left the phone behind or if it had just vanished into my pocket.
Daily use is where the design pays off most. It’s incredibly easy to hold for long stretches, whether you’re doom-scrolling, reading, or stuck on back-to-back work calls, this is the kind of phone that doesn’t punish your wrist. And because of how slim and flat everything is, from the back panel to the side frame and even the oval-shaped corners, the phone sits neatly in the hand without slipping or digging into your palm.
The aesthetic itself is minimal and clean. The razor-thin bezels on the front make the display feel immersive without shouting for attention. The back is similarly understated, but there’s one design choice that breaks the calm: the camera bump. Unlike the separate camera rings on the S25 and S25+, the Galaxy S25 Edge has both lenses embedded into a single raised glass module. It looks sharp, sure, but it wobbles like a seesaw when you tap it on a table. For a phone that gets so much else right in terms of tactility, this feels like a conscious oversight.
That said, the materials are top-tier. You’ve got Corning’s Gorilla Glass Ceramic 2 on the front, Gorilla Glass Victus 2 on the back, and a titanium frame holding it all together.
So yes, the S25 Edge is slim. But it’s also deliberate. It’s not chasing thinness for the sake of it, it’s trying to make that thinness feel usable and premium. And for the most part, it succeeds.
Display: No surprises here
There’s not much suspense here since it’s a Samsung display. You already know it’s going to be good. The Galaxy S25 Edge comes with a 6.7-inch QHD+ AMOLED panel, the same size as the S25+, and it looks as crisp, vibrant, and colour-accurate as you’d expect from a brand that’s been leading the screen game for years. What it doesn’t have is the Ultra’s anti-glare magic, but unless you’re outdoors all day, you probably won’t care.
Indoors or under shade, the screen is stunning. Outdoors in harsh sunlight, there’s a bit more glare, but it’s manageable. Samsung claims a peak brightness of 2600 nits, but in my actual usage with auto brightness in bright ambient light, I saw around 2000 nits which is still very bright.
Where the S25 Edge impresses is colour performance. In our lab tests, it delivered a Delta E of 1.5, which basically means colours are very accurate to the human eye. There’s excellent RGB balance across the board and 99% coverage of the colour gamut, which is effectively full coverage for practical use. So, whether you’re watching HDR content, editing photos, or just scrolling through Instagram stories, everything looks clean, natural, and rich without being overdone.
It’s a great display. Not surprising, not revolutionary, but reliably excellent, which is arguably more valuable.
Galaxy S25 Edge Performance: Fast Enough to Keep Up
Let’s get this out of the way, the Galaxy S25 Edge is a fast phone. No matter how slim and minimal it looks, it’s running on the same Snapdragon 8 Elite chip as the rest of the S25 lineup, and in most day-to-day usage, you’d be hard-pressed to tell the difference. It’s running on One UI 7 and is slated to get 7 major OS updates and 7 years of security updates ensuring it stays up to date until 2032.
Benchmarks back that up. It scored just shy of 1.92 million on AnTuTu, and over 9700 in Geekbench’s multi-core test, pretty much on par with the regular S25 and S25+. The CPU performance under load is decent too; the Edge managed to hold 70% of its peak performance in CPU Throttling Test, slightly better than the Plus and Ultra, and noticeably better than the standard S25, which dipped to 62%.
That’s impressive, especially considering how much tighter the thermal space is in this form factor.
In real-world use, the phone holds up well. COD Mobile and BGMI ran consistently at 90fps in my testing, with no noticeable drops even during longer sessions. Genshin Impact ran at a solid 60fps without crashing or overheating, though you can feel the back getting warm after about 20-30 minutes of gameplay. Nothing alarming, just a reminder that thin phones still have thermal limits.
If anything, Samsung’s custom vapour chamber, graphite tape, and thermal interface layers seem to be doing a decent job keeping things from spiralling. But I’ll say this, sustained performance isn’t the S25 Edge’s strongest suit. It’s a flagship for most things, but not the kind of phone I’d reach for during long gaming marathons or intensive creative workloads.
Still, for its target audience, the kind that wants smooth multitasking, quick app launches, and enough graphical muscle for casual to moderate gaming, the S25 Edge delivers. Just don’t expect it to stay cool while flexing hard.
Galaxy S25 Edge Battery Life: Surprisingly decent
Here’s where the thinness starts to show its cost. The Galaxy S25 Edge comes with a 3,900mAh battery and sure, it’s only 100mAh less than the regular S25, but in a device this slim, every milliamp hour counts, especially since it’s pushing a QHD+ panel and flagship-level internals.
Samsung claims you’ll get “a full day” of use, and… that’s mostly true if your day doesn’t involve too much gaming or constant camera use. In casual day-to-day use (social media, YouTube, checking emails, and lots of WhatsApp texting), I was hitting around 10-11 hours of screen-on time, which is actually better than I expected. To stress test it further, I ran an uninterrupted YouTube video loop from 100% battery, and the phone lasted 8 hours and 55 minutes before shutting down.
In the PCMark Battery Life test, the S25 Edge clocked in at 12 hours and 35 minutes, which puts it just behind the S25 (12 hours and 48 minutes) and S25+ (12 hours and 51 minutes), and not that far off from the bulkier S25 Ultra, which hit 11 hours and 50 minutes. So for a phone this slim, that’s a solid result, though I’d still call it a phone you’ll likely top up in the evening, just to be safe.
Charging isn’t blazing fast either. Samsung’s 25W wired charging claims 55% in 30 minutes, and in my own test, it took 1 hour and 19 minutes to go from 0 to 100% using a compatible charger. You also get 15W wireless charging, which is just fine. Not impressive, but not a dealbreaker either.
Look, the battery’s okay. Not great. Not awful. Just… okay. And when you’re this thin, “okay” is kind of a win. For light to moderate users, it’ll hold up surprisingly well. But if you’re pushing it hard or constantly on mobile data, you’ll start to feel the ceiling. I would call these results preliminary, as the rate of battery degradation over time is something we will only get to know 5-6 months down the line.
Galaxy S25 Edge Camera: No tricks, just classics
The Galaxy S25 Edge doesn’t reinvent the wheel with its camera setup, and that’s probably for the best. It borrows tried-and-tested hardware from across the S25 lineup: a 200MP ISOCELL HP2 main sensor from the Ultra, a 12MP ultrawide with autofocus from the S25/S25+, and a familiar 12MP selfie camera used across the board. What’s new is how Samsung’s managed to shrink the internal camera components by up to 13%, helping the Edge stay this thin without ditching flagship optics.
In daylight, the main camera delivers consistently good results with sharp detail, natural colours, and excellent dynamic range. You’ll find that the image quality is nearly identical to the S25 Ultra, which makes sense given the shared sensor and image processing pipeline.
There’s no dedicated zoom lens, but the 2x crop zoom is surprisingly decent, especially in well-lit scenes.
The portrait mode works as expected and lends a natural-looking bokeh to images with great subject segmentation across different scenarios.
The ultrawide camera is solid, and autofocus is a nice touch, especially for landscape shots.
Night mode helps the main camera, but ultrawide night shots remain a weak spot, whether night mode is enabled or not.
The 12MP selfie camera sensor continues to do well with accurate skin tones and a wide dynamic range.
In short, the camera system on the Galaxy S25 Edge isn’t here to impress with new tricks, it just plays the hits. And for most people, that’s enough.
Verdict
The Galaxy S25 Edge isn’t Samsung’s answer to what everyone wants, it’s their answer to what some users might not even realise they want. A phone that’s not just another spec war participant, but one that shows off what happens when design takes centre stage… even if it means making a few bold trade-offs.
In a world where phones are getting heavier, bulkier, and increasingly spec-driven, Samsung has taken a step sideways. They’ve built a flagship that prioritises design, comfort, and portability, and they’ve done it without stripping away the essentials.
But being different also means accepting compromises. The battery is fine, not great, and thermals could become an issue for sustained heavy use. The camera is dependable but doesn’t push the envelope. It’s not a phone for everyone, and it’s definitely not meant to be.
We also live in an era where battery innovation is finally starting to accelerate. With silicon carbon tech gaining traction, there’s an opportunity here for Samsung to push the Edge lineup further, to take this ultra-slim form factor and pair it with more advanced battery solutions. If the S25 Edge is the first step, I’d love to see what a second or third-gen version could look like with a bigger battery and even fewer trade-offs.
Until then, this is a phone that’ll speak to a certain kind of user, someone who values a lightweight, premium design, is okay with charging more often, and wants something that doesn’t feel like every other brick in the market. If that sounds like you, the S25 Edge makes a strong case. If not, the regular S25 or S25 Ultra are probably safer bets.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge Key Specs, Price and Launch Date
| Release Date: | 13 May, 2025 |
| Market Status: | Launched |
Key Specifications
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Siddharth Chauhan
Siddharth reports on gadgets, technology and you will occasionally find him testing the latest smartphones at Digit. However, his love affair with tech and futurism extends way beyond, at the intersection of technology and culture. View Full Profile
