Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge Review: It’s thin, and that’s what’s important

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In the 2000s, a common joke about smartphones was that they kept getting smaller and smaller. In the following decade, the trend was to make everything grow bigger until you basically have a small tablet in your pocket.

The Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge is new and old again, and it’s a new phone with the whole selling point that it’s smaller than the brothers. What we have here is basically the same as Samsung Galaxy S25 The series was launched in February, but it was thinner. I hope there is more interesting things to say, but in fact, nothing.

Still, that doesn’t mean the Galaxy S25 Edge is a bad device. Indeed, its shape is once in your hands the range, and the specifications offered are very reasonable for a $1,100 call. You’ll get a high-end chipset and a big (but flawed) price, but not without compromises, especially battery life.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge: Price and Specifications

As far as prices go, the Galaxy S25 Edge starts at the premium end of Samsung’s flagship store, slightly below the Galaxy S25 Ultra’s $1,299.99 price. That is to say, the specifications are quite consistent with pricetag:

I should note that upgrading the price to 512GB will cost up to $1,219.99 (although gift card transactions on Amazon help) and put it there with the Galaxy S25 Ultra. However, this is the only configuration option you get.

Like I said, these are good prices. You get a large, high-resolution display, as well as the chipset used in Samsung’s most expensive phones, along with a considerable amount of RAM. The 1TB storage option is probably good, although this will make the price even more expensive, so I can see why Samsung doesn’t have it.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge: Design

Seriously, this is very small.
Image source: Joe Maldonado/Mashable

The physical form factor is a lot (or maybe even just) at the edge of the Galaxy S25. Its thickness is only 5.8 mm, which is a considerable reduction from the 7.2 mm thickness found in the S25. As someone who uses iPhone 16 (7.8mm thick) every day, the difference is Very Shown.

In short, it feels great. Its 163G weighs essentially the same as the base S25, but is distributed on a higher and wider device, so it feels very light given its surface area. My only worry is absolutely Feel Like it can capture half at any time, despite new ones Corning Gorilla Glass Ceramics 2 The materials used in the construction may be just a matter of perception, not reality. Of course, I didn’t try to break it because it’s a very expensive device and Samsung is not happy with me.

The only real grip I have with the design is that there is still a pretty big camera bump on the upper left corner of the back of the phone, designed to accommodate its two rear lenses. I’m not an engineer, so there may not be a better design method, but it’s a bit disappointing for a slim phone not to sit on my desk flatter than I did.

Oh, the color options are a bit annoying, too. You will only get silver, black and what is called “titanium ice blue”. We are loyal fans Pink smartphone Here, it will be a great opportunity for Samsung.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge: Display

The monitor is good except for one thing…
Image source: Joe Maldonado/Mashable

I have some confusing experience with the Galaxy S25’s monitor, which is the quality of the numbers. It’s a big 6.7-inch panel with buttery good 120Hz refresh rate and super crisp 3120×1440 resolution, so what might be wrong with it?

Well, its peak brightness of 2600 columns doesn’t necessarily do the job in bright sunlight. When I wander around Brooklyn, I often have a hard time seeing what’s on display, even on Max Brightness. There is some trouble under the cloud cover, and it will get worse once the sun is completely extinguished.

It’s not unavailable anyway, but directly compared to my iPhone 16 (its peak brightness of 2,000 nits should Inferior), it is significantly dim in the sun. I don’t know why this is, but that’s my experience with the Galaxy S25 Edge display. Be warned.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge: Performance

When it comes to performance, the good news is that the S25 Edge is more or less the same as the Galaxy S25 family in this regard. This makes sense, because all four phones have the same Snapdragon 8 Elite for the Galaxy chip in it. In this case, hardware parity results in performance parity.

The app loads quickly and everything runs smoothly, and although I’ve never used the box, I’ve never noticed that the phone gets hot while doing too much. If you care about benchmark statistics, the S25 Edge vs. the S25 Ultra (the final phone in the S25 series) is very favorable. The phone scored 10,049 in Geekbench 6, while the S25 Edge scored 10,014.

In other words, your performance is compared to a truly high-end flagship store on a very thin and lightweight phone. That’s very neat.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge: Battery Life

Image source: Alex Perry/Mashable

Aside from the relatively dim display, I noticed another big compromise on the Galaxy S25 Edge comes in the form of battery life. Sure, this is less surprising and easier to forgive. The battery takes up space, the whole purpose of this phone is that it does not take up space.

Nevertheless, using our standard battery test method, HD video was played on the display at 50% brightness until death, the Galaxy S25 Edge was able to last 21,036 minutes. It’s not tragic anyway, but it’s worth considering the recent release Google Pixel 9athe price of $500 can be done in the same way for a full 24 hours.

You can still use it all day on the S25 Edge, but the fact that it’s worse than at least one of the most recent budget phones isn’t good.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge: Camera

The Galaxy S25 Edge’s rear camera array is located between the basic experience and the flagship experience. Like the base S25, you only get a wide ultra-wide lens, and the S25 Ultra doesn’t have any telephoto options. However, it does match the S25 Ultra in one way: the main wide shot is the 200MP shooter. The disappointing side is that the ultra-wide lens is only 12MP, while the lens on the Ultra is 50MP.

Still, in addition to the megapixel figure, the phone also took beautiful photos. Even without a telephoto lens, up to 10x zoom will produce very clear images.

No zoom.
Image source: Alex Perry/Mashable

10x zoom.
Image source: Alex Perry/Mashable

The lenses with regular and ultra-wide lenses also look vivid and beautiful.

Brooklyn has been so good lately.
Image source: Alex Perry/Mashable

The best city in the world.
Image source: Alex Perry/Mashable

There is even a dedicated macro focus mode now, which allows you to place your camera Real Close tiny objects and capture them in detail. It works very intuitively and can be activated by yourself once you bring the camera close enough to what you are shooting. I dug it.

The macro focus is great.
Image source: Alex Perry/Mashable

Finally, night photography is still good here. While sometimes the end product looks a bit like studio lighting, it makes it clearer to make dark photos look, which is really great. This is a little unnatural, but it is also a problem with many other phones.

left:
No night mode.
Image source: Alex Perry/Mashable

Correct:
Night mode.
Image source: Alex Perry/Mashable

Is the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge worth it?

With the advantages, what the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge can do exactly: deliver a flagship-like experience for less than the most expensive, in a more attractive form. And, if you want an ultra-thin flagship galaxy smartphone, that’s it.

If you are very concerned about the thin and light phone, the physical design at the edge of the S25 is indeed a selling point. I personally haven’t found my regular iPhone 16 to be too bulky, but I can’t lie: using it after using the S25 Edge will make it feel.

Thanks to the high-end chipset, you can also compare to Samsung’s best phones. Battery life is definitely something you have to compromise on, and in my experience it’s not great to display in bright sunlight, but this is a reliable phone in almost otherwise.