Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge review

People have been shouting at the top of their lungs asking manufacturers to make thin smartphones for many years. Actually, scratch that. While there's a big enough audience for those who want a compact phone, there's not nearly the same demand for smartphones so thin that they make you wonder how their maker was able to cram so much into them.

But Samsung is confident that there exists an audience that's looking for smartphones that are super thin. And the Galaxy S25 Edge is its first offering to that audience. And, on paper, the company has come out swinging. The S25 Edge packs impressive hardware inside the thin 5.8mm chassis.

The two noteworthy compromises are the camera setup and battery capacity. It's the first non-folding flagship smartphone from Samsung since 2019 that has only two cameras at the back, and it is powered by a battery that's slightly smaller (3,900 mAh) than that of even the base Galaxy S25 (4,000 mAh).

The rest of the Galaxy S25 Edge's specs, however, are on an equal footing with the Galaxy S25 and S25+. Highlights include a large 6.7-inch 120Hz AMOLED display, stereo speakers, Qualcomm's most powerful Snapdragon chip, wireless charging, and even support for Samsung DeX. It also shares some components with the Galaxy S25 Ultra, such as a 200MP primary camera and a titanium frame.

But how is the real world experience on this phone? Does it justify its high price tag (which sits between the S25+ and S25 Ultra)? If you're looking for answers to those questions, you've come to the right place.

Samsung's flagship smartphones have been an industry benchmark in build quality and durability for some time now. With the S25 Edge, the company has used every ounce of its expertise in making smartphones. There's no two ways about it: this design is a marvel and a stunning achievement.

The Edge is just 5.8mm thick, which is impressive whether you care about thin smartphones or not. It's also quite light for a phone with a 6.7-inch display. At 163g, it's lighter than even the smallest Galaxy S25. For many, this will be the more attractive thing about the phone instead of its slim body.

While the Edge is thin and lightweight, its build quality is as solid as any other flagship Samsung phone. Not once did it cross my mind that this thing could bend or that it was in any way lesser in terms of durability. Samsung has also used Corning's new ceramic glass to protect the display.

Gorilla Glass Ceramic 2 has crystals embedded within the glass matrix to improve durability and crack deflection. Naturally, this is something that will show its mettle only if you drop the phone. It's not something we were willing to do, but you should be able to find plenty of drop tests on YouTube to see if the ceramic glass is any good.

At the back of the phone, the Galaxy S25 Edge features Gorilla Glass Victus 2 like the other S25 models. However, it has a camera island instead of separate camera rings, which looks great. It has a titanium frame like the S25 Ultra that's part of the reason why its weight is so low. It also features an IP68 rating for water and dust protection.

Of course, no matter how well built a smartphone is, all that glass should ideally be protected by a case. There's another reason to use a case for the Edge: the heat it generates. This phone perpetually remains slightly warm to the touch, even if you're just browsing through your Instagram feed. Even a little bit of heavy use can send the temperature soaring, which can get uncomfortable.

It's not that the phone isn't cooled well. It has a vapor chamber cooling system with a surprisingly large surface area that keeps the Snapdragon 8 Elite at pretty much the same temperatures as the other S25 models. But since the phone is so thin, overall heat dissipation still suffers. If that bothers you, a case is the only solution.

There's nothing different about the Galaxy S25 Edge display compared to the Galaxy S25+. It's a 6.7-inch Super AMOLED panel with a 120Hz refresh rate, Super HDR support, and 2,600 nits of brightness. It's a fantastic display that's suitable for every content and use case.

The display is surrounded by the same tiny bezels as the rest of the lineup. Only the display protection is different, as mentioned earlier. However, I wish Samsung had employed the Galaxy S25 Ultra's Gorilla Armor glass here.

Gorilla Glass Ceramic 2 lacks the anti-reflective coating found on Gorilla Armor. Under a bright sun or around bright indoor lights, that makes a notable difference. Like the S25 and S25+, the S25 Edge's display remains perfectly readable, but Gorilla Armor would justify the Edge's asking price a bit more.

When it comes to audio quality, the S25 Edge’s slim design negates the improvements seen on the Galaxy S25 lineup’s stereo speakers. Bass is noticeably weaker, the sound feels flatter, and volume is slightly lower compared to the S25 Ultra. Overall quality is still good. But this is one area where the S25 Edge falls behind its siblings that hasn't received enough attention.

The Galaxy S25 Edge's camera setup is an odd one. It gets the 200MP main camera from the S25 Ultra, the 12MP ultrawide camera from the S25 and S25+ but with autofocus support, and the same 12MP selfie camera as all three of them. It's also similar to 2019's Galaxy S10e, in that it lacks a zoom camera at the back. Between then and now, Samsung has always managed to fit three rear cameras on every Galaxy S flagship.

Let's just address the lack of a zoom camera at the outset: it's less of a problem than you might think. At up to 10x zoom, the Galaxy S25 Edge fares well against the S25 and S25+, which feature a telephoto lens rated for 3x optical zoom. That's thanks to strong digital zoom from the 200MP main camera.

Quality is comparable between the three devices, and while the Edge can't zoom past 10x, the S25 and S25+ offer rather poor quality at 10x+ zoom levels. See for yourself in this comparison between the Edge and the Galaxy S25's picture quality at 1x, 2x, 3x, 4x, and 10x magnification.

For regular photos, the 200MP camera performs just as well here as it does on the Galaxy S25 Ultra. Photos have excellent detail and high dynamic range in the daytime. Color reproduction is mostly true to life. Shutter lag is lower than any flagship phone Samsung has launched before the Galaxy S25 series, though there's still room for improvement.

Here are some photos shot with the main camera, including two scenes that were captured at 1x, 2x, 4x, and 10x zoom:

And here are some portrait shots:

The 200MP camera also takes fantastic portrait shots. However, like the Galaxy S25 Ultra, the Galaxy S25 Edge's low-light picture quality leaves a lot to be desired when compared to what some of the Chinese competition is offering. The focus is more on noise control, which comes at the expense of fine detail.

The ultrawide camera is good when capturing photos outdoors during the day. Thanks to autofocus, it can also be used for macro photography. When you get close to a subject when using the main camera, the camera automatically switches to the ultrawide camera, though you can turn this off if you would rather just manually switch to the ultrawide camera for macro shots.

Here are a couple of ultrawide pictures next to the same shot captured with the main camera, along with a couple of macro photos:

Selfies are a little soft in all lighting conditions, and some noise is easy to spot in indoor environments. It's pretty decent overall, but I would really like to see Samsung bringing a big upgrade to the front camera with the next Galaxy S flagship.

Video recording on the main camera is great, with high detail and dynamic range. The same goes for the ultrawide camera, though detail is naturally a little less and low-light results can range from average to abysmal.

Like the original trio, the S25 Edge records 10-bit HDR videos by default. It also supports recording in the log format, and unlike the other models, it supports this on both the front and rear cameras (though One UI 8 will fix this disparity).

The Galaxy S25, S25+, and S25 Ultra were the smoothest and fastest flagship Galaxy phones at launch, and we can now add the Edge to the list. Stutter and lag is not a thing on this phone as you navigate through the user interface, open and close apps, switch between apps, and just about anything you do.

Even gaming performance is great, but if you play graphically demanding titles like Call of Duty, this may not be the phone for you. Let's just say that Samsung's decision to use the exact same chip as the other models might have been a poor one.

The Snapdragon 8 Elite can throttle quickly even on the other S25 models after sustained heavy use, but that's not the concern here. The concern is how hot the phone gets. As I said earlier, the phone remains warm almost all the time even when doing things like scrolling through Instagram. Heavy use makes it worse.

After a point, it just becomes too uncomfortable to hold unless you are using a case. Even worse is the hit on battery life. The Galaxy S25 Edge struggles to last through the day even with light to moderate use, and tasks like gaming or extended video recording cause the battery to drain rapidly. More on that in the battery section below.

It's impressive that the Galaxy S25 Edge offers performance on par with the other S25s despite the thin frame. Most users will have no complaints, but it's simply not the right choice for anyone who tends to put their phone through the wringer on a regular basis.

The Galaxy S25 Edge doesn't bring any new software tricks compared to the rest of the lineup. You get One UI 7 with its smooth animations and the entire Galaxy AI suite, including features like Now Brief and Audio Eraser, out of the box. Google Gemini comes preloaded as well.

Samsung has also included features like DeX, something the Galaxy Z Flip lineup doesn't support despite having a thin form factor like the Edge and similarly powerful Snapdragon chips. The Edge is also eligible for seven years of Android, One UI, and security updates.

If you need more details on the software experience, be sure to check out the software section of our Galaxy S25 Ultra review and watch the video below.

Battery life is the worst thing about the Galaxy S25 Edge. It's not good even when you take the smaller battery capacity into account. According to temperature monitoring apps, the battery on the Edge runs around 3-5C hotter than the S25, S25+, and S25 Ultra even when idle, and this seems to affect battery life.

In the first few days, battery life was unbelievably poor. Samsung claims the phone can go all day, but even with light use, it was dying out in around 17-18 hours, and with just 2-3 hours of screen on time on average.

After a week or so, I did see idle drain go down. But that only improved how long the phone's battery lasted overall. The screen on times continue to suffer. The highest screen on time I recorded was 4 hours 41 minutes, but generally, 3-4 hours is the average.

It's not just gaming that can reduce the phone's endurance. Even 10-20 minutes of camera use can prove too much. Battery life is fine if you stay at home all the time. But if you're not going to carry it around in your pocket, do you really need a phone this thin and light?

The Galaxy S25 Edge supports charging speeds up to 25W, taking nearly 80 minutes for a full charge. However, you can reach around 50% in 30 minutes and nearly 90% within an hour. It also supports 15W wireless charging, as well as MagSafe-certified chargers when used with a compatible case. The phone can also wirelessly charge other devices.

The Galaxy S25 Edge, for the most part, offers the same amazing experience that you get on the Galaxy S25 and S25+. It also matches the Galaxy S25 Ultra when it comes to the quality of the primary rear camera. And it does all this while fitting everything inside a premium and sublime 5.8mm body that's also lighter than other flagship devices of its size.

But there's little here that sets it apart from the rest of the S25 lineup. The only compelling reason to buy it is if an ultra-thin design is your top priority and you're okay with average battery life that demands copious amounts of charging with anything beyond light use.