Overview

• The Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge achieves an ultra-thin design by dramatically reducing key features such as battery life and camera functionality.
• Manufacturers have long regarded thin as a sign of innovation, although many users place more emphasis on better batteries and cameras.
• Trends for ultra-thin phones, such as the S25 Edge and iPhone 17 Air, will be the inevitable future standards even if you don't think you need it.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge has been released. It's thin, expensive, and the response online is far from positive. But if you think it's a gimmick that no one wants, I don't think so. Thin mobile phones have become the norm.

S25 Edge has more compromises than advantages

It can be said that the release of the Galaxy S25 Edge has caused some level of suspicion. It is undoubtedly an impressive design that slimmes the entire phone to just 5.8mm (as long as you ignore the considerable camera bump) and makes it much lighter than other phones with screens of the same size.

However, to achieve this, Samsung has to make a lot of compromises—much more than you would normally expect to see on a device that is over $1,000.

The main compromise is the battery. Samsung chose not to adopt new silicon-carbon batteries, which allow for higher capacity in smaller sizes. We've seen these batteries on phones like the OnePlus 13, and they're totally worthy of their name. Samsung insists on using the old lithium-ion battery, and the result is a 3900mAh capacity that makes it the smallest in the entire S25 series. It will also have the worst battery life in the entire range.

Another compromise is the camera. The S25 Edge is the only phone in the S25 series that doesn't have a zoom lens. Instead, it relies on cropping images from the main camera to produce a kind of digital zoom. Pixel phones do the same, and while the results are completely available, they are not comparable to dedicated hardware.

The main camera sensor is 200MP, the same as the S25 Ultra. But it's not the same sensor; it's smaller, so image quality is unlikely to reach the same level.

There are several other places that need to cut costs. The CPU has seven cores instead of eight, and the charging speed is limited to 25W instead of 45W.

The S25 Edge is a flagship phone, but its main selling point is not the specifications, but the design. But if you want this thinness to be just an unnecessary gimmick, then you'd better get used to it.

##### Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge

Samsung's latest flagship phones provide the company's cutting-edge technology with a slim profile. If you pre-order the Galaxy S25 Edge directly from Samsung, you'll get a $50 credit line and a free upgrade to the 512GB version.

Buying thin for $1,100 on Samsung is the future trend

Smartphone manufacturers have always used thinness as a sign of progress and demonstrated it by insisting that it is what consumers really want.

Back in 2012, Wired reported on the criticism of HTC for having small batteries on its phones and how the company explained its research that users wanted thin phones instead of long battery life.

This sounded unreasonable at the time, but it still remains the case now. While there are undoubtedly many people who prioritize the stylish design of their phones, average users seem to want longer battery life, followed by better cameras. Anecdotally speaking, I even think more people care about thick borders than the thickness of the phone itself.

But there is no turning back. With the release of the Galaxy S25 Edge and the iPhone 17 Air expected to be released later in 2025, thin will become the new standard. Apple is expected to abandon its "Plus" iPhone to make room for thin versions of the phone, and Samsung is rumored to do the same with the S26.

Then other manufacturers will follow up. It will take some time to penetrate every series and brand, and it is not clear how thin a small screen phone can be. But in an era where the lack of innovation leads to boring, homogeneous devices, thinness is a very obvious way to show how a company’s phone can become better.

They will be expensive for a while and will have compromises in functionality. But whether we want them or not, I don't think they will go away.

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It's time to show your favorites.

Before the S25 Edge went public, there were a lot of questions to answer. How strong is it? Is battery life as poor as many people expect? Will putting it in the protective case negate the full significance of the phone's existence?

Regardless of the outcome, the fact is that the entire industry has been moving in this direction for many years. Phone manufacturers cut about half a millimeter per generation, or sometimes just add curved edges to their devices to make them feel thinner in their hands. Edge and the upcoming Air are the next phase of the process. Like it or not, they are the future.

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