Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge LIVE: All the big Unpacked news as it's announced

Snapdragon 8 Elite unleashed

We’ve had the usual Snapdragon-or-Exynos debate that seems to accompany ever Samsung phone release, as people speculate whether the phone maker will turn to Qualcomm’s silicon or use its own system-on-chip to power its new device. In the case of the Galaxy S25 Edge, Samsung has apparently decided to go with the Snapdragon 8 Elite from Qualcomm, according to leaked specs.

On the one hand that makes sense. That chipset features in the rest of the Galaxy S25 lineup, and it delivers both strong performance and excellent power management features. Then again, given how thin the Galaxy S25 Edge is supposed to be, there was some speculation as to whether Samsung might go with a less powerful chipset to avoid overheating issues.

Based on leaked benchmarks apparently posted by a pre-release Galaxy S25 Edge, you needn’t worry that Samsung is dialing things back. The phone in question posted numbers comparable to a Galaxy S25 Ultra on the Geekbench test that measures CPU performance. And based on our own testing, the Ultra is one of top-performing phones you can buy.

Camera specs

There’s no secret about the camera setup for the Galaxy S25 Edge. A glance at the prototypes that Samsung has put on display shows only two rear camera lenses, which is a departure from the rest of the Galaxy S25 lineup. Those phones offer a triple camera array.

The likely absentee is the telephoto lens, and the reason probably comes down to space. A zoom lens takes up a lot of room, and that’s something the slender Galaxy S25 Edge design doesn’t have a lot to spare.

Samsung is making up for the lack of a dedicated telephoto camera with a high-resolution main shooter. Specifically, the phone maker has already confirmed that the main lens on the Edge will use a 200MP sensor, matching the Galaxy S25 Ultra’s main camera. We’d imagine that you’ll be able to approximate an optical zoom by cropping in on photos shot at full resolution with that main camera.

As for the other rear camera lens, it’s likely an ultrawide camera. And based on some leaked marketing materials, we’d guess that it’s a 12MP sensor, and not the 50MP shooter that the S25 Ultra uses for its ultrawide camera.

Pre-order deals

The moment the Galaxy S25 Edge gets announced, you can expect to hear about pre-order offers, not just from Samsung but wireless carriers as well. But you don’t have to wait until then to lock in a lower price on Samsung’s next phone.

You can register to pre-order the Galaxy S25 Edge at Samsung. Do so before the Virtual Unpacked event, and you’ll get a $50 credit that you can apply to anything announced at the show. There’s no obligation to follow through on that pre-order, either.

Save $50 on the Galaxy S25 Edge @ Samsung
If you sign up to register interest in the Galaxy S25 Edge before the launch (8pm Eastern, 5PM Pacific, 1am UK), Samsung will give you $50 off. The site doesn't mention the S25 Edge by name, but all signs point to this being what gets announced later today.

View Deal

Galaxy S25 Edge price rumors

Anytime a new phone launches, we’re interested to hear how much it’s going to cost. That’s especially true of a device like the Galaxy S25 Edge, since we don’t have any previous releases to guide our expectations.

Rumors about the S25 Edge’s price have been all over the map. At various points, the phone has been touted as either a stand-in for Samsung’s FE model, which typically costs less than the regular Galaxy S phones, or a premium device that would rival the Galaxy S25 Ultra in price.

The truth may lie somewhere in the middle, at least if the latest price rumors are anything to go by. Leaked pricing out of Korea put the Galaxy S25 Edge’s price at around $1,045 if you do a straight currency conversion. That’s led many people to assume that the Edge will start at around $1,099 — just a little bit more than the Galaxy S25 Plus but not as much as the Ultra.

More than just a thin phone?

Since the Edge first appeared, I've had just one question — is there more to this phone than just its thin design? (To be fair to Samsung, I've asked the same question about the iPhone 17 Air that's also supposed to deliver an ultra-thin frame later this year.) Yes, a very slender phone is impressive from a design standpoint and certainly much easier to tote around. But it seems like there needs to be more to justify spending what figures to be big bucks on this particular phone.

As I've noted in the past, the ultra-thin phones remind me of foldable phones — and not in a good way. Basically, phone makers have yet to give me a compelling reason to pay up for a foldable phone, apart from the fact that the screen can fold in half. We've yet to see the app or task come along that truly takes advantage of this design.

I wonder if ultra-thin devices will suffer from the same limitation. So I'll be watching tonight to see how Samsung makes the case for why you should pay up for the Edge.

Early impressions

Even though Samsung has shown the Galaxy S25 Edge on multiple occasions, we haven't yet had the chance to go hands on with it. No matter, though — we have seen the phone up close, and that's let us form a few early impressions ahead of the formal launch.

At the Galaxy Unpacked event, Mark Spoonauer saw the Edge and thought the phone looked strikingly thin. But the camera bump looks even more prominent because of it. Overall, it felt to Mark like Samsung's trying to get ahead of Apple before its chief rival can launch a thin phone of its own later this year.

Just over a month later, Tom Pritchard took in the Galaxy S25 Edge at MWC 2025. His big impression: the Edge just didn't look that impressive up close.

Those are just first impressions, mind you. But it's clear Samsung is going to have to work very hard to make a case for this phone at the official debut later on today.

What we know, what we don't

Right after Samsung announced this Unpacked event, I put together a summary of the three biggest things we already know about the Edge, and the big questions Samsung still has to answer. In case, you don't care to do any light reading ahead of tonight's event, I'd sum up the things we know thusly:

• It's going to be thin.
• It's going to have a 200MP camera.
• It's going to come with AI features.

Filling in those exact details are Samsung's job. Meanwhile, the two biggest questions — in my mind, anyhow — are what Samsung's going to charge for the Galaxy S25 Edge and just how much battery life it can deliver. The answer to the former question still might leak today, but the latter question may have to wait until we get a chance to test the phone once and for all.

About that start time

We normally expect to see Samsung's Unpacked events take place in the morning — either 10 a.m. ET or 10 a.m. PT depending what side of the U.S. is hosting the event. Even last year's Galaxy Z Fold 6/Galaxy Z Flip 6 launch, which took place in Paris was held at 9 a.m. ET while the Galaxy Z Fold 5 launch in Korea was timed to occur during the morning in the U.S.

All of this is a round-about way of saying the 8 p.m. ET start time for today's Unpacked event tends to stick out.

But the time makes sense when you consider that 8 p.m. ET on Monday night is 9 a.m. on Tuesday in Korea. And I'm guessing that's a pretty big hint that Samsung thinks its home market is going to be very interested in the Galaxy S25 Edge's thin design.

Samsung has a recent history of marketing its more unconventional phones in Korea. For instance, last year it launched the Galaxy Z Fold Special Edition (pictured above) exclusive in Korea. Interestingly enough, that phone shares a feature with the upcoming Galaxy S25 Edge — it featured a 200MP main camera, too. And at 4.9mm unfolded, it was a pretty thin phone in its own right, too.

How thin will the Galaxy S25 Edge be?

The big question ahead of the Galaxy S25 Edge launch is how thin the phone actually will be. Samsung hasn't officially said, and despite the fact that we've seen versions of the phone on display, it's been behind glass, preventing us from measuring the device.

But some leakers have gotten their hands on dummy units, and the consensus is that the Galaxy S25 Edge will measure 5.8mm at its thinnest point. To put that in context, the standard Galaxy S25 measures 7.2mm. So Samsung is managing to shed nearly 1.5mm from its thinnest flagship. An unfolded Galaxy Z Fold 6 would still be thinner, though.

Here's a look at how the Galaxy S25 Edge would measure up to other Samsung phones as well as the top flagships, should that 5.8mm depth turn out to be accurate.

Rumored Edge specs

We've had a number of Galaxy S25 Edge specs leaks leading up to today's event, giving us some sense of what the phone will be able to do once Samsung makes things official. For reference, here's what we think we know heading into the Virtual Unpacked event.

How accurate are these specs? We'll find out soon enough.