I’ve spent 24 hours with the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge — here’s what I like and what I don’t

After teasing a new ultra-thin phone during the January Unpacked event for the Galaxy S25, Samsung opted for a low-key virtual announcement this week for the Galaxy S25 Edge. There’s undoubtedly a lot of buzz around this slim phone, but the final version will need to silence the criticism about its trade-offs if it has any chance of being a best phone contender.

I got the chance to check out what all the hype is about with my Galaxy S25 Edge hands-on, pointing out how this super thin phone is equally super expensive. But now that I have the phone in my actual possession and have spent 24 hours with it, I can appreciate more of what the Galaxy S25 Edge has to offer.

Obviously, I can’t take away all the brilliant engineering that goes into designing a phone that’s this thin — because quite frankly — today’s flagship phones continually keep on getting bigger and heavier. Here are my thoughts so far with the Galaxy S25 Edge, both the good and bad.

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It’s really thin, but I want it thinner

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There’s no hiding the obvious here — the impressive thinness of the Galaxy S25 Edge immediately captures my attention more than anything else. Side-by-side against the Galaxy S25 Ultra in the first set of images above, you can see how the titanium trim of the S25 Edge is shorter than the S25 Ultra, with both phones flat on a surface.

For some reason, though, I don’t feel quite as captivated by this engineering feat. Perhaps because the Edge is almost as tall and wide as the Galaxy S25 Ultra?

When I think about devices that emphasize their thinness over other gadgets, I’m often reminded about how I felt about the original Motorola Razr from 2004 and subsequently the iPod Nano in 2005. Those gadgets were revolutionary at expressing their thinness over other competing gadgets, but I don’t feel the same way here with the Galaxy S25 Edge. It’s not a revolution, it’s just an iterative deign improvement.

Now if the Edge was half as thin as my Galaxy Z Fold 6 when it's unfolded, then we’re talking revolutionary — but it’s not.

Super lightweight and sturdy

I’m actually more impressed by the Galaxy S25 Edge’s weight, since it’s much more noticeable when holding it in my hand. Yes, it’s still large and impossible to easily use one-handed, but the Edge's lightweight feel when compared to the Galaxy S25 Ultra is immediate.

I’ve dropped plenty of phones on my face and feet, and let me tell you, they can hurt. The Galaxy S25 Edge makes all other flagships feel grossly overweight, and feeling how light it is is remarkable. Just so you know, the Galaxy S25 Edge tips the scale at 163 grams — while the S25 Ultra weighs in at 216 grams.

At same time, the S25 Edge feels incredibly sturdy with its titanium frame. Phones this thin and light can sometimes feel fragile, but the Galaxy S25 Edge has a sturdy build quality as good as the S25 Ultra.

Maximum 10x zoom

I plan on taking 200 photos between the Galaxy S25 Edge and Galaxy S25 Ultra to see what compromises, if any, have been made with the Edge. While it shares a similar 200MP main camera with the Ultra, the Galaxy S25 Edge lacks a dedicated telephoto camera — so all zooming is done with the main camera. In contrast, the S25 Ultra has two telephoto cameras to lean on for zooming.

This puts the S25 Edge at a disadvantage because it tops out at 10x zoom, whereas the Galaxy S25 Ultra utilizes a hybrid zoom that can reach 100x. Obviously that’s a big spread, but I quickly captured a couple of snapshots with both phones at 10x to see if there are blatant deficiencies with the S25 Edge.

A pigeon resting at the top of an archway caught my attention, so I quickly snapped shots with both phones. Right away, I can see the S25 Ultra’s shot is sharper and with more definition — which you can see in its feathers.

The optically backed telephoto camera of the S25 Ultra shines brighter with the shot of the statue above, which again delivers substantially more detail and definition.

Battery life could be a dealbreaker

Battery life is interesting because a thinner phone also means it’s going to have to compromise with its battery, since space is a luxury. This could be problematic for some people because the Galaxy S25 Edge has a 3,900 mAh capacity inside of its svelte frame. This pales in comparison to the 5,000 mAh power pack in the Galaxy S25 Ultra.

With an afternoon of taking different snapshots with its camera, I can already tell that the battery drops considerably more than most phones I’ve tested.

Our battery benchmark test is indicative of this, too, since the S25 Edge reaches a time of 12 hours and 42 minutes running Tom’s Guide’s battery test, in which phones surf the web until they run out of power. While still 2.5 hours better than the average phone, the Edge's time is far off the pace set by other Samsung flagships.

In fact, the S25 Edge falls 4 hours short of the Galaxy S25 Plus’ mark — and there’s an even wider spread against the S25 Ultra. It's only a preliminary first pass, as we run the battery test multiple times. But subsequent times will really need to overdeliver if the S25 Edge has any chance of beating the standard S25.

I’m not too alarmed by this because I expected these kinds of results, given the much smaller battery in the Edge. I hope the phone can at least charge in a relatively fast time to offset its short battery life.

Hopefully, its 25W wired charging speed can prove me wrong, but I would feel more confident if the Galaxy S25 Edge got the same 45W charging speed as the Galaxy 25 Ultra.

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