Samsung has taken the wraps off the Galaxy S25 Edge, an attractive, slimmed-down version of its powerful flagship phones, as it leans on looks and design once again after pushing newfangled AI features in recent years.
The new phone, measuring 5.8mm thin and weighing 163g, is clearly more portable in the hand compared to an existing Galaxy S25 flagship model.
At least going by a media preview in Singapore today, the Galaxy S25 Edge feels more of a smartphone of old – not the increasingly bulky blocks of today.
Fittingly, Samsung had used the Edge moniker a decade ago in its Galaxy S6 Edge, which featured a sloped screen to help it stand out among competitors.
Now, as Apple is widely expected to come up with a slimmer version of the iPhone – dubbed the iPhone 17 Air – Samsung is keen to show off its own “edge” in design with its own svelte model, ahead of its rival.
The good news is, the Galaxy S25 Edge still sports a large 6.7-inch AMOLED screen, similar to the Galaxy S25+, and packs in Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite processor customised for Samsung.
What are the trade-offs, you ask. Instead of three cameras at the back on the other Galaxy S25s, you get two – a 12-megapixel ultrawide camera and a 200-megapixel wide camera with 2x optical zoom.
The big plus is the 200-megapixel camera, which used to be only on the largest Galaxy S25 Ultra, and not the smaller Galaxy S25+ and Galaxy S25. The additional pixels make it easier to shoot and then crop to size later, if you wish.
The other thing you notice is the battery size. The Galaxy S25 Edge has a 3,900mAh battery, significantly smaller than the 4,900mAh power pack on the Galaxy S25+ and 5,000mAh on the Galaxy S25 Ultra.
This means you might have to watch the power usage a bit more if you want the slimmer phone running all sorts of AI-intensive tasks, for example. Consider a power bank if you’re a power user.
The other thing that is uncertain is how much the smaller chassis might affect performance. Samsung Singapore folks say that in tests, like games, they have not noticed any significant downsides.
However, they could not comment on whether the smaller confines might result in more heat on the processor, which could potentially trigger it to throttle down performance.
The other thing is price, of course. While the Galaxy S25 Edge does look attractive and is power packed, it is not going for cheap, as you’d expect.
In Singapore, prices start from S$1,628 for a model with 12GB memory and a rather modest 256GB of storage. Want more? Bump things up to 512GB and your Galaxy S25 Edge bill comes up to S$1,808.
By comparison, Samsung Singapore is selling the Galaxy S25+ at S$1,298 (256GB) and S$1,478 (512GB). If you don’t need a slimmer phone, the older model launched just months ago might be the better deal.
