Just around five months after the release of its first ultra-thin flagship and three or four months before announcing a new family of super-premium smartphones, Samsung is believed to have radically changed its strategy due to the disappointing sales of the Galaxy S25 Edge.
The S26 Edge is dead, long live the S26 Plus!
Just in case it wasn't abundantly clear from how often the S25 Edge is available at massive discounts, the 5.8mm slim powerhouse is a box-office flop. That's actually been reported before (more than once), but Samsung must have hoped sales would eventually pick up, perhaps boosted by those frequent aforementioned deals.
Evidently, that hasn't happened yet, with the phone's first-month global shipment total of under 200,000 units purportedly growing to only around 1.3 million copies as of August. In contrast, the Galaxy S25 Plus, S25, and S25 Ultra reached 5.05 million, 8.28 million, and 12.18 million sales respectively at the same point in time.
The stylish but unpopular Galaxy S25 Edge is unlikely to receive a sequel next year. | Image Credit -- PhoneArena
Given that the main S25 trio started selling back in February, it's not entirely fair to compare those numbers with the Galaxy S25 Edge tally. Still, it's hard to imagine that the Edge could ever become as popular as the Plus (let alone the other two models), so instead of continuing to bet on the wrong horse, Samsung may have decided to cut its losses.
After all, the Galaxy S26 Edge was originally planned to follow not just the S25 Edge, but replace the S25 Plus as well. And what initially sounded like a potentially risky decision quickly turned into an outright illogical move.
Should Samsung cancel the Galaxy S26 Edge?
Yes, no one cares about slim phones anyway
57.89%
Yes, as long as the Galaxy S26 Plus comes with a wasp waist
1.32%
No, I believe the Edge line has potential
19.74%
I don't care, I'm buying a Galaxy S26 Ultra anyway
11.84%
I don't care, I'm not buying a Galaxy S26 anyway
9.21%
What's interesting is that, in addition to cancelling next year's S26 Edge launch, Samsung is reportedly preparing the early discontinuation of the S25 Edge too. Clearly, the company had much higher expectations from this device, and its patience appears to have run out.
But wait, wasn't the S26 Edge too far down the development road already?
Because Samsung had such great confidence in the S25 Edge's mainstream potential, its sequel clearly went into development months ago, which explains the existence of those high-quality renders floating around the web in September.
In fact, today's report claims that S26 Edge development "has already been completed", which leaves Samsung in an awkward position where a "separate" release in the future is apparently still being considered.
This... questionable Galaxy S26 Edge design may never see the light of day.
Basically, you shouldn't be shocked if the Galaxy S26 Edge does end up randomly seeing daylight next summer, perhaps limited to certain Samsung-friendly markets like South Korea. In January 2026, however, the expectation right now is that we'll see a more "conventional" Galaxy S26 trio go official.
This might surprise you, but I think so. Although I'm a big fan of product diversity and I'd love to see the Galaxy S26 family include four main models instead of three, I've never understood this new obsession with ultra-thin phones.
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I don't think anyone can look at the Galaxy S25 Plus and call it chunky. | Image Credit -- PhoneArena
At 7.3mm, the Galaxy S25 Plus is slim enough (especially for a device packing a 4,900mAh battery), and if the Galaxy S26 Plus can keep that profile largely unchanged while breaking the 5,000mAh cell capacity barrier, I'm sure its sales numbers will be a lot higher than a Galaxy S26 Edge could have ever (realistically) targeted.
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Adrian, a mobile technology enthusiast since the Nokia 3310 era, has been a dynamic presence in the tech journalism field, contributing to Android Authority, Digital Trends, and Pocketnow before joining PhoneArena in 2018. His expertise spans across various platforms, with a particular fondness for the diversity of the Android ecosystem. Despite the challenges of balancing full-time parenthood with his work, Adrian's passion for tech trends, running, and movies keeps him energized. His commitment to mid-range smartphones has led to an eclectic collection of devices, saved from personal bankruptcy by his preference for 'adequate' over 'overpriced'.
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