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We are entering the era of super thin phones.
Apple has now joined in the slim phone trend with the iPhone Air, arriving a few months after the release of the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge.
Both are medium-sized devices, a bit smaller than the Pro Maxes and the Ultras, but bigger than the base models.
Both are also impressively light-weight, measuring around 160 grams and under 6mm thick. But there are also some notable differences. The Galaxy comes with a 3,900 mAh battery, while the iPhone has a lower battery capacity of around 3,150 mAh. The Galaxy also has two cameras on its back, while the iPhone is only rumored to have a single one.
Galaxy S25 Edge vs iPhone Air differences:
Galaxy S25 Edge
iPhone Air
6.7-inch screen size
6.5-inch screen
5.8 mm thickness
Slightly thinner - 5.65 mm
163 grams
Similar weight (165 grams)
Snapdragon 8 Elite chip (8-core)
A19 Pro chip
12 GB RAM
8 GB RAM
Two rear cameras
One rear camera
200 MP main camera, same as on S25 Ultra
48 MP main camera, same as on iPhone 17
12 MP ultra-wide camera
No ultra-wide camera
12 MP front cam
18 MP Center Stage camera
3,900 mAh battery
3,149 mAh
25 W wired charging
20 W wired charging
15 W Wireless charging
20W MagSafe wireless charging
$1,100 for 12/256GB model $1,220 for 12/512GB model -
$1,000 for 12/256GB model $1,200 for 12/512GB model $1,400 for 12GB/1TB model
Both the Galaxy S25 Edge and iPhone Air feature a screen that is large, but not quite as big as on Ultra/Pro Max models.
The S25 Edge features a 6.7-inch display, while the iPhone Air comes with a slightly smaller 6.5-inch panel.
Thanks to their super slim construction, the weight of these phones is closer to that of a much smaller phone. The Galaxy S25 Edge weighs just 163 grams, the same as the tinier Galaxy S25 (and 15% lighter than the S25 Plus). At 165 grams, the iPhone Air is practically the same.
Both models are also slim, but how slim exactly?
The Galaxy S25 Edge measures 5.8 mm, nearly 25% slimmer than the Galaxy Plus or Ultra models, a noticeable reduction. And the iPhone Air is even a hair thinner at 5.65mm.
Are these the thinnest phones to ever exist? Not really! In 2018, the Motorola Moto Z (the one with the Moto Mods) was a popular flagship measuring just 5.2 mm thick. There were a few other super thin models from some less popular brands from China too. If we look at more recognizable phones, the iPhone 16 series were around 6.9 mm, so these new models will be a bit thinner than that.
And compared to the latest foldable phones, these two are actually not as thin. The current record holder there is the Oppo Find N5, which opens to a slab with a thickness of just 4.2 mm.
Phone Thickness Comparison
Phone
Thickness
Oppo Find N5 (foldable, 2025)
4.2 mm (unfolded)
Oppo R5 (2014)
4.9 mm
Motorola Moto Z (2016)
5.2 mm
iPhone Air
5.65 mm
Galaxy S25 Edge
5.8 mm
Galaxy S25 Plus
7.3 mm
iPhone 16 Pro Max
8.3 mm
One big question that arises with thinness is durability. After all, some of us still remember the iPhone 6 Plus bend-gate, as it folded when you applied more pressure to it. However, we are not too concerned about that. Bend tests show that Apple chose wisely with a titanium material for the frame, and same for the S25 Edge.
The Galaxy S25 Edge also supports IP68 water and dust protection, and the same is true for the iPhone Air.
S25 Edge comes in Titanium Jetblack, Titanium Icyblue and Titanium Silver
As for colors, the Galaxy arrives in three colorways with a titanium body: a silver, a jetblack and an icy blue version.
iPhone Air colors are Space Black, Cloud White, Light Gold, Sky Blue
As you can see above, the iPhone Air matches the colors of the S25 Edge with a Space Black, Sky Blue, Cloud White and a fourth, Light Gold colorway.
Display Differences
There is a slight difference in screen sizes between the two. Apple has made the iPhone more compact with a 6.5-inch screen, while the Galaxy S25 Edge has a slightly bigger, 6.7-inch display.
The CIE 1931 xy color gamut chart represents the set(area)of colors that a display can reproduce,with the sRGB colorspace(the highlighted triangle)serving as reference.The chart also provides a visual representation of a display's color accuracy. The small squares across the boundaries of the triangle are the reference points for the various colors, while the small dots are the actual measurements. Ideally, each dot should be positioned on top of its respective square. The 'x:CIE31' and 'y:CIE31' values in the table below the chart indicate the position of each measurement on the chart. 'Y' shows the luminance (in nits) of each measured color, while 'Target Y' is the desired luminance level for that color. Finally, 'ΔE 2000' is the Delta E value of the measured color. Delta E values of below 2 are ideal.
The Color accuracy chart gives an idea of how close a display's measured colors are to their referential values. The first line holds the measured (actual) colors, while the second line holds the reference (target) colors. The closer the actual colors are to the target ones, the better.
The Grayscale accuracy chart shows whether a display has a correct white balance(balance between red,green and blue)across different levels of grey(from dark to bright).The closer the Actual colors are to the Target ones,the better.
The iPhone gets a bit brighter than the Galaxy outdoors, hitting nearly 2,800 nits in our tests compared to 2,400 nits on the Galaxy.
It's also notable that the iPhone now features a new seven-layer anti-reflective coating, while the S25 Edge does not have that (only the S25 Ultra has an anti-reflective coating).
As for biometrics, we have the usual — an ultrasonic fingerprint reader embedded in the display on the S25 Edge and Face ID on the iPhone.
Performance and Software
Snapdragon 8 Elite vs Apple's A19 Pro
The Galaxy S25 Edge is a true flagship and it's no surprise it runs on the powerful Snapdragon 8 Elite chip as other Galaxy S25 models.
As for the iPhone Air, it features Apple's A19 Pro chipset.
Both devices come with 12 GB of RAM, enough for all the AI features that will inevitably come to them over the coming years.
The iPhone Air is a beast in single-core CPU performance, beating the Galaxy by nearly 25%. However, when it comes to multi-core performance, the two are almost identical, the Galaxy having a small lead.
The biggest concern is gaming performance, though.
Thin phones will inevitable overheat and throttle, it's just physics. But interestingly, the thinner iPhone Air performs better in that regard. After 20 minutes of intense gameplay, its performance is nearly 2,900 points compared to rought 2,630 points on the Galaxy, so the iPhone is 10% stronger.
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We should also mention that Apple is still struggling to update Siri to a more modern form and is now relying on ChatGPT, which is integrated in the system. Samsung, on the other hand, is ahead in the AI game with Gemini and way more powerful AI image editing tools.
We now also now that the iPhone Air will have iOS 26 on board. Some call this the biggest visual overhaul in the last decade with the new Liquid Glass design. Among the cool new iOS 26 features you get a new dynamic wallpaper where time fluidly adapts to the available space on the wallpaper and the whole wallpaper also moves and adapts for better visibility when you receive notifications. There is also new animated album art that you can see when you tap on the Now Playing menu.
Among the useful features, you get a new and much simplified Camera design, which hides all modes except photo and video. Apple also fixes the Photos app chaos from the previous iOS version as you now have two buttons to easily switch between a library view and your collections/albums.
But the star of the show is in the Phone and Messages app. You get Call Screening features that lets you fight off telemarketers. This will also work in Messages, filtering out spam messages. You also get a new Live Translate feature in calls. If all of that sounds familiar, it's because it is. Those features have been available on other Android phones and the Galaxy has added support for Live Translate in calls way earlier (but the actual results are a bit of a mixed bag).
Camera
One vs two
Slim phones have to make some concessions and apart from a smaller battery, the other adjustment these two make is with cameras.
TheS25 Edge is the first Samsung flagship in years to skip a telephoto camera as it only has two cameras on board, while the iPhone Air goes even further in compromise territory with only one rear camera.
PhoneArena Camera Score:
Photo
Video
Phone
Camera Score
Photo Score
Main (wide)
Ultra Wide
Selfie
Zoom
Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge
140
146
79
21
23
22
Apple iPhone Air
126
130
82
N/A
28
21
Phone
Camera Score
Video Score
Main (wide)
Ultra Wide
Selfie
Zoom
Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge
140
134
72
20
24
17
Apple iPhone Air
126
122
77
N/A
26
18
Find out more details about photo and video scores for all phones we have tested on our PhoneArena Camera Score page
As for the Galaxy, it has a 200 MP main camera, using the same hardware as the Galaxy S25 Ultra, while the secondary camera is an ultra-wide one with a 12 MP sensor borrowed from the S25 Plus.
Main Camera
The iPhone features a single 48 MP main camera.
Would you buy a premium iPhone with just one camera? We know some will be outraged, but we are not sure the ultra-wide camera gets all that much use anyway and for us, a telephoto camera would be a better addition (and both phones DON'T have one).
Battery Life and Charging
Worse than a regular phone, but how much worse?
With a 3,900 mAh battery on board, the Galaxy S25 Edge has less capacity than even the small vanilla S25 model (that one features a 4,000 mAh cell).
And we expect the iPhone Air to also have a small battery, likely even smaller than the one on the Galaxy. Rumors say it could come with a 2,800 mAh battery, which is tiny even for Apple standards. That is our biggest concern about this phone, as we are not even sure it can last you a whole day.
Apple does provide some battery life estimates for the Air. The company says it can last for 22 hours of video streaming, a bit less than the 27 hour rating for the iPhone 17, but higher than the 18-hour estimates for the iPhone 16.
Those would be quite remarkable numbers, if true, but it is notable how Apple has stopped reporting audio playback numbers this year, so our suggestion is to wait for real-world battery tests.
On our in-house battery tests, the two perform about as good as a regular compact phone, and sometimes a bit worse. With just one speaker, the iPhone Air scores higher in video streaming with the sound on because that single speaker drains less battery, but the Galaxy is a stronger performer in gaming. For basic web browsing, both score around the same.
As for charging, we get 25 W charging speeds on the Galaxy and slightly slower 20 W charging on the iPhone.
We measured that a full charge takes 1 hour and 6 minutes on the Galaxy and 1 hour and 36 minutes on the iPhone.
Both phones also support wireless charging, while switching roles. The Galaxy has 15W wireless charging, a bit slower than the iPhone Air with its 20W MagSafe charging speed. Keep in mind that the Galaxy does not have magnets, while the iPhone does.
Audio Quality
The iPhone Air having only one speaker at the top is at a disadvantage compared to the S25 Edge.
Summary
Despite their smaller battery size and the fewer cameras, the Galaxy S25 Edge and iPhone Air are very exciting.
Everyone seems to be tired of the boring sameness of modern smartphones and a thinner design might just be that breath of fresh air users need.
Which of these two should you save up for?
Battery life numbers are about the same, so that's not really a factor. The Galaxy has faster charging, an ultra-wide camera and better speakers, while the iPhone has a more refined design, a thinner body, slightly faster performance and the better video recording quality.
Victor, a seasoned mobile technology expert, has spent over a decade at PhoneArena, exploring the depths of mobile photography and reviewing hundreds of smartphones across Android and iOS ecosystems. His passion for technology, coupled with his extensive knowledge of smartphone cameras and battery life, has positioned him as a leading voice in the mobile tech industry.
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