Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge Review: Slim body, slim battery
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I've never liked a phone I would never buy so much.
The Galaxy S25 Edge goes against every common lesson the smartphone history has taught us so far — namely, that phones with small battery will inevitably disappoint users. Even if they are just as compact as those users dream of. Even if they are impossibly thin.
But, man, did the Galaxy S25 Edge make me realize how much I despise carrying the bulk of a heavy and thick flagship in my pocket! And oh how I wish the battery was just a little bit better!
Table of Contents:
Galaxy S25 Edge Specs
Let's start with an overview of the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge specs:
| Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge | Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus |
|---|---|
| Size and Weight 158.2 x 75.6 x 5.8 mm 163 g | Size and Weight 158.4 x 75.7 x 7.3 mm 190 g |
| Display 6.7" OLED 120Hz 1440p | Display 6.7" OLED 120Hz 1440p |
| Processor Snapdragon 8 Elite | Processor Snapdragon 8 Elite |
| Cameras 200 MP main, f/1.7 12 MP ultrawide, f/2.2 - 10 MP front | Cameras 50 MP main, f/1.8 12 MP ultrawide, f/2.2 10 MP 3X telephoto, f/2.4 12 MP front |
| Battery Size 3,900 mAh | Battery Size 4,900 mAh |
| Charging Speeds 25 W wired 15 W wireless | Charging Speeds 45 W wired 15 W wireless |
| Prices $1,100 for 12/256 GB | Prices $1,000 for 12/256 GB |
Galaxy S25 Edge Design and Display
You have to hold it to appreciate it
(Image by PhoneArena)
With a super thin titanium body, the Galaxy S25 Edge is thinner and lighter than you expect.
So much so that even the critics of the whole idea pick it up and you can see their visceral reaction to this new form factor.
But this is so hard to explain in numbers: yes, the S25 Edge is 5.8mm thick vs 7.3mm on the S25 Plus (20% thinner), which you can argue is already quite thin. And sure, the S25 Edge weighs 163 grams vs the 190 grams of the S25 Plus (15% lighter). But it feels like the difference is even bigger.
My new sword (Image by PhoneArena)
The S25 Edge comes in a selection of clean colors, but nothing too vivid or crazy. I don't mind this esthetic, but I know many people who wish for more vibrant colors on phones.
Titanium Jetblack, Titanium Icyblue and Titanium Silver (Image by Samsung)
Out of the three color options (Titanium Jetblack, Titanium Icyblue and Titanium Silver), the blue one seems to stand out the most, but even that is a little bit too pale to differ much from the silver model.
(Image by PhoneArena)
The slim theme continues into the unboxing — no extra bulk here as you only have a charging cable in the box, but no charging brick.
(Image by PhoneArena)
With a 6.7-inch OLED screen boasting 1440p resolution and a 120Hz variable refresh rate, the Galaxy S25 Edge basically has all the markings of the Galaxy S25 Plus.
Samsung, however, does NOT include the Gorilla Armor coating from the Ultra, which has been our favorite screen tech of the past two years. That's a pity considering the high price of the S25 Edge, but Samsung wants to save this for its pricier flagship only.
We measured a maximum brightness of nearly 2,400 nits on the S25 Edge, which is on par with the Galaxy S25 Plus and the Ultra, and actually a bit higher than the iPhone 16 Pro Max, so outdoor use is still very good on the Edge.
It can also drop to under 1 nit for comfortable bedtime use.
As for biometrics, we have the usual ultrasonic fingerprint scanner and 2D image-based face recognition. The fingerprint reader is among the better ones in the industry and we've had no issues with it on the S25 Edge.
Galaxy S25 Edge Camera
Mostly great, but no telephoto camera on board
(Image by PhoneArena)
The Galaxy S25 Edge camera does not serve any surprises.
The phone uses the same 200 MP main camera sensor as the Galaxy S25 Ultra (it's a slightly larger sensor than the one on the S25 Plus), while the ultra-wide camera is a 12 MP one (same as the one on the S25 Plus). So we have a combination of sensors from the Ultra and the Plus, with the notable omission of a telephoto camera.
Still, we found zoom quality to be quite good thanks to that main sensor and images have a decent amount of detail at 2X and 4X (you can go further, but details drops significantly).
For portrait mode, you only have a 1X and 2X mode, which is understandable, but if you like portrait photography we strongly suggest getting a phone that has a 3X option for that classic 85mm look.
Main Camera
Photos on the Galaxy S25 Edge have those typical Samsung colors that are a bit on the vibrant side, even if that's not too obvious in these rainy day photos.
Zoom Quality (digital zoom)
Since Samsung processing takes an extra beat, you can see zoomed-in photos transform from a blurry mess into their much more detailed form and you have to appreciate the software work behind that.
But those are no match for photos captured on a telephoto lens. At 2X and 4X the quality is decent, but I wouldn't go much further than that and at 10X you can see detail drop off dramatically.
Ultra-wide Camera
The ultra-wide camera is a bit less capable than the main one as details drop and some more issues with color and blowing up the highlights occasionally appear.
Front Camera
Selfies on the Galaxy S25 Edge look good, with no real difference compared to the S25 series.
Video Quality
Don't expect too much out of the zoom quality, though, as quality is reasonably up to around 4X zoom. You have the option to go to 10X zoom, but you really shouldn't as detail is a blurry mess at that zoom level.
We also appreciate the ability to switch between the rear and front cameras while recording video, a trick that Samsung phones can do, but Pixels and iPhones cannot.\
Galaxy S25 Edge Performance & Benchmarks
Snapdragon 8 Elite with little impact on performance
(Image by PhoneArena)
Under the hood of the S25 Edge, we find Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite, Android's leading chipset and that is good news.
While it was expected that Samsung will disable one of the cores of this chipset, that does not seem to be the case and it seems that we have the standard 8-core version. However, the benchmark scores are still a bit lower on the S25 Edge compared to the S25 Plus.
We see a 10% drop in performance on GeekBench compared to the S25 Plus.
CPU Performance Benchmarks:
We see a 10% drop in performance on GeekBench compared to the S25 Plus.
GPU Performance
Interestingly, for graphics performance we see an even bigger gap of 16% at the onset of testing, but after 20 minutes of running the 3D Mark Stress test, we can see that the S25 Edge does not throttle too much. The performance gap with the S25 Plus is actually closing with time.
You have fast UFS 4.0 storage on the S25 Edge, as you'd expect, and 256 GB of it in the base model (with an option for 512 GB of storage).
Galaxy S25 Edge Software
The Galaxy S25 Edge runs the same software as the rest of the S25 series — One UI 7 with Android 15.
And it has DeX, which in case you've been living under a rock, is the ability to connect your phone to a monitor, a mouse and a keyboard and basically use it as your main workstation. It's a welcome addition that you will probably rarely use, but when you do — you'll appreciate it's there.
One UI is one of the more refined Android skins out there and the latest overhaul has made it closer to iOS, and some people would argue that this is the best Android UI out there. I can certainly see its appeal too, but I really wish Samsung worked on improving the fluidity of the interface as there is still a bit of a micro-stutter when using the gesture navigation.
You also get Samsung's promise for seven years of OS upgrades and security patches. We don't doubt that, but we've seen the delayed roll-out of One UI 7 to older model and can't help but wonder if the S25 Edge won't meet the same fate with the next big One UI release.
Galaxy S25 Edge Battery
It's both good and bad
The S25 Edge comes with a 3,900 mAh battery, less than even the small Galaxy S25 model. And that sounds like a damning statement.
So how bad is it really?
PhoneArena Battery Test Results:
Our in-house battery tests show that the S25 Edge indeed lasts less than the small Galaxy S25 and a full hour of total screen time less than the similarly sized S25 Plus model.
That is both good and bad — having worse battery life than the compact Galaxy S25 is not great, but at least it's not MUCH worse than that.
Make your own conclusions based on the scores, but let me give you my take on this: the S25 Edge will last you a full day IF you don't use the camera too much (or game, but I doubt many gamers would be buying it in the first place). And it will last you a full day in the first year of owning it.
But then, you might want to go on a weekend trip. You might want to take some more photos. You might have to use mapping a bit more. And battery life quickly becomes an issue.
If you think that would be a problem and you don't like carrying a power bank around, this phone is probably not for you. And I'm afraid that the "you group" here is very, very large.
I am one of those people who are absolutely thrilled by the idea of an extremely thin phone. Yet even I was a bit worried when I saw the S25 Edge drop to 50% by 10am when I was taking photos of the sunrise. Do you really value the thinness that much? That is the real question here.
(Image by PhoneArena)
With 25 W charging, the S25 Edge is not breaking any record but it will top up fully in a bit more than an hour, and we're fine with that. Sure, 45W would have been nicer (the S25 Plus has it), but I don't think 25W is a show-stopper.
You also get the usual 15W wireless charging speeds, which are even slower. And nope, no magnets here (in case you were expecting some sort of a miracle).
Galaxy S25 Edge Audio Quality and Haptics
The audio quality out of the S25 Edge loudspeakers is surprisingly good, and we say surprisingly because we expected a drop in quality from the S25 Plus, but there is really none of that. The sound gets loud and while it's not industry-leading, you still get a good amount of bass and clear mids, so it gets our thumbs up.
Haptics are the same as on the rest of the S25 series, which is to say okay-ish, but not as tight and in tune with the interface as devices like the OnePlus 13.
Should you buy it?
(Image by PhoneArena)
It's really easy to like the Galaxy S25 Edge and it's really hard to recommend it.
What it does is it kind of lives up to expectations for a good slim phone: it has a pretty sturdy body for what it is, it has the main camera of the S25 Ultra, and it has One UI which so many people love.
But it doesn't pull off a battery miracle, and as a buyer you should not just wave off this concern. But if you are fully aware of this shortcoming, I think the S25 Edge will make you happy with its feather-light weight that defies expectations and its super slim body. It's a looker and that counts for something in a monotone smartphone market.
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