After 6 months, I'm still not over Samsung's lazy Galaxy S25 launch

Android Authority

2 days ago

Back in January, when Samsung launched the three main phones in the Galaxy S25 series, I wasn't shy with my criticism. I openly wondered why the Galaxy S25 and Galaxy S25 Plus even exist, and pointed out how the Galaxy S25 Ultra is such a nominal upgrade over the Galaxy S24 Ultra that it's a wonder Samsung didn't drop the price.
Surprisingly, at the time, Samsung teased that a significant part of the Galaxy S25 family was yet to come: an ultra-thin, ultra-lightweight phone called the Galaxy S25 Edge. This piqued my interest, as I thought it might be the one upgrade that really elevates the series from ho-hum to amazing.
However, it's no secret that the Galaxy S25 Edge has landed with a thud. The company has reportedly seen sales nosedive much earlier than expected. Even die-hard Samsung fans have seemingly already forgotten about it, judging by online discourse and Android Authority's traffic stats on the topic, both here and on YouTube. People just don't care about a thin and light phone if it lacks the necessary features to make it tangibly good at being, well…a phone.
This leaves me back where I started. It's been six months since the original Galaxy S25 launch event, and I still think that this is one of the laziest and most uninteresting flagship families Samsung has ever released.
How did Samsung do this year with the Galaxy S25 series?
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Samsung killed it in 2025!
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Eh, the phones are fine.
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The Galaxy S25 series is bad.
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I don't know/don't care.
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Samsung, you can't just repackage things forever
Lanh Nguyen / Android Authority
There has been plenty of backlash against my comments on how the Galaxy S25 and Galaxy S25 Plus seem completely trivial and inessential. The first, and most prominent one, comes from Americans, and it centers on the idea that carrier subsidies, trade-in values, and other discount opportunities make the two phones more attractive over other Galaxy S phones, chiefly because of the processor upgrade to the Snapdragon 8 Elite. The second rebuttal, which comes from mostly non-Americans, is that the Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S24 Plus having an Exynos processor in most areas of the world makes the Galaxy S25 and S25 Plus worthy of existing, thanks to the superiority of Qualcomm silicon.
While these are sound and accurate arguments, they both hinge on the idea that slapping a new chipset into a carbon copy of last year's phone is a fine strategy for Samsung to adopt. I'm sorry, but I just can't handle that. From a smartphone fan's perspective, rehashing the same phone with a slightly better processor is so lazy that it borders on insulting. From an environmentalist perspective, it reeks of irresponsibility towards our e-waste crisis. And from a brand loyalty perspective, it must make at least some Samsung fans feel like jumping ship to any number of more innovative competitors.
The three main Galaxy S25 phones are good, but they are barely advancements over the last three years of Galaxy S devices.
Even the Galaxy S25 Ultra, which does feature at least a few upgrades over the Galaxy S24 Ultra, left me extremely underwhelmed. The fact that Samsung nerfed the S-Pen by removing Bluetooth connectivity and kept the ludicrous $1,300 price tag for an iterative upgrade over last year's model just left a bad taste in my mouth, too.
The worst part about this, though, is that this is not a one-off issue. It's not like Samsung has been killing it over the past few years, and these 2025 smartphones are just the anomaly. The Galaxy S25 series is so close to even the Galaxy S22 series that the only real reason to choose one over the other is the processor. One year of iteration is totally fine, and even two years is acceptable. But three years of repackaging the same thing? Samsung can't get away with that forever.
The Galaxy S25 Edge is a masterclass in missing an opportunity
Ryan Haines / Android Authority
In 2024, I wrote an article about a hypothetical Samsung Galaxy S25 Pro (I made a video about it, too). The Galaxy S25 Pro, in my imagination, was a direct competitor to the Pixel 9 Pro, in that it was more compact than a Galaxy S25 Ultra but carried over most of the important specs and features. Obviously, Samsung didn't get around to actually launching a Galaxy S25 Pro, but when I first heard about the Galaxy S25 Edge, I thought it might scratch that itch.
Unfortunately, the Galaxy S25 Edge dropped the ball on so many levels. It's thinner and lighter than any other Galaxy phone, but it's not smaller. It's still difficult to use one-handed, and it still takes up plenty of pocket real estate. Likewise, the specs Samsung decided to leave behind from other Galaxy S phones were confusing. Who really wants an $1,100 phone with a small battery, slow charging, and no telephoto lens?
Samsung seemed to bank big on the Galaxy S25 Edge wowing the crowd — but almost everyone just shrugged in response.
Even from a design language perspective, the Galaxy S25 Edge makes no sense. Why did Samsung redesign the camera lenses on the Galaxy S25 series to make them more uniform across the Galaxy S and Galaxy Z lines and then, just months later, abandon those design elements for the Galaxy S25 Edge? It's a minor thing, but it just adds to the pile of confounding decisions made with this phone.
As mentioned earlier, the Edge has fallen flat with most Samsung fans. Yes, there are some folks out there who absolutely love it — just check out the comments on my YouTube video going over its announcement. But the overwhelming response to Samsung's creation appears to be, 'No thanks.' What was supposed to be something that injected some much-needed originality into the Galaxy S25 family just ended up dragging it down even further.
The Galaxy S26 series better be a banger
Joe Maring / Android Authority
As I'm writing this, I can already see the comments section filling up with people saying that I clearly hate Samsung phones. They'll say that I don't have an objective viewpoint on this year's launch because I came in with my mind already made up. Although me saying this likely won't prevent it, please understand that this is not true. I really like Samsung. In fact, for well over a year, my daily driver was a Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, which is still, to this day, my favorite Samsung phone ever.
One of the reasons I left Samsung behind is because of this trajectory it's been on. The company just seems wholly dispassionate about its products, and it's failing to deliver anything innovative anymore. I'm not expecting a reinvention of the wheel every year — there's a lot to be said about brand consistency and stability — but I am expecting something to get excited about.
For me to get passionate about a phone, it takes much more than knowing in my logical brain that it has better performance than last year. It needs to have something that no other phones have, and it needs to look and feel unique. The Galaxy S25 series simply doesn't do any of these things.
C. Scott Brown / Android Authority
Of course, Samsung phoning it in (forgive the pun) hasn't seemed to hurt its bottom line. According to the company itself, Galaxy S25 series sales have been 'strong,' and Hana Securities posits that Samsung has sold over 9 million units — and that was at the beginning of May. If this number is accurate, adjusting for differences in launch dates, the Galaxy S25 series is likely selling as well as the Galaxy S24 series.
I am not a Samsung hater, even if it seems like it. I say these things because I want Samsung to succeed — and this is not the way to do that.
Regardless, I really hope Samsung ups its game in 2026 with the inevitable Galaxy S26 series. The Galaxy S26 and Galaxy S26 Plus need better cameras and a fresh design update. The Galaxy S26 Ultra needs a design refresh as well, and it needs to offer something new to justify its exorbitant price tag (which could be even higher in 2026 thanks to the tariff situation). Samsung needs to do this not just to impress nitpickers like me, but to stay relevant in the market.
Here in the United States, Samsung commands the Android market. You're either an iPhone person or a Samsung person, and there are still people here who call any non-iPhone they see a 'Galaxy.' That's a great position for Samsung to be in, but it can't rest on its laurels. Apple is only gobbling up more market share, and Android enthusiasts — the backbone of Samsung's standing worldwide — are starting to notice that Google, Motorola, OnePlus, OPPO, HONOR, and other brands are delivering innovative, beautiful, and useful products that far outshine anything Samsung is doing.
Samsung has a grace period in which it can coast on its reputation alone — but that window is closing fast, and 2026 might be the deadline.