Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge review: Super thin, unputdownable and a lot of substance

Hindustan Times

2 days ago

The Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge, at 5.8mm in thickness, is the slimmest candy-bar smartphone you can splurge your money on at this point in time. For context, the similar screen size sibling — the Galaxy S25+ — measures 7.3mm. One could always point to the Honor Magic V3 or the Oppo Find N5 foldables, but they measure 4.65mm and 4.21mm respectively, when unfolded. The Tecno Spark Slim, a candy-bar design again, is still a concept that may or may not be made as it's been envisioned. In the here and now, Samsung has well and truly delivered on the slimness aspect. The pertinent question therefore is, must we compromise on something else?
The Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge is at the bleeding edge of what is possible with smartphones, and plays the dimensions versus specifications balance better than anyone may have expected. In fact, it may be difficult to convey exactly how impressive this combination of a slim and lightweight (163 grams) build is. It has to be held in hand, to get the true sense of the achievement. The only contention really revolves around battery life, which sees a substantial 1000 mAh reduction in capacity, compared with the Galaxy S25+ (3,900 mAh compared with 4,900 mAh). More on that, as we contextualise this with performance.
In terms of the underlying specs, there is absolute parity with the rest of the Galaxy S25 range. The 3-nanometer Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite with specific customisations for Samsung, 12GB memory and a 200-megapixel main camera leading the dual-camera setup instead of a troika (a telephoto has been sacrificed). One of my two key concerns (the other being real-world battery stamina) was how this slim chassis handled thermals, and therefore performance. On that front, the Galaxy S25 Edge is as much at par with the Galaxy S25 Ultra as it is with the Galaxy S25+, since there is no extra heating apparent on the back panel and the phone holds performance quite well. Credit to Samsung's redesigned cooling architecture, it has done the job.
Specific to the battery capacity is an observation that Samsung isn't using the silicon-carbide battery pack chemistry, something phone makers such as OnePlus are increasingly doing, and the result is smaller, denser batteries that would be ideal for the slimness proposition Samsung is going for with the Galaxy S25 Edge. I had the chance to stress test the battery stamina earlier this month, when covering Google I/O. There was minimal voice calling on roaming, but extensive data usage as well as a lot of camera use, audio recordings and transcriptions along the way.
There are software optimisations Samsung has done to make this more frugal, and that does help to an extent. A Galaxy S25 Edge, fully charged in the morning, would dip to a fairly uncomfortable level by around 3pm — anywhere between 20% to 30% charge remaining. Even if you're very careful with usage, a screen time of around 6 hours is perhaps the maximum you'd be able to eke out. That's the comparative, from close to 8 hours on a Galaxy S25 Ultra, when used similarly. You'd need to not be someone who needs a workhorse battery stamina from a smartphone, to consider buying an ultra-slim phone, any ultra-slim phone for that matter.
The other aspect to consider is the camera setup. Instead of the three-camera setup that has been typical with Samsung's flagships over the past few years, this makes do with one less sensor. The trade-off is surely to open up some room in the innards. The 200-megapixel primary camera is really as good as it gets. The lack of a telephoto camera is compensated to an extent with the 2x optical zoom on the 200-megapixel camera, going all the way to 10x of AI-assisted zoom. For the latter, performance may vary depending on composition of shot too.
If you are using the main sensor for most of your photography, the results are genuinely top-notch, and this I say as someone who's had his share of playing with Hasselblad, Leica and Zeiss optimised cameras in smartphones over the past few months. Colours are rich and well separated, there's just the right amount of sharpness, noise reduction doesn't seem to make an aggressive appearance and you'll like the dynamic range in most photos. Low light scenarios require some patience to get the best possible photos, but that is more a factor of how well you can do it.
At this time, the singular price tag for the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge is ₹1,09,999 even though two variants are listed for India — the reason being, for a while, Samsung is upgrading all 256GB storage purchases to the 512GB storage variant. For all intents and purposes, this is the fourth addition to Samsung's flagship Android portfolio, and one that certainly has a unique personality. Yet, and it is a brave thing to do for any smartphone brand, this is targeted at a very specific demographic of potential buyers. Ones who loathe thick, heavy phones even though they'd not want to compromise on the screen size. And secondly, the user base that can work around the slightly lower battery life ceiling.
The Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge does well to build on the unique thickness and weight proposition, by being a thoroughbred flagship rest of the time. Top notch performance, a 200-megapixel sensor that simply doesn't disappoint with photos, and the whole layer of Samsung's Galaxy AI, all adding value. The thing is, battery compromise aside, you'll begin to find every other Android phone thick and unnecessarily bulky, after getting a taste of the impressively thin 'Edge' design. That is perhaps Samsung's, and indeed the Galaxy S25 Edge's biggest win.