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Hindustan Times
a day ago
- Hindustan Times
Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge review: Super thin, unputdownable and a lot of substance
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.
Phone Arena
22-05-2025
- Phone Arena
The best foldable in the world stunned me—until I had to actually use it
Take the excellent Oppo Find N5 as the perfect example. It can easily go toe-to-toe with just about any standard flagship out there in terms of performance, battery life, and camera quality, with the massive added bonus of being a foldable phone hiding away a massive screen on the inside. The reason for that is the unacceptable Color OS skin that sours the experience. Time and time again, different phones have proven one thing to me: you usually pick a phone from the likes of Oppo, Xiaomi, or Vivo for the hardware and the value, not the software. The latter is often the weakest part of the equation and is often sewn with white thread in many areas. Lacking essential features but overdelivering in terms of personalization and customization in order to appear half-decent is often the case with most custom Android skins originating from China. Now don't get me wrong, the Oppo Find N5 is one awesome phone as detailed in our review, objectively outclassing just about any other foldable phone in terms of hardware. It's just that the software doesn't fully live up to the expectations. There's nothing beckoning you to use this interface, you simply learn to live with it and eventually become accustomed to its peculiar oddities. This isn't how things should be. For example, you'd think that a top-notch foldable that costs nearly $2,000 and comes with all the hardware bells and whistles you can think of save for a built-in stylus would let you change the icon layout of your home screen, right? Think again! A 6X4 grid per screen is all you get, an oversight on Oppo's part that brings the Oppo Find N5 down to basic iPhone levels of customization, which isn't a compliment here. Weirdly, the ability to change the grid exists on standard Oppo phones with Color OS 15, so the lack of it here seems deliberate. You'd also assume that you will at least get consistent notification icons, right? Nope, it's only the stock apps that show colored icons in the status bar, while third-party are displayed as white ones. This creates a jarring disparity in the interface. An unappealing mess" Another pet peeve of mine is originality. Not just Oppo, but many other manufacturers to this day are guilty of copying iOS, but somehow it never feels just as good. Oppo here has gone out of its way to emulate the iOS Control Center to the T, with obviously similar volume and brightness sliders, even the flashlight has an identical design here. I'm not telling which one's which Other features copied straight from iOS is Apple's Live Photo functionality, which I absolutely adore. Oppo has developed a similar feature in its Color OS software, which functions pretty much identical, and that's fine. But of all possible design choices, did Oppo really have to go with a nearly 1:1 copy of Apple's original Live Photo interface. I get that the company is trying to sway away iOS users, but does it really have to lose every bit of originality in the pursuit of doing so? You will feel right at home on the Oppo if you love Live Photos as much as I do That said, it's not all bad about the Color OS 15 interface here. There are some very nice exclusive features that I haven't seen elsewhere. For example, did you know that with the switch of a toggle, Color OS will hide away your notifications if its front camera detects another person looking at your phone and not you? That's a cool and mighty useful privacy feature right here. Personalization and customization are strong here, but not as deep as on other custom Android skins like Vivo's Funtouch OS or Xiaomi's HyperOS. In direct comparison between the three, I'd put the Color OS in the last place. Eventually, I guess one would get accustomed to the interface of the Oppo Find N5, but it will probably involve some huffing and puffing in the process.
Phone Arena
20-05-2025
- Phone Arena
The best foldable in the world stunned me until I had to actually use it
Take the excellent Oppo Find N5 as the perfect example. It can easily go toe-to-toe with just about any standard flagship out there in terms of performance, battery life, and camera quality, with the massive added bonus of being a foldable phone hiding away a massive screen on the inside. The reason for that is the unacceptable Color OS skin that sours the experience. Time and time again, different phones have proven one thing to me: you usually pick a phone from the likes of Oppo, Xiaomi, or Vivo for the hardware and the value, not the software. The latter is often the weakest part of the equation and is often sewn with white thread in many areas. Lacking essential features but overdelivering in terms of personalization and customization in order to appear half-decent is often the case with most custom Android skins originating from China. Now don't get me wrong, the Oppo Find N5 is one awesome phone as detailed in our review, objectively outclassing just about any other foldable phone in terms of hardware. It's just that the software doesn't fully live up to the expectations. There's nothing beckoning you to use this interface, you simply learn to live with it and eventually become accustomed to its peculiar oddities. This isn't how things should be. For example, you'd think that a top-notch foldable that costs nearly $2,000 and comes with all the hardware bells and whistles you can think of save for a built-in stylus would let you change the icon layout of your home screen, right? Think again! A 6X4 grid per screen is all you get, an oversight on Oppo's part that brings the Oppo Find N5 down to basic iPhone levels of customization, which isn't a compliment here. Weirdly, the ability to change the grid exists on standard Oppo phones with Color OS 15, so the lack of it here seems deliberate. You'd also assume that you will at least get consistent notification icons, right? Nope, it's only the stock apps that show colored icons in the status bar, while third-party are displayed as white ones. This creates a jarring disparity in the interface. An unappealing mess" Another pet peeve of mine is originality. Not just Oppo, but many other manufacturers to this day are guilty of copying iOS, but somehow it never feels just as good. Oppo here has gone out of its way to emulate the iOS Control Center to the T, with obviously similar volume and brightness sliders, even the flashlight has an identical design here. I'm not telling which one's which Other features copied straight from iOS is Apple's Live Photo functionality, which I absolutely adore. Oppo has developed a similar feature in its Color OS software, which functions pretty much identical, and that's fine. But of all possible design choices, did Oppo really have to go with a nearly 1:1 copy of Apple's original Live Photo interface. I get that the company is trying to sway away iOS users, but does it really have to lose every bit of originality in the pursuit of doing so? You will feel right at home on the Oppo if you love Live Photos as much as I do That said, it's not all bad about the Color OS 15 interface here. There are some very nice exclusive features that I haven't seen elsewhere. For example, did you know that with the switch of a toggle, Color OS will hide away your notifications if its front camera detects another person looking at your phone and not you? That's a cool and mighty useful privacy feature right here. Personalization and customization are strong here, but not as deep as on other custom Android skins like Vivo's Funtouch OS or Xiaomi's HyperOS. In direct comparison between the three, I'd put the Color OS in the last place. Eventually, I guess one would get accustomed to the interface of the Oppo Find N5, but it will probably involve some huffing and puffing in the process.
Phone Arena
20-05-2025
- Phone Arena
Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Flip 7 leak brings all the angles and all the measurements
Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Galaxy Z Flip 6. | Image credit – PhoneArena We are getting closer to the launch of Samsung's next foldables – the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Galaxy Z Flip 7 – and the leaks are starting to roll in faster. One of the more interesting recent tidbits was that the Fold 7 could be incredibly thin this time, maybe even rivaling the Oppo Find N5, which currently holds the record. And now we've got more precise numbers to work with thanks to newly leaked CAD to the files, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 could measure just 4.54mm when unfolded and around 9mm when folded – only 0.1mm thicker than the Find N5. That is such a small difference, it will probably be hard to notice. The latest leak suggests these are the dimensions of the upcoming Galaxy Z Fold 7. | Image credit – SamMobile On the Flip side (literally), the Galaxy Z Flip 7 will reportedly stay at 6.94mm when unfolded – identical to the Flip 6. So it looks like Samsung didn't bother thinning it out further. Including the camera bump, the Flip 7 should come in at about 9.17mm thick. The Galaxy Z Flip 7 should stay the same as the current model. | Image credit – SamMobile Here are the reported dimensions: Unfolded Galaxy Z Fold 7 : 158.43 x 143.14 x 4.54mm 158.43 x 143.14 x 4.54mm Unfolded Galaxy Z Flip 7 : 166.61 x 75.23 x 6.94mm Now, while the slimmer profile of the Fold 7 is definitely a step forward, there are still a couple of underwhelming hardware choices that might hold it back. Most notably, Samsung is expected to stick with the same 4,400mAh battery from the Fold 6 – and yes, it should be still limited to 25W is quite disappointing when you look at what the competition is doing. The Oppo Find N5, for example, packs a big 5,600mAh battery and supports up to 80W wired and 50W wireless charging. So yeah, in the battery department, Oppo clearly has the upper hand. Oppo Find N5 review: The foldable king is back! With a July launch window looking likely, we can expect even more info on Samsung's foldables to leak out in the coming weeks.
Phone Arena
14-05-2025
- Phone Arena
Foldable iPhone will be the first of many yearly successors
*Image credit — ConceptsiPhone The almost mythical foldable iPhone is finally seeming like a reality as more and more reports from inside the industry start making their way to us. And now a new source reveals that — just like the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 and its predecessors — the foldable iPhone will be a yearly doesn't want to differentiate its foldable phone as a separate niche product category. Instead insiders claim that the foldable iPhone will be marketed as the top of the line iPhone going forward: snatching the crown from the Pro Max models. With that in mind I think we can also expect Apple's foldable to feature even better hardware than the Pro and Pro Max phones. After such a long wait filled with rumors and speculation it should be reassuring for Apple fans that the foldable iPhone won't be a one-and-done treat. Nor will it be a unique phone that only sees a successor every few years like some other Apple products. No, Apple is determined to make the foldable iPhone a new stream of revenue and what better way to do that than to make it a yearly spectacle. The iPhone 16 Pro Max is currently the best Apple smartphone you can get. | Video credit — Apple Apple has taken ages to finalize its foray into the foldable smartphone market. This is because the company reportedly wanted its entrance to be perfect and wants the foldable iPhone to be the talk of the town. It primarily hopes to achieve this by making a foldable phone that has an almost completely invisible crease. Apple is also hoping that its phone will rejuvenate the decaying foldable industry. There are still conflicting reports of when the foldable iPhone will launch. Some reports claim that the phone will debut alongside a new mostly glass-based Pro model in 2027 for the 20th anniversary of the iPhone. Others, like the report about the foldable iPhone being a yearly release, maintain that the phone is coming out in 2026 alongside the iPhone 18. Major competitors that the foldable iPhone will have to take on include the aforementioned Galaxy Z Fold 7 , the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold and the Oppo Find N5. The Galaxy Z and Pixel Fold phones provide a much more superior AI experience with Gemini compared to Apple Intelligence. Meanwhile the Oppo Find N5 is a super slim and very impressive device that will probably cost less than Apple's offering. The foldable iPhone is supposed to be another new option for Apple users just like the iPhone 17 Air which is slated to come out this year. Whether any of these two phones stick around or go the way of the mini and Plus models remains to be seen.
