Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge review

The Samsung Galaxy S25 series launched with a fairly standard form factor and design language, and the S25 Edge expectedly sticks to that in terms of the shape, dimensions, corners, and back. However, as the name suggests, the thickness is its big design adventure. It’s similar to the Samsung Galaxy S25+ in terms of size and dimensions, but is noticeably slimmer and ‘edgier’ while retaining the titanium frame.

With a thickness of 5.8mm, the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge has a visible slim element to its look and feel, and lining it up with just about any other current-generation smartphone will showcase that quite clearly. That said, this isn’t a small smartphone by any measure; it has a 6.7-inch screen and feels big to hold. The slimness therefore makes it feel like holding a flat sheet, rather than the typical hand-feel of a smartphone. It understandably weighs a fair bit less as well.

Whether you want that slimness and low weight - and whether it’s worth the price - is entirely up to you; in every other way, the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge feels like a Samsung flagship smartphone. The flat sides and slab-like edges, smooth and matte-finished back, curved corners, and chunky camera module are typical of Samsung’s modern smartphone design language. 

 

 

 

 

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However, I did find the slightly off-centre positioning of the buttons, USB Type-C port, and SIM tray a bit annoying. The buttons feel a bit shaky and insecure, so you might want to be careful with those. You also get the now standard IP68 dust and water resistance, so the phone does have some promise of handling water-related accidents and exposure.

The Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge comes in two colours - titanium silver and jet back - skipping the more adventurous and colourful options you get with the rest of the S25 series. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, since I quite like how these two colourways look on this phone. The sales package comes with just the phone and charging cable in the box - you’ll have to separately buy a charging adapter or use something you have lying around.

The display of the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge compares most closely with that of the S25 Plus - both devices have 6.7-inch 1440x3120-pixel LTPO AMOLED 2X screens with 120Hz peak refresh rate and HDR10+ support. This makes the Edge a big smartphone that compares with similarly priced and competing options in terms of display capabilities. 

The display is expectedly sharp, and can get just about as bright as the S25 Ultra in certain situations. The auto-brightness setting gets it right in most situations; you can manually intervene to bump it up if you like, but the highest levels are only achieved in very specific situations when using auto-brightness and HDR content. 

Needless to say, it’s a good display for watching video content on the go - I had a good time watching Clarkson’s Farm on a couple of flights with the S25 Edge. The screen on the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge gets Corning Gorilla Glass Ceramic 2 protection, and Gorilla Glass Victus 2 for the glass back.

There Samsung Galaxy S25 series came in with fairly standard specifications across the range, including the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite and 12GB of RAM across all variants sold in India. The S25 Edge sticks to the formula when it comes to the core framework, and is available in two storage variants - 256GB and 512GB - similar to the S25+ and S25. 

Most other key features and specifications are similar - there is dual-SIM 5G connectivity with support for eSIM, Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4, and Android 15 with OneUI 7 out of the box. Needless to say, the core experience is similar as well - this is an S25 series device after all. The Edge does of course market its design as its premium factor, which is why it’s priced higher than the S25+ but still a fair bit lower than the starting price of the S25 Ultra.

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The software experience is the same as on the earlier S25 devices - OneUI 7 is fairly polished and easy to get around. The much-hyped focus on AI features remains, with Galaxy AI at the centre of most things. You’ll get generative editing tools, the Now Brief feature, and more. As before, you can choose whether you want AI processing to happen on-device or with the help of Internet connectivity.

The camera setup is perhaps where the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge is most different from the rest of the S25 series. While the (thicker) S25 and S25+ have a triple-camera setup at the back and the Ultra goes a step further with a quad-camera setup, the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge has a dual-camera setup at the back. Now this might sound a bit iffy for a smartphone that costs over a lakh, but Samsung promises a similar level of versatility and capabilities. 

While the Samsung Galaxy S25 and S25+ get 50-megapixel primary cameras, the Edge gets the 200-megapixel primary shooter that’s also on the S25 Ultra. This allows for a bit more versatility and capacity, somewhat covering for the lack of camera features that a triple- or quad-camera setup might offer.

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The second camera is the 12-megapixel ultra-wide that’s also seen on the S25 and S25+. Between the two, the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge manages to do a fair bit, including 2X ‘optical quality’ zoom (thanks to having so much resolution to work with on the primary camera), 200-megapixel full-res shots, portrait and ultra-wide shots, expert RAW, macro photography, slow motion video at up to 240fps, and regular video recording at up to 8K resolution (or 4K at 60fps). 

In practice, all of this works as expected, and results are impressive across modes and methods. The Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge is very good at point-and-shoot photography - both stills and video - utilising its big sensor and pixel binning to shoot excellent 12MP-resolution shots with plenty of detail, accurate colours, and impressive light capture even in the dark.

The Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge gets all the benefits of the S25 series when it comes to performance, including the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, 12GB of RAM, and a smooth and nicely optimised software experience that works with the hardware. Expect flagship-level performance, including being able to run heavy apps, multi-task with many apps running simultaneously, and fast loading times. 

However, when it comes to battery life and charging, the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge is somewhat let down by its super-slim design. The dimensions mean that the phone has a 3900mAh battery - the smallest among the four S25 series devices - which gives it fairly basic battery life. You can still get a day with moderate use, but heavy utilisation of intense apps, a lot of camera use and video recording (especially if you shoot at 4K or 8K), and gaming will drain the battery quickly and force you to charge before the end of the day.

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Charging itself is somewhat disappointing, with the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge supporting up to 25W wired and 15W wireless charging. The smaller size of the battery itself means that it takes around 90 minutes to fully charge the phone despite the relatively slow charging speed, but there’s no real concept of a quick burst charge at low levels - you’ll have to wait for it to gradually and evenly charge all through. Oh, and there’s no charging adapter in the box either.

Slim, pocketable phones were a big deal a few years ago, before screen size and battery life eventually became more important features for buyers. With the Galaxy S25 Edge, Samsung hopes to bring back the super-slim form factor without compromising on contemporary needs, camera capabilities, and flagship performance.

If you want the slim form, the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge sits in a niche with very little competition. There’s also a decent camera and top-notch performance, so you aren’t making too many compromises. That said, you’ll have to deal with the smaller battery and relatively slow charging speeds with the S25 Edge, as well as the higher cost of that radical design.