The week in mobile was full of hints and rumors, but something a little more concrete stood out: Samsung finally set a date for the impossibly thin Galaxy S25 Edge, and this happened right as we were hearing that the next generation of Galaxy foldables seems set to be the world’s thinnest. And while we don’t have many boots on the ground inside Apple’s walled garden, it’s become abundantly clear that thinness is a priority for one of the next iPhones.
While paper-thin phones are imminent, an event that looms even larger over the Android ecosystem is coming up this Tuesday — one full week ahead of Google I/O 2025 . Between this, ongoing tariff drama, and Samsung finding that 8 is truly greater than 7, it was a busy week — but don’t worry if you weren’t paying close attention these past seven days, we’ll get you caught up on the top Android headlines in no time.
Last Week’s Roundup
The era of obscenely thin phones kicks off this week
Samsung gave the press a look-but-don’t-touch session with the Galaxy S25 Edge back at the January Unpacked event where it unveiled the rest of the S25 series. It was clear that the phone wasn’t ready for production at the time, and a lot of details were still unknown. But leaks in the ensuing months have painted a clear picture: The S25 Edge will be thin for the sake of being thin, even if it comes at a cost in other areas.
Now, it’s official: Samsung will be unveiling the impossibly-thin Galaxy S25 Edge on Monday, May 12th, and you can save $50 if you reserve one ahead of time. Apart from the “Beyond slim” tagline, no new details have been given, but we have it on good authority that first-party cases will also stress thinness, and that battery life is more of a secondary concern.
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But the S25 Edge is just the tip of the super-thin iceberg. If the latest Apple rumors are correct — and there have been plenty, from some of the most reliable insiders — a new iPhone 17 Air could slice its way onto the scene this fall. Combine that with rumors emerging this week that Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 7 will be the world’s thinnest foldable, and it seems like we’re moving toward a future where thinness is a top priority in smartphone design all over again.
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There’s no going back for some Pixels after May’s update
After April’s Android Security Bulletin outlined fixes for two zero-day exploits and this month’s included yet another, Google sent out the May 2025 security update for Pixels with a change in the bootloader on some devices. For Pixel 6 and 8 models, including A-series devices, the bootloader’s anti-rollback threshold was raised to match the update’s version.
This means that, even if your phone’s bootloader is unlocked to allow flashing custom images, you won’t be able to install an older Android version on these devices after applying this update. Google didn’t specify exactly why it made this change — or the reason it doesn’t apply to other models — but it’s likely there’s an exploit on older firmware that could allow someone else to unlock the device, and Google simply wants to eliminate the ability for bad actors to flash these phones back to vulnerable versions.
Android’s getting Expressive a week before I/O
We found out towards the end of April that Google won’t be waiting until I/O to show off what’s new on Android this year — instead, it will debut most of the important changes a full week ahead of the event with a special edition of its Android vlog series. The big unveiling will happen this coming Tuesday, May 13th.
Just based on the timing, we’re thinking Android 16 could either go official or maybe even roll out starting next week. The big change it’s bringing along with it — maybe not right from the jump, based on the betas — is a new “Expressive” version of Material Design. This week, we got a good look at how this redesign will affect Google’s Clock app, and we even got up close and personal with a leak of the all-new battery icon. Whether you love it or hate it will come down to how comfortable you are with change, but it appears we’re in for another Android design paradigm shift starting early next week.
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Lucky number… 8?
For Samsung, One UI 7 was anything but a good luck charm — the update was plagued by hurdles that saw the rollout drag on for months beyond when it was originally expected. But now that it’s actually hitting devices, it seems like Samsung is back on track — and then some.
This week, we learned Samsung might skip One UI 7 altogether on its Galaxy Watches and jump straight to 8 instead. A leak even showed us what the new ringtones and notifications should sound like on One UI 8 Watch, further backing up the claim that 7 will be skipped.
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Over on the phone and tablet side, One UI 8 leaks are already starting to pour in. It appears that, just like Google, Samsung’s version of Android 16 will come earlier than expected this year, with a beta possibly launching in less than two weeks. A leaked version of the new firmware is already floating around, and so far, we’ve seen improvements for the Now Bar and some nifty new options for the stock Gallery app.
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Ship now or forever hold your peace?
Toward the end of the week, a report out of Korea suggested that Samsung is hitting fast-forward on more than just its software. According to The Elec, the company is increasing its Galaxy S25 production volume for the month of May, with the publication attributing the push to impending tariffs.
The Galaxy S25 Ultra was said to be getting the biggest vote of confidence, with 1.5 million units slated for production this month. The standard S25 and the S25+ would account for an additional 1.8 million units, bringing the total to 3.3 million flagships coming off the factory line in May, not including the S25 Edge. Overall, Samsung is supposedly upping its output to 16.2 million smartphones and tablets for the month.
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