My 5 Biggest Concerns About The Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge

Paul Jones / Android Authority

The Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge is poised to be one of the year’s most interesting Android phones. Announced alongside the rest of the Samsung Galaxy S25 series in January, the Edge is a curious fourth family member that prioritizes its wildly thin design above all else.

Expected to measure just 5.84mm thick, the Galaxy S25 Edge will be significantly slimmer than almost every other major smartphone available today. For reference, the regular Galaxy S25 measures 7.2mm thick, while the Google Pixel 9 is 8.5mm. Paired with a Snapdragon 8 Elite plus flagship levels of RAM and storage, the S25 Edge is shaping up to be a fascinating release.

Considering how much Samsung has had the Galaxy S series on cruise control for the last several years, the idea of a brand new model for the lineup is undeniably exciting. Samsung has played it increasingly safe with the Galaxy S, Galaxy S Plus, and Galaxy S Ultra, so to see the company try something new is great.

As much as I’m looking forward to seeing how the Galaxy S25 Edge comes together, I have my fair share of reservations about it, too. I’m glad Samsung is trying something fresh and new, but based on what we know about the phone so far, a few things stick out to me as potential pain points.

Battery life

Robert Triggs / Android Authority

Let’s start with one of my biggest concerns: battery life. Certain spec compromises have to be made when creating an ultra-thin phone like the Galaxy S25 Edge, and chief among those is battery capacity. Although not confirmed by Samsung, database certifications suggest that the S25 Edge’s battery will be just 3,786mAh.

That, dear reader, is not good. The Galaxy S25 Edge’s 6.6-inch display means it’s a fairly large phone, yet it’s likely to have a smaller battery than the 4,000mAh unit inside the regular Galaxy S25 — which has a much smaller 6.2-inch screen. Compared to other large Samsung phones, things look even more dire. The Galaxy S25 Plus and Galaxy S25 Ultra, which have 4,900mAh and 5,000mAh batteries, respectively, trounce the S25 Edge.

In our testing, the base S25 and S25 Plus both have enough endurance for about a full day of use. It’s not amazing battery life, but it’s good enough. The S25 Edge having a smaller battery than the base S25 and a screen size similar to the S25 Plus — meaning more pixels to power throughout the day — it’s all but guaranteed to have the worst battery of the entire family, potentially being a phone you need to put on the charger in the afternoon. Of course, we need to get our hands on the phone before we know how things will play out, but it’s not looking good.

Cameras

C. Scott Brown / Android Authority

Camera hardware is another expected compromise when drastically slimming down a phone. So far, rumors suggest the Galaxy S25 Edge will have a 200MP primary camera and a 12MP ultrawide camera.

While not confirmed, the 200MP primary camera should be the same (or similar) as the 200MP primary camera on the Galaxy S25 Ultra. Although it’s not the newest sensor on the market, it’s still extremely capable and one that’s difficult to complain too much about. What I’m more hesitant about is the rumored ultrawide camera.

Word on the street is that it’ll be the same 12MP ultrawide sensor used on the S25 and S25 Plus. It’s a serviceable camera, but given how much the S25 Edge is rumored to cost, I’d expect a lot more from a phone that may be priced at $1,000+. The 12MP ultrawide camera is already a letdown on the $800 Galaxy S25, so slapping it on a phone that should be significantly more expensive wouldn’t be a great feeling. And that’s not even mentioning the complete lack of a telephoto camera, giving the Edge’s camera package less versatility than its cheaper S25 and S25 Plus siblings.

Hardware durability

Paul Jones / Android Authority

The idea of a phone as thin as the Galaxy S25 Edge is exciting. While maybe not the most practical thing in the world, there’s no denying the technical and hardware prowess on display. However, in addition to a smaller battery and lesser camera specs, durability is another potential issue we should talk about.

We expect the Galaxy S25 Edge to have a titanium frame and a ceramic glass material for its backside. The build quality itself should be strong, and I expect the same level of high-end craftsmanship we typically see from flagship Samsung phones. But even so, there’s still a level of concern with how well a 5.84mm-thick phone will hold up in daily use.

Even if it has exceptional materials and build quality, the fact remains that the thinner a phone is, the more susceptible it is to bending and breaking. From an accidental drop to forgetting your phone is in your back pocket and sitting on it (something I’ve done many times before), the S25 Edge will undoubtedly be at greater risk in these scenarios than its thicker S25 family members. Sure, a protective case and being extra careful with the phone will help, but if you need to slap a thick, heavy-duty case on the S25 Edge to ensure its safety, what’s the point of getting an ultra-thin phone in the first place?

I hope Samsung proves me wrong here and that this concern is much ado about nothing, but this is something we should be thinking about.

Quality of life features

Ryan Haines / Android Authority

This next one is a smaller and far less important detail, but it’s still on my mind. As we’ve already established, thinner phones result in certain spec/feature compromises. The big ones, like battery life and cameras, are obvious, but other areas are likely to be impacted, too.

One of those is speaker quality. External speakers are largely size-dependent, so when there’s less room inside a phone to work with, there’s less room for large and powerful speakers — likely meaning less rich/full audio and a decrease in bass output.

I’m also curious how the vibration motor will be affected. A thinner body means less internal component space to work with, and a vibration motor isn’t exactly at the top of the priority list above things like the display panel, battery, chipset, etc. Additionally, how will this impact room for a vapor chamber to properly cool the phone under heavy workloads?

Things like speaker quality, haptic feedback, and a vapor chamber are not dealbreakers for most people. However, there’s a chance for all of them to be negatively impacted by the S25 Edge’s size. When you factor that together with the other points above, it all starts compounding in a not-great way.

Price

Lanh Nguyen / Android Authority

Last but certainly not least, we need to talk about price. Reporting out of South Korea claims the Galaxy S25 Edge will cost 1.5 million KRW — roughly the US equivalent of $1,030. If that South Korean number is accurate, that puts the S25 Edge in between the Galaxy S25 Plus (1.3 million KRW) and the Galaxy S25 Ultra (1.6 million KRW).

US pricing hasn’t leaked yet, but we can make a rough guess about what it may look like. With the S25 Plus starting at $1,000 and the S25 Ultra retailing for $1,300, that should put the S25 Edge somewhere around $1,150 or $1,200. In other words, it won’t be cheap.

On the one hand, it makes sense. Samsung is trying something completely different with the S25 Edge, and the R&D/engineering required to make it so thin likely costs a pretty penny. But on the flip side, beyond that super-thin design, the value proposition of the Edge doesn’t look particularly strong. You’ll potentially be paying around $1,200 for a phone with two rear cameras, a tiny battery, and possible durability/QOL compromises.

The Galaxy S25 Edge’s hardware will be undeniably impressive, but if it’s priced as high as reporting suggests, it’s going to look like a pretty poor value next to its S25 Plus and Ultra family members.

Valid concerns about the Galaxy S25 Edge?

C. Scott Brown / Android Authority

Galaxy S25 Edge

It’s important to note that many of these concerns are based on rumors, reporting, and some educated speculation. They’re important things to think about ahead of the S25 Edge’s release, but there’s always the possibility that Samsung will address all of them. It may find a way to squeeze reliable battery life out of the phone’s small capacity. The secondary ultrawide camera could be a higher-quality sensor than expected. My worries about durability, speaker quality, haptics, etc. may not be warranted at all.

I certainly hope that’s the case, but given what we know about the Galaxy S25 Edge right now, these things are top of mind. We expect the S25 Edge to be released sometime in April, and I’m crossing my fingers that the phone proves this entire article wrong once it’s finally here.