When Samsung launched the Galaxy S25 series, we pretty much knew that it would consist of three phones: the S25, the S25 Plus, and the S25 Ultra. However, Samsung surprised many when it ended its presentation with a “One more thing” moment, teasing the Galaxy S25 Edge. Yet, while the teaser was a cool way to showcase the company’s engineering, Samsung managed to both intrigue and confuse me with this reveal.
The Galaxy S25 Edge was rumored for some time as the Galaxy S25 “Slim,” with leaks pointing to a phone that was much thinner than its regular lineup of phones. Rumors seemed to go back and forth about the position of the phone and whether or not it would actually be revealed or launched alongside the regular S25 lineup. Now, we know the phone is a real, tangible device, but that’s about the extent of what we know aside from its real design.
What's confusing to me is Samsung’s decision to tease a phone that should have fully launched alongside the Galaxy S25 trio of phones.
Buy now or wait
I’ll start by saying I’m all for a thin phone. I recently wrote about how I wish flip phones like the Motorola Razr should be thinner, so I wouldn’t mind returning to the days of the iPhone 6 when companies were seemingly racing to build the thinnest phone, of course, before being derailed by Bendgate. The Galaxy S25 Edge intrigues me because it could allow me to stick a case on the device without it becoming uncomfortably thick.
I know I’m not the only one who wants a thin phone, so Samsung is clearly onto something here. The problem is that now, Samsung is making us wait.
On the one hand, I get why Samsung chose to tease the Galaxy S25 Edge now. Leaks are pretty much inevitable at this point, and companies like Google and Samsung like to try to get ahead of them if they can. Once the leaks get to a point of no return, they’ll try to get ahead of them one way or another. Google has become good at this, and now it’s Samsung’s turn to control the narrative by eschewing our expectations.
Early leaks referred to the phone as the Galaxy S25 “Slim,” which is clearly inaccurate, at least as far as the official moniker is concerned. It’s a slim phone, so the leaks were right about that, although we still don’t know how thin it is. Furthermore, some early renders of the device pointed to a triple camera setup, while the real deal only features two rear cameras. Another point for Samsung, I guess.
The main problem I have with this is that Samsung is forcing consumers to make a choice: buy what we have now or wait until this interesting new thing gets launched. As a regular consumer, I would be kind of pissed if I bought a Galaxy S25 Plus now, only for Samsung to turn around and introduce something similar but potentially much more enticing mere months later.
This is a problem some had with Samsung’s launch of the Galaxy Z Fold Special Edition, a thinner version of the Galaxy Z Fold 6 that launched months later ( and in the following quarter, mind you).
Shortly after the Z Fold 6 launch, Samsung was criticized for launching very iterative phones that didn’t seem to push the needle, to the point where it issued a rare apology. Then, a couple of months later, it revealed the Z Fold Special Edition, which had many of us intrigued. Unfortunately, it was only available in South Korea, and while it missed out on S Pen support, it was still an impressive phone that felt like what the Galaxy Z Fold 6 should have been.
Getting the jump on Apple
After seeing what Samsung did with the Z Fold Special Edition launch, I can imagine the company waiting until Q2 to launch the Galaxy S25 Edge. This would give the company another flagship to put on the market in between the main S series phones and the Z lineup, which usually launch in Q3.
That would make the most sense, given how Samsung lost market share in Q2 2024, revealing a sizeable hole in the company’s product release schedule. But while Samsung could risk losing some sales of its main trio of Galaxy S25 devices, it also gains something else that could be much more valuable in the long run: hype.
Following the company’s troubles in 2024, Samsung clearly needs something to show consumers that it’s still an exciting company. A “One more thing” moment à la Apple is the type of thing that could do just that, especially if Samsung shows off the phone while virtually saying nothing about it. It leaves us with more questions than answers and gets us all speculating about why Samsung clearly thinks this is a big deal. Because it has to be more than just how thin it is… right?
Maybe not. Apple has been rumored to have an iPhone 17 Air in the works, and the phone could bring us back to the days when thin was in. If Apple can bring great performance and battery life into a super thin smartphone, then it would be a pretty attractive package. And given Apple’s propensity to garner a lot of hype for its phones after they’re launched, Samsung clearly wanted to get ahead of the game and show us that it can be just as interesting as Apple.
The thing is, no one is asking Samsung to look at what Apple is doing because, frankly, Samsung's customers aren't looking at Apple. Jitesh Ubrani, research manager for IDC's Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers, said as much in an interview with Android Central editor-in-chief Shruti Shekar.
"For the longest time, Samsung has focused on competition with Apple when globally they’re competing with many more brands," he says. "To be successful, Samsung needs to realize that there’s more than just Apple. Samsung should leverage their scale to iterate faster and continue to invest in marketing like they used to do so during the pre-pandemic era."
Only time will tell if consumers will go with the hype. Of course, Samsung will have to prove that it can be interesting again, and I’m not sure 2025 is the year, especially seeing how its latest Galaxy S25 phones skipped over essential hardware upgrades in favor of AI.
All this... for this?
By choosing to wait and start garnering hype for the phone, Samsung also risks disappointing consumers with a fairly underwhelming phone. We don’t have official specs and information aside from what Samsung showed off at Unpacked, but leaks point to a pretty run-of-the-mill flagship that could come with some notable compromises.
The phone could run a slightly underpowered version of the Snapdragon 8 Elite with 12GB of RAM, which would help manage thermals in such a thin chassis. Rumors and recent leaks also point to a 3,900mAh battery with 25W charging. This would put its battery specs just beneath the smallest Galaxy S25, which sports a smaller display and a 4,000mAh battery.
The Galaxy S25 Edge is expected to have a display that falls somewhere around the Galaxy S25 Plus and S25 Ultra, and if true, it would be interesting to see how it handles battery life. One way could be that it lowers the resolution to just FHD+ instead of QHD+, which means it would miss out on certain display upgrades in the S25 Plus/Ultra, like ProScaler.
The only bright side of the rumors is that the phone could sport a 200MP primary camera, which so far has been exclusive to Samsung’s Ultra and Z Fold phones.
This puts the Galaxy S25 Edge in a very precarious position as far as where exactly it falls up in the S25 lineup, especially if it comes with the size of the larger phones with specs that fall more in line with the smallest, less capable model. Overall, it’s starting to sound somewhat underwhelming, which is exactly what Android Central’s Jerry Hildenbrand predicted would be the case.
Samsung is trying to prove that it can be edgy again, but the Galaxy S25 Edge could fall flat, and generating all this hype for a potentially mid phone could backfire.
