Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge review: If you value form, then it will suit you down to the ground

It’s thinner and lighter than the S25+, but there’s less battery time and the camera bump is pronounced

The Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge has a 200-megapixel main camera, and a 12-megapixel ultra-wide front-facing camera
The Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge has a 200-megapixel main camera, and a 12-megapixel ultra-wide front-facing camera
Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge
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Price: €1269
Website: https://www.samsung.comOpens in new window
Where To Buy: Samsung.com

What matters most to you in a phone? Is it camera? Battery life? Or is it pure thinness that gets your attention?

Samsung has long satisfied demand for high-powered premium smartphones with the Galaxy series, building in better cameras, more power, improving battery life.

Now it is trying to tempt the holdouts with the new Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge, a thinner, lighter phone. The only problem is that is has made some sacrifices to get there.

But let’s start from the beginning. The S25 Edge comes with a 6.7-inch display, putting it on a par with the S25+, but with a titanium case that is marginally smaller and definitely lighter. It has a 120Hz refresh rate too, so scrolling is smooth.

The S25 Edge is powered by a Snapdragon chip – the Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy – that makes it snappy for most tasks, as long as you don’t ask too much of it. It is backed up by 12GB of RAM, and you get to choose between 256GB and 512GB in capacity. All in all, it works well.

The camera set-up is decent here too, as you would expect from a Samsung Galaxy flagship phone. Where it differs from the S25 and S25+, though, is in its lens choices.

The company has dropped the telephoto lens, opting instead for a dual camera set-up. But it has bumped up the main camera to 200 megapixels, while the second option is the 12-megapixel ultra-wide.

There is a 2x optical zoom to play with, backed up by a 10x digital zoom that just magnifies what is already in the frame rather than getting you any closer to the action. The 12-megapixel front-facing camera is exactly what you would expect at this stage: sharp focus and great for video calls.

Another of the sacrifices is in the battery life, which trails that of its S25 siblings. At 3900mAh versus the 4900mAh in the S25+, you might get a full day out of it if you are a light user. I am not, so it was back to charging at least nightly for me, with the battery just about lasting the day.

Samsung unveils new Galaxy S25 AI-focused smartphonesOpens in new window ]

On the face of it, you might be a bit perplexed as to why the S25 Edge exists. It is slotting into a phone range that already has the high-powered end of things covered with the S25 Ultra, and the cheaper flagship side sorted with the S25.

Holding fast in the middle is the S25+, which has a decent-sized screen, good camera and battery life that won’t tether you to a power bank. And it is cheaper than the Edge to the tune of a couple of hundred euro.

So why go for the Edge? It doesn’t have the eye-catching design appeal of the Flip or Fold series. Sure, it’s thinner, but unless you like dicing with (phone) death, chances are you are going to put the phone straight into a case, negating any wow factor you get from it.

And the camera bump on the back feels huge in comparison to the rest of the phone, so you don’t really get all the advantage of the slimmer form.

But it is lightweight, noticeably slimmer in your hand, and shows just where the trade-off is in the pursuit of better battery life.

Good

If you value form, then the Galaxy S25 Edge will suit you down to the ground. It is light, it is thin and it looks good. That will be cancelled out as soon as you put it in a case to protect it, but you know what is under there.

The camera, while lacking the telephoto lens, is great quality. The 200-megapixel main camera beats the S25+’s 50-megapixel main camera, and the front-facing camera offers the decent video calls and selfies you have come to expect.

Bad

Thinner phone means less space, and that inevitably hits battery capacity. In the case of the S25 Edge, that means you will get noticeably less time out of it than other S25 devices. Also, the thinner profile means the camera bump is more pronounced.

Everything else

It comes with all Samsung’s AI tools built in, which includes Circle to Search, the Now bar and advanced AI editing tools for photos and videos.

Verdict

Overall, the Galaxy S25 Edge is a solid phone, if a little pricey for the sacrifices you make.

Ciara O'Brien

Ciara O'Brien

Ciara O'Brien is an Irish Times business and technology journalist