The Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge costs too much to offer this little

Since it was first teased at Unpacked in January, the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge has been one of the biggest phones on my radar — largely out of curiosity and confusion. It’s a surprise fourth addition to the standard Galaxy S25 family, and in the months since that initial tease, I’ve been scratching my head trying to understand the “why” around it.

Samsung has finally revealed the Edge in full, and according to the company, the phone’s purpose is this: to be as thin and light as possible while still delivering a flagship smartphone experience. That’s what we assumed up until this point, but now that we know all of the S25 Edge’s nitty gritty details — including its exorbitant price and lacking specs — I don’t understand how Samsung thinks it achieved that goal.

The more I look at the Galaxy S25 Edge, the more I don’t understand it. And, unless I’m wildly out of touch with most consumers, it’s hard to see that not being the conclusion most people come to.

But then you start looking at the specs, and that idea immediately begins to fall apart.

The camera is one of the most obvious. It starts on a good note in that the primary camera is a 200MP sensor — the first time we’ve seen it on a non-Ultra Samsung phone. That should translate to very similar (if not identical) image quality compared to the Ultra, and for a phone that costs $200 less, that’s not bad at all. Unfortunately, that’s where the positives end.

The S25 Edge’s ultrawide camera isn’t the 50MP sensor found on the S25 Ultra. Instead, it’s the same 12MP sensor used on the S25 and S25 Plus. And as you’ve likely noticed by now, those are the only two rear cameras on the S25 Edge.

There is no telephoto camera whatsoever on the Galaxy S25 Edge, and even with that 200MP main sensor, maximum zoom capability is limited to 10x. As a reminder, the S25 Ultra’s two telephoto cameras enable it to go up to 100x, and even the S25 and S25 Plus get up to 30x. And those phones cost $700 and $1,000! Yet, for whatever reason, Samsung’s $1,100 phone can’t go past 10x.

And it’s not just the cameras where the spec sheet seems out of place for the $1,100 asking price. The 3,900mAh battery is the smallest of any Galaxy S25 device, the 25W wired charge speeds are behind the S25 Plus and S25 Ultra, and the S25 Edge’s display specs are identical to those of the Plus, meaning you don’t get the anti-reflective coating that’s on the S25 Ultra.

At the end of the day, the Galaxy S25 Edge is an S25 Plus-sized phone with a much smaller battery, slower charge speeds, and less capable zoom. Sure, you get a nicer primary camera and a slimmer design, but is that worth a $100 premium over the Plus? I don’t think so at all.

While I’m sure other people may think differently, at least many of you reading seem to agree with me. A recent poll we conducted indicated that less than 18% of you were interested in a super thin phone a la the Galaxy S25 Edge, while the remaining ~80% of you said you were either fine with current phone thinness or wanted companies to go in the opposite direction and make phones thicker. And from what I’ve seen anecdotally on social media, that seems to be the consensus there, too.

Samsung must see demand for a phone like the Galaxy S25 Edge. Otherwise, it wouldn’t exist. Apple does too, with the iPhone 17 Air seemingly on the horizon for later this fall. But is this really what the majority of people want as the “next big thing” in smartphones? Slimmer designs at the expense of other (and important) features for a higher price? Nothing about that future excites me, but for whatever reason, Samsung sees potential in it.

I wish I saw that potential, too, but no matter how I look at it, I don’t.

If I were in the market for a Samsung phone today, in what situation would I want to choose the Galaxy S25 Edge over any of the company’s other options? If a light, easy-to-use phone were my top concern, the $700 Galaxy S25 would be much easier on my wallet and still match the S25 Edge in areas like battery capacity and charge speeds. If I wanted a bigger phone with longer battery life, the S25 Plus fits the bill perfectly. For the same $1,100 retail price as the Galaxy S25 Edge, I could buy the Galaxy Z Flip 6 instead and get a phone that folds. And if you want the best that Samsung offers, that title still belongs to the S25 Ultra (which we’ve seen discounted to as low as $1,055).

Maybe there is that person out there for whom the Galaxy S25 Edge checks every box. But as someone who’s been covering this industry for over 10 years, I don’t think that person exists, and certainly not enough of them will look at the S25 Edge as a better purchase than Samsung’s other phones.

Does that matter to Samsung so long as people are buying Samsung-branded phones? Maybe not! But then, what’s the point of the Galaxy S25 Edge in the first place? What problem is it solving? What gap is it filling that currently exists in the S25 family? I don’t think there is one, at least not with how the phone was executed.

I think there’s an argument to make in most phones’ favor, but I haven’t found that yet for the S25 Edge. It’s not priced well, the specs aren’t there, and the entire focus on a slim design is lost the second you put on a case.