I Replaced My Samsung S25 Ultra With The S25 Edge - Here's Why I Opted For The Slim Model

ZDNET's cardinal takeaways

• The Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge presently sells for $999 for nan 12GB of RAM and 512GB of retention configuration.
• With its sleek floor plan and coagulated hardware, this telephone sets a caller standards for mobile devices.
• You'll person to settee pinch subpar artillery life and nan absence of a telephoto lens owed to nan constricted size.

At Amazon, you tin prime up nan 512GB Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge for conscionable $920 (that's $300 off).

The infinitesimal I unboxed nan Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge, I knew I was successful trouble. While I had already spent a fewer hours fiddling pinch nan telephone backmost successful May, going done my mundane regular pinch a instrumentality that's importantly thinner, and much importantly, lighter, than immoderate different telephone I've precocious tested has been revolutionary.

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With nan S25 Edge, it's nan small things: really nan phone's lightness makes magnetic cases harder to accidentally detach from mounts, really overmuch little burdensome it feels to clasp up a 6.8-inch surface erstwhile my different manus is hanging connected nan subway railing, and really nan telephone hurts a small little erstwhile I driblet it connected my look successful bed.

If there's 1 large takeaway from testing nan S25 Edge since launch, it's that bladed and ray phones person spoiled maine successful each measurement but one. Unfortunately for Samsung, that 1 drawback is capable to person immoderate personification to look elsewhere. Let maine explain.

Your first belief of nan S25 Edge will apt beryllium nan aforesaid arsenic excavation and nan galore others who acquisition an ultra-thin telephone successful 2025. It's an engineering marvel, pinch a lightweight (163 grams) build encased successful nan aforesaid titanium worldly that keeps nan much costly S25 Ultra exemplary protected from bumps and scratches.

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While nan 6.8-inch show shares nan aforesaid specifications arsenic nan S25 Plus model, nan manus consciousness is wholly different. It almost feels incorrect not to beryllium burdened by holding a big-screen phone, but that's nan ultra-thin telephone experience, and I person been sold connected that facet since Day 1.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge (left) and S25 Plus (right)

Kerry Wan/ZDNET

Samsung said it pulled a batch of creation cues from its Z Fold statement erstwhile designing nan S25 Edge, and I judge it. I've utilized each Samsung foldable phone since nan first procreation successful 2019 and person ever wondered really bully it would beryllium to divided nan foldable surface successful half but clasp nan slimness. The S25 Edge is efficaciously that, making almost each different telephone I've tried to prime up since testing it consciousness outdated.

Also: I changed 10 Samsung telephone settings to importantly amended nan personification experience

I'm little enthusiastic astir nan deficiency of an anti-glare screen, which is 1 of nan astir underrated features connected nan S25 Ultra model. Sure, nan S25 Edge's highest brightness of 2,600 nits makes it conscionable usable successful wide daylight, but nan beingness of glare and reflections is felt, particularly arsenic nan summertime sun starts to hit down much often.

It's unfortunate because nan S25 Edge is simply a telephone that's destined to beryllium nimble and carried around. Instead, I often find myself utilizing nan telephone little erstwhile outdoors.

Fortunately, whenever I usage nan phone, it operates pinch grace. I can't pinpoint 1 point for nan coagulated performance, truthful I'll in installments nan Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, nan smoother animations of One UI 7, and nan 12 GB of RAM, which is capable for hybrid AI tasks, mobile gaming, and loading various societal media feeds.

Kerry Wan/ZDNET

Just this weekend, I utilized nan Gemini Live camera-sharing characteristic to inquire astir really to woody pinch a wall of poison ivy connected my backyard fence, watercourse Spotify to a Bluetooth speaker, and matter my woman astir meal plans. This was each connected LTE data, by nan way, and nan S25 Edge handled it each without galore hiccups. I did announcement nan backmost of nan phone, wherever nan processor is housed adjacent nan camera module, often getting lukewarm to nan touch.

That leads maine to judge that while Samsung put immoderate effort into building a functional thermal-cooling strategy successful nan S25 Edge, it still has excessively small existent property to section thing effective for modern-day usage. Any powerfulness personification tin easy rile this instrumentality up.

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On nan camera front, nan S25 Edge comes pinch a 200 MP wide-angle lens and a 12 MP ultra-wide. I was primitively disappointed that Samsung couldn't propulsion successful a dedicated telephoto lens -- moreover nan modular S25 exemplary has 1 -- but successful practice, I didn't find myself missing nan far-distance sensor. In astir cases, nan 2x optical-level harvest from nan 200 MP (so agelong arsenic you move nan solution connected successful nan viewfinder) delivered conscionable nan correct magnitude of detail, colour reproduction, and scope that I needed for thing further out.

Samsung says nan 200 MP camera connected nan S25 Edge is Ultra-level but not precisely nan aforesaid arsenic nan 1 recovered connected nan much costly flagship. That said, I didn't announcement a melodramatic quality successful image and video value erstwhile comparing nan 2 phones. In fact, location were moments erstwhile I preferred nan output from nan S25 Edge, which doesn't oversaturate colors arsenic overmuch arsenic I'm utilized to from Samsung phones.

Kerry Wan/ZDNET

The biggest mobility people going into testing nan S25 Edge, and really for each different bladed telephone moving forward, is really its artillery fares. From my 3 weeks of testing, nan artillery life connected nan S25 Edge is subpar, though that shouldn't travel arsenic a astonishment to anyone. The penning was connected nan wall; it's a large-screen telephone (6.8-inch AMOLED) pinch a powerful processor (Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite) and a artillery capacity (3,900 mAh) that's smaller than that of nan smallest S25 exemplary (4,000 mAh).

Suffice it to opportunity that nan S25 Edge made artillery worry a point again, pinch my reappraisal portion consistently dropping to 10–20% powerfulness by precocious afternoon. Coming from conscionable astir immoderate different telephone successful 2025, nan dip successful endurance was instantly noticeable erstwhile I began utilizing nan instrumentality backmost successful May.

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Even aft it's gone done a fewer cycles of learning my usage patterns, and moments erstwhile I'd person to nerf nan settings to 60 Hz refresh complaint and move connected power-saving mode, I'm still obscurity adjacent all-day artillery life. This is simply a deal-breaker for me, and will apt beryllium for anyone other who's often distant from an outlet aliases doesn't want to transportation a portable artillery everyplace they go. It doesn't thief that nan S25 Edge caps retired astatine 25 W wired charging, falling short of nan 45 W standing connected nan S25 Plus.

Kerry Wan/ZDNET

Had Samsung been much consenting to flex its ingenuity muscles and embed a silicon-carbon artillery -- celebrated among Asian smartphone manufacturers for its accrued power density -- you whitethorn beryllium looking astatine 1 of nan best phones of 2025. Instead, this is simply a large lawsuit of "what if," pinch nan biggest victor being Samsung itself, which now gets to show Apple that they made nan ultra-thin telephone first. Take that for what you will.

ZDNET's buying proposal

I'll reiterate that nan Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge is this adjacent to being my dream phone, pinch nan creation and hardware being almost arsenic bully arsenic 1 tin dream for astatine $1,099. But nan lackluster artillery life is nan ultra-thin phone's Achilles' heel. Samsung should've been alert of this downside going into nan manufacturing process, and nan clearest solution (silicon-carbon batteries) has existed connected nan marketplace for astatine slightest nan past year.

As a result, you're looking astatine a futuristic telephone that's held backmost by an old-school problem.

Of course, if you find nan below-average artillery life to beryllium a worthy trade-off for a lightweight yet powerful handset, past nan S25 Edge is arsenic bully arsenic it gets correct now. I've mislaid count of nan number of iPhone users who bought into nan thought of a bladed telephone conscionable seconds aft I handed them nan S25 Edge. But if you want thing safer, longer-lasting, and someway much capable, see nan S25 Plus and you won't regret it.

Looking for nan adjacent champion product? Get master reviews and editor favorites pinch ZDNET Recommends.

This article was primitively published connected June 2, 2025, and was updated connected July 14, 2025.