Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge review: So très élégant

Time of India

a day ago

I keep reaching into my bag thinking I've left my phone at home. Not because I'm forgetful, but because the
Galaxy S25 Edge
has basically no presence when you're not actively using it. Samsung has created something genuinely outlandish here: a phone that makes you question whether every other gadget you've held was just unnecessarily chunky.
Measuring 5.8mm, the Edge is the slimmest in the lineup, a design that feels almost hollow when you first pick it up, like those display units at carrier stores. Except this one actually works, and it's packing flagship specs into a frame that seems to defy physics.
But here's where things get interesting: making something impossibly thin means something else has to give. Samsung made some calculated sacrifices to achieve this sleek profile, and whether those trade-offs work for you depends entirely on how you actually use your phone. So let's see if Samsung's skinny experiment is the start of something bigger, or just another case of solving problems nobody knew they had.
Where did all the phone go?
by Taboola
by Taboola
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Undo
The numbers tell one story: 5.8mm thick, 163 grams, but they don't capture the jarring disconnect between what you expect and what you get. Pick up any other flagship phone and you know exactly what you're holding. The S25 Edge messes with that familiarity in a way that's genuinely unsettling at first.
The screen bezels, the button placement, the general proportions, it's all exactly what you'd expect from a Samsung flagship. This normalcy makes the weight reduction feel even more pronounced, like someone secretly hollowed out your phone overnight.
Pulling it from a tight pocket feels effortless, and it slides even more effortlessly. The chances are you'd forget that it's even in your pocket; I did too. Even after using it for weeks, picking up any other phone feels like grabbing a brick. And yes, you'll probably find yourself showing it off to friends more than you'd care to admit, mostly because their reactions mirror your own initial surprise.
Samsung's titanium frame does the heavy lifting here, literally and figuratively. The matte finish gives you something to grip onto, which matters more than usual when there's so little phone to actually hold. The frosted Gorilla Glass Victus 2 back continues that secure feeling, though you'll notice the camera bump becomes proportionally more prominent when the rest of the phone basically disappears. It's one of those quirks you adapt to quickly, but it does make the phone rock slightly on flat surfaces.
The build quality feels solid despite the extreme thinness, no concerning flex or hollow spots that make you wonder if Samsung cut too many corners. That IP68 rating survived the diet, along with all the usual ports and buttons in their expected places. The power button and volume rocker sit exactly where your fingers expect them, though they feel a bit more recessed given the overall profile.
Cases present an interesting paradox with the S25 Edge. Most people will want protection for their lakh rupee investment, but adding even a slim case transforms the phone from "impossibly thin" to "just regular thin." So, that's one thing you'd want to remember. But I'd suggest getting a case.
Screen dreams on a diet
The 6.7-inch LTPO AMOLED display doesn't suffer from the phone's extreme diet. At 1440p resolution with a 120Hz refresh rate, it delivers the same visual experience you'd get from Samsung's chunkier flagships. Colours pop with that characteristic Samsung vibrancy, brightness peaks at 2,600 nits for outdoor visibility, and the adaptive refresh rate smoothly scales from 1Hz to 120Hz depending on what you're doing. Text stays crisp, animations feel fluid, and streaming video looks exactly as good as it should on any lakh-rupee phone.
What's missing is the anti-reflective coating that makes the S25 Ultra so pleasant to use in bright conditions. It's not a dealbreaker, because if you haven't used an Ultra in the past two years, you won't feel any differently.
Where things get mildly interesting is in day-to-day usage: this extreme thinness means your grip naturally shifts compared to regular phones, and you might find yourself being more deliberate with gestures and swipes. One-handed use remains challenging given the 6.7-inch size, but at least your hand won't cramp from supporting a heavy device whilst you stretch your thumb to reach the top corners.
Thin exterior, thick plot
Using the Edge daily gives a sense of déjà vu, but the good kind. Under that impossibly thin profile lies the same Snapdragon 8 Elite chip that powers its regular S25 siblings. That's paired with 12GB of RAM and either 256GB or 512GB of storage, the same as the other Galaxy S25s. The phone handles everything you throw at it with the same buttery smoothness; multitasking feels effortless, and the AI features work exactly as they do on the regular S25.
OneUI 7 runs identically across the lineup, complete with all the AI assistants you probably don't need. Gemini handles the heavy lifting whilst Bixby sits in the corner like a talented but underused backup dancer. The Now Bar at the bottom still acts like Samsung's take on the Dynamic Island, though it feels slightly more prominent on the Edge's screen real estate. The AI features like Circle to Search and generative editing work perfectly, as they have.
Though the Edge's reduced thermal mass means it might get a bit toastier, that's only when you push the phone too hard. The only instances I felt it was being too warm were when I was out in Delhi's scorching 45 degrees clicking pictures, when I was using it for navigation, or the time when I played games a little too much.
Another quirk of the phone's thinness is that it creates a sort of battery anxiety, which I'd say is more psychological than practical.
Samsung has put a 3,900mAh battery inside the Edge. I know reading this capacity, you'd be taken back to the late 2010s, when the juiciest of batteries used to max out at this capacity. But, if we see it today, the Edge's battery is even smaller than what the
Galaxy S25
comes with, and that is something to be anxious about. I'd be honest here: the Edge won't probably get you to the next day, but it'll easily last you till the end of it (though it has some ifs and buts).
If you use your phone judiciously, the full charge will last you till your day ends. But, if you're someone who's on their phone the whole time, you will have to plug it in probably in the evening. It's better than what I expected when I started using the phone, and credit where credit is due, Samsung has done some work to make a phone this thin last a day.
Whilst the battery life isn't a concern today, it could be a few years down the line. As batteries age, they tend to lose their maximum capacity, and phones last a few hours less. That's where using a silicon carbon battery, which could possibly have a couple of hundred mAh more, and that would have been better.
Charging is also the same as other vanilla S25s, which I hoped it shouldn't be like that. It takes over an hour for a full charge, which feels particularly prolonged when you're babying such a delicate-seeming device.
Less is more, literally (used)
The Galaxy S25 Edge doesn't try to cram every possible lens into its impossibly thin frame just to tick marketing boxes. Instead, Samsung took their 200-megapixel sensor, paired it with a 12-megapixel ultra-wide, and called it a day. I'd say it's a calculated decision. No telephoto lens, no periscope zoom, no kitchen sink approach.
That 200-megapixel sensor is the same one you find on the little more expensive Ultra. It captures genuinely impressive detail in good lighting, with Samsung's characteristic vibrant colours that either look fantastic or slightly oversaturated depending on whether you're Team Natural or Team Samsung.
Portrait shots come out crisp with natural-looking background blur, whilst the ultra-wide that's the same one from regular Galaxy S25s handles group photos and scenic shots without the usual fisheye distortion. The only hiccup is the inconsistency when switching between lenses, where colours and exposure don't always perfectly match.
The 12-megapixel selfie camera up front does its job without fuss; it smooths out skin tones nicely, and portrait mode selfies have a pleasant background blur.
No telephoto means no dedicated 3x or 5x zoom, but Samsung's using sensor cropping on the 200MP sensor to deliver "optical quality" 2x zoom. It's not the same as a proper telephoto, but it's surprisingly competent for most shooting scenarios.
Though, missing out on the telephoto lens has its own quirks: push beyond that 2x crop and you'll quickly notice where the digital zoom magic runs out of steam. So, if you're the type who loves zooming in to get that perfect concert shot from the nosebleeds, you'll miss having real optical zoom.
Video recording holds up its end of the bargain too, shooting 8K at 30fps or 4K at a buttery smooth 120fps. The stabilisation works well enough. Though what hits it again is the lack of a telephoto, which essentially means you're relying on digital zoom for those distant shots. The cameras on the back and front both can do LOG videos, a feature that even the Ultra doesn't have.
The future feels surprisingly familiar
I wouldn't call the Galaxy S25 Edge the "phone nobody asked for", it's the one we didn't know we wanted until we held it. Yes, it makes compromises: the battery won't coddle heavy users, and lensmen will miss that telephoto lens. And thinness brings its own oddities, like the way it rocks slightly on flat surfaces due to the camera bump, or how easy it is to forget it's in your pocket. You'll either love the near-invisibility or keep patting your pocket to make sure it's there. You lose some, you win some.
But here's the thing: once you adapt to the Edge's featherweight presence, those quirks become part of its character rather than annoyances. The S25 Edge bets on a different kind of experience, one where lightness, design, and just enough of everything else take centre stage. You'll find yourself unconsciously comparing every other phone to this, wondering why everyone else is lugging around what suddenly feels like unnecessarily hefty rectangles.
Now, that's how most thin phones would feel like, isn't that what you're thinking? Not necessarily. In the past, thin phones haven't been really good at being a phone, and that's what sets the Edge apart, it stays good at being a phone without sacrificing fundamentals for millimetres.
The Edge's screen still delivers quality visuals, the hardware still runs exactly like you'd expect from a top-tier phone, and the cameras, the two Samsung managed to squeeze in, still work the way they should. Even that seemingly modest battery still manages to stretch further than its capacity suggests it should, though you'll definitely notice when it doesn't. If you're okay charging once a day and don't mind zooming with your feet, the Edge gives you something rare, a phone that doesn't feel like a brick in your pocket.
At Rs 1,09,000, the Galaxy S25 Edge is certainly not "affordable", and it's not the most obvious phone at this price. But it might just be the one you keep coming back to. If you can honestly tell yourself "the daily reality is that most of us live near chargers, and honestly, how often do you really need to zoom beyond 2x?" then the Edge delivers exactly the trade-off you didn't know you wanted, giving you an early glimpse into the future, one where elegance feels essential, not optional.
Our rating: 4/5
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