I want to love the Galaxy S25 Edge but Samsung | Tech News

Thin telephones are making a comeback, with Apple rumoured to be lining up an iPhone 17 Slim (identify TBC), but Samsung has crushed its bitter rival to market.

I was sceptical when I first obtained my palms on the Galaxy S25 Edge. Why do telephones need to be skinny again? They initially obtained thicker to have higher battery life, be much less fragile, and have higher thermal management; all good causes.

I liked my slender Galaxy S6 back in 2015, but it ran very popular and had horrible battery life that left me in the lurch a number of instances.

I’m happy to say the S25 Edge fares higher than that – you’d hope as a lot a decade later – but Samsung has constructed a cellphone with some compromises to slim it down, and I can’t look previous its poor battery life, one thing I predicted can be an subject earlier this month.

The S25 Edge takes the construct high quality, chipset and most important digital camera of the S25 Ultra and the screen dimension and high quality of the S25 Plus, but then tops it off with worse battery life than not solely the common S25, but most of the telephones I’ve used and reviewed in the previous couple of years. Is that a commerce off you’re keen to make?

The S25 Edge can get me via a full day of use from taking it off the charger at 7am, to roughly round 15 p.c after a day of solely reasonable use by 10pm. It hasn’t died on me after a week of utilizing it as my most important cellphone, but I’ve recurrently ended a comparable day with 40 to 50 p.c battery nonetheless in the tank with telephones akin to the iPhone 16, OnePlus 13 and Samsung’s own S25 Plus.

After two or three years of use and battery degradation, I have issues about the S25’s battery life over time. Samsung has additionally disregarded the 45W fast charging present in the S25 Plus and S25 Ultra, so this cellphone additionally tops up slowly regardless of costing £1,099.

That’s a lot to pay, particularly when its thinness means there may be additionally no telephoto digital camera lens, one thing Samsung contains on Galaxy telephones that value lots of much less.

Samsung has opted for a 3,900mAh battery, smaller than the one in the common S25. The firm hasn’t embraced the superior silicon-carbon batteries with greater capacities you’ll discover in OnePlus and Honor telephones, leaving the lithium cell right here floundering by night time.

But regardless of these flaws, the S25 Edge is a pleasure to use. Samsung has constructed the body from titanium, identical to its £1,249 S25 Ultra, making it really feel extremely stable and light-weight. After utilizing the Edge, the Ultra looks like a thick joke of a cellphone. The Edge spoils all different telephones, frankly, because it’s a mere 5.8mm thick. Any different cellphone seems like a brick compared.

Yet it’s the weight that impresses most. At 163g regardless of its massive 6.7-inch screen, the Edge isn’t too heavy to use one-handed, even when my thumb can’t attain the prime of the screen. Want a massive screen to doomscroll on with out your hand getting drained? This is the cellphone for you.

Performance is close to flawless thanks to the Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy chipset, the similar one in every of the S25 telephones. Because it’s one thing there’s little room for correct thermals, and the cellphone obtained sizzling when I bulk up to date my apps or fired up a full-on cellular sport akin to Call of Duty, but the efficiency hung in there for a half hour session. If you’re actually into cellular gaming although you need to look elsewhere, because it nukes the tender battery.

I love this cellphone’s show. It has a pin-sharp 3120×1440 decision, an adaptive 1-120Hz refresh charge and will get very brilliant in direct solar so you’ll be able to all the time see what’s occurring. Paired with the excessive thinness, it looks like a cellphone from the future.

Streaming video seems great, apps pop thanks to Samsung’s choice for vivid color replica, but the screen misses out on the S25 Ultra’s anti-reflective coating, one thing I really feel Samsung ought to embody at this price.

The most important digital camera right here is superb, the similar 200MP sensor from the S25 Ultra. It can shoot in 12MP, 50MP or 200MP, and photographs at most decision look notably good. Samsung saturates colors a tad more than I would love, but typically I didn’t need to edit snaps from this lens to be pleased with them. It’s the least you’d count on from a cellphone this expensive. Macro photographs are additionally very good.

As there’s no telephoto, you get an ultra-wide alongside it. I personally don’t use these lenses a lot, but it’s good to have simply in case.

I’m much less enthused by all the AI stuff Samsung has crammed into the Edge, but that is the case with all the different S25 telephones too. Lucky you’ll be able to principally ignore all of it or flip it off, in case you don’t want it to try to rewrite your emails for you or summarise your notes.

The reside translation device is genuinely helpful on your subsequent journey overseas although, and the circle to search characteristic for shortly Googling what’s on screen is particularly helpful.

I want to shout about Samsung’s glorious software program assist. The S25 Edge is set for seven years of Android and security updates to take this cellphone nicely into 2032. That’s good, although you’ll undoubtedly need to substitute the battery in a few years in case you actually want this cellphone to final you into subsequent decade. The cellphone runs Android 15 presently, and I’m a fan of the look and deep customisation choices of Samsung’s One UI 7 overlay.

This all makes the Galaxy S25 Edge a tantalising cellphone that it’s a little tough to advocate. If you don’t care about battery life, fill your boots. I guess energy banks exist, and the cellphone didn’t really die on me whereas I was out and about during my testing. But at £1,099, it’s value contemplating different, cheaper telephones have battery life that may be actually twice as long.

The lack of a telephoto digital camera will annoy some but in all probability not the majority of smartphone patrons, and in case you buy the Edge on contract you may not assume it’s too costly, both. I applaud Samsung for pushing the boat out a bit with a thinner cellphone, even when I’m not but satisfied we need one. If it was my money, I’d wait until the company can determine higher battery life.