We are entering the season of slim phones. Samsung will officially unveil the Galaxy S25 Edge on May 13 in India. It is expected to answer all the questions that we have about a device that we only caught a glimpse of in January during an Unpacked event in San Francisco.
“This is more than a slim smartphone. Every curve, contour and component reflects a breakthrough in precise engineering to create a premium experience worthy of the S series name. The Galaxy S25 Edge not only sets a new standard for what you can achieve with your smartphone, it also unlocks a new era of growth for the mobile industry,” Samsung has said in a statement.
Given the slow growth in smartphone sales, a design change in the right direction is needed. Despite its slim profile, the S25 Edge will come with a 200MP main camera, like the top-of-the-line Galaxy S25 Ultra.
The phone is arriving at a time when rumours of a slim iPhone 17 (reportedly called iPhone 17 Air) are doing the rounds. The Apple device might come with a single rear camera and a mix of high- and low-end features. The S25 Edge, says Samsung, will blend “flagship-level performance with superior portability”.
Nobody has mentioned why it is important to have a slim phone or what makes this phone so thin. It feels like a style statement. It is more of an answer to “phones have become all the same”. Folding phones aside, what else are companies doing differently? Slimmer phones could be the answer.
The way Samsung showed off the phone in January was memorable. The phone appeared suspended in the air.
The quest for slim phones is not new. Remember the film Zoolander from 2001? There is a joke that phones are super tiny. And now we have super-thin phones.
The iPhone 6 was thin, and it became a headache for Apple in 2014. It was the year associated with ‘Bendgate’ as a few of the then-recently released iPhone 6 and 6 Plus phones were bending in people’s pockets due to poor design.
Another phone comes to mind: Micromax Canvas Sliver 5 was 5.1 mm thick and weighed 97g. The company even got Hugh Jackman to endorse the product. But success was limited.
One question many may ask: Will the battery be smaller on the Edge? Samsung hasn’t spoken about it, but I think the company has used a different combination of components to keep the chassis slim.
Front view of Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge. Picture: Mathures Paul
Besides the camera, there is little known about Samsung’s next phone. It will feature Corning Gorilla Glass Ceramic 2.1 a new glass ceramic offering that delivers advanced protection.
“To support this breakthrough design, it was essential to develop a display material that was both exceptionally thin and reliably strong — a challenge that brought Corning and Samsung together, united by a shared vision for purposeful engineering and user-centric innovation. That vision is embedded in every detail of Galaxy S25 Edge,” said Kwangjin Bae, EVP and head of the mechanical R&D team of Mobile eXperience Business (MX) at Samsung Electronics.
Samsung earlier used the ‘Edge’ name to distinguish Galaxy phones that had a curved screen, including Edge editions of the Samsung Galaxy S6, S7 and the Galaxy Note. While the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge appears to be a revival of the name, it does not imply a curved-edge display.
Meanwhile, sales of Galaxy S25 series have been steady, surpassing one million units in sales in South Korea alone within just 21 days of launch in February. A few days ago, Samsung Electronics reported stronger-than-expected earnings for the first quarter, buoyed by robust sales of its AI-enhanced Galaxy S25 smartphones.
Samsung, like other smartphone manufacturers, is being cautious as US tariffs continue to pose uncertainty for the entire industry.
The launch event will be livestreamed on Samsung’s YouTube channel on May 13 at 5.30 am (IST).