Leave it to Samsung to wrap up a big phone reveal with a new mystery. Having just shown off the new Galaxy S25 lineup along with a parade of Galaxy AI enhancements, Samsung punctuated the January 22 Galaxy Unpacked event with a teaser for yet another phone — the Galaxy S25 Edge.
Details about the new phone have been sparse, to put it mildly. In the brief teaser video appearing at the end of Unpacked, a narrator promises "a culmination of our most innovative technology packed into a form that's sleek, powerful and unlike anything you've seen before." As that audio plays, images of the Galaxy S25 Edge broken down into its different components stated to appear.
Samsung didn't leave it there. A Galaxy S25 Edge prototype was on display at Unpacked, giving us some idea of just how thin the new phone looked, even if we didn't have specific measurements. But as for the promised innovative technology, we're still in the dark, as specs, features and even release date information have been left to our imagination.
Well, the only thing that abhors a vacuum more than nature is a tech reporter. So here are the biggest questions I have about the Galaxy S25 Edge along with my best guesses and a few rumored details as to what the answers might be.
Just how thin is the Galaxy S23 Edge going to be?
Barring the chance to get up close to the displayed prototype with a set of calipers, we're left to guess on what exact measurements for the Galaxy S25 Edge might be, other than "Well, it certainly looks thin from here." Back when the phone was just a rumor, there had been talk of making the device as thin as a Galaxy Z Fold 6 when unfolded — that would be around 5.6mm, but now rumors seem to be honing in on a 6.4mm-thin phone. For context, the newly unveiled Galaxy S25 Ultra is 8.2mm, so we're talking a very slender device.
That said, the Galaxy S25 Edge prototype does have a camera bump. And maybe it's because the rest of the phone is so thin, but that bump really looks prominent. We'll have to see what the final version looks like and what its official measurements will be to get a definitive answer to this question. But "somewhere between a Galaxy S25 Ultra and Galaxy Z Fold 6" seems to be a good guideline for the Edge's thinness.
Besides its design, what's special about the Galaxy S25 Edge?
Didn't you hear what Samsung said? "A culmination of our most innovative technology." Isn't that clear enough?
It's not? Oh. Tough crowd.
If the thinness of the Galaxy S25 Edge isn't enough to pique your interest — and fair play if it isn't — we take Samsung's pledge to mean that the phone will pack in as many premium features as space allows. That could mean adopting some of the Galaxy S25 Ultra's camera setup — more on that below — as that figures to be the best camera on offer from Samsung. We'd also bet on a lot of Galaxy AI features appearing on the device as well.
In other words, this may not be a phone that necessarily breaks new ground beyond its design, but rather assembles Samsung's top features in sort of a Greatest Hits-style handset. That's just speculation, though.
What cameras will the Galaxy S25 Edge offer?
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We at least know how many cameras will be on the Galaxy S25 Edge, thanks to that prototype Samsung displayed. You'll find two rear cameras on that device, with the assumption being that the S25 Edge is dropping a telephoto lens as a space-saving maneuver.
Prior to Samsung's S25 Edge teaser, rumors claimed Samsung's expected slim phone would feature a 200MP main camera. That would match the main lens on both the Galaxy S25 Ultra as well as the Galaxy Z Fold 6 among phones in Samsung's current lineup. It could also give the S25 Edge a workaround for the lack of a dedicated telephoto lens, as you'll presumably get to crop in on shots to approximate an optical zoom for close-ups. Again, the 200MP sensor for the Galaxy S25 Edge's is just a rumor at this point.
What chip will the Galaxy S25 Edge use?
In theory, the Galaxy S25 Edge would use the same Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset that powers the rest of the Galaxy S25 lineup. Not only would this help with both performance and battery life, but the neural engine on the Qualcomm chip allows for a lot of on-device Galaxy AI features.
Here's where the thinness of the new phone could work against it, though, as there would naturally be concerns about such a powerful chip heating up too much in such a confined frame, without the kind of room Samsung's other flagships have for cooling chambers. To that end, one rumor has suggested that the Samsung's slim phone will turn to the Exynos 2400, the same chip powering some Galaxy S24 and S24 Plus models. Using a chipset from 2024 doesn't sound like it's in the spirit of "innovative technology," so we'll have to see if other rumors about potential chipsets emerge.
How much will the Galaxy S25 Edge cost?
If we don't know the rest of the Galaxy S25 Edge specs, it's very hard to pinpoint a price for this phone. That said, upon viewing the S25 Edge prototype in person, my colleague Mark Spoonauer wondered if this phone might sit somewhere between the Galaxy S25 Plus and Galaxy S25 Ultra in the best Samsung phones lineup. There is a $300 gap between the $999 S25 Plus and the $1,299 Ultra where the Galaxy S25 Edge could sidle on in to, but you'd imagine a $1,000-plus phone would have to offer more than just "it's really thin" as a selling point.
The other option comes from a rumor that surfaced a bit before the Galaxy S25 Edge tease at Unpacked which claims that any thin phone released by Samsung this year would essentially be the new Galaxy S FE model that Samsung is fond of releasing. These FE phones, like the current Galaxy S24 FE strip out some premium features from the other Galaxy S flagships in exchange for a lower price. That could be the course of action Samsung takes with the Galaxy S25 Edge if it has to scale back on the chipset, camera setup and battery, as a recent report claimed it would.
The Galaxy S24 FE costs $649, a $150 discount off the Galaxy S25's starting price. If the Edge is a true FE successor, maybe we're looking at a phone in that price range.
When will the Galaxy S25 Edge ship?
Well, not on February 7 when the Galaxy S25 phones hit the stores, clearly. Otherwise, some time in 2025 seems to be the most specific time frame out there.
Differing rumors point to several potential dates for a Galaxy S25 Edge release. One tweet gave an April 2025 time frame, though without citing much in the way of evidence, while another has the phone coming out in June based on regulatory filings. Samsung usually holds another Unpacked event around the middle of the year to show off its foldable phones, and it's also possible that the Galaxy S25 Edge becomes part of that launch instead of debuting as a standalone phone.
That's a lot of words to say "we don't know yet."
Where will the Galaxy S25 Edge be available?
Ahead of Galaxy Unpacked, a report from a pretty reliable leaker threw cold water on the ideal that a slim S25 model would be released in the U.S. Instead, the thinking went, this rumored device would be like the Galaxy Z Fold Special Edition that debuted in Korea last year but nowhere else — a special release put out in only select markets. We were convinced enough to assume that the rumored slim phone wouldn't make an appearance at Unpacked.
Well, it did obviously, and considering the event took place in San Jose, California, it would be rather churlish of Samsung to preview the Galaxy S25 Edge in the U,S. and then only release it elsewhere. When it does come out at some undisclosed point in the future, the Galaxy S25 Edge could still be limited to select markets, but I would assume that the U.S. is one of them.
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