Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge: Reviewer gives up after a year of battery woes
After a year of daily use, an Android Authority editor says Samsung's ultra-thin Galaxy S25 Edge has critical battery flaws, calling it the brand's worst 2025 phone. He eventually traded it for a Galaxy Z Fold 8.
The editor says he bought the Galaxy S25 Edge without any discount when it launched three months after the mainline Galaxy S25 series. The 5.8mm phone packed flagship components, including Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy chip, a 200MP main camera, and a 6.7-inch QHD+ AMOLED display, yet weighed just 163 grams. He said he loved the concept but struggled with Samsung's execution.
The core problem, he writes, is the 3,900mAh battery. He could not get the phone to last a full day no matter how he conserved charge, often needing a midday or evening top-up. On long travel days, he sometimes burned through three charge cycles. The review attributes the issue to Samsung mixing components from the Galaxy S25 Plus and Galaxy S25 Ultra without optimizing them for the thin chassis. The S25 Plus has the same 6.7-inch display and processor but a 4,900mAh battery, while the Galaxy S25 Edge is left with 1,000mAh less capacity.
The editor also bought an iPhone Air to compare, noting that Apple's thin phone uses a smaller 3,149mAh battery yet consistently delivers all-day battery life. He credits a binned A19 Pro chip, a smaller 6.5-inch screen, and effective MagSafe charging for the difference. He argues that Samsung's failure does not prove thin phones are pointless, but that the Edge's components were poorly matched to its battery.
The article concludes with the editor accepting AT&T's offer to swap the Galaxy S25 Edge for a free Galaxy Z Fold 8. He also points out that Samsung's newer foldables use silicon-carbon batteries, and suggests a thin Galaxy with tweaked specs and a silicon-carbon battery could have been the ideal thin phone.