iPhone Air vs. Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge: Which thin flagship prevails?

Thin phones are in, and the iPhone Air and the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge are going to be the top options for ultra-slim flagships heading into 2025. I bought a Galaxy S25 Edge with my own cash and plan to do the same with the iPhone Air, and in this guide, I'll help you figure out how these two smartphones compare.

For those who don't quite understand the appeal of thin phones, here's a quick overview. There are certainly some people who use every percentage of their phone's battery life each day and all of its features. However, there's also a subset of users that don't need extremely long battery life or a pro-grade camera system. For them, it's arguably better to carry a thin and light phone daily, and add separate tools like a MagSafe/Qi2 battery pack or a dedicated camera when they're really needed.

If that sounds like you, an iPhone Air or Galaxy S25 Edge might be the change you need. I ditched heavy and thick flagships this year and haven't looked back. But you'll want to pick the right one — here's how to decide.

iPhone Air vs. Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge: Design and display

Smartphone manufacturers have been cheating on thinness for ages with camera bumps and creative math — there isn't a single brand that includes the thickness of the camera bump in their official measurements, and foldable phones even omit the size of the internal bezel when talking about their unfolded measurements.

However, the iPhone Air takes this practice to the extreme. It doesn't have a camera bump; it has a camera plateau, and it practically houses the entire phone — the rest of the chassis is filled almost entirely with battery. This strategy makes the iPhone Air feel impossibly thin, with much of the body measuring only 5.6mm thick. At the same time, the plateau will protrude further off the back of the phone than the Galaxy S25 Edge.

By comparison, Samsung made the Galaxy S25 Edge measure 5.8mm thick. The difference of 0.2mm in thickness might sound minuscule, but early first impressions from those who have held the Air seem to show it's a difference you can feel, which may be attributed to its curvier chassis.

There's a big difference in screen size and overall form factor between the iPhone Air and Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge. The former has a 6.5-inch screen, which slots in between what would typically be a base or a plus-sized phone. Meanwhile, the Galaxy S25 Edge has a 6.7-inch display that's identical in size to the Galaxy S25 Plus. Both phones are using AMOLED screens with 120Hz LTPO support, but the iPhone is slightly brighter, topping out at 3,000 nits.

It's worth noting that due to all the components in the iPhone Air camera plateau, Apple had to shift the Dynamic Island and Face ID sensors down to make everything fit. This means the pill-shaped camera cutout will cut deeper into the iPhone Air display, obstructing more of your content. The Galaxy S25 Edge has a hole-punch camera cutout in the display that's much more minimal than what the iPhone Air offers.

The iPhone Air also has an anti-reflective coating similar to that of the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra. Both phones use a titanium construction for durability and feature IP68 certification against dust and water ingress.

Personally, I'm torn on which phone looks better. To me, the reasonably small rear camera bump is a huge appeal of the Galaxy S25 Edge, but it's hard not to be impressed by the 5.6mm thickness of the iPhone Air.

iPhone Air vs. Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge: Hardware and specs

The iPhone Air and Galaxy S25 Edge both impressively retain similar performance to that of their "Pro" and "Ultra" counterparts. Apple put the A19 Pro chipset in the iPhone Air, but it is technically a binned version of the system-on-a-chip with one fewer GPU core. For what it's worth, the Galaxy S25 Edge has the exact same Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy processor as its predecessors with identical core counts.

Both phones sport 12GB of memory. You can get the iPhone Air in up to 1TB of storage, while the Galaxy S25 Edge is capped at 512GB.

The iPhone Air is powered entirely by Apple chips, including the Apple C1X modem for cellular and Apple N1 for general connectivity. It supports Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, and Thread, but crucially, the Apple C1X only supports standard 5G — there's no mmWave support like the Galaxy S25 Edge.

The iPhone Air has a major advantage in supporting MagSafe and Qi2 with no external cases or accessories required. This will make topping up the relatively small 3,149mAh battery easy with chargers like the official MagSafe battery pack or third-party options. Samsung didn't include Qi2 magnets on the Galaxy S25 Edge, so you'll need a case and a battery pack to magnetically recharge the 3,900mAh battery.

There are a few other iPhone Air hardware limitations to point out: there's no bottom speaker, and the USB-C port is only USB 2.0. The Samsung Galaxy S25 doesn't have either drawback, with stereo speakers and a USB 3.2 Gen 1 port.

iPhone Air vs. Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge: Cameras

The iPhone Air has one rear camera on the back — it's a 48MP sensor that Apple claims to effectively be two cameras, as it supports 2x optical-quality zoom. By that logic, the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge effectively has three cameras. The Galaxy S25 Edge's main camera is a 200MP sensor that can also provide 2x optical-quality zoom via a technique called sensor cropping. On top of that, the Samsung phone has a 12MP ultrawide camera for wide shots.

Apple's 18MP front-facing camera on the iPhone Air is impressive. It features a square sensor that enables horizontal and portrait selfies without physically rotating the device. Samsung doesn't have this feature on the Galaxy S25 Edge; its front-facing camera is the usual 4:3 aspect ratio. The 12MP, f/2.2 sensor is still solid and can produce great photos.

iPhone Air vs. Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge: Which should you buy?

The look and feel of the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge is downright mind-blowing, and there appear to be fewer compromises than the iPhone Air. Compared to Apple's thin handset, the Galaxy S25 Edge has a flagship processor without binning, a faster USB-C port, stereo speakers, a rear ultrawide camera, a larger display, and a smaller front-facing camera cutout. However, it's slightly thicker and more expensive than the iPhone Air.

There's just one reason why it's extremely difficult to recommend the Galaxy S25 Edge over the iPhone Air. The former doesn't have Qi2 magnets onboard, and this feels like a mandatory feature for thin phones with shorter battery life. The iPhone Air, having MagSafe and Qi2 support, means you can quickly and easily top up the phone with a battery pack in a pinch. It'll be much tougher to do so on the Galaxy S25 Edge without a case, and adding a case somewhat defeats the point of a thin phone.

Otherwise, the choice might come down to whether you prefer iOS 26 or One UI 7. Neither phone is perfect, but both the iPhone Air and Galaxy S25 Edge are a breath of fresh air for people disenfranchised by thick, heavy smartphones.