Samsung tried to beat Apple to the punch by releasing the Galaxy S25 Edge last month. Rumors have swirled about Apple creating an ultra-slim iPhone 17 Air, and the Galaxy S25 Edge was soon teased in January 2025, launching in May. While the company may have thought it had finally won a major race against the Cupertino-based tech giant, the Galaxy S25 Edge might turn out to be yet another case of Samsung focusing and allocating resources in the wrong places.
I bought the Galaxy S25 Edge, and even I can see the phone's apparent flaws. I asked for Samsung to make this kind of ultra-thin smartphone way back in November, in fact. To make this kind of controversial, niche device a hit, Samsung needs to address its flaws head-on. Not pretend they don't exist, which is what it's doing.
Even fans of the Samsung Galaxy product line seem to hate the Edge, and that isn't an exaggeration. Posts on the Samsung Galaxy subreddit — a place where you'd expect the sentiment around Samsung devices to be somewhat favorable — are littered with complaints about the new device. One comment called the Galaxy S25 Edge the "dumbest Samsung ever" and added that it was "overpriced, unnecessary, and false advertisement." It has over 100 upvotes.
Samsung hasn't disclosed early sales figures for the Galaxy S25 Edge, which is somewhat odd for the company. It often shares sales data from its pre-order and launch period in its home market of South Korea, but it neglected to do so for this launch. SamMobile reports that its sources say sales are below expectations for the smartphone.
If that's true, I'm not surprised. Samsung's messaging regarding the Galaxy S25 Edge has been far from clear. Instead of collaborating with Doechii, the brand should have tried to convince people that the Galaxy S25 Edge isn't a flawed smartphone. Samsung should remind them that all the thick, heavy, and bulky smartphones on the market are really the flawed ones.
That's why I bought the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge to replace my iPhone 16 Pro. The latter is thick and heavy to the point that it's inconvenient. All the feature advantages it has over the Galaxy S25 Edge are inconsequential because of its size. I don't want to hold the phone up at a concert and use its 5x telephoto lens because it's heavy. Nor do I want to keep it in my pocket at the gym, or fight a weight imbalance when using the on-screen keyboard.
The Galaxy S25 Edge can go more places and do more things because it is thin, not in spite of its thickness. The battery life issue is wildly overblown — just buy a MagSafe/Qi2 battery pack and stop worrying about it altogether. Charge your phone when you can throughout the day, like in your car or at your desk, and the Galaxy S25 Edge can free you from a big-battery smartphone that feels like a brick.
That's how I would've pitched the Galaxy S25 Edge to smartphone users. Samsung didn't do any of that, and it could be a fatal error for the Galaxy S25 Edge.
Once again, Samsung isn't listening
It's a classic case of Samsung not listening to or understanding its customers. Last year, Samsung copied Apple in designing the new Galaxy Watch Ultra and Galaxy Buds 3 Pro. Things got so bad a Samsung executive was reportedly furious with the so-called "design plagiarism."
More recently, Samsung introduced One UI 7 with iOS-like features, such as a split notification shade and quick settings panel. Longtime Galaxy users aren't happy. And to top things off, the Galaxy S25 Edge looks like a carbon copy of the iPhone 16 from the back.
All these controversial changes aren't working. Counterpoint Research recently revealed that the top four best-selling smartphones in the first quarter of 2025 were all iPhones. The first Samsung phone on the list earned the fifth-place slot, and the flagship Galaxy S25 Ultra fell to seventh place. For perspective, the Galaxy S24 Ultra was the fifth best-selling phone in Q1 2024 a year ago — also behind four iPhones.
Samsung doesn't appear to be adapting or adjusting to feedback. With software updates like One UI 7 and phone releases like the Galaxy S25 Edge, it's creating products that its top supporters actively dislike.
It's a good phone that I think is misunderstood, and I blame Samsung for that, not the contrarians. The company made a phone that it needed to really sell to its customer base, despite its shortcomings, and it hasn't. Instead, Samsung is bullishly (and foolishly, I would say) saying that the Galaxy S25 Edge isn't a flawed phone at all.
"We really designed this from the ground up to be thin. The goal was to be thin without compromise," said Blake Gaiser, Samsung's director of smartphone product management in America, in an interview with Tom's Guide. Gaiser also didn't do much to address the concerns of people who aren't happy with the phone's 3,900mAh battery or lack of a telephoto lens.
Samsung can't seem to read the room, and that's true regardless of whether I love the Galaxy S25 Edge (which I do).
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