Can you make a fashionably thin smartphone and still deliver the power of a flagship? If your phone is expected to cost upwards of $2,000, consumers will be looking for that level of performance. Has Samsung made the design decision that will allow the Galaxy S25 Edge to reach that high bar?
Galaxy S25 Edge Benchmarks
The latest details come from the ever-popular Geekbench and its report on the Samsung SM-S937N. This is widely presumed to be the product number for the Galaxy S25 Edge.
The chipset specifications suggest that the S25 Edge will use an 8-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite. It has been overclocked compared to the standard Snapdragon found in the Galaxy S25. That would fit with Samsung’s continued use of the customised Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite For Galaxy Processor.
Until Qualcomm’s mid-year refresh, this remains the highest-specced Snapdragon available for smartphones, which suggests that Samsung has leaned towards more complex trade-offs in the S25 Edge design to unlock that performance.
Galaxy S25 Edge Challenges
Designing a thinner smartphone introduces new considerations than the regular candybar smartphones. The display is a key part of the construction, and adding multiple layers will disproportionately impact the internal volume of a thinphone. I’m curious to see if the S25 Edge will include the digitizer layer needed to support the S-Pen fully.
The battery—a key specification clearly understood by consumers—is another key decision in the package. Battery technology is physically limiting in terms of required volume. If you are looking to design a small form factor phone, how much space you want for the battery will significantly impact the size.
Finally, you need to consider temperature. Any high-performance chipset will run hot, and the heat produced will need to be wicked away from the components and out of the phone. Heatsinks, vapor chambers, and cooling pipes all need space.
Galaxy S25 Edge’s Historical Help
While this will be the first thinphone in the Galaxy S range, Samsung has form here. The Galaxy Z range of foldable phones can only be about the same thickness when closed as a regular candybar phone if the two unfolded sides are half the thickness. 2024’s Galaxy Z Fold6 is 5.6mm thin when unfolded (naturally ignoring the camera island, as all specs do).
Leaked specs suggest that the Galaxy S25 Edge will come in at 6.4mm; a little more internal depth to help stack the components compared to the Z Fold6 but with a smaller footprint to fit a more civilised width and height. And Samsung is hoping to offer the same power and performance in the Edge as it has with the Ultra.
Read more about what comes next for Samsung after the Galaxy S25 Edge…
