The new Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge combines some of Samsung’s best technology from its leading flagship phones and adds some new wrinkles to deliver an exciting new Android smartphone that is already widely known as one of the slimmest handsets on the market.
It doesn’t have a new chip, but the one it has, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy, is the best you can possibly get for Android. It lacks a telephoto lens, but includes the equivalent of Samsung’s best 200MP camera. It’s a mostly uncompromising smartphone that promises virtually every feature you could find on the more expensive Galaxy S25 Ultra (save the S Pen).
But what you’re paying $1,099.99 / £1,099 / AU$1,849 for is an incredibly svelte titanium frame, one that feels thin and, at just 163 grams, exceptionally light. Even though I know the specs – 5.8mm – I struggled to find a way to put that measurement in perspective.
That’s why I brought a small collection of quarters to my first hands-on experience with the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge. I think a stack of quarters next to Samsung’s newest Galaxy S phone helps contextualize these thickness claims.
Is it as thin as a stack of six quarters? What about five? And how does that compare to other phones, even classic thin handsets of a bygone era?
That’s the thing about thinness. It seems to go in and out of fashion. Sometimes we prefer zaftig for, say, the battery benefits it offers, and other times, we grow weary of carrying all that extra weight and dream of paper-thin phones.
Thin phones, though, have their risks.
The arc of time bends
When we think back to the icon of handset thinness, the iPhone 6 Plus, many of us also less than fondly remember bendgate. That was when Apple built a 6.9mm thick iPhone that could not stand up to a butt, or at least withstand being squeezed between a butt and a hard surface like a chair or concrete ledge.
A year later, Apple followed that up with the 7.1mm iPhone 6s and, after that, the iPhone 7, which featured a reinforced, higher-grade aluminum. That ended Bendgate and, for a time, our desire for ultra-thin phones.
Now, though, they’re back. Apple is reportedly prepping an iPhone 17 Air that might surpass even the S25 Edge in thinness. Samsung, though, has the edge, working on thin phones even before the S25 Edge release.
Company execs told me that Samsung’s work on its folding line has well prepared it for building this slim handset. Unfolded, the Galaxy Z Fold 6 is just 5.6mm thick. Yes, even thinner than the S25 Edge.
If you’re wondering why the S25 Edge is a couple of millimeters thicker than the Z Fold, remember that Samsung can split that device’s 4,200 mAh battery between the two halves. Samsung had to fit the S25 Edge’s 3,900 mAh battery into a single 5.8mm panel.
Could this little slice of technology heaven lead to another “bendgate”? I doubt it.
The flat titanium band surrounding the S25 Edge’s body is far more rigid and less bendable than the all curved aluminum body of the iPhone 6 Plus. Also, Samsung is using the brand-new Gorilla Glass Ceramic 2 on the display to further strengthen the phone.
It was with all this in mind that I pulled out my stack of quarters and got to work measuring true thinness based on a coin scale.
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- Classic iPhone 6s (7.1mm): 4 quarters
- iPhone 16 Pro Max (8.25mm): 5 quarters
- Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra (8,2mm) 5 quarters
- Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge (5.8mm): 3 quarters
While this isn’t an exact science, the modern US quarter has reliably remained at 1.75mm thickness since at least the 1930s. Still, my results make sense when you compare the actual thickness of each phone in millimeters. The S25 Edge is the clear leader.
My tiny experiment proves that in the most physical sense, the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge is one of the thinnest phones on the market. Sure, it might not seem like much of a test. But, hey, what else was I going to do with this stack of quarters?
For now, I suggest you head to a Samsung retailer to at least touch the super-thin Galaxy S25 Edge for yourself. Quarters are optional.
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lance.ulanoff@futurenet.com (Lance Ulanoff)
