- Samsung Galaxy S25 Slim may skip US at launch
- Leaks say it won’t come to the US, but don’t reveal why
- Similar to how the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold SE also skipped many regions
Having already had to prepare ourselves that the hotly-anticipated Samsung Galaxy S25 Slim likely won’t launch at Wednesday’s Galaxy Unpacked event alongside the regular Galaxy S25, S25 Plus and S25 Ultra – instead leaks say it’ll be dropping around May – it now seems that the Slim might not even come to every market: notably skipping the US if leaks are to be believed.
The first comes via reputable tipster Evan Blass who took to his private X account to state that the S25 Slim “will almost certainly not be offered through US carriers,” with Phone Arena following up with a report from a “historically trusted source” who reached out to tell them that while the S25 Slim will come to 39 markets the US won’t be among them – however the UK and Australia are.
All leaks should be taken with a pinch of salt – especially the Phone Arena leak as we can’t name or verify the claim of the info’s source – but this wouldn’t be the first ‘Slim’ Samsung gadget to boast a limited release in recent years.
Case in point the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 Slim, which wound up being called Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 SE (Special Edition), only released in South Korea and China when it arrived last year. The S25 Slim appears to be having a slightly wider release, but again not quite as wide as Samsung’s flagship devices.
The only question we’re left asking is why it would skip the US specifically? Given Samsung’s home market is South Korea it makes sense it might limit some releases to just that one market, or South Korea and a handful of nearby Asia territories like we saw with the Galaxy Z Fold 6 SE. However, if it is launching more widely, skipping the US – the third largest market for smartphones behind India and China – feels odd.
The only justification we can think of is Samsung is concerned about possible US tariffs that incoming President Trump has threatened to levy at various US imports – especially those coming in from China which is where plenty of smartphones are manufactured. If Samsung plans to produce the S25 Slim in a region Trump is imposing tariffs on imports from then it may decide that releasing the phone in the US won’t be worthwhile, and so while we wait and see precisely what Trump’s plans are Samsung might be taking the route of under-promising and over delivering if tariffs aren’t as impactful as expected.
A Slim by any other name would be just as thin
Beyond borrowing its more limited release the S25 Slim may also copy the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 Slim’s name – i.e. not being called Slim. That’s according to Blass who in a separate post asked why we expect the so-called Galaxy S25 Slim to be branded as such when the Z Fold 6 Slim wasn’t.
That’s not to say the S25 Slim won’t be a thin device – with leaker Digital Chat Station on Weibo saying the Slim and rumored iPhone 17 Air will be around 5-6mm thick. Compared to the 7.8mm thick iPhone 16 (read our iPhone 16 review) and 7.6mm for the Samsung Galaxy S24 – but a name not focused on it simply being less thick may imply it’ll come with some additional hardware changes and upgrades over the base model.
Such an upgrade has already been teased by rumors suggesting it’ll boast a 200MP main camera instead of the 50MP expected of the base Galaxy S25 smartphone.
For now we’ll have to wait and see what Samsung has up its sleeve for the S25 Slim, but if you’re in the US you probably don’t want to hold your breath that’ll you’ll be able to get your hands on it in 2025.
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hamish.hector@futurenet.com (Hamish Hector)
