Samsung’s Galaxy S25 series is here with modest iterative upgrades across the board. For most people, the most exciting device of Unpacked 2025 was the one that was not unveiled: the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge. Unlike previous Samsung devices bearing the Edge moniker, the S25 Edge does not have a curved screen. Instead, it is a redesigned version of the Galaxy S25 that is slimmer (and likely lighter). It will be available at a later date, and official details are scarce. Still, we expect it to have a premium positioning built upon a more enjoyable and ergonomic user experience.
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We have slim expectations
If none of that sounds exciting, we get it. Historically, slim phones were practically compromised phones with a confusing proposition that did not take off. If the recent leak of the S25 Edge sporting a 3,900mAh battery with 25W charging capabilities is true, one might think that Samsung is setting itself up for failure.
However, things might be different this time around. The Snapdragon 8 Elite, which will power most flagship Android phones, including the Samsung Galaxy S25 family, is more efficient than its predecessor. This is rare in the world of chipsets, especially because it is more powerful. We don’t know if this is because of Qualcomm’s tuning or TSMC’s advanced N3E manufacturing node, but it’s a laudable feat.
Never before has it been possible to create a thin smartphone that does not suck.
Qualcomm recognizes that a one-size-fits-all approach might not cut it for all smartphones. It recently quietly made available a 7-core variant of the Snapdragon 8 Elite, deleting one performance core. There’s no official word on why it exists or which OEMs will use it, but we can make some educated guesses.
It will be a win-win situation
Reducing a high-performance core should enable this hepta-core Snapdragon 8 Elite to consume less power and run cooler at the cost of some peak performance. While space and cooling constraints exist in all smartphones, they are especially true in the more compact devices, making foldables the most likely candidate due to their volumetric constraints. This would also be true for the now-extinct segment of compact phones and the new wave of slimmer phones.
We do not know if Qualcomm intends to let the new, binned Snapdragon 8 Elite power non-foldable devices, but we think it should. For over a decade, all phones have boasted about their CPU performance. Nothing is wrong with that, but it’s a little overdone. Most users do not come close to using their smartphones’ performance to the fullest. Unless you are a heavy gamer or video editor, you may only use a fraction of what your phone is capable of.
There lies the problem. In the world of seemingly dialed-down product-market fits, it doesn’t make sense that both chipset makers and smartphone OEMs continue to maximize computing power when most users have not been asking for it. Since performance and efficiency are dichotomous, it’s more baffling.
Less (performance) is more (battery life)
This is part of a bigger tirade. Smartphone battery life has not seen major improvements in years, compared to performance, cameras, or the screen — even when batteries have become bigger and denser. Each time a new chipset is developed, it can be configured to prioritize power or efficiency. But more often than not, the pendulum has swung in the direction of the former.
It’s been a long time since we’ve had a phone whose headline feature was battery life, even though that continues to be one of the top features users care about. We have also reached a point where average chipsets are more than good enough when it comes to performance, making it a simpler decision to consider moving towards efficiency and creating more perceivable improvements for users.
I’d go as far as saying that such a proposition would work for almost all non-gaming phones. It’s not as flashy as a multi-million AnTuTu score, but it’s a change that won’t take long to be noticed. This makes more sense on a slim device such as the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge, which will likely have a pitch that revolves around luxury and aesthetics and not around performance. By being powered by a more efficient processor, the S25 Edge has a chance of being the first slim phone with a decent battery life. Otherwise, we all know what the review verdicts are going to be.
Using the 7-core Snapdragon 8 Elite is the only way the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge can offer reasonable battery life.
It’s been a while since Samsung has wowed us
There are other ways to achieve this, such as using an underclocked processor, but knowing Samsung, that won’t happen. The rest of the S25 series uses an exclusive, overclocked Snapdragon 8 Elite for the Galaxy variant for higher performance. This is more of an unnecessary flex than a useful feature. Knowing how conservative Samsung has been with battery tech, we have no hopes for a high-density or modern chemistry battery.
As things stand now, we don’t know if what we are pleading is plausible, but it seems the best way forward. For an OEM like Samsung, which sells millions of foldables each year, expanding its portfolio of devices that are powered by a specific niche chipset, it could negotiate a better price from Qualcomm owing to a larger order volume. After all, compared to the rest of the S25 family, the S25 Edge likely shares more parts with its foldable cousins.
