Samsung lastly took the wraps off the Galaxy S25 Edge, debuting the thinnest smartphone the corporate has made up to now. It is acquired a shocking 6.7-inch AMOLED display screen, a 200MP principal digital camera on the again alongside a 12MP ultrawide digital camera, Corning Gorilla Armor 2 safety throughout, and the top-notch Snapdragon 8 Elite processing bundle inside for true flagship-tier efficiency.
And whereas it is available in an unbelievably skinny 5.8mm body and the incomparable One UI 7 powering the expertise, it has one main setback that is going to drive most of its customers loopy: a tiny battery and comparatively sluggish charging.
You see, whereas Samsung’s software program expertise is actually excellent and Galaxy AI is extra feature-rich than another firm’s AI choices proper now, Samsung’s {hardware} group continues to be utilizing outdated battery and charging tech. Whereas it may offset this with sooner charging tech, the corporate has proven that it is not prepared to maintain up with the Joneses on this regard, both.
In the meantime, firms like Honor and OnePlus are utilizing silicon-carbon batteries of their telephones and have been for years, in Honor’s case. Utilizing a silicon carbon anode permits these firms to make denser batteries which can be in a position to stand up to excessive temperatures, last more, and cost sooner than the common Li-Ion batteries Samsung makes use of.
Utilizing a silicon-carbon anode negates the swelling that would in any other case happen with pure silicon batteries — one thing Samsung by no means needs to have occur after the Galaxy Observe 7 — and makes it doable to extend the battery’s density by round 13%. Which means Samsung may have put a 4,400mAh battery contained in the Galaxy S25 Edge if it used silicon carbon, whereas the Li-Ion battery contained in the telephone is barely 3,900mAh.
Contemplating most fashionable Android telephones sport batteries between 5,000mAh and 6,000mAh in capability, battery life on the S25 Edge is all however assured to be sub-par. Samsung confirmed to Android Central that the Galaxy S25 Edge’s battery is manufactured from the identical supplies as the remainder of the S25 lineup. To be honest to Samsung, this battery is solely 100mAh smaller than the bottom Galaxy S25, and whereas battery life is not horrible on that telephone, it is not glorious, both.
A small battery is already a problem, however 25W charging from 2020 makes it even worse.
Samsung may offset the small battery with ultra-fast charging, however the firm does not appear to need to push that envelope, both. As an alternative, the S25 Edge maxes out at 25W. That is practically 1/3 of what Honor gives on the 4.4mm skinny Honor V3, for instance, that means there isn’t any probability to get a fast top-up should you run out of juice midway by means of the day.
To make a very profitable ultra-thin flagship telephone, an organization has to beat 4 principal pillars: processing energy and thermals, digital camera high quality, battery life, and charging pace. Samsung appears to have nailed the primary two because of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite, a thinner and broader warmth chamber, and a 200MP principal digital camera, however I’ve critical doubts concerning the remaining two necessities.
If practically another Android producer made this telephone — Vivo, Xiaomi, Honor, OnePlus, or Motorola — I believe they may have nailed all 4 and known as it a day. However Samsung’s worry of battery expertise and charging speeds is, as soon as once more, hamstringing the potential greatness of its newest flagship, and that is the true disgrace of all of it.
