Samsung Electronics Co. plans to launch an ultrathin version of its Galaxy S25 phone in the first half of this year, beating Apple Inc. to a promising new category.
The company previewed a handset called the Galaxy S25 Edge after its Samsung Unpacked presentation on Wednesday in San Jose, California. Building on an S25 lineup unveiled earlier at the event — with the focus firmly on artificial intelligence features and not much in the way of major hardware upgrades — the Edge model is notable for its extremely thin profile.
The move sets up a revival of the race to create the slimmest possible smartphone, which had died down when manufacturers focused on adding more camera technology to their devices. Apple is also expected to add an ultrathin version to its iPhone line later this year, marking one of its boldest design changes in years.
Samsung’s S25 Edge will add a fourth model to its newly unveiled flagship Galaxy S25 family of devices, which deliver a suite of new AI features and voice commands. Pairing Alphabet Inc.’s Google Gemini with its own on-device AI, Samsung has made leadership in mobile AI an overarching priority.
“Launching new flagship smartphones has become a considerable headache for all the leading manufacturers,” said Ben Wood, chief analyst at CCS Insight. “Top-end products are now so good that it’s extremely difficult to deliver any meaningful differentiation from one year to the next. It’s little surprise that phone makers are hoping that a little ‘AI magic dust’ will help turn consumers’ heads, but that’s proving to be a tough sell too.”
The company plans to start selling the Edge in the US and other markets by the middle of the year, TM Roh, president of its mobile devices business, told Bloomberg News in an interview. It’ll be a busy year for Samsung, as the company is also working with Google on delivering a mixed-reality headset, dubbed Project Moohan, and is developing augmented reality glasses using the same new software, Android XR.
The Edge will use some of the same technologies as the new Ultra model, but fit them inside a slimmed-down design. Customers want the “best performance, the best camera features, the best AI, but at the same time they want an even more attractive form factor that stands out among the pack,” Roh said in the interview.
“We’ve been trying to combine all the advantages of the S25 Ultra in a slimmer form factor,” he said.
For Apple, a skinny model is its latest attempt to find a new phone size that consumers embrace. In recent years, it has offered a mini iPhone and a Plus model, but neither of them was a big hit. The Plus version will be replaced by this new thinner variant, which some are dubbing the iPhone Air, Bloomberg News has reported. It will be the skinniest iPhone in the device’s history.
Roh said Samsung chose the Edge name as a reference to both the thinner design and the idea that the phone will use more cutting-edge technology. It also recycles a brand used by Samsung several years ago when it first launched phones with curved-edge displays.
Roh said the company has “high expectations for this product.” Samsung hasn’t settled on a price, he said, but acknowledged it will be cheaper than the $1,299-and-up Ultra.
“Our goal is to position this at lower pricing than the Ultra models, so it’s more accessible and has more customers,” Roh said.