As you may have already surmised from the title, I was skeptical about the Galaxy S25 Edge. Like many others, I was wondering if we needed a super slim flagship smartphone, particularly one that sacrifices a big battery and a zoom camera to achieve the super slim design.

I've been using Samsung's Galaxy S Ultra smartphones as my daily drivers for the past five years, and the S25 Edge felt like a step back. For me, function takes priority over form, and the Edge goes completely against that philosophy and seems like a phone designed for the sole purpose of being thin.

But then I held it, and I realized that there's absolutely nothing wrong about making a smartphone with a primary focus on being as thin as possible. That's because the Galaxy S25 Edge is shockingly thin. It's also rather light, and combined with the stellar craftmanship that's a staple of every flagship Samsung phone, it's easy to see why the company decided to take this gamble.

Holding the phone in my hand, I realized that I was looking at it backwards: instead of counting the compromises Samsung has made to achieve the Edge's 5.8mm profile, I began counting how much Samsung has been able to pack inside this device. It is particularly impressive that the Edge is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip, and in the short time I've had the phone, it doesn't feel like thermal management is going to be an issue.

Yes, the zoom camera is gone, and that may well end up being this phone's Achilles heel for me. But between a third rear camera and shaving off as many millimeters as possible, I'm glad Samsung went with the latter. The Galaxy S25 Edge is a joy to hold and feels like a bigger paradigm shift than the Korean giant's foldables. The design is that good.

We’ll be putting the Galaxy S25 Edge through its paces in a full review soon. But as far as first impressions go, I'm floored, and I have a feeling many other skeptics will come around once they try this phone out in person.