One of the most consequential phones of the year is undoubtedly the Galaxy S25 Edge. Samsung’s new thin phone is designed to offer the best of the Galaxy S25 Ultra, S25 Plus, and regular Galaxy S25 in a much thinner and lighter body.
Samsung first teased its new thin phone at the Galaxy S25 launch in January, and it was clear then that the goal was to beat Apple to the market. Apple has long been rumored to launch the thinnest iPhone in years, the iPhone 17 Air, later this year.
With Samsung beating it to the market, what does the iPhone 17 Air need, and how can Apple compete? I’ve used the ultra-thin Galaxy S25 Edge; here’s what Apple needs to do.
What the Galaxy S25 Edge does well
I’ve been using the Galaxy S25 Edge for a week, and it’s an incredible feat of engineering. Although it’s easy to assume that it’s just a slim phone, the Galaxy S25 Edge offers far more than that. Despite the thin body and light weight, it feels just as premium as its Galaxy S25 siblings, and features the same powerful Snapdragon 8 Elite processor.
By far, the biggest perceived challenge with the Galaxy S25 Edge is the battery. At 3,900 mAh, the battery is smaller than even the base Galaxy S25, so the natural concern is the battery life. This is mostly unwarranted; although your battery life will vary based on usage, I’ve found the Galaxy S25 Edge can last around 28 hours on a full charge with seven hours of screen time. Considering the size, the battery life has surprised me.
One of the other highlight features of the Galaxy S25 Edge is the main camera. At 200MP, it offers the same resolution as the flagship Galaxy S25 Ultra, but it’s not as capable overall. The secondary camera is a simple 12MP ultra-wide camera, and there’s no telephoto lens thanks to the thin body. This is where Apple could leapfrog Samsung in more ways than one.
What the iPhone 17 Air needs to have
After using the Galaxy S25 Edge, there are a few features that I hope Apple does improve upon. First, the camera. The Galaxy S25 Edge camera isn’t groundbreaking, and despite the high-resolution main camera, the rest of the array leaves much to be desired.
Apple could significantly improve on the Galaxy S25 Edge camera by adopting the main and ultrawide cameras from the iPhone 16 Pro. Although the main camera has lower resolution at 48MP, it’s more consistent than the Galaxy S25 Edge. The ultra-wide camera would also enable Apple to continue claiming support for up to four focal lengths, resulting in a better all-around camera experience.
Then there’s battery life, and Apple has a distinct advantage thanks to its vertical integration. Optimizing the software and hardware stack, as well as tweaking the performance of the rumored A19 processor, could ultimately yield better battery life. The Galaxy S25 Edge battery is good, but there’s room for Apple to beat it.
The last thing is a wide ecosystem of accessories. Given that the Galaxy S25 Edge is new and hasn’t been released yet, there is a lack of cases and accessories available. I expect this to change considerably in the coming weeks, but there’ll likely be far more iPhone 17 Air cases and accessories available than the Galaxy S25 Edge. That said, I hope someone also launches an iPhone alternative for the Galaxy S25 Edge Kindsuit leather case, which I adore.
What the iPhone 17 Air is rumored to have
Based on current rumors, the iPhone 17 Air may somewhat disappoint me. It’s expected to feature a 48MP processor, likely found in the iPhone 16 series, but it won’t include another camera. Like the iPhone 16e, this probably means we’ll have an in-sensor crop delivering 2x “optical” zoom. The iPhone 16e camera is more capable than you might expect, but it’s not as capable as the Galaxy S25 Edge, so it remains to be seen what Apple can do with the iPhone 17 Air.
It’s unclear what the battery capacity will be, but the latest rumors suggest a 2,800 mAh panel, which is 20% smaller than the iPhone 16 and 40% smaller than the iPhone 16 Plus it’s rumored to replace. It’s worth noting that the capacity number isn’t a direct comparison, as iOS achieves similar battery life with a smaller capacity. However, the smaller size compared to the iPhone 16 means that battery life is unlikely to surpass that of the Galaxy S25 Edge.
The Galaxy S25 Edge measures 5.8mm thick, but the iPhone 17 Air is expected to push the boundaries considerably further with a thickness of just 5.4mm. This would make it one of the thinnest phones ever, and significantly thinner than the iPhone 16 series, which is two or more millimeters thicker.
Then there’s the price, and the iPhone 17 Air and Galaxy S25 Edge are likely to have one thing in common: the thinnest technology isn’t cheap. The Galaxy S25 Edge costs $1,100, making it $100 more than the Galaxy S25 Plus and $200 less than the Galaxy S25 Ultra.
The iPhone 17 Air is expected to cost a similar price to the rest of the iPhone 17 lineup, although there are conflicting reports on whether it’ll be more expensive, or less, than Apple’s new lineup. It’s also rumored that the iPhone 17 Air may not launch for several months after the rest of the lineup, but this is unconfirmed.
Apple is widely expected to launch the new iPhone 17 lineup with the iPhone 17 Air in September. Regardless of when it launches, and the final specs sheet, one thing is clear: thin is firmly in, and the iPhone 17 Air is going to set a new frontier for smartphone design that every company will push to match or surpass. If you don’t like thin phones, you may want to look away now, but having used the Galaxy S25 Edge, I can’t wait to see what Apple launches.
