Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge vs. Galaxy S25 Ultra

The Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge is out and it’s initially priced just above the Galaxy S25+ and under the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, but since the latter was announced about five months earlier, the pricing situation is different now.

At the time of writing, the Galaxy S25 Edge appears to be more expensive than the S25 Ultra. The Ultra asks a little under €1,000, while the Edge is priced at around €1,200. In the US, it’s the other way around. The Edge is $1,100 while the Ultra is $1,300, as per Samsung’s official store. And when it comes to India, the S25 Edge is currently undercutting the S25 Ultra by INR 20,000.

So while the dilemma in Europe is pretty much solved from the get-go, the situation in the US and India is much more nuanced. We will try to help you decide whether the S25 Ultra’s price premium is worth it.

Table of Contents:

For starters, you can compare the complete spec sheets or directly continue with our editor’s assessment in the following text.

Size comparison

It’s no surprise that the Galaxy S25 Edge is the thinner and lighter phone between the two. It’s a considerably smaller device – narrower, shorter, and much thinner and lighter. After all, the Edge’s key selling point is the absurdly thin profile of 5.8mm and the 163-gram weight, which matches the smallest Galaxy S25 in the family. And it offers a screen diagonal similar to the S25 Ultra’s too – just 0.2″ difference.

The Edge doesn’t fall behind the Ultra when it comes to build quality either. The handset features a titanium frame and Gorilla Glass back and front panels. The S25 Ultra’s only advantage is the front protection. It’s Gorilla Armor 2, which is marketed as slightly stronger than the Gorilla Glass Ceramic 2 found on the S25 Edge.

Display comparison

Regarding displays, there are a few differences worth pointing out. The Edge’s display is 0.2″ smaller and the Ultra’s display features an anti-reflective coating that improves sunlight legibility. However, aside from that, the two devices share the same display technology and features down to the very last pixel.

We didn’t even find any difference in performance as both screens go beyond 1,400 nits, making them comfortable for outdoor use.

Battery life

It’s perhaps no surprise that the Galaxy S25 Ultra’s battery life is superior. It’s a larger phone, housing a bigger battery (5,000 mAh vs. 3,900 mAh). So, no wonder the Ultra beats the Edge in every test.

Nevertheless, it’s interesting to see that the S25 Edge’s call and video playback runtimes get pretty close to the S25 Ultra’s.

Charging speed

The Galaxy S25 Ultra should be way faster to charge than the S25 Edge on paper. After all, the S25 Ultra’s fast-charging rate is 45W, while the Edge settles for 25W. But the comparison in charging speeds is not as straightforward as the numbers would suggest.

The S25 Ultra is able to replenish more juice at the 15- and 30-minute mark, but the Edge catches up with charging speed when it comes to full charge. Samsung has been pretty conservative with its charging speeds and its Galaxy S phones usually take about the same time to charge fully.

In any case, if charging speed is a priority, we recommend the Ultra for practical reasons. Almost no one charges their phone to full when in a hurry, so having quicker charging in the lower percentages is much more practical.

Speaker test

The Galaxy S25 Ultra is the clear winner here, offering louder and nicer-sounding speakers. Perhaps due to size constraints, the S25 Edge’s speakers are quiet and flat. While the tuning sounds similar, the Ultra delivers fuller and warmer sound with more pronounced bass.

Performance

Both handsets run on the same Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy chipset, an overclocked version of the standard SD 8 Elite. The two main cores, along with the GPU, are overclocked. Even though the performance should be on par, the Galaxy S25 Edge’s slim design is a bottleneck for the powerful SoC.

The memory configurations are very similar. Both start from 12GB/256GB, but while the S25 Edge caps at 12GB/512GB, the S25 Ultra is also available in 12GB/1TB and 16GB/1TB flavors. In any case, you get UFS 4.0 storage.

Benchmark performance

As you can see, the Galaxy S25 Ultra has a slight advantage in all three tests, but it’s somewhat negligible.

The difference could probably be explained by the poor S25 Edge thermals. The S25 Edge’s sustained performance is subpar, and the CPU starts throttling within minutes. Not that the S25 Ultra is great in this regard, but it seems to be doing slightly better. So if you plan on gaming, the S25 Ultra might be the better pick.

Camera comparison

The Galaxy S25 Edge and the S25 Ultra share similar camera hardware, but due to size constraints, the Edge features just two cameras instead of four. The ones missing are the dedicated 3x and 5x cameras found on the Ultra. Also, the Ultra features a bigger 50MP ultrawide sensor as opposed to the 12MP one found in the Edge.

The good news is that the Edge also retains the 200MP main camera, the centerpiece camera on the Ultra. The selfie units are identical.

Image quality

We are surprised by how well the S25 Edge holds up to the S25 Ultra in most scenarios. For instance, we couldn’t find any meaningful difference between the ultrawide photos. Both phones seem to perform on the same level in this regard and have pretty much identical processing as well.

Camera comparison: S25E 0.6x • S25U 0.6x • S25E 1x • S25U 1x • S25E 2x • S25U 2x

Camera comparison: S25E 3x • S25U 3x • S25E 5x • S25U 5x

We couldn’t find a difference between the main camera photos either, but that’s to be expected given that the handsets use the same camera sensor. The 1x and 2x photos are the same.

Camera comparison: S25E 0.6x • S25U 0.6x • S25E 1x • S25U 1x • S25E 2x • S25U 2x

Camera comparison: S25E 3x • S25U 3x • S25E 5x • S25U 5x

Another big surprise are the 3x zoom photos. Even though the Edge doesn’t have a dedicated telephoto unit, the 3x crop zoom from the main sensor is good enough and almost perfectly matches the S25 Ultra’s 3x zoom shooter. The same cannot be said about the 5x zoom mode, though. This appears to be the S25 Ultra’s only advantage.

Video quality

Below we have a few framegrabs from the videos taken by the two phones at each focal length so it’s easier to compare to one another.

4K screengrabs: S25E 0.6x • S25U 0.6x • S25E 1x • S25U 1x • S25E 3x • S25U 3x • S25E 5x • S25U 5x

The video recording capabilities of both handsets are quite comparable. There’s no meaningful difference between the ultrawide and the main cameras, but as expected, the S25 Ultra delivers slightly cleaner 3x zoom videos. Not by much, but it’s still something. The 5x videos are much better on the Ultra, though.

4K screengrabs: S25E 0.6x • S25U 0.6x • S25E 1x • S25U 1x • S25E 3x • S25U 3x • S25E 5x • S25U 5x

Verdict

It’s quite obvious that if you are looking for a sleek, lightweight and portable design, the Galaxy S25 Edge is the better choice of the two. The Edge is also cheaper in most markets and doesn’t fall behind too much in the camera department compared to the Ultra.

However, the Galaxy S25 Ultra outperforms the Edge in almost every aspect, and Europeans are getting it for cheaper than the Edge, so it’s a no-brainer. It has a slightly better display, faster charging, nicer-sounding speakers, longer battery life and S Pen support.