The future of ultra-slim phones doesn’t look so good, despite a short run. A report coming out of Taiwan claims that the apparent failure of the iPhone Air has pushed a bunch of other companies to cancel their respective slim phones. Samsung could also join that list of brands that are playing it safe.
Most leaks suggest that Samsung has canceled the Galaxy S25 Edge successor and will return to the mid-tier Plus model next year. The apparent cancellation of the Galaxy S26 Edge doesn’t paint a good picture, especially for Samsung’s trust in its product philosophy.
It’s like a deja vu of the slim race from nearly a decade ago, when a few Chinese brands made phones that were even slimmer than the iPhone Air. This time around, Samsung came up with a slim phone ahead of Apple, and now, it seems it was a one-off showcase. I strongly believe Samsung should’ve gone ahead with the Galaxy S26 Edge.
A jolt of fresh energy
Andy Boxall / Digital Trends
Smartphone innovation is on a creative boost once again. Incidentally, it was Samsung that started it all, with foldables phones that now open like a book or close like a pocketable clamshell package. The start —̦ the original Galaxy Fold — was almost nightmarish. Fast forward to the Galaxy Z Fold 7, and it feels like the future.
But foldable phones are an expensive investment. Not just because the sticker price is higher, but it’s owing to their fragility and high repair costs. Our investigation revealed a repairability problem for Samsung foldables, and most owners I’ve talked to have similar stories of pricey repairs to share.
With a phone like the Galaxy S25 Edge, that’s not much of a problem. You aren’t sacrificing durability with it. You’re simply investing in a more stylish phone, with a few cuts here and there. But there is a lesson to be learned here from the iPhone Air.
Apple’s uber-slim phone — objectively speaking — is an even worse package than the Galaxy S25 Edge in terms of what you get for the price. Yet, nearly every owner that I’ve talked to has shared that they love the phone. They bought it for what it was – a slim iPhone that deviated from the rest.
The lack of a secondary camera often pops up in the debate, but they’ve grown used to it. Samsung already did one better than the iPhone by offering a much bigger main camera and a dedicated ultrawide camera. The company simply failed to serve it on a fresh design platter.
Samsung has a lingering design problem, and that tanked the S25 Edge’s appeal for many, including me. It was simply slim, but not really standout in terms of the “typical Samsung look.” The company should’ve pulled a stunt similar to Apple and cooked up an entirely new aesthetic language.
The Galaxy S26 Edge could’ve served as a prime candidate for one such makeover. This wasn’t supposed to be a mass market phone. It was supposed to serve an audience that sought something standout, a device that stood out from the crowd. The iPhone Air did just that, and Galaxy S26 Edge simply had to follow in its footsteps.
Samsung was so close
The Galaxy S25 Edge, despite its slim waistline, was pretty close to a normal phone. A normal phone, in the same vein as the iPhone 17. There were a few sacrifices, though. The two biggest flaws? A small-than-usual battery, and a missing zoom camera. Maybe faster wired charging and better thermals, too.
Samsung only had to fix those papercuts on the Galaxy S25 Edge and deliver a more refined package on the Galaxy S26 Edge. The brand didn’t have to pull anything out of thin air. It simply had to embrace the tech that’s already out there.
Silicon-Carbon batteries, for example, could’ve solved multiple problems in one go. Take, for example, the new Honor 5000 series phones. Despite a waistline of just 7.7 inches, you get a massive 8,000 mAh battery while keeping the screen size at a pocketable 6.5 inches. That’s over twice the battery capacity compared to the Galaxy S25 Edge, which is 5.8 millimeters across.
With a difference of just 1.9 millimeters in thickness, the silicon carbon tech allowed Honor to fit a battery with over double the capacity. And while at it, the phone still supports 80W wired charging (almost twice that of Samsung), 50W wired charging, and 27W reverse wireless charging.
Samsung could’ve achieved a similar feat if it simply embraced the tech. It’s interesting that despite its history of bold experiments, Samsung still ignores the silicon-carbon battery tech, especially for a form factor where it could prove decisive.
“Samsung’s always looking at every new emerging technology that’s out there. So it’s something that we’re definitely not keeping our eyes off of,” Blake Glaser, director of smartphone product management at Samsung Electronics America, recently told Tom’s Guide.
On the camera front, Samsung already proved that it can pull off dual cameras while playing in the same thinness ballpark as the iPhone Air, which only offers a single rear camera. If the Moto X7 Air is any indication, it’s possible to fit three rear cameras and a bigger battery inside a phone that’s still only 5.99 millimeters across.
A missed redemption arc
Samsung is in a better position than any smartphone maker out there to make a better slim phone, even more so than Apple. It can make fairly powerful Exynos processors. It has a dedicated camera division that makes smartphone camera sensors. It runs a display unit that has even supplied panels for iPhones.
Simply put, Samsung could’ve pushed an in-house tech stack on the Galaxy S26 Edge without worrying too much about the costs involved. And while at it, played the safe flagship game with the vanilla Galaxy S26 and its Ultra variant. The next Edge model could’ve been a home recipe hit, or even a test-bed for in-house tech.
But more than anything, the Galaxy S26 Edge could’ve been the statement piece, just like the original Galaxy Fold. The Galaxy S25 Edge was the proverbial “first pancake.” By fixing its flaws and building atop it, the Galaxy S26 Edge could’ve emerged as a vindication of Samsung’s engineering excellence.
Samsung’s apparent killing of the ultra-thin “edge” vision is not just bad optics for the company, but it also doesn’t bode well for the rest of the brands in the game. If two of the biggest players — Apple and Samsung — can’t make a good slim phone, is there a point for the smaller brands to even attempt the idea meaningfully?
I guess we’ll never know. Maybe Samsung will give it all a second thought down the road. Or maybe, the Galaxy S26 Edge will go down in history as the next “what could’ve been” case study.
