If the latest reports are correct, Apple is just a few months away from announcing its thinnest iPhone ever. The so‑called iPhone 17 Air is expected to be just 5.5 mm thick, feature a 6.6‑inch OLED display, and replace the iPhone 16 Plus in this year’s lineup.
So, naturally, Samsung has just announced an ultra‑thin phone of its own.
Survival of the thinnest
The Galaxy S25 Edge doesn’t come as much of a surprise, since Samsung had already previewed it at its Unpacked 2025 event last January.
Now, as reported by our friends at 9to5Google, the phone has been officially announced. Here’s how it stacks up against what we know so far about the iPhone 17 Air:
| Spec | Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge (official) | iPhone 17 Air (rumored) |
| Thickness | 5.8 mm | 5.5 mm |
| Display | 6.7″ QHD+ AMOLED, 1–120 Hz, LTPO | 6.6″ OLED, 120 Hz ProMotion, LTPO |
| Weight | 163 grams | n/a |
| Chipset | Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy S25 Edge, 3 nm | Apple A19, 3 nm |
| RAM | 12 GB | 8 GB |
| Storage | 256 GB–512 GB | n/a |
| Rear camera(s) | 200 MP wide + 12 MP ultrawide | 48 MP wide |
| Front camera | 12 MP | 24 MP |
| Build | Titanium | Aluminum |
| Battery | 3.900 mAh | n/a |
| Wired charging | 25 W | n/a |
| Wireless charging | Wireless charging compatible with WPC | n/a |
| Availability | May 30th, 2025 | n/a |
| Base price | $ 1.099 | $ 899 / $ 1,299 |
Top comment by Gordon Bonenfant
Let’s get out a ruler…. And compare 5.5mm of the air iPhone to 7.8mm of the iPhone 16. That is not a significant difference.
The truth is that cell phone sales peaked in 2017 and with so little that is new both Samsung and Apple are desperate to sell you anything. People are not upgrading as often as they used to. In my case I have an iPhone 16 pro max and it will be several years before I upgrade.
Even Samsung is releasing their thin model in limited quantities and markets.
Early impressions of the Galaxy S25 Edge suggest a sleek device that had to make a few tradeoffs to achieve its thin profile, namely battery capacity and the telephoto lens.
Going forward, it will be interesting to see how the broader market responds to the device, and how that reaction might shape Apple’s pitch when it’s their turn to reveal its own thinnest phone ever.
Are you looking forward to the iPhone 17 Air? Do you plan to buy it? Is it pointless? Let us know in the comments below.
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