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Samsung On Galaxy S25 Edge - Exclusive Interview
Sep 17, 2025
Mark sits down with Samsung's director of smartphone product management, Blake Gaiser, to talk about the controversial Galaxy S25 Edge and whether it's truly a flagship smartphone. In this video, we find out what makes the S25 Edge so thin, but also ask about trade-offs around battery life and the lack of a telephoto lens. And we also touch on the ongoing AI battle between Samsung and Apple, what's next for foldable phones and whether we'll even be using smartphones 10 years from now.
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Hey guys, today I'm here with Blake Geiser from Samsung to talk about what's new and what's next
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for Samsung's phones. From the Galaxy S25 Edge to Galaxy AI, we're diving into how Samsung is
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making big moves when it comes to mobile, and what it means for you. Without further ado, Blake
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I know that we've caught you at a very interesting time in Samsung's smartphone life cycle. We're
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fresh off the launch of the Galaxy S25 Edge, which is on sale now, and we're coming up on the next
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wave of foldable phones, which I know we can't talk about just yet. But let's start with the
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Galaxy S25 Edge. It's 5.8 millimeters thin. It's just 163 grams. It's a remarkable design
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but there's some naysayers out there. So when you think about the target audience for the Edge
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who is it? There is actually a pretty good segment out there who's talking about
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you know, being on like right in between an ultra owner or a plus owner. They like the big screen
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They're not an S Pen user. They want a flagship camera, you know, but they don't want the weight
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and heft, you know, that you get with the Ultra. So there is quite a bit of people out there who
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just want a light, tech forward, fashionable device that has all the performance that you
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would expect from a high-end flagship phone. And, you know, this is really where that kind of
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delivers for our customers. So do you consider the Edge to, because I know it's a very subjective
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definition, do you consider it to be a flagship? You know, we do consider it to be a flagship
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That's why we're talking about it. That's why we're launching it kind of off-cycle. It is a new innovation piece that we're bringing forth. We're taking out so much weight, so much thickness of this device, while not compromising on the things that are really important to our customers, such as durability, the performance of the chipset, having that flagship camera lens, the 200 megapixel camera
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And so we do believe that this is that kind of Goldilocks for so many of our customers that is going to give them everything they want and not give them the things that they're not looking for
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I actually use the iPhone 16 Pro Max as my everyday phone. And it's really interesting, just getting up and typing with the device and just holding it for an extended period of time and then going back to a regular flagship phone
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There's a big difference just in terms of the sheer weight and the heft of the device
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not only in terms of when you're carrying it, but also when you're using it. Are you seeing that
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when customers are getting their hands on it for the first time? You know, what's so amazing about this device is that normally in my position, I'm going to
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pitch these phones, whether they be to our carriers or customers in media. And I just
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kind of gave up on PowerPoint. I gave up on saying, here's the tech specs, here's why it's so cool
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And I just said, okay, you know, here's five things I want you to know about the phone
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but before any of that, just hold it. And that is kind of where it kind of settled out
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where it was like that experience of like, not only is it so thin, you know, it has the full
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plus screen to it. But it's so light too. It almost doesn't feel real. And so it's like
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once people get it in their hand, that hand field is not just about thickness. It's not just about
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weight. It's about weight distribution. It's about how you can reach across the screen
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All of those things, so much better with this device that it just didn't make sense to try to
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sell people on tech specs. And so when I hear those naysayers, I'm like, okay, get your hands
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on the device and then, you know, let's see what your opinion is. Right
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So one question then, if we're talking about the thinness of the edge is how did you do it
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Because obviously there's some things that you needed to take out, like maybe like the size of the battery, but in terms of the actual design of the internal components, like how
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did you make it so thin? Well, you know, yes, we really designed this from the ground up to be thin
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The goal was to be thin without compromise. We really didn't want to take things away from a device to make it thin
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We could have done that years ago. And so it was really kind of working towards that moment where we could engineer it in a way to be thin and have the performance that our customers would expect
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So, yes, it has a 3900 milliamp hour battery, which is about 100 milliamps smaller than our base unit
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Right. You know, so it's really thin, but it does have the Snapdragon 8 Elite, which is a three nanometer processor that was custom built for Samsung
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So it gives you the entire, you know, full day battery life, you know, with that device
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But everything about this device was focusing on that slimness to it
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So making sure structurally it was going to be extremely durable. We're utilizing titanium frame. We're utilizing Corning's most recent ceramic to glass on it
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We're even putting in a vapor chamber cooling system that's larger than the PLUS model
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So that way we're able to utilize every single component as efficiently and effectively as
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possible and making sure that how we put it together gave you a really good balance in the
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hand so it wasn't top heavy or bottom heavy. But yeah, every single detail was meticulously planned
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out to make this device. I think one of the concerns that people have with like when even
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when they start seeing like just the leaks of this device, they're like, well, it's just going to snap in half when I put it in my pocket
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How do you make sure that it feels super light but not too light like a toy when you pick it up you were talking about the distribution of weight a little bit but also to make sure that it going to stand the test of time right Because there some worries when you get to something so thin I think we remember Ben Gate with some iPads perhaps
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But yeah, how do you avoid that? It comes down with having that in mind when you're starting
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the engineering of not only are you making sure the weight is distributed evenly, you're making
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sure that at no point in time there's a cross section that's going to allow for it to bend
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more than it absolutely should. So I haven't been able to break it yet, which is a great thing
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So do you need a case? And if so, does it defeat the purpose of having something so slim
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So cases are a very personal thing for our customers. A lot of the time
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initially people think it's for protection. A lot of the time it's just for individuality
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and customization. I don't use a case on it. I am more than confident that it's, you know
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it's a beautiful phone. If I really wanted to do something and it's probably more to that
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customization, I might put like a skin on it or something like that rather than a case, but you
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know, to each their own, I guess. Okay. So there are some trade-offs when it comes to the S25 Edge
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and one of the ones that people are talking about is not having that telephoto zoom. You do get like
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a 2x equivalent with the 200 megapixel main camera, but you don't have the 3x telephoto
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You don't have the 30x space zoom. So are people going to miss that? And what do you think about
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that particular trade-off? You know, we are just so far ahead in our camera tech that people don't
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really understand the quality of their photos that they're getting. Not only is it things like
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optical zooms, but it's also the agentic AI that we have built in, you know, from the chipset up
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utilizing cognitive aware engines so that your camera understands what you're taking photos of
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and is able to utilize AI to give you that perfect shot
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But when we're looking at the usage of our cameras with our customers, we know a couple of things
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We know that the most popular zooms that our customers use are the 0.6x
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to get those really wide macro views, the 1x, 2x, and 3x
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By far more usability on those three settings than anything else. Is it nice to have the 100X space zoom at times
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Absolutely. Sure. Is it something that you're going to use every day or even every month
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And when you're doing side-by-side comparisons, I think customers are really going to see that you're getting fantastic quality that meets or beats our competition
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So let's talk about battery life. So we mentioned that it has a 3,900 mAh battery in the Edge
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and based on our own testing, we have our web surfing test and the Edge got a little like 12
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and a half hours or so, which is maybe a couple hours less than the regular S25. And then the S25
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plus was, I think three and a half hours or so better. So there is a difference in terms of
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endurance. So I guess the question is like, what is that dividing line in terms of what is enough
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battery life for someone who's going for a device like this? You know, I think enough battery life
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for most customers is just an all day usage. You don't want to find yourself at lunch
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with an empty battery. And what we've seen with this device is that it has worked as well or better
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than the S24 base model and very close to the S25 base model
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Not only that, you get super fast charging with it, with 25 Watts
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So 30 minutes in, you're north of 50% of a battery. As long as you can live with it
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from sunup to sundown without having any issues, We think that's a great experience
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And personally, I haven't had much of an issue with the battery life whatsoever
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Not even noticeable, something that I'm even concerned about using it as my day-to-day driver. Okay
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In terms of battery technologies, obviously this is using lithium-ion. Some people have been talking about silicon carbide, which I guess is a relatively new technology
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Some smartphone makers are starting to experiment with it because I think it gives you more capacity in the same amount of space
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Is that something that you explored for this phone? Or what do you just think about that technology in general
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You know, Samsung's always looking at every new emerging technology that's out there
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It's something that we're definitely not keeping our eye off of. But with, you know, that new chipset, with agentic AI helping with performance and efficiencies of these batteries
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we really felt that, you know, going with our traditional lithium-ion battery was the right move for this device
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Okay. Well, you brought up AI, and obviously Galaxy AI has been around for well over a year at this point. There's lots of features that people can take advantage of. I believe you get everything that you get on the regular S25 series when it comes to the S25 Edge. What features are people gravitating towards and using most often based on your own internal data
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Yeah. You know, when we look at Galaxy AI, we kind of break it down into four sections. We break it down to creativity, communication, productivity and health
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OK. And which one of those is being used more really depends on the customer
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So what we see as an example are translation services where you can talk into your phone and real time translate it on a phone call
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Those customers that use that, they use it a lot. Whereas our younger demographics do
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more post of their photos and videos to post online than anyone else So they going to use generative edit They going to utilize our audio eraser to really kind of take out the sounds that they not looking for And so it really kind of depends on who it is that you talking to Right
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To your point, S25 Edge has everything that the S25 family has
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And probably the most exciting one that people are utilizing the most is that audio eraser
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where you can just take noise and pull it out of the video
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So whether it be construction noise or nature noise or general audience noise, music, whatever
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it might be, you can custom EQ that to give you the video that you want
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And it's something that you can play with real time that we've seen a lot of people
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extremely happy with that one. Is there potentially a tipping point where people are so excited about what they're seeing
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on Samsung phones and what you can do with Gemini, for example
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Just as an example, the other night I was cooking some steaks. I fired up Gemini
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It told me how thick the steaks were. And based on that, how long I should cook on each side
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You cannot do that on an iPhone. And Siri is delayed, as everyone knows
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Is there potentially a little bit like grass is greener growing among the Apple community
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out there? And someone might be like, my phone can't do that. I want this
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Or do you feel like people are just going to be stuck in their ways? Or what do you think? You know, AI is such an exciting time right now and having it on the mobile platform, it's still in its infancy
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So with S25, we really launched what we call Seamless Action Across Apps
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And really what that is, is the fact that the S25 was really built from the Android framework up with AI in mind
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And so one of the things that we look at from a product standpoint is how can we take clicks away from our customer
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What we see is after three or four clicks that you have to do, you kind of get overwhelmed or bored or it's not worth it for you
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Right. So utilizing AI and multimodality to be able to do multiple things with just one voice prompt has been a real game changer and we're just scratching the surface
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So, you know, imagine you want to find a restaurant. You're not exactly sure what kind of restaurant
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You want to invite some friends. You want to be reminded and then get directions there
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That's like 20 clicks for you to go out, search Google, find the restaurant, go into your text
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messages, text your friends, put it on your calendar, then go into Google Maps
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And, you know, so you can simply ask, you know, find the most, you know, find a local barbecue joint that's pet friendly
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Send it to my friend and, you know, put a calendar reminder, you know, for 7 p.m
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And it will do all of those things at one point for you
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Right. It will even compose the text message for you. You can look it over and then just press click
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That's two clicks. one click to start the voice message and one click to send it to your friend
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And as cool as that is, how do you expose customers to those possibilities without being
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too in their face? Like, hey, did you know your phone could do this? That is the hard part, you know, especially with things that
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don't exist or haven't existed for quite some time is how much and how strong we send that
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message to our customers. And what we're really seeing is that the in-store experience is the way
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to go. If you want to learn about AI or if you want to learn about foldables, going into a store
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getting your hands on it, playing with it is really important. And so we'll build out those
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experiences on those devices so people can really learn about them and try them out real time
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And with things like the S25 Edge, we've worked with our partners, all of our carriers to utilize
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different security so they can really experience the weight and feel of that device. And then on
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the device, they can learn about the latest Galaxy AI and all the benefits that they're going to have
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from that. Cool. Speaking of wow moments, I think foldables fall under that category where it's one
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of those things where you have to hold it in your hand and experience to sort of get potentially the
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value proposition, whether it's a book style, flip, et cetera. We know that the next generation
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of you guys have said that it's on the way with the, whether they're called the Fold 7 and Flip 7
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We'll have to see. And we are already getting a taste of One UI 8. You're teasing some of the
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features that are going to be available, not just on the S25 series, but also the upcoming foldables
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In your mind, what is the state of foldables right now? And how far can you push this category
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You know, we have six generations out right now, six years of learning how to make these
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very complicated, hard devices work beautifully. We're very proud of the state of our foldables
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but we also recognize that awareness of foldables isn't near what it is for a traditional smartphone
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Right. A lot of people, you know, even to our surprise, don't even know that they exist yet
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I feel like a lot of your tech savvy listeners are going to say, how does nobody know about
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these devices, but you know, it's, it's very, very true. And one UI eight and foldables were
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I think that we really excited about foldables is that with that different form factor of those devices it allows us to do more with AI because it is a device that can do literally a lot more than a traditional smartphone can do Well I trying to think of examples
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like one is live translation, right? Where you have like what's on the outer screen and you can
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see what's going on on the other side. Are there any other examples like where AI is different or
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better on foldables versus like, let's say the regular S series? Well, absolutely. I mean
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just having the ability to have multi screens on like your big fold where you're able to
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summarize notes while recording and transcribing, you know, while doing other actions on your device
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you know, three, four different screens at one point in time on that unfolded phone, you know
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allowing you to do, you know, a lot more to it. Having that face-to-face conversation where you
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can just put your phone in a tent and, you know, speak one language, have it translate directly
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and they can see it. So you can have a face-to-face conversation with somebody
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with that language barrier being removed between us. And it really kind of makes it a much more
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personable experience. And we're going to be bringing even more to the device
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Cool. In terms of just form factors, I know that Samsung Display has teased a triple foldable
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before, which I think is very interesting when I got to play around with it in person. What do you think of that particular form factor? Can you say whether or not you're exploring it
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and maybe what advantages it might have over the regular fold? You know, I would love to tell you all that I know about these kind of things
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But what I can say is that we're looking at every single possibility of what a phone's
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going to look like, you know, a year from now, five years from now, 10 years from now
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And what are the features and benefits of those different form factors
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What we do know is that phones are going to evolve. They have, you know, over the last 15 years, when Samsung pushed the envelope with a six
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inch, you know, plus display and nobody's going to like that. It's way too big of a phone. And
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now you can't find one under that, but it's something that we're going to, you know
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look at all of those different opportunities. We are uniquely positioned with our displays
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with our engineering, with all the different things that Samsung does to really push the
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envelope on new form factors. And I would expect without knowing much of the future that, you know
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Samsung would be first to innovate within those spaces. Okay. So one last question when it comes
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to the future, we were talking about five years from now, 10 years from now. So let's say it's
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2035. Are we still carrying around smartphones or do we maybe transition to smart glasses
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And like, what do you feel like is next for the category? Is it going to, is the smartphone going
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to stick around? The smartphone will stick around in one form or another. I wish I had that, you
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know, crystal ball to be able to look into it. I'm really excited. I think with AI getting better
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with chipsets, you know, kind of getting better, different battery technologies out there
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it's going to fundamentally evolve the smartphone as we understand it today. I think foldables
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really kind of starts the role of that in not only understanding different form factors
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but how people can utilize them. So, gosh, 2035, I don't even know how old I'll be at that point in time
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Hopefully retired. But I'm really excited just knowing that we're going to be able to do so much more with our devices
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Go back to that seamless action across apps is just being able to talk into your phone
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and get the information and do the actions that you want to do just with your voice
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Right. That alone, as that evolves and can touch every single app on your device
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So, you know, I think we're going to have a more personalized experience with our devices
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and how that's going to come through on a form factor. Your guess is as good as mine. Yeah
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That makes sense, though, that AI over time both like intuit what you're looking for as
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opposed to have to being prompted. Exactly. Right. And you see that
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We kicked that off with S25, with the Now Brief and the Now Bar
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Right. So as you use your device more, it's understanding, you know, it takes some of that information
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stores it in your own personal data core, completely locked down, encrypted, you know
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can't get to it. But it's understanding the things that are meaningful to you and the actions that you're taking
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And then it's saying things like suggesting routines. Hey, Mark, you're doing this all the time
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Maybe we should just turn that into a routine for you so you don't have to do those 13 clicks every single day over and over again
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Or your favorite team is coming on. Hey, they're about to play in 15 minutes
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So it's already starting to learn about what it is that's important to you and then provide you the information before you go and look for it
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And that's only going to get better and more accurate and more efficient over time
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Well, on behalf of me and everyone else watching this video today, thanks, Blake, for your time today. If you learned something new or just love seeing how the tech world ticks, make sure to hit
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that like button and subscribe. And let me know in the comments who we should interview here on
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the channel next. For Tom's Guide, this is Mark Spoonhour
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