“Edge” has been a Samsung brand for many years, and we will soon have a new Edge-branded phone coming our way. However, the upcoming Galaxy S25 Edge has nothing to do with the legacy of the brand. It's something entirely different. Samsung has redefined its vocabulary, so the question is, what does the “Edge” name mean in 2025?
First, let's take a quick look at the history of Edge. The first phone to carry the badge was the Galaxy Note Edge, which Samsung released in 2014.
The Edge brand denoted a new smartphone design language, crafted around a curved display that wrapped around the right edge of the phone. The upcoming Galaxy S25 Edge has none of those characteristics.
Samsung kept releasing Edge-branded flagship variants up until 2016. But even though the Galaxy S7 Edge was the last phone to use this brand, the legacy of the curved edge display continued for a few more years, up until the Galaxy S24 Ultra. The Edge panel remains a software component in One UI to this day.
Where does the Galaxy S25 Edge gets its name?
Samsung hasn't explained where the Galaxy S25 Edge gets its name, but one thing that sets the phone apart is that it is supposed to have a very thin profile. That's likely where it got its designation. It has a very thin edge, so to speak, but has nothing to do with the thin frames of the bygone Edge phones.
The upcoming Galaxy S25 Edge has a completely flat display, flat back panel, and flat uniform frame to boot. Technically speaking, there's no relation between the old and new Edge brand.
There's also the Galaxy Book 4 Edge to consider. It was released last year as Samsung's first Windows laptop equipped with an ARM chip. And obviously, it didn't have a curved display.
This brings us to another possible new meaning in Samsung's revised vocabulary. Edge could be derived from the term “cutting-edge,” which means highly advanced.
Even though it had its flaws at launch due to app incompatibility, the Galaxy Book 4 Edge is an advanced piece of mobile computing, given that it adopts a new CPU architecture. And the Galaxy S25 Edge is said to boast some really cutting-edge characteristics, such as a 200MP primary camera in a very thin profile.
Fun fact: The Galaxy Book 4 Edge was also the thinnest laptop from the Book 4 series. Similar to how the Galaxy S25 Edge is supposed to be the slimmest S25 variant.
So then, it's safe to say that the Edge brand doesn't mean what it used to. Samsung has redefined it, and instead of reflecting a curved screen, it is now associated with thinness, cutting-edge technologies, or both.
This also means that anyone who was still hanging on to any hope of the curved screen returning should probably move on and accept that the flat form factor era is here to stay — which is arguably for the best, given the inherent flaws of the curved Edge screen design.