Samsung reportedly halting Galaxy S26 Edge development
Did the iPhone Air win?
Recently, rumors swirled that Samsung is abruptly stopping all Galaxy S26 Edge development. This is not much of a shocker, as the previous Galaxy S25 Edge that released this past year has had atrociously low sales. The S26 Edge only sold 1.31 million units, as opposed to the S25, S25 Plus, and S25 Ultra, which sold 8.28 million, 5.05 million, and 12.18 million units, according to Tom's Guide.
Given this news, I think that it is high time that we go back and think why we needed thin phones in the first place. On the surface, it is an eye-catching quality and is easily (as we have seen first-hand) a top marketing point for a device. It is also probably preferred by a lot of people to have a lighter phone to carry around. But, for some reason, no one is looking at the past when companies did the same thing and tried to make thinner and thinner phones.
After years of development, most companies, especially Apple, realized that there is no need to make the device as thin as possible. You give up battery life when you thin down a phone, and that is just not a compromise the vast majority of consumers are willing to take. Especially now, as phones become more and more integral to our lives, with it doing so many more things than it did 10 years ago (when the original ultra-thin phones came out), there is a growing need for more battery life.
On the other hand, I do see the argument that is being made that there has not been much in the way of new smartphone design in the past few years. Foldables are the closest thing to it, but they are just too expensive and out of reach for most people so far. But, pivoting to making phones as thin as possible is not the solution. Many have said that it is cool and exciting at first to have ultra-thin smartphones like the iPhone Air, but after a while, it gets a bit annoying and it feels like just a phone, but with less battery life.
Despite all of this, I do think that there is a small number of people who like the thinness and will buy a super thin phone despite the trade-offs. It is cool and although I don't think it is the next big thing, it deserves a place on the smartphone market.
The Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge is an interesting but flawed phone. We will have to wait and see what Samsung does soon.
