Samsung just announced the Galaxy S25 Edge smartphone, but early rumours make me way more excited for the Xiaomi 16.
The Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge offers a broadly flagship-level experience at a decidedly flagship-level price, with the key twist of a 5.3mm-thick body.
I can’t help thinking that Samsung is answering a question no one was asking, however, and may even be missing the point entirely. A fresh Xiaomi 16 leak really helped clarify things for me.
Xiaomi 16: A small phone with staying power
According to a new Weibo post from Chinese leaker Smart Pikachu, the Xiaomi 16 will feature a massive 6,800mAh battery, despite retaining the small screen that the series is known for.
For reference, the Xiaomi 15 houses a 6.3-inch OLED display in its (relatively) compact 152.3 x 71.2 x 8.1mm body.
Now, I should issue a caveat here. This stated battery capacity could well be a China-only deal, with the global model receiving a much smaller cell.
The Chinese model of the Xiaomi 15, for example, came with a 5,400mAh battery compared to 5,240mAh in the the global model.
The difference isn’t huge, however, and it’s probably safe to assume that the global model of the Xiaomi 16 will at the very least match and probably exceed the battery capacity of its predecessor. This will make its battery more capacious than the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, let alone the Edge.
Jon Mundy / Foundry
Is Samsung losing its Edge?
That would make the Xiaomi 16 a usefully compact phone (does a skinny form factor actually help anyone?) with a much larger battery than the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge.
In the pursuit of skinniness, Samsung has fitted its new phone with a puny 3,900mAh cell. That’s even smaller than that of the Galaxy S25, which is Samsung’s current Xiaomi 15 equivalent.
Samsung is generally a dab hand at optimising its phones to extract solid stamina from them, but I can’t see how the Galaxy S25 Edge is going to be anything other than the runt of the S25 litter in this department.
Anyron Copeman / Foundry
Smaller, more elegant phones are a trend that I’d like to encourage, but not at the expense of practicality. It’s not just a battery life issue either – thanks to that slim body, the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge loses a dedicated telephoto camera.
If the Xiaomi 16 follows in the footsteps of its predecessors, it won’t suffer from either of these major omissions, with the Xiaomi 15 packing a credible third lens.
That it could also be the first phone to feature Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite 2 chip is just the icing on the cake. Add in 100W charging and an earlier-than-expect September launch, and it would see Xiaomi’s phone thoroughly outgunning the Edge within months of the latter’s launch – and likely at a much lower price to boot.
Samsung deserves praise for going first with the whole super-skinny flagship phone concept, with Apple widely expected to follow.
I’ll hold out judgement until I’ve had a chance to use the Galaxy S25 Edge, but I’m leaning more towards Xiaomi’s approach of a classic compact flagship with a whopping great silicon-carbon battery onboard.
