2025 Phone Launches: A new year means new phones, and 2025 is likely to see a rain of new smartphones right through the year. While most of these newcomers to the phone world will be designed to meet the needs of consumers, some will dare to step beyond conventional boundaries and redefine the smartphone experience (we so hope many do).
So even as we bid goodbye to 2024 and welcome 2025, here are five smartphones that we expect to make waves - and big ones - in the new year.
(NOTE: None of these devices has been officially confirmed at the time of writing. All specs and features are based on media and market speculation. Consider this report with a pinch of salt.)
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra: Android Flagship For 2025
The Ultra model of Samsung's flagship Galaxy S series has always been considered to be the flagbearer for Android flagships in terms of specs and performance, and we do not see that changing in 2025.
From what we know so far, the Galaxy S25 Ultra will again come with a large display and top-of-the-line hardware (powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite), although the megapixel count of the main camera is expected to come down from 200 megapixels to 50, although the two telephotos and the ultrawide are expected to get a megapixel boost.
The battery is expected to be bumped up to 6000 mAh, although there still will be no charger in the box. The S Pen stylus will remain in place as will be the Titanium frame, although the design is expected to be more curved than its predecessor.
The S Pen will have more Galaxy AI tricks up its sleeve, as will the entire phone itself. Which should make it THE Android phone to get for those with no budget constraints (no, a price cut is unlikely) in 2025.
OnePlus Open 2: Getting Lighter, More Powerful
The global launch of the OnePlus 13 is expected in the first couple of weeks of the new year, but the OnePlus device that is likely to make the most waves in 2025 is the OnePlus Open 2, which some say might even be shown at the Mobile World Congress at Barcelona.
The overall design is not expected to see a radical change, with a large cover display and a tablet-like internal display (both being slightly larger than on its predecessor), with the circular camera unit on the back.
However, the foldable is expected to be significantly slimmer than the original Open, and also come with better cameras.
A big change in hardware terms is that it will be running on the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip (the first Open had got a flagship chip on its way out), and that battery will be bumped up to close to 6,000 mAh (with a 90W charger in the box).
All indications are that it will also cost much more than its predecessor, but we are keeping our fingers for an unsettling foldable price from the Never Settler.
Nothing Phone 3: New LED Patterns Incoming
Nothing, the new brand from OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei, has been making waves with its innovative phones over the past couple of years.
However, it decided to not release a flagship phone in 2024, sticking to some very good mid-segment offerings like the CMF Phone 1 and the Phone 2a Plus. That is likely to change in 2025 with Nothing expected to come out with the Nothing Phone 3, its next flagship offering.
The phone is expected to come with a very distinct Glyph UI interface with LEDs on its back that light up in different patterns, which made the Phone 2 and Phone 2 such head-turners.
While the Phone 1 and Phone 2 had a broadly similar Glyph UI on their backs, the Phone 3 is expected to have a markedly different one, with more LEDs and support for more functions. The phone is also expected to come with 50-megapixel dual cameras, one main and one telephoto, and a large battery, as well as a bigger and brighter display, but its biggest attractions, are likely to remain Nothing's Glyph UI interface and super clean Android.
It is expected to be powered by a Snapdragon chipset that is just a notch below the high-end Snapdragon 8 Elite, which should place its price tag in the premium mid-segment.
iPhone SE: Apple Intelligence With A Lower Price Tag
Yes, the second half of 2025 is likely to see the launch of the iPhone 17 series with significant hardware upgrades and perhaps even a Pixel-ish camera bar unit, but the odds are that before that, we will see a new iPhone SE in 2025.
Apple has not updated its (relatively)affordable-yet-powerful iPhone SE series since 2022, but 2025 is expected to see a new edition of the SE.
Designed to deliver Apple Intelligence features at a markedly lower price than the iPhone 16 series, the next iPhone SE is expected to follow a design very similar to the iPhone XR or iPhone 12, depending on who you choose to believe, finally losing the circular fingerprint scanner and home button below a 6.1-inch display.
It is expected to come with the same A18 chip seen on the iPhone 16, and is said to feature an OLED display (with 60 Hz refresh rate!), but will have a single 48-megapixel sensor on the back and a notch rather than a Dynamic Island.
It is also rumoured to be a little more compact than the iPhone 16, and far easier on the wallet, with a price tag expected to be in the region of USD 450 and about Rs 47,000 in India.
Google Pixel 10 Pro: Becoming The Gemini Phone?
2025 will of course see a new set of Google Pixels, but the one that is likely to see the most dramatic overhaul is the Pro variant.
While details remain very sketchy, there is some talk of the phone coming with a truckload of new sensors that let you leverage all the AI goodness around you, and as per one source, "act like a super proactive virtual assistant, making it a Google Gemini phone".
From what we have heard, the phone will prompt you to turn down noise volumes or move to a quieter place, drop hints about traffic congestion, and even give you health warnings based on your selfies (the Pixel range can measure your temperature, incidentally) and try to sense how you feel depending on the tone of your posts and messages (if you permit it to access them).
All this AI sorcery will of course come in a typical Pixel design (they are not planning to change the camera capsule this time) with Tensor chip goodness.
It will look premium and come with a premium price tag too, but it could redefine smartphones in usage terms if what we have heard is true.