6 trends to expect from flagship Android phones in 2025

The first wave of next-generation Android phones has been launched, with major Chinese manufacturers such as Honor, OnePlus, and OPPO making their debuts. But this is just the beginning, we look forward to more High-end Android phones Will be launched in 2025.

But what do these phones with new processors and other hardware upgrades tell us about what’s going to happen in 2025? From battery life to performance improvements and more, here’s what’s likely to happen next year.

One of the most notable improvements to the next generation of smartphones is longer battery life, at least in theory, and there are several reasons for that. Perhaps the biggest reason is wider adoption silicon batteryproviding more capacity than lithium batteries in the same physical size. From Honor and Xiaomi to OPPO and OnePlus, everyone is stepping up their efforts in this regard. In fact, the vivo X200 Pro Mini has a more compact 6.39-inch screen and a large 5,700mAh battery. The realme GT7 Pro, on the other hand, squeezes a 6,500mAh battery into the body.

Another reason why battery life is expected to be longer in 2025 is that the two leading Android phone processors, Snapdragon 8 Elite and MediaTek Dimensity 9400, are both built using TSMC’s 3nm process. This is expected to significantly increase efficiency compared to the previous 4nm process used for high-end chips. In fact, Qualcomm says the new Snapdragon processors are 44% more efficient than previous chips, while MediaTek says its processors are 40% more efficient.

Don’t just take my word for it, though. Colleague Rob Triggs tested the Snapdragon-powered ROG Phone 9 Pro and Noticed significant improvement in battery life More than the previous generation. The most prominent growth comes from Zoom calls (30%), 4K video playback (30%) and web browsing (46%). When running these new phones at full speed, power consumption does increase, but you only really do that in benchmark applications.

Perhaps the main improvement for the next generation of flagship Android phones will be performance, as the Snapdragon 8 Elite uses a custom Oryon CPU. Our own preliminary tests Realme GT7 Pro While it didn’t quite hit Qualcomm’s claimed 45% CPU/GPU improvement, we still saw very impressive year-over-year gains. Meanwhile, the ROG Phone 9 Pro largely matches Qualcomm’s CPU claims, but falls slightly short in the GPU category.

MediaTek’s Dimensity 9400 doesn’t offer the same huge CPU boost, but ours OPPO Find X8 Pro test It was found that the phone performed well in the GPU stress test while operating cooler than the ROG Phone 9 Pro. So mobile gamers should keep this in mind.

More than a decade ago, smartphone manufacturers were vying for the crown of thinnest phone, and at the time we even saw ultra-thin phones without headphone jacks. It now appears that this war may be reignited in 2025.

We’ve heard a lot of rumors about a so-called iPhone 17 Air, with a slimmer design than other iPhone 17 models. If that’s not enough, we also recently heard that Samsung might launch the Galaxy S25 Slim a few months after its release Galaxy S25 series.

This could trigger a wider thin-and-light phone war among smartphone manufacturers. After all, how many OEMs blindly followed Apple from the beginning? Of course, the disadvantages include a smaller battery capacity and a potentially hotter device, offsetting the advantages we just mentioned.

Qualcomm previously confirmed Snapdragon 8 Elite could be more expensive than Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, recent leak suggests Prices rise 20-30%. Even the Dimensity 9400 is said to be more expensive than the Dimensity 9300.

Android phone makers need to do something to combat rising costs. They can pass these gains on to consumers by charging higher prices for new phones. Another option for these brands is to offer downgrade capabilities (or avoid major upgrades) to control bill of materials costs.

We’ve already seen some downgrades, such as the more affordable Asus ROG Phone 9 ditching the telephoto camera on the Pro entirely. Meanwhile, the Mi 15 comes with a 50MP 2.5x camera instead of last year’s 50MP 3.2x shooter. While the GT5 Pro offers wireless charging, Realme’s GT7 Pro also ditches it. So don’t be surprised if more phones see some downgrades or skip major upgrades entirely. We could even see brands like Samsung maintaining prices on the Galaxy S25 series in some regions while raising prices in other markets to compensate. The company did this last year with the Galaxy S23 series, as global markets effectively subsidized U.S. pricing.

The first in-display fingerprint sensor was terrible, scanning slowly and often requiring multiple attempts. But the technology has made significant progress over the years, and we’ve even seen some flagship phone manufacturers move away from optical-based fingerprint sensors to faster, more reliable ultrasonic solutions. These scanners even let you unlock your phone with a wet finger.

Qualcomm has long been one of the only major suppliers of ultrasonic under-screen fingerprint sensors. However, something big happened in this space earlier this year, as Chinese company Goodix announced the commercial launch of its first ultrasonic monitor scanner. The technology first debuted on the vivo X100 Ultra, and we’ve since seen it adopted by a number of other Chinese flagship phones, including the Xiaomi Mi 15 series and one plus 13. Therefore, you should expect wider adoption of ultrasonic under-screen fingerprint sensors in 2025.

While waterproofing is certainly nothing new, the latest flagship phones almost all feature IP68 or even IP69 ratings. Almost all current Snapdragon 8 Elite and Dimensity 9400 phones have mature waterproof functions. Some of them have higher specs IP69 ratingIt can also protect against high-pressure water jets and high-temperature water.

The IP69 rating is not entirely practical for the vast majority of users. After all, how often do you use your pressure washer? But I’m still happy to see more brands adopting proper waterproofing. Even the OnePlus 13 comes with an IP68/IP69 rating, although it remains to be seen whether this applies to global models. Realme’s latest flagship also offers these ratings, which is a big deal for a value-focused brand that has largely eschewed water resistance. Still, we expect at least more devices to offer IP68 protection.

That’s it for our list of expected trends in 2025, but we can think of a few more things to watch out for. Since MediaTek’s latest chips support the standard, some phones may offer 8K/60fps video shooting capabilities. We also expect that some OEMs will offer so-called agent AI services that can complete tasks autonomously on your behalf. Are there any next-gen smartphone trends that we might be missing? Let us know in the comments!