Android smartphones in 2025: 6 key trends

Improved battery life

One of the most noticeable improvements in next-generation smartphones will be significantly longer battery life, at least in theory. There are several reasons for this.

Perhaps the main reason is the wider adoption of silicon batteries, which provide more capacity in the same physical size as lithium batteries. Manufacturers such as HONOR, Xiaomi, OPPO, and OnePlus are actively working in this direction.

vivo X200 Pro Mini combines a compact 6.39-inch screen with a large 5700 mAh battery. On the other hand, the realme GT7 Pro packs a 6500 mAh battery into its body.

Thanks to more efficient processors and significantly larger batteries, a significant increase in autonomy is expected in 2025.

Another reason for hope for improvement is the use of two leading processors for Android smartphones, Snapdragon 8 Elite and MediaTek Dimensity 9400, which were created using TSMC's 3nm process technology.

This promises a significant increase in energy efficiency compared to the previous generation 4nm processors. Qualcomm claims that its new processor is 44 percent more efficient than its predecessor, while MediaTek claims that its chip is 40 percent more efficient.

During the tests, the largest gains were observed during Zoom video calls (+30 percent), 4K video playback (+30 percent), and web surfing (+46 percent). Of course, the new phones will discharge faster at maximum load, but this situation arises only when using benchmarks.

Huge leap in performance

Performance is expected to be the main improvement in next-generation flagship Android smartphones. The Snapdragon 8 Elite processor is equipped with a custom Oryon CPU core.

Preliminary tests on the realme GT7 Pro showed that Qualcomm's claimed 45 percent improvement in CPU and GPU performance was not entirely justified, but the increase over the previous year was still impressive.

At the same time, ROG Phone 9 Pro almost matches Qualcomm's claimed CPU performance but is slightly inferior in the GPU category.

MediaTek's Dimensity 9400 processor doesn't offer such a significant boost in CPU performance, but OPPO Find X8 Pro tests showed that the device performs well in GPU stress tests, while heating up less than the ROG Phone 9 Pro. This is an important advantage for mobile gamers.

High performance is expected on Android flagships in 2025 (photo: Android Authority)

Thin smartphones may be back

More than a decade ago, smartphone manufacturers were actively competing for the title of the thinnest device, and ultra-thin phones without a headphone jack were already appearing. It looks like this race may resume in 2025.

There are numerous rumors about the so-called iPhone 17 Air, which will be thinner than other iPhone 17 models. In addition, it has recently been reported that Samsung may introduce the Galaxy S25 Slim a few months after the release of the main Galaxy S25 series.

Apple and Samsung are likely to release significantly thinner phones in 2025. This could lead to a new round of the thickness race among manufacturers.

The main disadvantages of this approach are obvious: lower battery capacity and a possible increase in device temperature, which would negate all the previously mentioned advantages.

Price increases or deterioration of performance

Qualcomm has previously confirmed that the Snapdragon 8 Elite processor is likely to be more expensive than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, and recent leaks indicate a 20-30 percent price increase. Even the Dimensity 9400 is said to cost more than the Dimensity 9300. In addition, it is reported that the prices of RAM have also increased.

Android smartphone manufacturers will have to cope with rising costs somehow. They can either pass these costs on to consumers by increasing the cost of new phones, or they can offer stripped-down specs (or forgo significant improvements) to contain material costs.

In-display fingerprint scanners that work well

The first in-screen fingerprint scanners performed rather poorly, with slow scanning speeds and the need for retries.

However, this technology has made huge strides in recent years, and some flagship smartphone manufacturers are already switching from optical scanners to faster and more reliable ultrasonic solutions. These scanners allow you to unlock your phone even with wet fingers.

Ultrasonic in-screen fingerprint scanners are gaining popularity in the flagship phone segment thanks to the Chinese brand Goodix.

For a long time, Qualcomm was one of the few major suppliers of ultrasonic scanners for in-screen solutions. Earlier this year, however, an important event took place: the Chinese company Goodix announced the commercial availability of its first ultrasonic scanner for in-screen implementation.

This technology debuted on the vivo X100 Ultra, and since then we've seen a slew of other Chinese flagship phones implement this solution, including the Xiaomi 15 series and OnePlus 13.

So, in 2025, we can expect to see a wider adoption of ultrasonic fingerprint scanners.

Fingerprint scanner (photo: Android Authority)

Waterproof phones

Although water protection is no longer a novelty, the latest flagship smartphones have almost all received IP68 and even IP69 ratings. Almost all modern devices based on the Snapdragon 8 Elite and Dimensity 9400 are equipped with full water protection. Some of them even have a higher IP69 rating, which provides protection against high-pressure water jets and high-temperature water.

In 2025, even more Android phones will become waterproof (photo: Weibo)