The fine margins of success in the smartphone world became even finer in 2025, with hardware upgrades taking a continued backseat to ever-expanding, AI-powered software ambitions. However, that doesn’t mean there weren’t a few standout devices, and that’s what we’re here to talk about today.
Between all of our day-to-day reporting and hunting for exclusive information to bring to you, our readers, we’ve also been trialing and testing dozens of smartphones from all the biggest brands. There are plenty of top contenders, but only one can be crowned as Android Authority‘s Editor’s Choice smartphone of the year 2025 — join us as we list off our top five and the overall winner!
How we chose our winner
Robert Triggs / Android Authority
Before we get to the fun part, though, let’s quickly go over our selection and voting process.
Over the past year, we’ve tested more than 40 smartphones, putting each through rigorous performance, battery, and charging benchmarks alongside hands-on evaluations of cameras, design, software features, update commitments, and far more.
Our experienced reviewers spend countless hours uncovering what truly sets each device apart, and while personal preferences naturally vary, choosing the best of the year is a collaborative effort. To do that, our senior editors and product testers come together to review and discuss the highest-rated phones, reaching a consensus as a panel of experts and narrowing our list down to a group of 20 potential winners.
Over 40+ phones went through our tests and critical reviews in 2025, but only one can win our top annual prize…
The class of 2025 represented 12 different smartphone brands, and our jury of 13 editors assigned votes to their top five picks in our typical ranked voting system. A fifth-place vote earns a device a single point, fourth place earns two, and so on, up to a maximum of five points for a first-place pick.
The phone that received the most points took home the grand prize, and this year, that phone was somehow both completely expected and utterly bizarre in equal measure…
Android Authority‘s Editor’s Choice phone of the year 2025: OnePlus 13
Joe Maring / Android Authority
There’s so much to unpack here, but let’s start with the most important part: After five years of Pixels dominating our awards season, the deadlock has finally been broken, and in spectacular fashion, too. With almost twice as many votes as the runner-up, and after receiving a vote from every single member of our awards team (over 60% of those a first-place vote!), the OnePlus 13 managed to start the year as a hot favorite, and end it as an absolute landslide winner.
In his review, our own Ryan Haines gave the OnePlus 13 a full five-star rating, calling it the OnePlus phone he finally trusts to do it all. It’s not hard to see why, either. Aside from introducing massive silicon batteries to the mainstream mobile landscape, the OnePlus 13 also delivered other highlights like stupidly fast charging, an impressive camera suite with surprisingly excellent zoom, and a svelte design with finish options to please almost anyone. And at an $899 MSRP, it undercut the elite competition on cost while matching it on everything else (well, almost — let’s get that update policy to Google/Samsung levels soon please, OnePlus).
For so many months of 2025, the OnePlus 13 was a beacon of excellence, and a surefire sign that the OG Flagship Killer knew how to craft a superlative killer flagship in the modern era, after years of mixed successes.
The OnePlus 13 started the year as a hot favorite, and ended it as an absolute landslide winner.
But, of course, we must address the gigantic elephant in the room. Due to the staggered Western release of the OnePlus 13 (landing in early January 2025, two months after its initial launch in China in November 2024), the company has found itself in a strange transitional period where two OnePlus flagships launched in the US and Europe in the same calendar year. That the first phone to drop took home our top award and the second, the OnePlus 15, didn’t even make the 20-device shortlist for voting, speaks volumes about how disappointing the latter was as a follow-up.
Here’s hoping that OnePlus takes a step back to reflect on the overwhelming success of the OnePlus 13 before embarking on its next generation in earnest, because it’d be a real shame if the sudden, welcome revival of that plucky, early-era OnePlus energy were to fully fizzle out as quickly as it returned.
OnePlus 13
Gorgeous design • Clever AI features • Flexible cameras
The OG flagship killer’s killer flagship.
The OnePlus 13 is the company’s most killer flagship to date, offering a massive battery, speedy charging, and powerful cameras that give Google and Samsung something to worry about.
Runner-up: OPPO Find X9 Pro
Make that a one-two punch for the OPPO-OnePlus alliance, and a well-deserved one, albeit tinged with a bit of sadness that US buyers have no way of officially experiencing the brilliance of the Find X9 Pro.
A truly staggering 200MP telephoto lens (augmented by an optional extender lens!), a massive 7,500mAh silicon-carbon battery, and razor-thin display bezels are all notable highlights of a phone that excels in all areas — except availability.
OPPO Find X9 Pro
The OPPO Find X9 Pro packs a 6.78-inch 120Hz OLED display, flagship MediaTek Dimensity 9500 chipset, a 200 MP Hasselblad-tuned telephoto camera, and a massive 7,500 mAh battery.
Third place: Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7
Taking the third spot with only one point separating it from second place is Samsung’s sole representative in this year’s top five. That’s right, with the Galaxy S25 series choosing to iterate on former successes to such a minor degree in 2025, it was instead the Galaxy Z Fold 7, the company’s true luxury offering, that wowed us enough to clinch some semblance of glory.
For a foldable that costs shy of $2,000, you need to expect the best, and the Galaxy Z Fold 7 is undoubtedly the best the Z Fold series has ever been. A slim yet durable design, a usable outer screen, flexible cameras, and much more made this the true ultra-tier device in the Galaxy family in 2025, and the best foldable of 2025 (though props to the Motorola Razr Ultra, which narrowly missed the top five; we love that flippy boy!).
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7
Thinnest, lightest Z Fold to date • More durable design • 200MP primary camera • Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy
Thin, light, high-powered, and it folds!
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 offers an 8-inch OLED screen, a 200MP camera, the Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy chipset, and a 4,400mAh battery. The Galaxy AI experience is baked in, offering tools across the camera, Circle to Search, and much more. Best of all, Samsung continues to evolve its foldable hinge assembly, promising reduced visibility of the crease.
Fourth Place: Google Pixel 10 Pro XL
In a surprising result, this marks the first time a Pixel phone has not landed in the top three since we introduced the Editor’s Choice voting setup in 2020. That speaks more to the incredible competition than any failing on Google’s part, however.
Google’s top Pixel packs the best point-and-shoot camera suite, comprehensive, continually updated software, and a smorgasbord of exclusive features, many powered by the ever-evolving smarts of Gemini.
It didn’t win our collective hearts in the same way the resurgent OnePlus 13 did come voting time, but the Pixel 10 Pro XL sits atop our list of the best Android phones you can buy right now for a very good reason.
Google Pixel 10 Pro XL
Excellent build quality • Improved camera flexibility • Smooth-as-ever software
Ultimate power from the Pixel 10 line
The most powerful option from the Pixel 10 line is the Google Pixel 10 Pro XL. With a 6.8-inch display, Tensor G5 shipset, 16GB of RAM, UFS 4.0 storage options, a powerful triple camera setup, and a battery in excess of 5,000mAh, you should be able to power through any task in your day.
Fifth place: Google Pixel 10 Pro
And four points behind its bigger brother is the Pixel 10 Pro, bringing everything great about the Pro XL into a more pocketable form factor, along with a slightly cheaper price tag.
Taken together, the Pixel 10 Pro and Pro XL technically amassed enough votes to snatch second spot, but we’ve always treated the Pro and Pro XL as distinct models in previous years, and considering one of them has won in each of the past five years regardless until now, we’re keeping it as fair as we can by keeping that split in place.
Google Pixel 10 Pro
Top-tier specs with small display • Excellent cameras • Powerful AI tools • Top-notch software
More power in the smaller form-factor
The Google Pixel 10 Pro has everything you could want in a flagship Android phone crammed into a truly compact body with a 6.3-inch display. Google’s new Tensor G5 chip is more powerful, the 100x Pro Res Zoom is truly impressive, and there are loads of helpful AI features. Not to mention, you still get seven years of Android updates.
And that’s a wrap on our Editor’s Choice phone of the year for 2025. We’ll keep bringing you the hottest news and debate-sparking opinions until the year comes to an official close, but we’re also already preparing our team for a blowout CES 2026 in early January.
Beyond that, we’re continually looking for ways to improve and bring you the best Android coverage in the business, while remaining a proudly independent company. If you’d like to keep up with us on that journey, please do set us as a preferred source in Google Search and Discover — you have no idea how much your continued support means to us.
Until then, from our families to yours, we hope you all have a happy holidays!
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