Ranking Android OEMs from worst to best in 2025

2025 was an eventful year for the Android phone ecosystem. Between the full-blown adoption of silicon-carbon batteries, Qualcomm’s Apple-rivaling Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, and more phones with integrated Qi2 magnets, there was a lot to get excited about.

Which manufacturers excelled this year and which ones had a bad time, though? Well, I decided to rank major Android brands from worst to best, based on how well their year went. I took into account their products, innovations, software/updates, overall strategies, and more to create this best-to-worst ranking. Disagree with my list? Then post your own in the comments below!

HMD still stands out in 2025 as one of the only brands consistently offering phones with a microSD card slot. It also released another repairable device this year in the HMD Aura 2, as well as the cool OffGrid accessory, which brings satellite connectivity to any device. The firm also released the HMD Fusion X1 for teenagers (seen above). So you absolutely can’t fault it for trying different things.

Unfortunately, that’s where the good news generally ends. HMD decided to stop selling phones in the US earlier this year, depriving the market of sorely needed competition. Its output in 2025 also consisted almost entirely of low-end phones, so the few fans clamoring for an HMD Fusion 2 or Skyline 2 were left in the lurch.

Finally, the company still offers an extremely stingy update pledge for most of its phones. In fact, the HMD Fusion X1 is only expected to receive roughly two years of quarterly security updates. What are OS upgrades anyway?

It really feels like realme had an anonymous year. It wasn’t awful, but it wasn’t amazing, either. The company started the year well enough with the realme 14 series, and I thought the realme 14 Pro Plus in particular stood out as one of the few mid-rangers with a periscope camera. It also offered the GT7 as a great upper mid-range phone, taking the fight to devices like the OnePlus 13R and Galaxy S25 FE.

However, the realme 15 series was a bit of a damp squib for the company due to the lack of a Pro Plus variant and limited availability. It didn’t help that the firm devoted an inordinate amount of time and marketing resources to the realme 15 Pro Game of Thrones edition, some five or six years after the show’s final season.  The company also released a sea of budget devices with impressively large batteries but little else. Thankfully, the realme GT8 Pro helped end the year on a high, and it’s a phone I’ve enjoyed using in the last few weeks.

Sony’s 2025 was perhaps emblematic of its recent, frustrating existence. The company continues to admirably march to the beat of its own drum with the Xperia 1 VII. The flagship maintains a 3.5mm port and a microSD card slot. But we criticized the handset for its €1,500 (~$1,760) price tag, average cameras, and reluctance to embrace fast charging.

The Japanese manufacturer’s only other 2025 release was the mid-tier Xperia 10 VII. It continues to stand out thanks to its 3.5mm port, microSD card slot, and IP68 rating, but falls behind rivals in terms of camera hardware, charging speed, and processing power.

The good news is that Sony is finally offering much-improved update policies for its phones, with four major OS upgrades and six years of security patches. That’s much better than spending flagship money for a phone that only gets two major OS upgrades.

Motorola would be ranked much higher if we were judging the company purely on its Razr foldables. We thought the 2025 models outclassed Samsung’s Flip phones due to more versatile cover screen software and a standard model that was cheaper than the Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE. In saying so, the Ultra model was pricey at $1,300.

The firm’s bread-and-butter Moto G series was a tale of two halves, as we slated the $200 Moto G 2025 but praised the $400 Moto G Stylus 2025. We also found the $300 Moto G Power 2025 to be a frustrating release as it had some great features, but was hamstrung by a significant lack of performance. What’s more frustrating is that Motorola’s budget phones are still subjected to a terrible update policy, which includes only two OS upgrades and three years of security patches.

It also didn’t help that Motorola didn’t offer a full-blown Edge flagship in 2025. So those looking for a super-powered Moto phone with all the bells and whistles were left disappointed this year.

Camera-focused brand vivo delivered some fantastic hardware in 2025. The vivo X300 is still one of the few relatively compact flagships on the market, while I thought the X300 Pro was a great camera phone.

Meanwhile, the vivo X Fold 5 proved to be a compelling alternative to the Galaxy Z Fold 7 thanks to its huge battery and polished cameras. Furthermore, the X200 Ultra delivered one of the best camera phone experiences of 2025, while offering a crazy add-on lens. The firm also finally ditched the polarizing FunTouch OS skin in favor of the OriginOS 6 software.

The biggest problem with vivo in 2025 was availability. While the X300 series was released in a relatively wide variety of locales, the X Fold 5 wasn’t launched in Europe, and the X200 Ultra wasn’t released outside China at all. The company also hasn’t resumed sales in the UK. It also didn’t help that the X300 Pro had a significantly downgraded battery in key markets.

Was 2025 the year when many enthusiasts turned against Nothing? Absolutely, as the company seemingly undid much of the goodwill that it had built up over the years. The Nothing Phone 3 was the main culprit, as it was a great phone that was hamstrung by a few noteworthy compromises for the $800 price tag. This was exacerbated by co-founder Carl Pei’s incessant hype around the device.

It also didn’t help that virtually all of Nothing’s other phones had network band limitations in the US and could only be bought in the region via the firm’s beta program. Throw in a seemingly accidental stock photo snafu and the arrival of bloatware despite previously championing bloat-free phones, and it’s easy to see that the honeymoon period is well and truly over.

Despite these issues, the Nothing Phone 3a and 3a Pro were undoubtedly two of the best budget phones of the year. The CMF Phone 2 Pro also received plenty of praise from colleague C Scott Brown, who felt it was worth twice the $279 asking price. The company also introduced the Essential Space feature, which followed Motorola’s Remember This capability. This broad concept has since been aped by OnePlus, OPPO, and others.

HONOR had a solid year by most accounts, and it made a massive statement in Q1 by announcing it would offer seven years of updates for its devices. This matched Google and Samsung’s policies, while besting every other major Android OEM. The Magic V5 was also arguably the best Galaxy Z Fold 7 rival in 2025, offering a similarly thin design and more impressive hardware specs.

As for its conventional phones? Well, the Magic 7 Pro was a solid flagship phone in a sea of greatness. It offered great hardware specs but fell short in the camera field and offered half-baked AI features. Meanwhile, the HONOR 400 and 400 Pro were solid if unspectacular releases. Then there’s the HONOR Alpha Plan, a corporate strategy that was bizarrely unveiled and trumpeted at Mobile World Congress. Because HONOR fans and smartphone enthusiasts want to hear all about corporate strategies?

It was a fairly positive year for Xiaomi, as the company launched the Xiaomi 15 and Xiaomi 15 Ultra globally in Q1. I wasn’t too enamored with the standard phone, but Rob said the Ultra handset was his favorite camera phone of the year. Meanwhile, sub-brand POCO launched the POCO F7 Ultra, which was its first proper flagship phone. Xiaomi was also part of a small wave of brands offering improved integration with iPhones, iPads, and Macs.

Xiaomi’s good moves didn’t end here. The firm embraced 100W charging via USB-PPS, which means you don’t need a proprietary charger to experience super-fast charging speeds. Perhaps the most important Xiaomi development in 2025 was the launch of its XRING 01 smartphone processor, which looks like an absolute powerhouse. The chip is currently used in a China-only phone and tablet, but it could be a key weapon in the firm’s arsenal.

It wasn’t all great, though. Xiaomi blatantly copied the iPhone’s naming convention with the Xiaomi 17 series. Perhaps more annoying is the fact that these impressive next-generation phones are still China-only releases several months after their initial launch. Meanwhile, OPPO, vivo, and OnePlus wasted little time in bringing their flagship phones to global markets. The Mix Flip 2 and its whacky printer add-on were China-only affairs too, leaving Samsung and Motorola as two of the only major brands offering flip foldables in a wide variety of countries.

The well-received OPPO Find X8 and X8 Pro launched at the tail-end of 2024, but the Find X9 series upped the ante in a big way. In fact, colleague Paul Jones said the Find X9 Pro might be his phone of the year. That’s due to the phone’s 7,500mAh battery, great cameras, the optional add-on lens, and great performance without overheating. Thankfully, the phone launched in global markets very shortly after the Chinese release.

OPPO had its fair share of misses, though. The Find N5 was a great foldable phone that wasn’t available in Europe. Even worse, the excellent OPPO Find X8 Ultra was a China-only affair. It also didn’t help that the mid-range Reno phones continue to be overpriced in some markets. Still, OPPO definitely had a good year in our books.

Battery problems. That really sums up Google’s ranking on this list. Owners of some older budget Pixels encountered issues such as battery swelling and even the occasional device fire. This wasn’t limited to one model, either, as the problem affected some Pixel 4a, Pixel 6a, and Pixel 7a units. In fact, the Australian and British consumer watchdogs issued alerts about a couple of these models.

Google’s handling of these battery issues also left users wanting, as it quietly released a mandatory battery-nerfing update to affected Pixel 4a units as part of a ridiculously named Battery Performance Program. It didn’t even initially admit that there was a problem with the Pixel 4a’s battery. It has since brought this same update to affected Pixel 6a devices and offered an extended repair program for the Pixel 7a battery. Another concerning move was Google’s decision to release a so-called Battery Health Assistance feature on new Pixel phones. This was mandatory on Pixel 10 series phones and the Pixel 9a. What does this do? Well, it only throttles your phone’s charging speed and battery capacity as the battery ages.

This whole saga is a real shame, because the Pixel 10 phones were actually great for the most part. These phones also stood out from major Android rivals due to their exclusive features and integrated Qi2 magnets. Meanwhile, the Pixel 10 Pro Fold was chastised for its relatively chonky design and disappointing cameras, but it’s the only foldable phone on the market with an IP68 rating. We also really liked the $500 Pixel 9a, despite the battery concerns. But 2025 was the year that some of us could no longer recommend Google’s mid-range phones.

Wait a minute. We thought the OnePlus 15 was disappointing and just slated the OnePlus 15R. So why’s OnePlus ranked so highly? Honestly, the OnePlus 13 was so good that it helped elevate the company. The OnePlus 13 was our phone of the year, and it’s easy to see why. It offers a world-class camera experience, a huge battery with super-fast charging options, a high-quality screen, and a respectable update policy. We’re also partial to that blue option. It’s a crying shame that no US carriers offered it.

OnePlus also offered a great upper mid-range phone in the $600 OnePlus 13R. Colleague Rushil Agrawal praised it for its blazing-fast performance, fantastic battery life, brisk charging, and slick screen. It wasn’t perfect, as he thought the secondary cameras weren’t great and lamented the lack of wireless charging. Nevertheless, he still gave the phone four and a half stars out of five.

Unfortunately, the OnePlus 15 and OnePlus 15R kept the company from the top spot. The former device brought a huge battery and a higher refresh rate display, but downgraded cameras and reduced screen resolution. The latter phone also had a humongous battery, but had a $100 price hike and lost out on its predecessor’s telephoto camera. Talk about snatching victory from the jaws of defeat.

The world’s number one Android phone manufacturer doesn’t technically make the top of our rankings. Samsung had some exceptionally lazy releases in 2025. The Galaxy S25 and S25 Plus offered very few upgrades outside the chipset. Meanwhile, the Galaxy S25 Ultra offered a higher-resolution ultrawide camera while downgrading the S Pen. That’s pretty much it.

Things weren’t very rosy elsewhere. Colleague Joe Maring thought the Z Flip 7 was good but not great, while I thought the Z Flip 7 FE was a downright disappointing release compared to Motorola’s Razr 2025. Rushil called the Galaxy A36 5G “outdated” due to its performance woes, while the Galaxy A56 5G received a significantly delayed release in the US.

The biggest reason why it’s number two on the list? Well, that would be the Galaxy Z Fold 7, as Samsung finally brought a thin and light design to its Fold lineup. In fact, it’s the lightest book-style foldable in the world. The Fold 7 also has larger screens, a 200MP main camera, and excellent software with a great update policy. It’s no wonder the company saw record Fold sales. Look what happens when you try, Samsung.

Samsung also launched the Galaxy Z TriFold earlier this month, which is the firm’s first dual-folding foldable phone. The phone is regrettably limited to a small number of markets, but this serves as evidence that Samsung can still push technological boundaries when it really wants to.

When I first started discussing these rankings, I instinctively agreed with colleague Megan Ellis’s assessment that no phone maker actually deserved the top spot in 2025. However, the more we debated our rankings, the more strongly we felt that nobody merited the top spot. Now, we don’t expect perfection from any smartphone brand, but none of them actually had a great year.

Most of Samsung’s phones were lazy releases apart from the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and the TriFold (which is only available in a few countries anyway). Google’s battery woes were awful, and the Pixel 10 Pro Fold was a bit of a dud. OnePlus had a great start to the year, but ended with two disappointing releases. Then there were the brands that didn’t bring their most impressive products to global markets or simply didn’t put their best foot forward for whatever reason.

Needless to say, I hope all the major Android manufacturers make a concerted effort to improve in 2026. A rising tide lifts all boats, after all.