The days are getting longer, the sun is shining, and it’s hotter than the core of the Earth. Yep, summer is finally here for us Brits.
We’ve already had some fantastic smartphones launch in 2025. It started early in the year with the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra and OnePlus 13, followed by the equally excellent Honor Magic 7 Pro, Xiaomi 15 Ultra and Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge in the past few months – and that’s just a fraction of the phones we’ve seen this year.
You might assume that the best smartphone of 2025 is already available – and I wouldn’t blame you – but it’s about to get even more exciting over the next few months. Here are the five biggest smartphone launches you can look forward to this summer.
Nothing Phone 3
You can’t talk about summer 2025 releases without mentioning the highly anticipated flagship from London-based startup Nothing. The Nothing Phone 3 has been teased over the past few weeks, with its full reveal scheduled for 1 July in London.
This is a significant development for the startup; following the release of the Nothing Phone 2 in 2023, it focused solely on the budget end of the market with the introduction of the Nothing Phone 2a series in 2024 and the 3a series earlier this year. Let’s not forget about the CMF sub-brand either.
Even then, the Nothing Phone 2 couldn’t be considered a true flagship; with its £579/$599 price tag and solid, but not top-end specs, it was more of a premium mid-ranger.
That’s why the Nothing Phone 3 is such a big deal. It’s the first time that Nothing has committed to making a full-fat flagship with all the bells and whistles you’ve come to expect.
The company has already confirmed the use of the premium Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 chipset, and it also looks like Nothing will be stepping away from the glyph interface introduced on the first-ever Nothing Phone.
In its place, there appears to be a dot-matrix-style LED system – going by the teasers, at least. That would make a lot of sense, given the heavy dot-matrix styling of Nothing OS, its custom Android UI.
So yes, this is a particularly exciting launch for Nothing fans, and we’ve only got a couple of weeks until we see it for the first time.
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 & Fold 7
Another company looking to make a big impact on the smartphone scene, and the foldable scene in particular, is Samsung with its Galaxy Z Flip 7 and Galaxy Z Fold 7.
Like Nothing, Samsung has already begun teasing the next generation of its flip and book-style foldables, with a particular focus on its upgraded design.
Samsung claims that the Z Fold 7 will be the “thinnest, lightest and most advanced foldable yet” the company has made – and that’s huge, considering how thick the Z Fold 6 is compared to the likes of the ultra-thin Oppo Find N5 and Honor Magic V3. This should allow Samsung to better compete – though it’s unclear just how thin it’ll be for now.
Unofficially, rumours suggest we could also look forward to an upgraded 200MP main camera, bringing it in line with Samsung’s top-end Galaxy S25 Ultra, and could feature a titanium rear to match. Samsung keeps teasing the ‘Ultra’ experience, so that would make a lot of sense.
Interestingly, Samsung hasn’t teased much about the flip-style variant, suggesting that it might not be a huge year for the Z Flip. Either way, with what’s shaping up to be a huge upgrade for the book-style Z Fold 7, I’m certainly looking forward to its reveal.
Honor Magic V5
Samsung isn’t the only foldable manufacturer with big plans this summer; Honor should also release a follow-up to its already-excellent Magic V3 sometime in the next few months – going by the V3’s IFA 2024 launch anyway.
And, no, it probably won’t be called the Honor Magic V4. As rumoured back in April, Honor will likely skip the number 4 – due to the cultural tetraphobia in China – and reveal the Magic V5 in its place.
Regardless of the branding, we usually get a good idea of what’s to come where Honor’s phones are concerned, as they tend to launch in China a few months before they get their international debut.
The V5 hasn’t launched in the region as of yet, but I’m confident that Honor will want to steal its ‘thinnest foldable’ crown back from Oppo’s Find N5. It was comfortably the thinnest foldable at launch in 2024, measuring in at just 4.35mm thick unfolded, until the 4.21mm-thick N5 appeared earlier this year.
I’m also hoping for a solid upgrade to the camera setup; while the V3’s triple camera setup was fine for most scenarios, it’s not quite flagship-level. We’ve already seen huge upgrades from other Honor phones like the Magic 7 Pro and Honor 400 Pro, so hopefully that trend continues with this year’s foldable.
Google Pixel 10 range
Incredibly, there could be yet another foldable coming this summer as part of the Pixel 10 collection – if Google wants to update its Pixel 9 Pro Fold, anyway. Though not much is known about the specifics of the foldable, Google made great strides between it and its predecessor, the Pixel Fold, and I’m hoping for a similar leap forward this year.
But that’s not the only phone in the Pixel range, of course; we’re also expecting the Pixel 10, Pixel 10 Pro and Pixel 10 Pro XL.
The Pixel 10 could get a key upgrade in the form of a dedicated telephoto lens, a first for the regular Pixel, while the Pro models are rumoured to feature new macro camera smarts and AI features like a ‘Speak-to-tweak’ AI photo editing tool, sketch-to-image tech and what’s dubbed a “Magic Mirror” feature.
And, with the Pixel 9a outlasting most of its flagship brethren in tests, I’d love to see a boost to overall battery life across the range. The Pixel 9 range was fine in this regard, but it could be better.
iPhone 17 range – the iPhone 17 Air in particular
Last, but by no means least, we have the hotly anticipated iPhone 17 collection, and the rumoured ultra-thin iPhone 17 Air in particular.
It seems to be the hot idea of 2025, following on from the release of Samsung’s ultra-thin Galaxy S25 Edge in May – and rumours suggest Apple’s equivalent could be even thinner than the 5.8mm alternative at as little as 5.5mm thick.
Given how enamoured I was with the Galaxy S25 Edge, and how it subsequently ruined the Galaxy S25 Ultra for me, I can’t wait to see what Apple has to offer in this regard.
Of course, there’s more to the iPhone 17 range than the Air, and it seems like it’ll be a big year across the board. It’s rumoured that the iPhone 17 – and likely the Air – will finally get a 120Hz refresh rate, though it may not be an LTPO-enabled panel like the ProMotion screen on the Pro models.
The Pro models are also said to receive a new look, featuring a much wider, almost Pixel-esque camera housing on the rear, along with enhanced camera technology to match.
So, yes, it’s safe to say that this summer is going to be packed with fantastic smartphone launches, and I for one cannot wait.
