I already know what the best phone of 2025 should be

Over the past five years, it’s been really easy to figure out what phone will be remembered as the best Android phone of the year by both us who work here at Android Authority and our readers. Our favorites often seem to teeter between whatever the best non-foldable phones are from Samsung and Google. Sometimes, Google wins our hearts (and our internal voting; the Google Pixel 9 Pro was voted best of 2024 by Android Authority), and sometimes, Samsung snatches everyone away (the Galaxy S24 Ultra was voted best of 2024 by our readers), while other phones rarely manage to stick long enough in our collective memory to be deemed as “best of” anything by the end of the year.

However, I sincerely hope this changes in 2025. I think the OnePlus 13 is already the best phone of 2025 and will likely continue to hold that crown throughout the rest of the year.

Samsung, Apple, and, to a lesser extent, Google have been in an innovation slump over the past year. Samsung and Apple have been basically re-packaging their leading smartphones with a new processor and minimal other changes. Google at least updated the designs of the Pixel 9 series and did a good job making multiple changes to other hardware elements. But even then, it still played things relatively safe.

OnePlus, however, threw out the rule book this year. Compared to the OnePlus 12, the OnePlus 13 sees multiple substantial upgrades. It also incorporates new technology that we haven’t seen in many other phones yet, drastically improving one of the most significant pain points of any smartphone: battery life.

Let’s start with the hardware upgrades. First, and most obviously, the OnePlus 13 comes with the Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, a beast of a chip. This is the same base chip in the Galaxy S25 Ultra, but Samsung’s version is slightly overclocked in an attempt to improve performance. In our tests, though, the OnePlus 13 optimized things so well that it still beat the Galaxy S25 Ultra by consistent margins, even if it did get slightly hotter to achieve it:

OnePlus also bumped up two of its rear camera lenses. The primary lens is the same, but the telephoto gets a much larger sensor for better light intake and impressive zoom results in our tests, and the ultrawide gets a new sensor with a few more megapixels. When you combine these upgrades with some new software tweaks, you get one of the best camera phones on the market — something very few OnePlus phones have been able to achieve.

There are so many other upgrades, including official IP68 and IP69 ratings, an ultrasonic fingerprint sensor, a completely flat display, and a lower weight while still keeping the same basic body dimensions of the OnePlus 12.

However, the most notable upgrade is the battery. As usual, OnePlus blows away all other competitors in the US by offering blazing-fast 80W wired charging speeds (with the appropriate charger in the box!) alongside 50W wireless charging. Unlike in the past, though, the phone has a larger 6,000mAh silicon-carbon battery, something we haven’t seen in any other phone in the US before. Silicon-carbon batteries can hold more energy in less space than typical lithium-ion batteries, which allows the OnePlus 13 to have battery life that’s better than any other flagship phone available in the US today.

Simply put, looking at it objectively, the OnePlus 13 is a massive step up over the OnePlus 12, mops the floor with most other phones in a spec-for-spec match, and starts at just $899. How does that not earn it a nod as the best Android Phone of 2025?

You may have noticed that, in the previous section, I said “in the US” quite a bit. That’s because plenty of Chinese phones offer something very compelling and might even usurp the OnePlus 13 as the best of 2025. Unfortunately, though, none of those phones are ever coming to the United States. In some cases, they won’t even leave China. That makes them a tough sell for “best of the year” status.

Take the Xiaomi 15 Ultra, for example (shown above). It has one of the best cameras on any phone and also features the same silicon-carbon battery technology as the OnePlus 13. It’s available now in Europe and the United Kingdom, but it will never come to the US in an official capacity. It also comes to the EU/UK with a smaller battery (5,410mAh) and costs hundreds more than any OnePlus phone, so it misses out on truly topping the OnePlus 13 in a few respects.

The OPPO Find X8 Ultra (OPPO and OnePlus are part of the same family of companies) also tops the OnePlus 13, including battery capacity, camera quality, and charging speeds. That phone isn’t even coming to the EU or UK, though, as it will be trapped as a China exclusive for the foreseeable future.

The rumored vivo X200 Ultra might also give the OnePlus 13 a run for its money in multiple ways (vivo is also a part of the same family as OPPO and OnePlus), but that will be another very limited launch.

The point is that, while there are lots of phones out there better than the OnePlus 13, there is nothing available all around the world — including the US — that can go spec-for-spec against it. That should easily give it a leg up over other phones that might be superior on paper but aren’t available in the world’s third-largest smartphone market.

I know what you’re thinking: It’s only April, so how can I be so confident that nothing will beat the OnePlus 13 before the end of 2025? Well, we’ve already seen one main competitor, the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra ($1299.99 at Amazon). While that phone is undoubtedly great, I’ve already talked about how it still can’t beat the OnePlus 13 in some very important aspects — namely battery life, charging speeds, and processing power. Of course, it is still a fan favorite and might win just because it almost always does, but taken objectively, the OnePlus 13 ($899.99 at OnePlus) does way more for way less — $400 less, to be specific.

What about Pixels? Thanks to Google’s leaky ship, we already know quite a lot about the Pixel 10 series. We know the two non-foldable Pro phones won’t see a redesign or any camera upgrades. We also know that Tensor G5 — while being a very interesting processor that we are excited to see in action — won’t be able to hold a candle to the raw power of the Snapdragon 8 Elite. We don’t know for certain yet, but we’ve heard nothing to suggest silicon-carbon batteries or faster charging speeds either, so OnePlus will almost certainly take the cake there, too.

What about Apple? Although some of our more “passionate” readers don’t like it, any given year’s Pro-level iPhone makes it pretty far in our reader’s choice voting rounds (it made it to the Final Four last year and in 2023). However, like the Pixel 10 series, rumors suggest the iPhone 17 series won’t see too many crazy upgrades.

Really, all that’s left are foldables like the Galaxy Z Fold 7 (but early rumors don’t point to a huge upgrade, either), the Galaxy S25 Edge (a wildcard, at best), and the rumored “Air” iPhone (I’m not expecting too much from this one at all). There’s nothing else on the horizon that I see even getting close to a “best phone of 2025” status.

However, there is one more phone I have my eyes on: the OnePlus 13T. This might be similar to a OnePlus 13 but trimmed down internally to fit into a 6.3-inch body. While I don’t think it’ll have a shot at taking the spotlight away from its bigger brother, I am personally looking forward to that phone, as it might end up being a compact flagship that would potentially tear me away from the Pixel 9 Pro. Of course, time will tell whether or not it makes it to the US.

What do you think? Does the OnePlus 13 stand up well against the big boys from Samsung, Google, and Apple? Or are you expecting any surprising contenders before the end of year? Let me know in the comments, and be sure to vote in the poll above!