The best phones of 2025 were also the most ridiculous

This was a A surprisingly interesting year for smartphones. I didn’t expect it to be like this; The category is often described as outdated or “static”. But as one of WIRED’s resident phone reviewers, I’ve tested almost all of this year’s phones — handsets as cheap as $130 all the way up to $2,000 — and I don’t think there’s ever been a year filled with so many diverse styles in some time.

It all started with the Nothing Phone (3a) series, which the British company launched at Mobile World Conference early in the year. While I wasn’t a fan of the Pro model’s clunky camera module, the Electric Blue (3a) is a standout. It seems like no other smartphone on the market, with a transparent back panel, a range of colors from a small red square, and the company’s signature Glyph lights, which flash when you receive notifications. These LED lights may not be the most useful, but they are fun and quirky.

This whimsical design has been sorely missed for several years. Remember LG’s 2020 Pavilion? Nokia 9 PureView with five cameras from 2019? What were the weird Moto Mods from a decade ago that added things like cameras and speakers to Motorola’s Moto Z? These phones may not have topped the charts, but they tried something different.

Smartphones have become a necessity in today’s world, and as with all goods, this means that good, fun designs are often sacrificed for the sake of manufacturing efficiency. When companies go for the bottom line, we end up with plain, simple-looking phones designed for the widest possible audience. That’s why the recent shift to more feature-packed devices seems important.

Nothing else beats this year with the CMF Phone 2 Pro, a sub-$300 phone that doesn’t look or feel anything like its budget price. Uniquely, you can unscrew the back of the phone and replace the back panel with a different color panel, or take off the accessory point unit and connect things like a lanyard. Sustainability-focused Fairphone had a similar idea with The Fairphone (6th generation), except this smartphone did all that while also achieving a 10/10 repairability score from iFixit.

Phone None (3A).

Photo: Julian Chocato

Motorola Razr 2025 series.

Photo: Julian Chocato

Then came Motorola, which has seen great success in recent years with its Razr foldable phones. With the Razr 2025 models, the company has focused heavily on different materials and textures. You can buy the Razr with a back covered in Alcantara microfiber fabric, vegan leather, or black frosted Gorilla Glass. There’s even a version that contains FSC-certified wood. It helps that Motorola remains one of the only manufacturers offering a foldable phone for under $700. (It even goes for $600 during sale events.)

You might still be hesitant to invest in one of these hinge-based phones, given their spotty history with durability, but they’re tougher than ever. I’ve dropped several Razers, a Pixel 10 Pro Fold, and even a Galaxy Z Flip7 this year, and other than minor scratches on the frame, none of them have cracked. Motorola introduced a titanium-reinforced hinge plate this year. Google has been promising more foldables for over 10 years for its latest foldable phones and has finally received an IP68 rating for its foldable design. Samsung says the Galaxy Z Fold7 can withstand 500,000 folds, enough for more than a decade of typical use.

We should expect more from the look and feel of the gadgets in our lives. As with a good watch, I find that I really enjoy using devices that put a little more care or effort into design and build quality. This year, I was delighted by the sharp-looking Light Phone III — an anti-smartphone that didn’t run traditional apps — while the Minimal Phone, which was designed with the same goal of helping reduce time spent staring at a screen, had a disgusting-looking plastic build. Even with all this experimentation with looks, you don’t have to spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars on a nice-looking phone. Motorola’s Moto G Stylus 5G has a stunning design with a beautiful leather-like feel, and often retails for $300.

Light Phone III.

Photo: Julian Chocato

Moto G Stylus 5G 2025.

Photo: Julian Chocato

Thinness, as always, was also very much present. Samsung’s Galaxy S25 Edge and iPhone Air may not be original ideas, but I’m not kidding, carrying an ultra-thin and lightweight phone is actually quite nice. Unfortunately — but not surprisingly — Samsung’s design suffered from lackluster battery life, and while the iPhone Air delivered better-than-expected runtimes, the single-camera system and high price didn’t exactly scream good value in an economically turbulent year. (These flaws likely explain rumors that Samsung has scrapped plans for a successor to its thinner device and that Apple has been suffering from lackluster Air sales.)

But we’ve already seen the benefits of thinner phones. Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold7 is one of the best foldable phones of the year, largely due to its massive reduction in size and weight compared to its predecessors. Apple is also rumored to be working on a foldable iPhone, and the lessons learned from the iPhone Air will go a long way toward making a device that isn’t cumbersome to hold.