The 9 most unbelievable Android information tales of 2025

Everybody from Google and Samsung to OnePlus and Xiaomi made headlines sooner or later in 2025. Most of those headlines had been anticipated, resembling Samsung’s conservative Galaxy S25 sequence and the well-received Pixel 9a.

Nonetheless, 2025 additionally noticed greater than its justifiable share of headlines that had been merely onerous to imagine. So with that in thoughts, we’re looking at among the most unbelievable tales of the 12 months.

Samsung has supplied the S Pen on the Galaxy Extremely line since 2022’s Galaxy S22 Extremely, and the accent has been battling for house with the battery ever since. At this level, I believed the corporate’s solely viable choices had been to double down on the S Pen’s significance or ditch it altogether.

It was an surprising resolution to me, as I believed Samsung would both retain the function to appease Extremely followers or ditch it and use the additional house for different options (e.g., an even bigger battery). However alas, we bought this fence-sitting transfer.

We completely reported in 2024 that the Pixel 10 sequence would have an IMG PowerVR DXT-48-1536 GPU, after years of utilizing Arm’s widespread Mali graphics. I anticipated this to be a downgrade for emulation, however this proved to be a downgrade in a number of methods for Pixel telephones.

Our personal Pixel 10 benchmarks revealed that the Tensor G5 processor had higher peak GPU efficiency than the Pixel 9 and its Tensor G4 chip. Nonetheless, the older telephone supplied extra steady efficiency and decrease temperatures in stress checks. In the meantime, colleague Rob Triggs confirmed that the Pixel 10 was a catastrophe for emulation in comparison with the Pixel 9 sequence.

In fact, there’s extra to a GPU than sustained efficiency and emulation. The excellent news is that the overwhelming majority of video games run simply tremendous, if not higher than on the Pixel 9 sequence, and up to date GPU driver updates have improved efficiency. Nonetheless, we’re a step again from 2024’s Pixels in just a few methods. And it’s not like these older telephones had top-tier silicon within the first place.

Google has lengthy proven that it’s not afraid to ruffle just a few feathers on the subject of the Android OS itself. Sadly, it ruffled the entire fowl in 2025. For one, the corporate introduced controversial adjustments to sideloading in August. Extra particularly, Google would confirm the identities of Android app builders in a bid to thwart malware. This meant Android would bar customers from putting in apps by unverified builders, even when these apps had been on different app shops.

This resolution ignited a firestorm, and customers criticized Google for making an attempt to vary one among Android’s key options. Various app retailer F-Droid sharply criticized the search big for claiming that sideloading wouldn’t go away, as builders now must have Google’s blessing within the first place (whatever the app supply). Fortunately, Google relented considerably and introduced a brand new “superior circulate” for customers who wish to set up unverified apps within the first place.

This wasn’t the one time Google caught flak for adjustments to Android in 2025. The corporate additionally made technical adjustments to Android growth that make it more durable for builders to make customized ROMs on Pixel telephones. It’s clearly getting more durable and more durable to tinker together with your telephone.

One in all my favourite tales of the 12 months can be one of the vital surprising. A Chinese language developer launched the primary PlayStation 3 emulator in early 2025, dubbed aPS3e, though there was some controversy over the supply code. Nonetheless, one other staff adopted up with the RPCS3-Android emulator, which has successfully been renamed RPCSX-UI-Android.

This was an unexpected flip of occasions as a result of the PlayStation 3 is a technically demanding console to emulate on PC, not to mention smartphones. I believed we’d be ready loads longer to see PS3 emulators on cellular.

To be truthful, essentially the most superior video games don’t work proper now, so that you aren’t going to play Killzone 2 or the Uncharted video games. However I can nonetheless play 3D Dot Recreation Heroes and Afterburner Climax on an Android system. I’d’ve known as you delusional for those who instructed me this a 12 months in the past.

One other huge story in 2025 was the continued saga of Pixel telephones experiencing battery points. It began with the innocuously named Battery Efficiency Program replace for choose Pixel 4a fashions, which dramatically decreased battery life. Google supplied compensation for affected customers or a free battery substitute, however didn’t reveal the particular difficulty. Then the Australian shopper watchdog issued an alert, lastly revealing that some Pixel 4a models had been susceptible to overheating batteries.

It didn’t finish right here. Some Pixel 6a models additionally acquired this battery-nerfing replace resulting from faulty batteries, prompting the Australian and UK shopper watchdogs to submit alerts. We even noticed reviews of at least 5 Pixel 6a fires which will have been resulting from this difficulty. Google additionally acknowledged that some Pixel 7a models have battery swelling issues, prompting the corporate to supply a free battery substitute.

Google’s questionable battery practices prolonged to new telephones. The agency introduced that its Battery Well being Help (BHA) function is now necessary on the Pixel 9a and Pixel 10 sequence. This “function” throttles battery capability and charging velocity over time on high of normal battery degradation. I might perceive one faulty system, however the sheer variety of affected telephones, Google’s BHA function, and the shortage of transparency basically made for a deeply regarding and surprising story.

Samsung’s earlier Galaxy Z Fold fashions have all been very chunky and comparatively heavy in comparison with the competitors. So for those who instructed me a 12 months in the past that the Galaxy Z Fold 7 could be the lightest and thinnest book-style foldable, I wouldn’t have believed you.

However that’s nearly precisely what occurred with the Galaxy Z Fold 7, because it’s the lightest Fold system in the marketplace. The truth is, Samsung’s telephone may additionally be the thinnest Fold in the marketplace as a result of rival manufacturers use doubtful measurement strategies. Will Samsung deliver this similar magic to the Galaxy S26 sequence? I’m not relying on it.

I count on Google to be first with new software program tips, however I don’t consider the Pixel maker as a {hardware} innovator. So colour me shocked when it emerged that the Pixel 10 Professional Fold was the world’s first foldable telephone with an IP68 score for mud and water resistance. Not Samsung, Xiaomi, HONOR, or vivo, however Google. Sure, this sturdiness score got here on the expense of a skinny design, nevertheless it’s nonetheless an enormous achievement for foldable telephones.

Google additionally turned the second Android model to supply Qi2 magnets in its telephones with the Pixel 10 sequence. In contrast, telephones just like the Galaxy S25 Extremely and OnePlus 13 required a separate case for those who needed to make use of magnetically connected chargers and equipment. Moreover, the Pixel 10 Professional Fold was the primary foldable telephone with Qi2 magnets.

The corporate’s {hardware} innovation additionally prolonged to different product traces, because it made the Pixel Watch 4 and Pixel Buds 2a repairable. This was significantly nice information for the Pixel Watch 4, as earlier Pixel Watches couldn’t be repaired in any respect. Significantly.

OnePlus typically produces good and even nice flagship telephones, however these gadgets usually fall behind their rivals when it comes to digicam high quality and/or IP rankings. You solely want to check out the OnePlus 11 and 12 for proof of this.

Coloration us stunned with the OnePlus 13, then. Colleagues Ryan Haines and C Scott Brown each praised the telephone when it was launched globally in January 2025. The truth is, Scott stated in April that this was already his telephone of the 12 months.

Higher but, we collectively picked the OnePlus 13 as our Android Authority telephone of the 12 months, breaking a number of years of Pixel dominance. We actually couldn’t have predicted this again in January. It’s only a disgrace that the OnePlus 15 upped the battery ante however delivered a compromised digicam expertise.

I’ve been monitoring the event of silicon-carbon batteries for some time now, and 2025 was the primary 12 months when the tech was embraced by a wide range of telephone makers. This expertise allows extra capability for a similar bodily battery dimension or a smaller bodily dimension with out affecting battery capability. This resulted in high-end telephones with 5,500mAh to six,500mAh batteries, just like the OnePlus 13, vivo X200 Professional, realme GT7 Professional, and OPPO Discover X8 Professional.

What I didn’t foresee was that smartphone makers would rapidly and dramatically enhance the dimensions of their flagship telephone batteries. The OnePlus 15 encompasses a 7,300mAh battery, whereas the realme GT8 Professional gives a 7,000mAh battery, and the OPPO Discover X9 Professional boasts a 7,500mAh battery. I actually anticipated many flagship telephones to stay with 5,500mAh to six,500mAh batteries for some time but.

In saying so, Samsung and Google haven’t embraced silicon-carbon batteries simply but. So don’t be stunned if future Galaxy and Pixel handsets provide extra pedestrian battery capacities.