The 9 most unbelievable Android information tales of 2025

Everybody from Google and Samsung to OnePlus and Xiaomi made headlines in some unspecified time in the future in 2025. Most of those headlines have been anticipated, reminiscent of Samsung’s conservative Galaxy S25 sequence and the well-received Pixel 9a.

Nonetheless, 2025 additionally noticed greater than its justifiable share of headlines that have been merely laborious to consider. So with that in thoughts, we’re looking at a few of the most unbelievable tales of the yr.

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

It was an surprising choice to me, as I believed Samsung would both retain the characteristic to appease Extremely followers or ditch it and use the additional area for different options (e.g., a much bigger battery). However alas, we received this fence-sitting transfer.

We solely reported in 2024 that the Pixel 10 sequence would have an IMG PowerVR DXT-48-1536 GPU, after years of utilizing Arm’s well-liked 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 provided extra secure efficiency and decrease temperatures in stress assessments. In the meantime, colleague Rob Triggs confirmed that the Pixel 10 was a catastrophe for emulation in comparison with the Pixel 9 sequence.

After all, there’s extra to a GPU than sustained efficiency and emulation. The excellent news is that the overwhelming majority of video games run simply high quality, 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 a number of 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 a number of feathers on the subject of the Android OS itself. Sadly, it ruffled the entire fowl in 2025. For one, the corporate introduced controversial modifications 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 have been on various app shops.

This choice ignited a firestorm, and customers criticized Google for attempting to alter certainly one of Android’s key options. Different app retailer F-Droid sharply criticized the search big for claiming that sideloading wouldn’t go away, as builders now have to have Google’s blessing within the first place (whatever the app supply). Fortunately, Google relented considerably and introduced a brand new “superior stream” for customers who wish to set up unverified apps within the first place.

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

One among my favourite tales of the yr 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 group 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 quite a bit 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 gadget. I’d’ve referred to as you delusional if you happen to informed me this a yr 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 diminished battery life. Google provided compensation for affected customers or a free battery substitute, however didn’t reveal the precise situation. Then the Australian client watchdog issued an alert, lastly revealing that some Pixel 4a items have been vulnerable to overheating batteries.

It didn’t finish right here. Some Pixel 6a items additionally acquired this battery-nerfing replace resulting from faulty batteries, prompting the Australian and UK client watchdogs to submit alerts. We even noticed stories of not less than 5 Pixel 6a fires which will have been resulting from this situation. Google additionally acknowledged that some Pixel 7a items 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) characteristic is now necessary on the Pixel 9a and Pixel 10 sequence. This “characteristic” throttles battery capability and charging velocity over time on high of standard battery degradation. I might perceive one faulty gadget, however the sheer variety of affected telephones, Google’s BHA characteristic, 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 if you happen to informed me a yr 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 gadget in the marketplace. Actually, Samsung’s telephone may also 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 methods, 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 ranking for mud and water resistance. Not Samsung, Xiaomi, HONOR, or vivo, however Google. Sure, this sturdiness ranking 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 if you happen to 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 notably nice information for the Pixel Watch 4, as earlier Pixel Watches couldn’t be repaired in any respect. Critically.

OnePlus typically produces good and even nice flagship telephones, however these gadgets typically fall behind their rivals by way of digital camera high quality and/or IP scores. You solely want to check out the OnePlus 11 and 12 for proof of this.

Shade us shocked with the OnePlus 13, then. Colleagues Ryan Haines and C Scott Brown each praised the telephone when it was launched globally in January 2025. Actually, Scott stated in April that this was already his telephone of the yr.

Higher but, we collectively picked the OnePlus 13 as our Android Authority telephone of the yr, 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 digital camera expertise.

I’ve been monitoring the event of silicon-carbon batteries for some time now, and 2025 was the primary yr when the tech was embraced by quite a lot of telephone makers. This expertise permits extra capability for a similar bodily battery measurement or a smaller bodily measurement 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 shortly and dramatically improve the dimensions of their flagship telephone batteries. The OnePlus 15 encompasses a 7,300mAh battery, whereas the realme GT8 Professional provides 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 shocked if future Galaxy and Pixel handsets provide extra pedestrian battery capacities.