it was a A surprisingly fun year for smartphones. I wasn’t expecting this to happen; The category is often described as stale or “stagnant”. But as WIRED’s resident phone reviewer, I’ve tested nearly all of this year’s handsets—from inexpensive devices ranging from $130 to an eye-watering $2,000—and I don’t think there’s been a year filled with such a variety of styles in quite some time.
It all started with the Nothing Phone (3A) series, which the UK company launched at the Mobile World Congress at the beginning of the year. Although I wasn’t a fan of the Pro model’s top-heavy camera module, the Electric Blue Phone (3A) is a standout. With a transparent backplate, a pop of color from the little red square, and the company’s signature glyph lights, it doesn’t look like any other smartphone available on the market, which glows when it receives notifications. Those LEDs might not be the most useful, but they are fun and wacky.
That whimsical design has been sorely missed for many years. Remember the 2020 LG Wing? Nokia 9 PureView with five cameras from 2019? 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 are a necessity in today’s world, and like all commodities, that means cool and playful designs are often sacrificed for manufacturing efficiency. When companies chase the bottom line, we end up with plain, simple-looking phones designed for the widest possible audience. That’s why the recent shift to devices with a little more character feels important.
It hasn’t had any more wins this year with the CMF Phone 2 Pro, a sub-$300 phone that doesn’t look or feel anything like its budget price. Typically, you can open the back of the phone and replace the backplate with a different color, or remove the accessory point module and add things like a lanyard. Sustainability-focused Fairphone had a similar idea with The Fairphone (Gen 6), except this smartphone did all that while earning a 10/10 repairability score from iFixit.
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Next came Motorola, which has seen considerable success in recent years with its Razr folding flip phone. With the 2025 Razer models, the company paid a lot of attention to different materials and textures. You can buy a razor with a back coated with microfiber textile Alcantara, vegan leather, or polished black Gorilla Glass. There is also a version with Forest Stewardship Council-certified wood. It helps that Motorola remains one of the only manufacturers to offer a foldable flip phone for under $700. (It drops to less than $600 during sales events.)
Given their spotty history with durability, you may still be hesitant to invest in one of these hinge-dependent handsets, but they’re tougher than ever. I’ve dropped several Razers, the Pixel 10 Pro Fold, and even the Galaxy Z Flip 7 this year, and other than minor scratches on the frame, none of them have broken. Motorola introduced a titanium-reinforced hinge plate this year. Google has promised folding for over 10 years for its latest Fold has finally earned an IP68 rating for its folding design. Samsung says its Galaxy Z Fold7 can withstand 500,000 folds, which is good for more than a decade of normal use.
We should expect more from how the gadgets in our lives look and feel. Like a good watch, I find I really enjoy using devices that put a little more care or effort into design and build quality. This year, I was pleased with the sharp-looking Lite Phone III – the anti-smartphone that doesn’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 plastic build that felt awkward. Even with all these uses, you don’t need to spend hundreds of dollars on a good-looking phone. Motorola’s Moto G Stylus 5G has a sleek design with a beautiful leather-like texture, and it’s often on sale for $300.
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Thin, as always, was too much. Samsung’s Galaxy S25 Edge and iPhone Air may not be original ideas, but I kid you not, holding an extremely thin and light phone is really pretty cool. Unfortunately—and not surprisingly—Samsung’s design suffered from weak battery life, and while the iPhone Air delivered better run time than expected, its single camera system and high price didn’t make it a good value in an economically tumultuous year. (These flaws likely explain rumors suggesting that Samsung has canceled plans for a successor to its thinnest handset and is facing declining Apple Air sales.)
But we’ve already seen the benefits of thinner phones. Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold7 is one of the best folding phones of the year, largely due to its drastic reduction in size and weight compared to its predecessors. Apple is also rumored to be working on a folding iPhone, and the lessons learned from the iPhone Air would go a long way in creating a device that isn’t cumbersome to hold.
