India, Dec. 29 -- 2025 was an interesting year for smartphones. Some phones genuinely did something new, bringing features such as film emulation to their cameras, while others iterated on their previous versions, making the overall experience far more refined. I think this was one of the better years for smartphones in the past decade or so. We saw major innovations, including the arrival of tri-fold phones, truly thin devices, and more. All of this gives me the opportunity to talk about the best phones I reviewed in 2025.

This list is in no particular order, and the phones come from different segments. Some are full-blown flagships, some are mid-range devices, and others are camera-centric phones in the premium category. These are my f...