What’s the most exciting phone brand of 2025? Here’s my top pick

If there is one thing that is true about life, it is that change is the only constant thing. I’d be wary of anyone who does not experience any change in their tastes and preferences over time. And this is true for the world of mobile phones as well. Brands come and brands go. As the years go by, the phone brands that I find most exciting change from time to time.

Back when I got my first experiences with phones in 2001, the durability and creativity of Nokia got me hooked quickly. For about a decade, Nokia was easily the most exciting phone brand in existence. Another brand that had me intrigued was Ericsson (which later became Sony Ericsson, and now have their legacy carried on by Sony). Nokia and Ericsson were my most preferred brands for many years.

When the BlackBerry age arrived (yes, Blackberry showed up later), I got sold on that brand too. It quickly became one of the most exciting phone brands around. By that time, Sony Ericsson was already dropping off my list. Change was happening. And for a number of years, it was Nokia and BlackBerry for me.

Note that in all these different timelines, I was still using other phone brands outside of my preferred brands. I am merely highlighting which ones were the most exciting for me.

The most exciting smartphone brand of 2025

In 2025, I have been looking at the available phone brands to see which tickle my fancy the most. Which phone brands would I prefer to spend money on?

As a private person, my preferred phone brand in 2025 is Samsung. Why did I pick Samsung as my most exciting phone brand of 2025? For a number of reasons.

For starters, Google Pixel aside, hands down, Samsung has the best software update policy of any other Android smartphone company today. This brand also has the widest market distribution in the world. Where no other phone brand is available, I am willing to bet that you will find Samsung phones on sale there.

Lastly, Samsung makes some really good phones. Yes, they sometimes mess something up, like the charging of the Galaxy A06, for example. They also do not often offer the best value for money – you will likely get more features and better specs for the price from more budget-focused brands like Redmi, TECNO, itel, and Realme. But as a rule, most Samsung phones are good.

I was going to add Nothing next to Samsung, but Nothing’s distribution is extremely limited – even worse than Google Pixel’s. I do find Nothing phones intriguing and their software update execution has been good. As a whole, thanks to some clever marketing, Nothing has succeeded in quickly carving a slice of the market for themselves in the short time they have been around. They are just not around in a lot of places.

Being based in Nigeria, one brand that has deep roots in the country and that I’d also have included in my list of contenders is TECNO. This is one of the most versatile and interesting phone brands in existence today. But one thing dulls their shine – their software update policy. TECNO sucks at software updates. Terribly.

If TECNO would fix that, they would easily jump up and stand proudly right next to Samsung on my list of the most exciting phone brands today. But right now, they are still dropping the ball. You will be lucky if your flagship TECNO smartphone gets two years of major software updates. And I assure you that the updates will arrive super-late. Months late. Sometimes a year late. A whole year. By the time your flagship TECNO phone gets a particular update, phones from Samsung and maybe Xiaomi have perhaps gotten one to two more updates ahead of it.

And forget about updates for entry-level TECNO phones. Add some mid-range models to the blacklist as well. No show for those. Meanwhile, budget Samsung phones are getting four to six years of major Android updates. The difference is massive.

Lastly, if I were an iPhone person, Apple iPhones would be on my list of the most exciting phone brands in 2025. Apple makes good phones. In addition, it has the best software update execution in the history of smartphones. And their market distribution is quite good, while not as legendary as Samsung’s. But I am not an iPhone person. Perhaps one day in the future, it will happen. Who knows?

As such, for now, it is Samsung that takes the cake for me as the most exciting smartphone brand in 2025.