How can it be almost 2026? It seems like just a moment ago we celebrated the start of 2025, before welcoming the Samsung Galaxy S25 series, then the Google Pixel 10 line, and of course later the iPhone 17 models and… well, here we are in December.
It's been a big year in the world of smartphones: we saw a renewed battle of the base models as the iPhone 17 and Pixel 10 launched with hardware upgrades to rival the Galaxy S25, phone batteries got bigger than ever culminating with the OnePlus 15 beating the iPad (also the only 5-star phone review of the year), and the foldable phone market was shaken up by super-thin phones like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7.
It's impossible to get through a year like this without wondering what's next, so I gathered the TechRadar team to share their smartphone predictions for 2026.
You'll find people from the phone desk and beyond sharing their hopes and dreams about sustainability, 5G coverage, mobile AI, and more as we head into the new year. If you want a refresher on what the top tier of the industry is bringing to the table right now, check out our guide to the best phones; Otherwise, let's get straight to the topic.
James Richards
Even bigger batteries
We saw bigger phone batteries than ever in 2025. The OnePlus 15 takes the crown when it comes to widely available flagships, with a gigantic 7300 mAh cell, which is larger than the battery capacity of an iPad mini. Elsewhere, the iPhone 17 series saw overdue improvements to battery capacity, and the Honor Magic V5 introduced a 5,600mAh battery to the world's thinnest book-style foldable phone.
I want this trend to continue in 2026: Battery life is one of the most important phone specifications and has a huge impact on user experience. Specifically, I hope this is the year that energy-dense, efficient silicon-carbon cells become mainstream – I've been using Oppo phones with SiC batteries for over a year, and the difference really is night and day.
Roland Moore-Colyer
Consistent and energy-efficient 5G
As someone who can't get fiber internet access in my apartment, I need to take advantage of 5G quite a bit to download things like games for my PS5 and Xbox Series X; Given the ever-increasing size of modern games, downloading them can literally take days. The problem is that I find 5G on my iPhone 16 Pro Max, and indeed some other phones in my experience, to be quite spotty and inconsistent when it comes to maintaining consistent speeds and a solid connection.
This alone can be infuriating. Add in the significantly higher battery power consumption and temperature rise when using 5G for any length of time, and the speedy internet nirvana promised by 5G evaporates into nothing.
So rather than boosting chip speeds or slightly improving camera processing, I'd like to see the phones of 2026 actually work to maintain strong, stable, and efficient 5G connections. That way I can finally enjoy the future tech luminaries touted for 5G since the beginning of my career in tech journalism.
Make Apple's intelligence useful
I'm a long-time iPhone user and feel like I still don't have a seat on the AI train that Android users have been riding for over a year. Siri suggestions and automatic voice memo transcriptions are the only AI-powered tools I use regularly on my iPhone 17 Pro, and while I don't worry about clean-up image editing tools like Generative Edit and Magic Eraser (don't mess with reality!), I'm jealous of the far superior voice assistants on the best Android phones.
Even with its ChatGPT integration, Siri will be nearly unusable by 2025, so here's hoping Apple a) finally delivers its long-promised Siri 2.0 update in 2026, and b) can genuinely compete with Google's phenomenal Gemini assistant. Apple can only distract us with flashy iPhone colors for so long.
Felipe Berna
I hope the AI bubble bursts
I expect the smartphone AI bubble to burst in 2026. I've never seen worse technological development than phone makers like Motorola, Samsung, and even Apple shoehorning half-hearted AI features into smartphones. Smartphone AI produces inaccurate results, relies on harmful stereotypes, and adds little to no value to today's best phones.
No one chooses a phone because it has good AI tools, because there are no AI tools that make a phone worth buying. It's clear that AI features are a cynical ploy by an industry that seems to have run out of real, innovative ideas. Still, I hope 2026 is the year the industry finally comes to its senses about machine learning.
Josefina Watson
Take sustainability seriously
What I want most from phones in 2026 is a real focus on sustainability; More durable, more efficient and better materials.
There is a lot of work to do here and it won't happen overnight; So it's time for big brands to put their money where their mouth is and start making meaningful changes.
Harry Padoan
Stop AI inflation
My smartphone hope for 2026 is that the major players will reduce some of the AI glut. I don't really need AI-generated playlists or notification summaries. I don't care about AI-generated backgrounds, and I'm generally getting tired of newfangled features that I'll never realistically use.
To me and many others, many of these AI integrations seem more like gimmicks than valuable innovations. Therefore, hopefully we can see a greater focus on an optimized user experience and less emphasis on the unnecessary.
Victoria Shilets
Where is the foldable iPhone?
I think 2026 could be a very exciting year if Apple releases its first foldable phone. Throughout the long rivalry between Apple and Samsung, each has constantly pushed the other to innovate. With Samsung launching the Galaxy Z Fold 7 this year (arguably its best foldable phone yet), I can't wait for the first round of this friendly competition to begin.
We also know that Apple has one of the strongest marketing teams in the world. It recently demonstrated this with the iPhone Air (check out our full review on YouTube): despite a relatively modest sales performance, it became one of the loudest product launches of the past year, with tech influencers and publications generating a massive audience for related content. And this is exactly what we need for foldable phones!
For the second year in a row, Samsung's foldable device-focused Unpacked event has been the best event I attend annually. It's amazing to see how much these devices continue to improve, and I honestly feel closer than ever to finally switching to a Flip. Don't lower your expectations: let's get excited!
Mark Wilson
The end of mobile dead zones
It's almost 2026 and my biggest smartphone frustration is the same one I had in 2016: I still regularly find myself without a mobile signal. This happens when I am both in central London and in the countryside. To be fair, this is more of an infrastructure issue than a smartphone issue. But before we get an AI agent, a 15x telephoto lens, or a flashy UI redesign, I'd love to see this problem fixed.
Hope is on the horizon. Here in the UK, big network mergers such as Vodafone and Three promise (in theory) to decrease the number of mobile 'non-points'. Meanwhile, the rise of satellite internet from companies like Starlink and O2 Satellite could soon help with rural dead zones. Will the problem be solved in 2026? Not likely, but it would take at least one progress bar this year.
Wish Athow
Faster USB speeds
I want USB Type-C USB 2.0 to disappear from smartphones forever. This is a 25-year-old technology that still hampers mobile phones with its measly 80 MB/s transfer speed. Moving to higher speeds is critical to Google's plans to bring Android to the desktop. Connecting to monitors and other peripherals (e.g. external storage) requires a fast interface, but at the moment it's a minefield.
A quick look at the spec sheet of some popular smartphones shows quite a few culprits, including some of the biggest brands out there. Completely eliminating USB 2.0 would make sense to transform the smartphone (at least on Android) into a truly universal platform.
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