The first quarter of 2025 has been interesting to say the least, but in the tech industry it has been full steam ahead for phone manufacturers and in the first four months we’ve had updates, upgrades, and the uprise of Motorola's ‘Moto AI’. With everything going on in the world, we are not surprised the latest tech might have passed you by, but don’t fear in this initial ‘Tech round up’ we’ll cover all the big phone releases for this year’s first quarter.
Kicking off the start of the year Motorola released, the most economical of this list, the Moto E15. Light weight at 188g, and comfortable to hold, this phone trades some more of the flasher features of other phones for the massively reduced-price tag of £69.99 but keeps the most essential traits to make it a valid choice for 2025 if you’re on a budget! Boasting a 6.67-inch screen with IPS paneling to ensure you get the best colour from any angle and up to 48hrs of battery life. However, the reduced-price tag means you sacrifice some more luxuries normally associated with modern smart phones, with no fingerprint reader for security, or no NFC capability. You’ll also have to sacrifice the camera quality that come a standard with most flagship phones, it’s still perfectly serviceable for snapping photos of your loved ones, or taking funny videos of your pets, but It won’t look like they’ve been taken in a professional studio with its 32Mp dual camera. Memory takes a slight hit only giving you 64GB internal, but lets you expand it with a MicroSDXC card slot.
Also released in January (internationally released after being available in China since November 2024) the OnePlus 13 is the newest flag ship from OnePlus. Coming in at, a price I cringe at saying, is the higher end of ‘Midrange,’ £899. This new offering, brings a lot to love to the table, however falls short a couple of times compared to the big three (Google, Samsung and Apple), with the new Snapdragon 8 Elite as its chipset you’ll have to decide if the £100 price hike from the 12 is worth it, although it doesn’t feel like a significant upgrade to justify on paper. What does make this phone stand out is its battery life, testing at 19hrs 45min the 6000mAh battery outperforms apples 16 pro by more than two hours and charges insanely faster giving you 92% in 30 min! In a confusing move the OnePlus 13 has the capability to charge wirelessly but only with a case that gives the phone magnet capability, so having a case that charges as well protects is a must have, especially since its one of the only new flagships still using a quad curved ripe for catch on a corner.
Moving into February we have the first of the heavy hitters, the Samsung Galaxy S25 brings you the exceptional quality you expect, with a starting price of £699. The smallest of the S25 line but having the exact internal specs as the S25+, this lightweight but powerful phone feels great to hold and doesn’t require you to have cargo pants on just to put your phone in a pocket. Don’t worry though, the S25 packs a lot in its smaller frame, Samsung worked with Qualcomm to develop the Snapdragon 8 elite for Galaxy that’s used in all the S25 line, giving the series more dependable AI capabilities (even if it still falls down on some of the image generation areas). While you get a healthy 128GB of internal storage and can upgrade it by purchasing the 256GB version, it seems like the insistence on not having the ability to insert external memory will always be a huge con to otherwise a great line of phones. While the internals have changed the look of the phone remains pretty much unchanged, for better or worse, so if you like the classic look of Samsung's flagship smartphone you’re in luck but if you where looking for something a little more unique you might want to find a different phone. In terms of battery life, the S25 is performing consistently at 14hrs15min on battery tests and has Wireless charging capability. The phone comes with a type C to type C cable but no plug so making sure you buy a plug that has a C port!
And there we have it, the first major phones from the first quarter (Jan-march) of 2025! I was going to include the iPhone 16 here as well since it is the newest apple platform but since they will most likely release the 17 in September, I might do a blog delving into some iPhone 17 rumors closer to the time. Let me know what you think about the quarterly round up, Is there any phones I missed out, ones you want me to cover in the next round up or if you’d like a similar blog for other types of tech like tablets or smart watches. Thank you for reading and remember that Supernova Industries has you covered for everything that’s not included in the box!