The worst smartphone brands to buy in 2025 have been named

It’s hard to rely on intuition when choosing a smartphone, as the market offers everything from flip phones to simple button models. A new study can help with the decision, showing which brands experience malfunctions more often.

This was reported by DailyMail.

What the study revealed about smartphone reliability

Experts analyzed 15,644 smartphones from 14 popular brands — from Apple and Samsung to Nokia and Huawei — to determine how and when malfunctions occur. In the first year of use, failure rates were generally low, but over the long term, differences between manufacturers became noticeable.

Over six years, smartphones from Sony and Huawei experienced the most problems. The fewest malfunctions were found in OnePlus, Realme, and Google devices — only 11% of units over the same period. Samsung and Apple fell "in the middle," with rates of 13% and 15%, respectively. Experts noted that brands differ significantly in the likelihood of failures during the first years, and the ranking of the most popular brands may be surprising.

They also highlighted release patterns.

"'With Oppo releasing five handsets in the last year, they might be a brand worth considering," the study stated.

Overall, the survey showed that, on average, only 8% of smartphones experience malfunctions within three years, meaning most devices work without critical issues for a while.

Battery problems were the most commonly reported, accounting for 29% of all cases, including rapid discharge and significant drops in battery life over a short time. Next were slow performance (5%), freezes (5%), sudden reboots or crashes (4%), and software update issues (3%). Failures in biometric systems occurred much less frequently — under 1% — and 1% of cases each involved fire/smoke, complete failure to power on, and speaker problems.

Given the generally low failure rates, researchers advise focusing on support duration — the longer a smartphone stops receiving security patches, the higher the risks. The best manufacturers provide updates for at least five years from release, including Apple and certain Samsung and Google models. In the worst cases, updates stop after only two years.

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