The Phone of the Year is...

December 12, 2025

AI Summary

5 min read

The Phone of the Year is the iPhone 17

The biggest online argument of the year in tech is over, and the results are in: the iPhone 17 took home Phone of the Year, while the iPhone 16E won Bust of the Year. Same company, same year, two very different outcomes.

Marques Brownlee, Andrew Manganelli, and David Imel gathered to run through the 2025 Smartphone Awards, and the conversation reveals a year where the usual winners stumbled and the underdog finally delivered.

The iPhone 17 finally did the thing

The base iPhone 17 won Phone of the Year and Most Improved, and the reasoning is straightforward: Apple finally added 120Hz to the base model. "They finally did the thing," Marques said. The display is much brighter, the selfie camera got a meaningful upgrade with a larger sensor that supports both horizontal and vertical portrait selfies, and Apple doubled the base storage to 256GB without raising the price. The result is that the iPhone 17 has become the easiest phone to recommend in the lineup. "You'd look at the lineup and you go, oh, you're staying with the iPhone? Okay. I think, yeah, you could probably go with like an old 15 Pro or 16 Pro, or maybe you should get like a b- I don't want to recommend the base though. You'll have a 60 hertz phone for five more years. Now it's just like, oh yeah, get the 17."

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What you'll learn

1 (00:00) **Show Intro & Housekeeping** - The hosts welcome listeners, mention the Smartphone Awards 2025 video and the Xiaomi SU7 car review, and plug the Waveform YouTube channel approaching 500k subscribers.
2 (11:22) **Android XR Announcements** - Google unveils Android XR, a platform for multiple device types, including Project Aura glasses from XREAL with Gemini.
3 (19:28) **Pebble Ring Announcement** - Eric Migicovsky unveils a $75 smart ring with a microphone and physical button, designed for quick voice notes and AI actions.
4 (26:02) **Gemini Ads & Software Beta Culture** - Rumors of ads in Gemini's AI mode are denied by Google, and the hosts discuss the trend of shipping unfinished software and hardware.
5 (33:34) **Waveform Trivia: Android XR History** - The trivia question asks for the codename of Google's canceled AR/XR project between Google Glass and the recent Android XR event.
6 (39:22) **Smartphone Awards 2025: Best Big Phone & Best Small Phone** - Marques runs through the awards, starting with Best Big Phone (Xiaomi 17 Pro Max) and Best Small Phone (Z Flip 7).
7 (44:35) **Best Camera & Best Value** - Oppo Find X9 Pro wins Best Camera for its versatile triple 50MP system and natural bokeh, while the CMF Phone 2 Pro takes Best Value.

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Guests on this episode

Marques Brownlee Andrew Manganelli David Imel

Show Notes

This week, the crew sits down to talk smartphones. They go over each of the phones that Marques picked and offer a few hot takes along the way. On top of that they also talk about the Android XR show, a new smart ring from Pebble, and the Xiaomi SU7!

Shop the merch:

https://shop.mkbhd.com

Links:

Verge - Google Project Aura

Verge - Pebble Index smart ring

Adweek - Google Gemini Ads

Video of Tesla robot

MKBHD - Smartphone awards

MKBHD - Xiaomi SU7 review

This episode brought to you by:

Framer - wwww.framer.com/design (code: wave)

Grammarly - wwww.superhuman.com/podcast