My 7 wishes for Android phones in 2026

Affiliate links on Android Authority may earn us a commission. Learn more. My 7 wishes for Android phones in 2026 52 minutes ago We’re coming to the end of the year, and we’ve already seen the first next-generation flagship Android phones launching around the world. These phones give us a rough idea of what to expect from the industry next year - more performance and bigger batteries being two of the earlier trends. Never mind expectations, though. What do I actually want from smartphones next year? From bigger batteries in all markets to iPhone-rivaling video quality, here’s what I’m wishing for in 2026. What's your wish for Android phones in 2026? 1. Bigger batteries, for everyone The recently launched OPPO Find X9 Pro, OnePlus 15, and Xiaomi 17 Pro Max all have 7,000mAh+ batteries. However, the bad news is that shipping regulations in markets like the EU and US cap the size of an individual battery cell . Some brands have circumvented this restriction by using phones with dual-cell battery designs. And that’s how the OnePlus 15 and OPPO Find X9 Pro retain their gigantic batteries in Europe. However, phones like the vivo X300 Pro and Xiaomi 15 Ultra consequently have much smaller batteries in the EU compared to India and China. I’d really like to see more phone makers adopting dual-cell batteries to circumvent these shipping regulations. That way, phones can offer the same battery capacity in Europe, the US, and China. EMEA markets in particular already pay a premium for phones compared to China and India, so why give us less for more? I also think it’s high time for companies like Samsung and Apple to offer much larger batteries. Silicon-carbon batteries might not last as long as the best lithium-ion batteries, but they certainly last as long as conventional lithium-ion batteries inside recent Pixels. 2. Video quality to match or exceed iPhones I’ve argued for a few years now that the best Android camera phones take better photos than iPhones, but the opposite is the case for video capture. Apple’s devices generally take smoother, higher-quality videos than top-tier Android flagships, and often have better support for editing as well. Needless to say, I really hope this is the year when some Android OEMs match or surpass the iPhones in terms of video capture. The good news is that Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip supports the Advanced Professional Video (APV) codec for higher-quality video, and the Samsung Galaxy S26 series is tipped to offer this feature . Of course, there’s more to higher video quality on Android than a new codec. I’d therefore like to see Android OEMs focusing on improved stability, reduced judder (particularly when panning and tilting), faster/more accurate autofocus, and other general video capture improvements. 3. Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 phones that don’t run hot We’ve already tested the first wave of Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 phones , and our most concerning finding is that these phones run hot. This results...

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