One of the great things about Android is just how much innovation there is. Unlike iPhones, where the hardware and software is tightly controlled by Apple, there are numerous Android device makers and they have complete control over the hardware, as well as being able to put their own twists on the software.
The result is that we get phones with a wide variety of specs and features, but despite this, there are some innovations that we’re yet to see.
So below, I’ve detailed five innovative features that I’d like to see some future Android phones offer.
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1. New battery technologies
The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra (Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)
One of the most exciting things in Android phones right now is the silicon-carbon batteries that some have started using. While this allows for higher capacity batteries than ever before, I’d love to see some even more impressive battery techs get incorporated.
I’ve written before about promising battery technologies that are being developed, some of which could further improve capacity or even remove the need for charging altogether, so if an Android phone could use one of these, it would be seriously innovative, and in a genuinely useful way.
Of course, most of these technologies are still being researched and developed, so it’s unclear how soon a phone could benefit.
2. True AI phones
The Google Pixel 10 (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)
Many Android phones now have a lot of AI features, but underneath all that we’re still mostly interacting with them like we did phones from ten years ago.
What I want to see is an AI that’s able to do anything on my phone that I could, including interacting with all my apps and accounts, so that – if I wanted to – I could fully control my phone just by telling the AI what to do.
Better yet, it should be able to anticipate what I’ll want and make suggestions or even take actions before it’s asked. I wouldn’t really trust current AIs to act without being instructed, but with the rate of improvement we’re seeing, it might not be too long before you could trust an AI to do that.
3. 15x optical zoom
The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra has a 5x optical zoom (Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)
There was a time when some Android phones – most notably certain Samsung Galaxy Ultra models – had cameras with 10x optical zooms. Now, Samsung has taken what feels like a bit of a backwards step by topping out at 5x optical zoom. But I want to see someone in Android land go in the other direction and offer an optical zoom of even more than 10x.
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Sure, digital zooms are getting better, and some phones offer sensor crop zooms that they describe as optical quality, yet neither of these can actually take as good photos as a lens that optically reaches that focal length.
Of course, not everyone needs a 15x zoom or even a 10x one, but if you like taking photos of animals that might run away if you got closer, or of details high up on buildings, then it’s a useful tool to have, and one that could help any phone equipped with such a camera to stand out.
4. E-paper secondary screens
The Onyx Boox Palma 2 is a phone-sized ereader (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)
The idea of a phone with a secondary e-paper screen on the back isn’t actually new, as the Yotaphone 2 for example did this back in 2014, but it’s an idea that never really caught on and hasn’t been done in a long time.
But having used recent phone-sized e-paper devices like the Viwoods AIPaper Reader and Onyx Boox Palma 2, I’d like to see a phone maker give this another try.
E-paper is far gentler on your eyes than an OLED or LCD screen, and it doesn’t use as much battery either, so a phone with a large second display on the back for reading ebooks or just for any other time you want a break from the main display, is something I’d be very interested in.
This second screen could still run a full version of Android, like the devices mentioned above, so it would be a lot more versatile than – for example – the second screen on the Xiaomi 17 Pro.
But mostly I’d probably just use it for reading – I’ve come to love carrying a phone-sized ereader around with me, but if the screen was part of my phone then I’d only need the one device.
5. Portless designs
The Samsung Galaxy S25 (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)
For a while it was rumored that Apple might launch a portless iPhone, and while that hasn’t happened, I’d be interested in seeing an Android manufacturer give this idea a try.
Doing so could free up internal space for other components, such as a larger battery, and should allow for a sleeker design.
I don’t think this is necessarily the future of phones, as such a device would rely on wireless charging, which is typically slower than wired charging, but having the option of a portless phone would be nice.
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