2025 sounds like it could be huge for smartphones with huge batteries

With battery life being such a key factor in many people’s decisions when choosing a smartphone, manufacturers are working to improve the capacities of batteries without bulking up devices. Back in July, we reported on rumors that OnePlus and OPPO had plans for 7,000mAh batteries in upcoming devices. You can add another Chinese OEM to that list, which just launched its own contender.

The realme Neo 7 became available for pre-order in China today, due for release on December 16. Other than the 7,000mAh battery, the phone features a 6.78-inch LTPO OLED display with FHD+ resolution with a 120Hz refresh rate, a MediaTek Dimensity 9300 Plus chipset, and it offers up to 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage.

This appears to be a progression of a trend we can expect to accelerate into the new year. 91mobiles.com spotted a Weibo post from reliable tipster DigitalChatStation on Monday, claiming that Redmi and OnePlus also had smartphones with 7,000mAh batteries in the works. The post suggested that several other manufacturers had the same target for their 2025 devices, though the poster stopped short of naming the brands.

The same Weibo tipster added fuel to the earlier rumors that realme might be looking to go one better and is working on a smartphone with an 8,000mAh battery — possibly in the realme GT8 Pro. Among the comments on their posts, DigitalChatStation responded to another poster that an 8,000mAh battery was under verification and that it “may not be able to land.” We could infer from this that development is progressing, but perhaps it won’t be available in time for the original planned device.

One thing that we can be optimistic about is that 2025 is likely to see a number of mid-range smartphones with large-capacity batteries, and that can only be a good thing. Could the major manufacturers give us regular two or even three-day battery life without compromising on design and weight? Time will tell.