TechLekh Awards: Best Phones of 2025 in Nepal Winners!

Ooooooooooh boy, what a year it was for smartphones, even in Nepal! Phones have been rolling out non-stop this year, in every price category.

Xiaomi and Vivo began offering top-end flagship phones this year, whereas previously that space was dominated solely by Samsung and Apple. Legacy brands like Motorola and ZTE also made their return with new budget and midrange devices. Nepal even saw a few new additions to the folding phone segment — a category that remains niche globally.

I alone reviewed over 20 smartphones this year. While that’s my count, our own Anmol daai and Deep daai also reviewed a good number of phones, so I’m not exaggerating when I say launches were nonstop.

Now that 2025 has officially come to an end, the cycle of yearly refreshes and a new batch of smartphones is already underway. But before we move too far ahead, it’s worth pausing to look back, celebrate a truly remarkable year, and shine a spotlight on the smartphones that made 2025 memorable.

So, here we are with the 2025 Edition of the TechLekh Awards for the Best Phones in Nepal!

TechLekh Awards: Best Phones of 2025 in Nepal

Before we start handing out the awards, we would like to talk about the whys and hows briefly.

I have already touched a bit on the why. It’s to look back and commemorate the year. But it’s also to hand flowers to the brands that offer value to the consumers.

Now this “value” is how we hand out the awards. However, “value” isn’t a square box. It can be many things, and will differ person to person. For someone, “value” might be a good-looking design, while for others it may be day-to-day endurance. Likewise, someone may “value” absolute performance, or taking pretty pictures, or a balance of both. And others may find “value” in making the most out of their money.

Which is why we are awarding multiple smartphones, each focusing on a unique category. We will start with budget picks, acknowledge a few specialist phones, and slowly climb up the price ladder. As such, we have come up with the following categories:

1. Flyweight Champion
2. Wallet Saver
3. Sasto, Ramro, Bharpardo
4. Best Phone for Gamers (on a Budget)
5. Battery Beast
6. Smol Phone
7. Best Camera Enthusiast Phone
8. Absolute Eye Candy
9. Head Turning Price
10. Best Overall Value
11. Best Taste of Premium

And finally culminating in… “THE ULTIMATE CHAMPION”

While those are our main titles, you may or may not find a surprise category or two. *side eye*

Note: I would like to clarify that this award is limited to phones officially launched in Nepal at the time of writing this. While there are many amazing phones that, unfortunately, were not released in Nepal or are floating in the grey market, we will not be considering them for the awards.

TechLekh Awards: Best Phones of 2025 Winners

Now, let’s get the list going! Starting with the…

#1. Flyweight Champion: Honor Play10

The Honor Play10 is an entry-level phone that was launched at a price of just Rs. 10,999 (current price: Rs. 12,999). With such a low price tag, it doesn’t weigh too heavily on your pocket. However, it punches hard for what it’s worth. Hence, “Flyweight Champion.”

So, what sets this phone apart? A few things. First, Honor is an established brand, a name you can trust, unlike most phones at this price. Secondly, the specs are quite good too. It has the MediaTek Helio G81, which is the same chip the Redmi 15C has. And that phone was priced at Rs. 14,999 (current price: Rs. 16,999) when it launched! So, the price-to-performance on the Honor Play10 is outstanding, really.

That’s not all! There are some other things on this phone that hit the sweet spot. For instance, it boots on the Android 15 GO Edition, so no pesky ads and bloatware are baked into the phone, or can’t be. It’s a clean experience to say the least.

Then there is the fact that this entry-level phone allows you to make carrier video calls! I have used phones three times the price, which doesn’t allow you to do so.

Which is why the Honor Play10 is our Flyweight Champion of 2025! And, you can find out more about this phone in our review below:

#2. Wallet Saver: Ai+ Pulse

While the Honor Play10 might be the best entry-level phone, it is not the most affordable! That title goes to Pulse from the newly-founded company Ai+.

So, how much does this phone cost? Just Rs. 9,999! It is quite literally the most affordable “proper” smartphone in Nepal right now! I say “proper” because you can still find a smartphone that’s like a few thousand bucks cheaper.

But those phones come with a quad-core chipset, boot on Android 13, and are usually from a company that sounds super sketchy. Ai+ Pulse, on the other hand, comes with the UNISOC T615 chipset, which is a familiar silicon in budget segments. And it boots on Android 15, and is promised to be ad-free.

Now, yes, Ai+ is a fresh company, but the thing is, Madhav Seth founded it. He was one of the founding members of realme, a known name in the smartphone world. We have seen how Carl Pei elevated his new company, Nothing, from literally nothing to a smartphone company with a dedicated fanbase within a span of a few years. So, I would put some faith in Ai+ too. Some.

Honourable Mention: We would like to give a shout-out to the ZTE Nubia A36 in this section. While the phone is priced at Rs. 11,999, it is available in EMI. So, you could pay Rs. 4,800 upfront and take the phone home after some paperwork. That’s affordable too, but in a different way. And the phone ain’t half bad either.

#3. Sasto, Ramro, Bharpardo: Infinix Hot 60 Pro

“Sasto, Ramro, Bharpardo” — the Nepali motto when buying anything. As such, it makes the most sense to award this title to the best phone in the most popular smartphone segment of Nepal, i.e., around Rs. 20,000.

Priced at Rs. 20,999 (launch price, current price: Rs. 24,999), the Infinix Hot 60 Pro is a well-rounded phone. It has a sleek design with a vegan leather back. Likewise, it has the most stunning display in the segment — a 6.78-inch AMOLED with 1.5K resolution, 144Hz refresh rate, and up to 1,600 nits of brightness (HBM).

It is powered by the MediaTek Helio G200, which isn’t the best-performing silicon available at this price, but it’s sufficient for most people. The camera is good, the battery is decent, and the charging is rapid.

All in all, an excellent deal. Had it been priced strictly under Rs. 20,000, it would have topped our last year’s best phones under 20000 in Nepal list. But here, we don’t have any such restriction. Let’s say someone came and told us they wanted a “sasto, ramro, bharpardo” phone, the Infinix Hot 60 Pro would be the first phone to pop in our minds.

Honourable Mention: Then the second phone that would come to mind would be the HMD Crest Max, at a slightly higher price tag of Rs. 22,999 (launch price, current price: 23,999). This phone has mostly similar specs to the Infinix, so it definitely deserves a shout-out.

We now move a step to the side and take a look at a few speciality phones. And since all the phones we have talked about so far have been budget ones, let’s start from the…

#4. Best Phone for Gamers (on a Budget): Infinix GT 30

The “gaming phone” category was very sparsely populated in Nepal. There were maybe like three options available in 2023, out of which the Infinix GT 20 Pro was probably the only proper gaming phone. Which is why it bagged the category in the 2024 Edition of TechLekh Awards.

But this year, we saw launches like the Realme 14 and ZTE Nubia Neo 03 GT, which were targeted at gamers. Infinix also expanded its GT lineup. As a result, gamers in Nepal could actually choose from multiple options, all while staying under the Rs. 50,000 mark.

But the question is, which phone makes the most sense to our budget-centric gamers? And we think it’s the Infinix GT 30. Why? You can find that out in our review below:

Honourable Mention: But if you have some extra cash to splash, then Infinix GT 30 Pro is definitely the way to go. This phone can be paired with a magnetic case and a cooling fan from the company itself. So, there is a unique value gamers may find with the Infinix GT 30 Pro.

#5. Battery Beast: OnePlus Nord CE5

While smartphones have become more powerful, one thing barely changed — battery capacity. The 5,000mAh standard has held for over half a decade.

That’s why the Redmi Note series launching at the start of 2025 with slightly larger batteries felt refreshing. Three of the four models only added around 110mAh, but it was still nice to see the “standard” finally move (the Note 14 4G even hit 5,500mAh).

By February, we were seeing 6,000mAh phones, and in March, the Honor X9c arrived with a monstrous 6,600mAh cell — the biggest in Nepal at the time. But in the latter part of the year, even 6,600mAh started looking small. Phones like the Oppo A6 Pro, Realme 15T, and Redmi 15 now offer 7,000mAh batteries, making it feel like the 5,000mAh isn’t the “industry standard” anymore.

Still, one phone stands above the rest as the true “Battery Beast” — the OnePlus Nord CE5. Funnily enough, it only edges out the 7,000mAh crowd by 100mAh, but the difference is that the Nord CE5 is also one of the best phones under Rs. 50,000.

That’s why it earns the “Battery Beast” title — not just for having the largest battery, but for being a great phone with the largest battery. More on the phone here:

I didn’t know our thumbnail had the exact words as this category. That’s some insane foreshadowing right there, folks!

#6. Smol Phone: *RIP*

As we said earlier, phones are getting more and more capable every year. And maybe as a byproduct, they are also getting bigger. As a result, compact phones have essentially died out.

For instance, the smallest iPhone right now, i.e. the iPhone 17, is almost as big as the first “big” iPhone, i.e. iPhone 6 Plus. Furthermore, the former actually has a larger screen than the latter.

Companies have tried selling phones with screens under 6 inches. Apple tried. They gave up after two years of trying. Asus Zenfone, one of the last compact phones, also pivoted. It’s just facts: compact phones, despite how much attention they get and how cute they are, don’t sell well.

So companies don’t want to sell it. People don’t buy it. So, we either have to update the definition for what a “smol” phone is, or put it to rest. The likes of MKBHD chose the former, awarding the category Samsung Galaxy Z Flip7.

I mean, there is a logic, and it makes sense. But we just can’t ignore the fact that it is indeed a big phone, that just happens to have a fully functional small screen on the back. Now the iPhone Xiaomi 17 Pro series also has a back screen, should we consider that as well?

So, we think it’s better if we just put the compact phone category to rest. It was fun while it lasted.

#7. Best Camera Enthusiast Phone: Vivo X300 Pro

This should come as no surprise, really. The Vivo X200 Pro made global headlines for its photography chops and even won “Camera Phone of the Year” from Mrwhosetheboss in 2024. Bummer for those of us in Nepal, it only arrived in March 2025.

I tested it extensively, comparing it against the likes of Xiaomi 15 Ultra and Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, and concluded that the X200 Pro was the best camera phone of the three by a hairline margin.

So it should be simple, right? Vivo X200 Pro wins the best camera enthusiast phone of 2025? Nope! Because bummer for the X200 Pro: its newer, shinier successor also launched in Nepal in 2025! Albeit in December. But hey, still 2025!

You could argue against the camera performance of the X200 Pro, but you can’t really do the same against the X300 Pro. And it’s not just because of the upgraded hardware.

It’s because this phone launched with a “Photographer Kit” edition, which included official add-ons like a lens extender and camera grip. And this “Photographer Kit” is also available in Nepal! The Vivo X300 Pro was already a great camera phone on its own, but these accessories elevate it to a true camera enthusiast’s phone. And there is nothing else like it in the market.

You can check out our unboxing video of the Vivo X300 Pro, with the full “Photographer Kit” here:

Honourable Mention: No matter how much all the other companies innovate and make leaps and bounds, one name will forever be taken when someone mentions a “camera” phone, and it’s the iPhone. And rightfully so. The iPhone 17 Pro series brought meaningful upgrades to cameras, and videography will forever be an ace that the iPhone has.

#8. Absolute Eye Candy: Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7

This category is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a category we are awarding to the phone that’s pleasing to look at. For most of us, a phone is an essential. You connect with people through it, use your banking apps on it, take photos and notes on it, and so on. It serves a purpose.

But there will always be a person for whom it’s a fashion statement, a status symbol, and they are more than willing to prioritise form over function. So, which is THE phone for them? Which phone will make people’s heads turn, and go “What a cool phone!”?

We had a few picks for this category. But we ultimately settled on the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7.

Why? Because it has it all. It’s thin — an aesthetic most phones this year are shooting for. It has proper flagship specs and great software. And nothing really beats the novelty of being able to fold your phone in half. The redesign Samsung did this year really came in clutch!

Honourable Mention: We’ve given the category to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7, now the mind automatically starts to drift towards the Flip7. And yes, it’s a beautiful phone, especially with that full-sized cover display this year. But it doesn’t quite make you go wow the same way Fold7 does with its thinness.

Talking of thinness, we have the iPhone Air too. And the Infinix Hot 60 Pro+ in the budget segment, which at a thickness of 6mm is just 0.4mm thicker than the iPhone Air. What makes it even more impressive is the 5,160mAh battery it packs inside.

Infinix Note 50s 5G+ also deserves a shoutout with its perfumed leather finish, which is truly one of kind experience in a phone. Then there are all the Nothing phones with their flashy, polarising, and high-fashion-esque designs, which are worth mentioning too.

#9. Head Turning Price: Xiaomi 15 Ultra

Nepal is a very price-sensitive market. A phone’s price could make or break it. And more often than not, companies do get it wrong.

However, that did not seem to be the case with one company in particular — Xiaomi! I kid you not when I say, I had to double-check the price of Xiaomi 15 Ultra when it was revealed.

It’s an Ultra phone, the top-of-the-line offering from Xiaomi. It competes with the likes of Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, Vivo X200/300 Pro, and the iPhone 17 Pro series, all of which cost upward of Rs. 1,80,000.

However, Xiaomi priced the 15 Ultra at just Rs. 1,49,999, putting it in the same bracket as the lower flagships, like the Samsung Galaxy S25+ and OnePlus 13. It is over Rs. 30,000 cheaper than its closest competition. UNREAL pricing, or should I say HEAD TURNING Price!

Check out our full review of the Xiaomi 15 Ultra here:

Honourable Mention: Xiaomi carried a similar pricing spirit with its premium midrangers, launching them at just Rs. 65,000. The phone was priced at 650€, which at the time translated to over 90,000 Nepali rupees. So, kudos to Xiaomi for getting their pricing game right.

And shout out to Samsung for keeping its phone prices constant, despite the upward trend of phone prices worldwide.

While Xiaomi may price its phone super aggressively, it is not the value king like it once was. Similarly, Infinix Note 60 Pro may be the “Sasto, Ramro, Bharpardo” phone of 2025, but it still leaves a lot to be desired. You still don’t get the full smartphone experience with it.

So, which phone does? Which phone has it all and is still affordable? Is there even a phone that’s the best of both worlds? Oh yes, yes there is:

#10. Best Overall Value: CMF Phone 2 Pro

If you are a regular in the smartphone world, then you already saw it coming. I mean, MKBHD and Mrwhosetheboss, two of the largest tech reviewers in the world, awarded this phone a similar award.

Can you even blame them? CMF Phone 2 Pro is THAT good. You get a display with symmetrical bezels this year, the MediaTek Dimensity 7300, which is probably the most capable chipset in the midrange space, a solid battery, and a good charging speed.

Which are all great, but this phone drives the point home with its software and cameras. The recent update of NothingOS may have paved the way for the company to push ads and install bloatware on its phones, but it is minimal, and I don’t find it be intrusive (yet).

But you get good software on similarly priced Samsung phones, too. What you don’t get is a proper triple camera setup that the CMF Phone 2 Pro offers. It is the only phone to offer a telephoto camera in its price point, making it the most affordable phone to do so.

There is pretty much nothing (no pun intended) on this phone for me to complain about. If I had to, it would be about the price going up recently and unavailabilty of the official accessories like the mounting plate, the wallet stand, and the interchangeable lenses.

But that’s an importer-related issue, and not phone-related. And I must say, the CMF Phone 2 Pro, despite the price going up recently, still does not feel overpriced.

Check out our CMF Phone 2 Pro review video here:

As an honourable mention, we have the Nothing Phone (3a), which is essentially everything the CMF Phone 2 Pro is — just turned up a notch. That said, the Phone 2 Pro delivers about 85–90% of the Phone (3a)’s experience at roughly 75% of the price.

The Phone (3a) also faces tough competition from the likes of the Infinix GT 30 Pro and the OnePlus Nord CE5, whereas the Phone 2 Pro remains a no-brainer pick, even after its price hike.

#11. Best Taste of Premium: Xiaomi 15T

Which phone do you get when you want premium features on your phone, but don’t quite want to pay the premium? And we think Xiaomi 15T is the best pick for it.

A high-resolution display with minimal bezels? Check. A set of high-quality cameras that lets you take aesthetic photos? Check. Flagship-level performance? Check… oh wait. That one’s a bit complicated.

It has the MediaTek Dimensity 8400 Ultra powering it, which, as far as midrange chipsets are concerned, is one of the best there is. It scores 75–95% of what the Xiaomi 14, a flagship phone, scored in benchmarks.

But the thing is, Xiaomi 14 is a last-gen flagship, so the performance isn’t exactly top-shelf by current standards. But at the same time, it doesn’t mind you playing heavy games like Genshin Impact with the highest settings cranked. And that matters more than pure numbers in our opinion.

Its design also leaves something more to be desired, and the software isn’t wow either. And that is exactly why it’s a “taste” of premium, and not just premium. It gives you about four-fifths of the experience, while costing nearly half the price of a proper premium phone.

Find out more about the Xiaomi 15T in our review video below:

We have the Honor 400 Pro as the honourable mention in here. It is a proper semi-flagship phone, and does exactly the same thing as the Xiaomi 15T, but a little better. Which also means it costs a little more.

So why is the Honor 400 just an honourable mention, even though it’s a better phone? It’s because the Honor 400 Pro merely walks in the trajectory that starts with the Xiaomi 15T.

With this category out of the way, we finally come to the end of our list. Which is the best phone that launched in the year 2025 in Nepal? If budget is not your concern, and you want the best of the best? Which is the…

#12. THE ULTIMATE CHAMPION: VIVO X300 PRO

It’s the Vivo X300 Pro! The Vivo X200 Pro was already very close to being the best phone of the year with its overall performance and camera prowess. However, there was one thing that held it back. One thing that would make you lean more towards something like the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra.

It was the software. Internationally, Vivo phones booted on FuntouchOS, which wasn’t bad or anything. But it sure was quite boring. It was an okay software to interact with, but it felt a bit “midrange”. So, that was ONE reason holding Vivo back from being the ultimate flagship phone.

But Vivo released its much nicer software with the X300 Pro, which was previously available only to its local audience — OriginOS. Now, Vivo phones feel much more premium with beautiful icons and smooth animations.

Now, the X200 Pro also received the OriginOS update. But X300 Pro is newer, more powerful, and also receives longer software support than its predecessor. Being released so late in the year, it almost feels like the Vivo X300 Pro has an unfair advantage.

But this device truly feels next-generation. Thanks to its phenomenal cameras being so much better than the competition, it does most of the heavy lifting for this phone. We are confident that this phone will hold up well even against the upcoming launches.

Honourable Mention: We have our regular suspects over here. The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, iPhone 17 Pros, and Xiaomi 15 Ultra, even. All of them are solid phones with a unique edge and a dedicated crowd.

And none have a dedicated crowd like Apple. Now, Apple did not win any category this year, which comes as a surprise to us as well. Apple not being the best at anything?

So, this time, we have a dedicated category — just for iPhones.

#13. Best iPhone of the Year: iPhone 17

So, which was the best iPhone of 2025? Is it even a question to ask? It must be the biggest/baddest iPhone there is, the iPhone 17 Pro Max, right? Or the iPhone Air? After all, it was all people were talking about because it’s so thin.

Nope! It’s the base iPhone 17. Why?

There are a few reasons. Firstly, the improvements on this phone are actually exciting, something Apple has not done in a long time. We finally get a ProMotion (120Hz) display with this phone. The storage has doubled from the pesky 128GB, while the price stays almost the same.

Usually, Apple gatekeeps the talking feature to its Pro models and only rolls it out on the base iPhone the following year. But this time, the iPhone 17 got the “Center Stage Front Camera” as all the other iPhones did out of the gate.

Secondly, the Pro iPhone never really made sense to non-power users. If you just want the iPhone experience, then getting a base model has always been the way to go. Now that the base iPhone is closer to its Pro counterparts than it has ever been, it is the best iPhone to get for the majority of users.

With the best iPhone of the year out of the way, that concludes all our smartphone categories for the TechLekh Awards 2025. However, we also wanted to recognise the efforts of the smartphone manufacturers this year. That’s why we dedicated a category for the…

#14. Smartphone Company of the Year: Infinix

Infinix has been absolutely relentless this year. The brand launched a whopping 11 smartphone models, including the Note 50x 5G+, Hot 50 Pro and 50 Pro+, GT 30 Pro (with gaming kits), Smart 10 and 10 Plus, Hot 60 Pro/Pro+ and 60i, Note 50s 5G+, and the Infinix GT 30. That’s A LOT of phones.

But it’s not just the sheer number of launches that earns Infinix this award — it’s the fact that most of these phones are genuinely good. Every model except the Smart 10 series made it into our top-five lists within their respective price categories.

The only reason the Smart 10 series didn’t cut is that we don’t have a “Best Phones under Rs. 12,000” list. If we did, I’m confident it would feature there. (Maybe we should put together a list considering the recent price hike all the budget phones have been getting, hmmmmn.)

Beyond that, Infinix clearly has momentum. Almost every video we upload attracts at least one comment asking for an Infinix phone review, and our Infinix-related videos consistently perform better than those from other brands. That tells us there’s real hype and curiosity around Infinix right now.

Taking all of this into account, we believe Infinix is the most deserving winner of the “Smartphone Company of the Year” title.

TechLekh Awards: Best Phones of 2025 Winners List

Alright folks! That’s all the categories we have going this year. Here is a summary of all the titles and the winners of the TechLekh Awards for the Best Smartphones of 2025:

So these are our picks for the Best Phones of 2025 in various categories. What do you think about it? Let us know in the comments! Also, don’t forget to check out our picks for the Best Tablets of 2025 as well!