Folding phones in 2025 suddenly could be even more appealing

The best folding phones have gone from strength to strength in recent years, with 2025's hottest new device of the format, the Oppo Find N5, already revealed to the world. But as the best Android phones' makers have myriad options to select from when it comes to internal components, a new reveal just made 2025's potential for foldables suddenly sound even more exciting.

MediaTek has revealed its latest chipsets, the Dimensity 7400 and 7400X, with the latter specifically designed for dual-display devices, or 'flip phones' as the chip-maker says in its official release. Now, these are MediaTek's most powerful chipsets, but that's exactly why this development is interesting – it shows there's demand for more affordable folding phones.

There's a show called Mobile World Congress, or MWC for short, which kicks off in Barcelona, Spain, early March. We're expecting a variety of reveals at the show – from Xiaomi to Nothing (although the Phone (3a) is so heavily leaked there'll be 'nothing' more to say), Honor and more – but with MediaTek putting its cards on the table ahead of that, it's almost hinting at there being new affordable foldables in among that mix too.

MediaTek's presence in devices has been most prominent in Chinese handsets, many of which haven't made it to the UK market, but its reach has increased in recent years, with even Samsung utilising Dimensity in its Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra. Nothing's Phone (2a) and Oppo's Find X8 Pro also use Dimensity chipsets, showing the maker's increased reach.

The MediaTek Dimensity 7400 series are also designed to "bring improved gaming and AI performance to high-tech smartphones," as an upgrade over the previous 7300 series – thanks to a claimed 15% AI performance boost. More important, however, is the claimed 36% lower power consumption from generation to generation, which is where the tuned-for-foldables 'X' model really shows its worth.

So while no devices have been revealed at this stage, keep your eyes on T3's MWC coverage in the coming week and there'll no doubt be new handsets – my vote goes to Tecno, as best guess – announced with MediaTek's Dimensity 7400X on board. It sounds as though 2025 is only going to improve when it comes to folding phones – any while MediaTek won't be anywhere near Apple's output, there are also increased rumours of an iPhone Fold in the not-too-distant future...