2025 was the year tech went beautifully, ferociously thin — and AI went from feature to foundation. Here’s the year that was on The Mike’s P(a)lace.
The thin phone wars: Samsung drew first blood with the 5.8mm Galaxy S25 Edge in May. Apple answered in September with the 5.64mm iPhone Air — thinner, and priced at $999 to replace the ageing Plus. The race to invisible is the defining hardware story of 2025. iOS 26 Liquid Glass gave the iPhone its most dramatic visual identity shift in 12 years. The universal design language across Apple’s platforms is now genuinely beautiful.
AI deepened: Galaxy AI 2.0, Gemini’s deeper Android integration, and Apple Intelligence’s expanded on-device capabilities all showed that 2024’s AI features were just the opening act. 3D printing matured: Bambu Lab continued to dominate, and Apple confirmed it uses 3D printing in iPhone manufacturing — a landmark legitimisation of additive manufacturing for mass production.
2026 is already in motion. Galaxy S26 is on the horizon, iPhone 17 Pro Max is flying off shelves, and the next Snapdragon Summit is already generating leaks. Let’s go. 🚀
Source: The Mike’s P(a)lace editorial team