Oral drug delivery remains the most physiological and therefore the most preferred, simplest and easiest administration route. Nevertheless, a multitude of potentially clinically important drugs will not reach the market or achieve their full potential unless their oral bioavailability is improved by formulation. The aim of this review is to present an overview of properties, formulation, excipients and characterization of solid dispersions corresponding to one of the different formulation strategies for design and development of poorly soluble drugs. This work will review and compare in detail the evolution of solid dispersions focused on the different methods of formulation and production of solid dispersions, their stability, their release properties, their pharmacokinetics and methods for their physicochemical characterization.