Top 10 Most Popular Smartphones Around the World of 2016

At the beginning of the new year,many friends might be reviewing the past 2016. Many big events have happened in the global mobile market in 2016 which are worth reviewing, but today wewill only talk about smartphones. Which smartphones were most popular in the global market in2016? In order to figure out this question, we combed all the model data submitted by users from different countries and regions throughout2016 from Antutu backstage, and  finally completed our lists of Top10 most popular smartphones around the world.

Period of data statistics: January 1,2016-December 31,2016

Data source: Antutu Benchmark

Data models: Android phones

Global Market

According to the list of Top 10 Most PopularSmartphones in the World 2016, Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 topped the list,followed by Xiaomi Mi 5 and Samsung Galaxy S7 edge. Obviously, Xiaomi RedmiNote 3 had the most users around the world and its users were keen on testingtheir smartphones with Antutu Benchmark.

Apart from Samsung and Xiaomi, smartphones such as LeEcoLe 2, OnePlus 3 and Asus Zenfone 2 also successfully broke into the Top 10 list,all with a market share of over 1%. Generally speaking, the global market weredominated by highly cost-effective models like Redmi Note 3 and Le 2.

Mainland China

Popular smartphones in Mainland China were slightlydifferent from those in the global market. Apart from Xiaomi Redmi Note 3,LeEco Le 2 and Samsung Galaxy S7 edge, smartphones that are familiar with ussuch as Huawei Mate 8, Meizu MX5 and ZUK Z2 also appeared on the list, all witha market share of over 1.5%.

Vivo X7 also had good market performance in Chinese marketand ranked eleventh. From the top 10 list of China, we can also see thatChinese smartphone users of Xiaomi, LeEco and Samsung are more keen on runningtest for performance.

Taiwan, China

Antutu users of Taiwan have their own preferences forsmartphones. Apart from Samsung models like Samsung Galaxy Note 5, Samsung GalaxyS7 edge and Samsung Galaxy Note 4, HTC 10, HTC One M8 and Sony Xperia Z5Premium also appeared on the list. In particular, Asus ZenFone 2 was thehottest smartphone in Taiwan among Antutu users, claiming the top position ofthe top 10 list of Taiwan.

From the above list, we can also find that Antutu users ofTaiwan prefer to choose smartphones of Taiwan local brands such as Asus and HTC,of which four models appeared on the list.

Hong Kong, China

From the list of Top 10 Most Popular Smartphones in HongKong, we can see that many Samsung models of Galaxy S series and Note seriesappeared on the list. In terms of smartphone brands, Hong Kong Antutu userstended to favor Samsung models. In particular, Samsung Galaxy S7 edge, theflagship model of 2016, claimed the top position of the list.

In fact, after the battery and recall scandal of SamsungGalaxy Note 7, Samsung Galaxy S7 edge had undoubtedly become the newest andstrongest Samsung model in 2016. In addition, the newly released color versionsof this model also added to the popularity of it.

Korea

The top 10 list of Korea is relatively special compared toother countries and regions. From the list, we can see that local brands inKorea such as Samsung and LG were very popular with Korean users, accountingfor nine of the top 10 positions of the list, among which Samsung Galaxy Note 5outperformed Samsung Galaxy S7 edge and claimed the top position.

What’s interesting is that the “shortest-lived model” Samsung Galaxy Note 7 also appearedon the list. We speculate the reason for it is that many Korea consumers had alreadypurchased Note 7 before Samsung announced to recall it as in American market, thusit is not surprising that to find it on the list.

America

Turning to the American market, Samsungsmartphones were also favored by American users, occupying six of the top 10 positionsof the list with Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge claiming the top position. Meanwhile,Google Nexus 6P and Nexus 6 that were not common on the top 10 lists of otherareas also appeared on the list.

In particular, although Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 was also onthe list, currently Xiaomi smartphones haven’t officially hit the Americanmarket. “Xiaomi is still considering about the specific timeline to enter theAmerican market”, said a senior manager of Xiaomi when interviewed by thepress.

Russia

In Russia, popular smartphones among Antutu users mainlyincluded the two major brands of Xiaomi and Samsung. Xiaomi smartphones tookfour of the top five positions with Redmi Note 3 claiming the top positionwhile Samsung smartphones occupied the next half of the positions on the list.

The local smartphone YotaPhone of Russia didn’t appear onthe list. From this aspect, Xiaomi and Samsung smartphone users of Russia mightcare more about smartphone performance and were more keen on testing thesmartphones with Antutu Benchmark.

Germany

From the Top 1o list of Germany, we can see that Samsungsmartphones dominated the whole list. Five of Samsung high-end models of the Sseries like Samsung Galaxy S7 edge occupied the top five positons of the list.Meanwhile, OnePlus 3 and OnePlus One also appeared on the list and evenoutperformed LG G5.

Generally speaking, Antutu users of Germany showed morepreference for Korean smartphones and were more interested in high-endsmartphones which indicated that they had strong purchasing power.

India

With the increasing competition ofChinese mobile market, many Chinese manufacturers are seeking to expand theoverseas market, among which India is one of their important market. From thelist of Top 10 Most Popular Android Phones in India, we can see that Chinesesmartphones accounted for more than halfof the positions on the list. It is said that Xiaomi have spent two years investing 1billion US dollars to expand the India market, and the results turned out to beextremely productive.

In addition, we can also see that Indiasmartphone users showed more preference for cost-effective smartphones, and usersof Xiaomi, Asus, OnePlus and Samsung were more keen on testing theirsmartphones with Antutu Benchmark compared to those of India local brands suchas Micromax, Spiceand karbonn.

Vietnam

From the list of Top 10 Most Popular AndroidPhones in Vietnam, we can see that Samsung smartphones accounted for half of thetop 10 positions, including Samsung Galaxy Note, S and A series. With themultiplying of new smartphones, the price of classic models of Samsung such as Galaxy Note 5，Galaxy S6 has beencut down to a great extent, which made these models more attractive to usersaround the world.

In terms of product level of the popular modelsin Vietnam, the list covered the whole range of high-end, middle-end andlow-end smartphones, which is a more balanced product structure and will bemore beneficial to the healthy development of Vietnam market.

Malaysia

In Malaysia, Xiaomi Redmi, Samsung,Asus, OnePlus and vivo smartphones all appeared on the list, all with a marketshare of over 2%. In particular, vivo launched a wide variety of advertising campaignsin Malaysia in 2016, from TV media to the Internet media and even to outdooradvertising, which followed the same strategy as vivo used in the Chinesemarket and help vivo get many users.

The top 10 positions in Malaysia aremainly occupied by Note series, including Samsung Galaxy Note 3, Samsung GalaxyNote 4 and Samsung Galaxy Note 5 as well as Xiaomi Redmi Note series. In other words, local users showed more preference to large screensmartphones.

Summary

From the above top 10 lists of the mostpopular Android phones in different parts of the world in 2016, we can see thatChinese smartphones are increasing their presence in the world. Chinesesmartphones have a large number of users in the global market such as in Korea,America, Russia, Germany, India, Vietnam and Malaysia, and even claimed the toppositions of the lists in some countries.

On the other hand, we can also findthat Chinese smartphones on the lists were mainly cost-effective smartphoneswith low margins in sharp contrast to Samsung’s high-end models of Galaxy S andNote series which were also on the top positions of the lists. It’s a still achallenge facing Chinese smartphone makers to increase profits by raising unitprice of hot mobile phones.