Seeing the growing consumer craving for powerful yet affordable smartphones, the top Chinese smartphone manufacturers in 2017 continue their expansion into Western and European markets. Companies such as Xiaomi, ZTE and Asus regularly delight users with new flagships and successfully compete with such "mastodons" of the mobile market as iPhone, Samsung, Sony, etc.
We present to the readers' attention a list of Chinese smartphone brands, ranked based on global sales statistics and reviews users of various online stores and specialized portals about the quality of products.
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10. OnePlus
2017 flagship - OnePlus 5
Oppo subsidiary opens the selection of the best Chinese smartphone brands. And the Oppo and Vivo brands, in turn, are owned by the BBK Electronics Corporation.
OnePlus is a very young player in the mobile market. The brand was founded on December 16, 2013 by Pete Lau and Carl Pei. Their goal was to develop a smartphone that would combine high quality with a lower price than the competition. And in 2014, the first "flagship killer" OnePlus One appeared, which was initially sold only by special invites on the manufacturer's website. They were canceled in 2015.
The "flagship killer" once disappeared from the market, due to the fact that the developers violated the exclusive rights of Micromax Mobile to distribute devices based on CyanogenMod in South Asia. After that, OnePlus created an original firmware called OxygenOS.
The advantages of OnePlus smartphones are: a very elegant appearance, energy-efficient and fast processors from Qualcomm, a well-thought-out and user-friendly shell even for beginners, and excellent "music data" comparable to gadgets from Apple and Samsung.
9. Lenovo
2017 flagship - Lenovo P2
A well-known manufacturer of PCs and laptops successfully develops the field of smartphone production. The company presented its first smartphone LePhone in 2010.
In 2016, Lenovo was the first to partner with Google on the Tango (augmented reality platform) project and released the Phab 2 Pro smartphone. It features a huge 6.4-inch display, dual cameras, depth and motion capture sensors that scan 3D space at 250,000 times per second. For the most part, from three-dimensional entertainment, games from the Play Store are available to the user, but there are also useful programs, for example, arranging furniture in three-dimensional space or measuring objects at a distance.
Of the best Chinese brands, the products of Motorola's subsidiary stand out for their bright screens with excellent color rendering, beautiful design and excellent battery life.
8. Coolpad
2017 flagship - Coolpad Cool M7
Coolpad smartphones are not very common in Russia. But in China, this brand is the first largest among other smartphone manufacturers. In 2015, Coolpad successfully launched the first smartphones under its brand in Europe.
In 2016, the media giant LeEco acquired most of Coolpad's shares. The combination of the professional Coolpad R&D team and significant financial support from LeEco will allow us to produce better quality products at a very affordable price.The first jointly made smartphone from Chinese manufacturers was LeEco Cool1 with two camera modules on the back, a Snapdragon 652 chip and a price of 10 600 rubles.
We can say that Coolpad gadgets are solid middlings, both in terms of performance and cost.
7. ZTE
2017 flagship - ZTE Axon 7S
ZTE Corporation is the second largest manufacturer of mobile devices and telecommunications equipment in China. Its offices and research centers are located in the USA, Korea, Sweden and a number of other countries (13 in total).
Outside of its home country, ZTE is known for its powerful smartphones with drop-resistant cases, displays with good viewing angles and rich colors and long-lasting batteries. One of the advantages of the new models of the company are noise-canceling microphones with a large "range". For example, the Axon 7's microphone range is 7 meters.
6. Meizu
2017 flagship - Meizu Pro 7
Initially, the company was engaged in the production of MP3 and MP4 players, but since 2008 its priorities have been revised in favor of smartphones. This year, Meise managed to enter top ten smartphone manufacturers 2017 on sales of devices in the world.
Meizu is committed to developing its own unique software, the Flyme operating system. It is being developed in the same building that manufactures telephones. "So what?" - the reader will ask. The fact is that the close collaboration of hardware and software teams allows Meizu to create innovations that are useful to users very quickly. A prime example is the mBack mechanical touch key, which not only scans fingerprints, but essentially eliminates the need for a dedicated back button.
Thanks to the thoughtful interface of its devices, combined with the constant introduction of new technologies, Meizu is unlikely to disappear from the top ten "smartphone craftsmen" from the Middle Kingdom.
Note that the flagship Meizu Pro 7 implements a unique dual display system that allows, in particular, to take excellent selfies, keep notifications on the second screen so as not to "clog" the main one and set the wallpaper to your liking.
5. LeEco
2017 flagship - LeEco Le Max2
The company, founded in 2004, is now one of China's largest technology companies, with a multitude of roles ranging from Internet TV to electric vehicle manufacturing to smart devices such as mobile phones and TVs.
Le Mobiles, a smartphone subsidiary of the company that is fancifully called "superphones", has released several models of mobile phones. The most popular ones are Le 1, Le 1 Pro, Le Max and Le 1S.
LeEco has big plans for Russia; in 2017, together with Coolpad, it will launch the LeRee line of smartphones on the Russian market. It will be aimed at the youth audience and, according to the manufacturer's calculations, will allow LeEco to take up to 10-12% of the budget smartphones market.
4. Xiaomi
2017 flagship - Xiaomi Mi Mix
High quality, functional, inexpensive - these are three words that can be used to describe the products of the Xiaomi brand. And you don't have to choose two words out of three, all three are fine. We even dedicated our brand rating of the best Xiaomi smartphones.
Xiaomi managed to take the mobile world by storm in 2014. Their flagship device Mi 4 was one of the best-selling mobile phones in history and paved the way for mid-range smartphones. At the moment, the company has such hits as Redmi Note 4, Mi5 and Mi Max in the "piggy bank". And in 2017, the range was replenished with the bezel-less Mi Mix with a 6.4-inch display and Mi Max2 with a fantastically durable 5300 mAh battery. And all this at a very affordable price.
3. Huawei
2017 flagship - Huawei P10
One of the most respected and popular brands of Chinese smartphones in 2017 currently produces devices with fast Kirin 960 processors. These chipsets can handle the latest games and gain about 53 thousand points in the AnTuTu test.
The cameras of top Huawei smartphones, such as Huawei P9 and Huawei P10, also received high ratings from users, they have dual cameras from the famous German manufacturer Leica and shoot, if not at the level of the latest generation iPhone, then very close to it. Many Huawei models have dual cameras with Sony sensors, the quality of which also delights the owners.
2. Vivo
2017 flagship - Vivo X9 Plus
Vivo was founded in 2009 as a sub-brand of BBK Electronics. The company entered the telecommunications and consumer electronics market with its landline and cordless phones. In 2011, Vivo began manufacturing and marketing its own range of smartphones.
As of Q3 2016, Vivo had a 5.9% share of the global smartphone market. In the same year, it launched the V5 / V5Plus with the world's first 20MP dual front camera. And in July 2017, Vivo demonstrated a working prototype of a smartphone with a scanner integrated into the screen. Thanks to this innovative approach to its gadgets, the brand is unlikely to disappear from the world's popular mobile phone manufacturers in the foreseeable future.
In June 2017, Vivo entered into an agreement with FIFA to become the official sponsor of the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups.
1. Oppo
2017 flagship - Oppo R11
In first place in the ranking of Chinese smartphone manufacturers is a relatively young company that created some of the thinnest smartphones in the world - Oppo R5 and Oppo R5s with a body thickness of 4.85mm. Oppo is the leading manufacturer of 4G smartphones in China, with a market share of 15.2%, though overall lagging behind other brands such as Chinese rivals Xiaomi and Lenovo, as well as South Korean manufacturer Samsung.
The main activity of the company is the creation of mobile phones with some of the best selfie cameras in the world.
There are tons of "inexpensive" Chinese phones out there, what makes Oppo's products stand out from the crowd?
- Firstly, the philosophy of the brand, which is to maintain very close relationships with both users and communities of developers engaged in the creation of firmware and other "improvements" of the gadgets released for sale.
- Second, the company strives to update its phones on a regular basis, adding new features and changes based on the feedback it receives from users.
- Third, Oppo engineers aren't afraid to try new things and think outside the box when it comes to hardware and features.
As an example: Oppo has traditionally released various firmware updates at least once a week. While most users liked this, some also thought that rapidly changing firmware had an eternal "beta" status. The solution was simple: Oppo now has two different update kits to choose from. The official release of the new firmware comes out every 2-3 months. The beta path is for those who crave the latest features and don't mind a minor hit to stability in exchange for quick updates.
To summarize: the Oppo brand has great potential, produces high-quality and quickly updated smartphones, takes into account the wishes of users and makes an excellent alternative to more popular and expensive brands.
960 kirin with G71 gains 145k in anttu, with MP880 about 100k.