10 best smartphones from Chinese companies in India

Chinese smartphone makers have in recent times started dominating the budget and mid-range segment in India because of their aggressive marketing campaigns. With companies like Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo and others leading in terms of both market share as well as mindshare, customers have a lot of options across different price ranges.

Although the Chinese brands are numerous when it comes to India, only a few have been well accepted by Indian consumers. Brands like Meizu, Nubia, Coolpad are known by a large chunk of audiences but they are still thriving to get a solid identity on local soil. 

From the entry level to the upper mid-range, for the selfie lovers to those who want raw specs and almost stock Android, there’s something for everyone.

Today we take a look at the top 10 smartphones from Chinese brands in India.

The OnePlus 5T is an upgraded version of the flagship device OnePlus 5 which the company launched in June 2017. The phone is available in two variants – 6GB/64GB and 8GB/128GB. It has Oxygen OS on top of Android which is responsible for the interface along with the same Snapdragon 835 SoC as OnePlus5.

The highlight of the phone is its bigger display. It sports a 6.01-inch full HD AMOLED panel with an aspect ratio of 18:9. A 2.5D Corning Gorilla Glass 5 coating protects the screen from damage. However, it lacks the QHD resolution. It gets its juice from a 3,300mAh battery which supports Dash Charge.

The fingerprint sensor has been moved to the back and is easily accessible. Another upgrade is that the secondary camera has a sensor that's tailored to enhance low light photography rather than have a telephoto lens.

Apart from the two above mentioned variants, OnePlus had also launched a Star Wars Limited Edition variant with 8GB RAM and 128GB internal storage.

Xiaomi Mi A1 is an outcome of Xiaomi’s partnership with Google. It is the first Xiaomi phone with stock Android and is one of the most popular mid-range devices of the year. The phone comes with a 5.5-inch full HD display with 2.5D curved glass coating on the top. 

The phone is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor, 4GB RAM and an internal storage of 64GB which is expandable up to 128GB via microSD card. On the camera front, the phone has a dual camera setup on the rear with a 12-megapixel wide angle lens supported by a 12-megapixel telephoto lens. A 5-megapixel front shutter with 36 smart beauty profiles and face recognition sits above the display. It has a 3080mAh battery which lasts for a day. And the fingerprint sensor is placed at the back of the phone.

The phone was originally launched in three colour variants – Gold, Rose Gold and Black. On New Years, the company launched a Special Edition Red colour variant, available only for a limited time. 

The Moto G5 Plus is the successor of the G4 Plus from Lenovo backed Motorola. It comes with a 5.2-inch full HD IPS LCD display with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 making for a great content consumption experience. Not only does it feel thinner and smaller, it runs heavy games without any lag.

Motorola is unique in the sense that the phone offers a whole range of features without taxing your pocket too much. It has a whole bunch of internal storage with microSD support. The fingerprint sensor's located at the bottom of the screen, while the front camera and sensors are on the top. 

It's the only phone in this price segment that has Android Nougat out of the box. 

If there's anything to be wary of, it's the mono loudspeaker. It performs adequately but could be better for when you want to share your screen with your friends. 

Since the Moto G5 Plus exclusively supports Full HD screen resolution, any 4k video that's recorded using it can only be viewed on another 4k device.

The Honor 7X is the first mid-range phone to come with an aspect ratio of 18:9, the feature which is commonly found on the flagship phones. It has a 5.9-inch full HD+ display which is vibrant and provides a great experience to the user. 

The phone is powered by Kirin 659 chipset backed by a 4GB RAM and an internal storage of 32GB. There is also a 64GB storage variant available in the market. The storage in both the variants is expandable up to 256GB.

The phone runs on Android 7.0 Nougat under the company’s custom EMUI (Emotion UI) 5.1. It has a 3,340mAh battery which provides sufficient fuel to sail through your daily tasks but it does not support fast charging. 

It features a dual-camera setup on the back which comprises of a 16-megapixel primary sensor and 2-megapixel depth sensing lens. On the front, there is a 8-megapixel sensor which sits above the big display.

Launched in August 2017, the Moto G5S Plus comes with an all-metal unibody design and curved corners which give it a premium feel in hand. It is powered by the similar Snapdragon 625 chipset, 4GB RAM and Adreno 506 GPU which the company used in G5 Plus. The phone has an internal storage capacity of 64GB which can be further extended up to 128GB via micro SD card.

Moto G5S Plus carries a 5.5-inch full HD display with a Corning Gorilla Glass 3 coating on the top. Its 3000mAh battery provides enough fuel for the whole day. It also supports TurboCharging through which you can get up to six hours of battery life in just 15 minutes. The phone is also splash resistant, thanks to nano-coating.

Coming to the camera department, the Moto G5S Plus sports a dual camera setup on the rear with 13-megapixel sensors along with a dual LED flash. It has an 8-megapixel wide-angle lens and LED flash on the front.

Oppo F5 is one of the latest additions to the company’s selfie expert series after Oppo F3. The 18:9 aspect ratio was the most trending feature of 2017 which Oppo also decided to put in the F5. It features a big 6-inch full HD+ display and a screen to body ratio of 84.2%. The highlight of the phone is its Facial Unlock and the AI Beauty Technology which is said to be the first AI-based beautifying technology in India.

The phone comes with a MediaTek MT6763T chipset coupled with 4/6GB RAM and 32/64GB of onboard storage. The user can extend the storage capacity to 265GB through a microSD card. While the phone has a 16-megapixel primary lens, it has a 20-megapixel sensor on the front which delivers superior quality selfies to the user.

While the other OEMs were busy in making smartphones with dual camera setup, Huawei went a step further with Honor 9i. It launched the phone with four cameras – 16-megapixel + 2-megapixel on the rear and 13-megapixel + 2-megapixel on the front.

Under the hood, the phone is powered by an octa-core Kirin 659 chipset, dual-core Mali T830 GPU, 4GB RAM and 64GB of internal storage. The phone also has a micro SD card slot. It is loaded with Android 7.0 Nougat with EMUI 5.1 on the top.

The Honor 9i comes with a 5.9-inch full HD+ display with a 3,340mAh underneath. 

After launching Redmi Y1 and Y1 Lite in India, Xiaomi recently unveiled Redmi 5A in the market.  The phone comes in two variants - 2GB/16GB and 3GB/32GB. The storage capacity is further expandable to 128GB via microSD card. Pitched as the "Desh Ka Smartphone" by the company, the Redmi 5A features a 5-inch HD display and runs on Android 7.0 Nougat with MIUI 9 on the top.

The daily tasks are managed by a quad-core Snapdragon 425 chipset and an Adreno 308 GPU handles the graphics of the phone. The phone comes with a 13-megapixel primary sensor with an aperture size of f/2.2 and a 5-megapixel secondary lens of f/2.0 aperture size. It gets its daily dose of power from a 3000mAh battery. 

This budget device from Xiaomi is one of the highest selling device from the company in India. Xiaomi has reportedly sold over 5 million units of the Redmi Note 4 in India in just 6 months. The company sold 1 million units of the Redmi Note 4 in just 45 days of its first sale on 23 January. While Xiaomi has not been able to capture the flagship segment, it has had good success in the budget segment with the Redmi and Redmi Note series.

The Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 comes with a 5.5-inch full HD IPS LCD display with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels and runs on Android 7.0 Nougat skinned with MIUI on top. The device is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor clubbed with Adreno 506 GPU, and comes in 2GB, 3GB and 4GB RAM variants. It comes with 32GB or 64GB of internal storage that can be further expanded via microSD card.

The Redmi Note 4 features a 13MP primary camera with f/2.0 aperture, PDAF, 1.12 µm pixel size and dual LED flash, clubbed with a 5MP secondary camera with f/2,0 aperture. The Redmi Note 4 is powered by a 4,000mAh battery but lacks fast charge support. 

The Coolpad Cool Play 6 features a 5.5-inch full HD IPS LCD display and was launched with Android 7.1.1 Nougat and the Journey UI on top, which can now be upgraded to Android O. 

In terms of performance, the device comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 653 processor, Adreno 510 GPU, 6GB RAM, 64GB internal storage and a 4,000mAh battery.

What's unique about this phone are it's capacitive touch buttons are "supposed" to stay backlit but only stay on for a short while the screen is powered on. Even the power and volume buttons are places a little too high, driving you to stretch in order to reach them.  

It's not too heavy or too light and even feels solid in your hands. The fingerprint scanner lives up to it's name in accuracy and efficiency. 

Even though the Cool Play 6 is equipped with dual 13 mega pixel cameras, their performance is average at best.

from TechRadar: Phone and communications news http://www.techradar.com/news/10-best-smartphones-from-chinese-companies-in-india