Best Chinese Smartphones
Store Name: Umidigi Store
Store Description: Umidigi is one of the Best Chinese Smartphone companies that is up and coming. They make amazing budget Chinese smartphones that are feature rich and easy on the wallet as well!
Price range: 80 - $300
- UMIDIGI
- Blackview Smartphones
- Leagoo
- Xiaomi
Summary
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Overall
4.3There has been a surge in the market of Chinese Smartphones. The min reason is that these phones are very high functioning android phones. They even come for much cheaper price in comparison to other smart phones. The features from facial recognition to awesome cameras, these phones have it all but for a much reasonable price. As we go into 2021, let us look at some of the Best Chinese Smartphones in 2021.
You can check out the latest Chinese phones on Amazon, listed below! Phones like One Plus 8T 5G are coming soon, which we’ll be reviewing soon.
Top Chinese Smartphones 2021
#1 One Plus 8 Pro
The One Plus 8 Pro is One Plus’ latest flagship device. It’s got a legup in terms of features compared to the One Plus 7. It’s on top of the list because it’s probably the best Chinese smartphone in the market currently.
The One Plus 8 Pro is a premium flagship with a 6.78-inch AMOLED display. It has wireless charging and a IP68 waterproof rating, which means water can do nothing to the One Plus 8 Pro.
The One Plus 8 Pro has a Quad camera setup with a 48-megapixel main camera. The battery is a 4510 mAh. This is the best Chinese smartphone in 2021.
#2 One Plus Nord
The One Plus Nord is One Plus’ answer to the Apple’s SE. Making a cheaper phone with flagship specs. The last time One Plus released a budget device, it wasn’t successful. The Nord on the other hand is a pretty powerful phone.
The Nord has a 6.44-inch OLED display with a 20:0 aspect ratio and a 90Hz refresh rate. The processor is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G which is a bit of a let down compared to other features of this phone.
The camera is a quad setup with a wide-angle main 48-megapixel camera. The cameras on the Nord are breathtaking for a budget device. The selfie camera is a 32-megapixel shooter.
The battery is a 4115 mAh, which is pretty decent and the battery life is astounding. The Nord does not have a headphone hack.
#3 Realme 6
One of the fastest growing smartphone brand is Realme. The Realme 6 is a budget phone, cheaper than the One Plus Nord. It comes packed with some seriously powerful specs.
It has a 6.5-inch IPS LCD display with Corning Gorilla Glass 3. It’s powered by the Mediatek MT6785 Helio G90T chipset which is a great chipset for the price.
It comes in two RAM options – 4GB and 6GB and 128GB of internal storage. The cameras are a quad setup with a 64-megapixel camera. The selfie camera is a decent 16-megapixels.
The 4300 mAh battery is ample of a phone of this kid. If you are looking for a Cheap Chinese smartphone, this is it.
#4 Realme X50
I’m honestly excited about the Realme X50. The Realme X50 is the latest Realme flagship with some amazing specs.
It has a 6.57-inch IPS LCD display. The phone packs a 120Hz refresh rate, which is amazing! Running on Android 10, it also packs a Snapdragon 765G.
128GB of internal storage with 6GB or 8GB RAM option. It has a quad camera setup with a 48-megapixel main camera. The selfie shooter is a 16-megapixel lens. The 4200 mAh can be charged up to 70% in 30 minutes, thanks to the 30W fast charger.
This is one of the latest Chinese smartphones that is super sought after.
#5 Huawei P40 Pro
You can’t talk about Chinese smartphones and not talk about Huawei. Huawei arguably make the most underrated smartphones in the market. The P40 Pro is a mind blowing device. Mind you, it’s expensive.
It has a 6.58-inch OLED screen with a 90Hz refresh rate and HDR 10. Runs on Android 10 without Google Play services but with workarounds available.
Runs on the Kirin 990 5G chipset that is super quick and one of the best in the business. It has a 8GB RAM with up to 512GB of storage available.
Has a triple camera setup with a 50-megapixel main-camera with Leica optics. This is arguably the top camera phone in the world. Even better than iPhone.
The front selfie camera is a 32-megapixel shooter. The 4200 mAh battery comes with a 40W charger and can reverse charger with 27W of power.
#6 Xiaomi Mi 11
Xiaomi’s latest announcement at the dawn of the new year was the Mi 11 which was released when the world welcomed 2021. It’s a flagship costing over $750.
The Mi 11 has a Gorilla glass back and the front display is a Gorilla glass victus. With 6.8-inches and an AMOLED display that can render 1 Billion colors and has 120Hz and HDR10+ with 1500 nits. This is one of the best display’s going around. A top contender for the Best Chinese Smartphone of 2021.
It runs on the latest Android 11 with MIUI 12.5. The premium chipset that drives the Mi 11 is the Qualcomm SM8350 Snapdragon 888.
It’s got multiple storage and RAM options with the highest being 256GB of storage with a 12GB RAM that puts the Mi 11 right up there as one of the most powerful Chinese smartphones.
The camera set-up is a 108-megapixel wide angle lens and a 13-megapixel ultra-wide angle and a 5-megapixel macro lens.
The selfie camera is a 20-megapixel shooter with HDR and Panorama features. An under the display fingerprint sensor is available for the Mi 11. The 4600 mAh has a ridiculous 55W fast charging capability.
It can also reverse charge at 10W. At this point, this is the Chinese smartphone to beat in 2021.
#7 Xiaomi Redmi Note 9
In the flagship category, Xiaomi might not be the pick of the choice, but when it comes to budget devices, there is no beating the Redmi Note 9 series.
Its the cheapest budget device with best specifications. It has a 6.53-inch display with Cornina Gorilla Glass 5. It has Android 10 and runs on the Helio G85.
Comes in 3GB/4GB versions with storage up to 128GB. For a budget device, the cameras are super awesome with a uad setup with a 48-megapixel camera.
It has a front selfie camera at 13-megapixels. The battery on the Note 9 is unbeatable with a 5020 mAh with a 18W fast charger.
#8 Oppo Reno 4
The Oppo Reno4 will pack a 6.4-inch super AMOLED screen. It has Android 10 with Qualcomm SM7125 Snapdragon.
The 8GB RAM and 128GB of storage is ample for this phone. The quad camera is as good as the One Plus series with the main camera being 48-megapixel. The front camera is a 32-megapixel shooter.
It has a 4000 mAh battery powering all of this. This is Oppo’s best attempt at a mid-range flagship making it one of the top Chinese smartphones in 2021.
#9 Realme X2 Pro
Although the Realme X2 was just released in October 2019, there’s already a X3 version out in 2021.
The Realme X2 Pro is another mid-range model from Realme. It has a 6.5-inch AMOLED display with Gorilla glass 5 and a 90Hz refresh rate and HDR10.
The Android 9.0 might be a bit outdated, but can be upgraded to the 10. It has the Snapdragon 855+ running the show behind the scenes.
It has a 12GB version RAM and 256GB of storage. The quad camera setup includes a 64-megapixel main camera and a 16-megapixel front camera.
It has a 4000 mAh battery.
There are so many Chinese smartphone brands. A lot of them are popular, whereas the others, not so much. So here is an exhaustive list of all the Chinese smartphone brands that you can get your hands on today!
| Chinese Smartphone Manufacturers |
| Ulefone |
| Umidigi |
| Leagoo |
| Blackview |
| Doogee |
| Geotel |
| Homtom |
| Oukitel |
| AllCall |
| Cubot |
| Xiaomi |
| Huawei |
| Lenovo |
Chinese Smartphone Brands
Umidigi Smartphone
Umidigi is one of the best cheap Chinese smarptone manufacturers and they have been gaining in prominence in the past few years. Some of their popular models that has hit the Chinese market in 2021 are the F2, Power 3, A3S, A3X, F5 Pro and more.
The Umidigi F2 is probably the best Chinese camera phone out there.
Check out Umidigi Phones here.
Xiaomi smartphones on Amazon
Check out the Xiaomi store on Amazon
Ulefone smartphones on Amazon
Check out the Ulefone Store on Amazon
Umidigi phones on Amazon
Check out Umidigi phones on Amazon
Blackview Smartphones
Blackview is a company that was founded in 2013 by a veteran entrepreneur. They got covered by Forbes Magazine in 2017 for making a super rugged smartphone. In these years, Blackview has made a name for themselves and in 2021, they have some pretty amazing offerings. It’s one of the best Chinese phone brands if you are looking for a homegrown Chinese smartphone brand.
| Blackview Smartphones 2021 |
| Blackview BV9500 Plus |
| Blackview A80 |
| Blackview BV6800 |
Leagoo Smartphones
Leagoo was started in 2009 and they are official partners of the English football club, Tottenham Hotspur. They make smartphones, smart home appliances, smart lighting equipment and so on. They are one of the top Chinese smartphone brands and arguably make the Best phone in China, the M13.
| Leagoo Smartphones 2021 |
| Leagoo M13 |
| Leagoo S11 |
| Leagoo Z15 |
Huawei
Huawei is the leading Chinese mobile brand with a 20% market global market share on-par with Samsung. They are the joint biggest mobile brand in the world, sharing the accolades with Samsung.
The ban on Huawei by the U.S. government has affected them slightly with a drop of 2% in market share compared to the year 2018.
Huawei is known for their premium smartphones with mind blowing cameras. Apart from Apple, they arguably make the best camera smartphones in the world.
Huawei’s most popular mobile series include Huawei Mate series, Huawei P series, Huawei Y series, Huawei Nova series, Huawei T Series and Huawei U series.
The most popular being the P series, Mate Series and Y series. The Y series is the mid-ranger costing around $300.
Huawei is a big consumer brand, focusing on not only smartphones, but other consumer electronics as well.
Xiaomi
Xiaomi needs no introductions. They are a behemoth with a 10% market share in the mobile phone market. They are the fourth biggest mobile brand in the world only after Huawei, Samsung and Apple.
Xiaomi over the past few years have become more than just a smartphone brand. Like Samsung and Huawei, they have gone on to manufacture consumer electronics with strategic partnerships and have their own sub brands such as Roidmi, Deerma, Viomi, Huami and many more.
They in fact, make non-electronics products as well. Coming to the Xiaomi mobile brand. They have made a name for themselves as the go to budget smartphone brand in the world.
In fact, in the top 4 mobile brands list with the most market share, they are the only brand known for their budget mobiles.
The most popular Xiaomi mobile smartphone series include the Redmi series, Redmi Note series, Mi series, K series, Mi Note 10 series. They also make the super popular Blackshark series of gaming smartphones.
They introduced the Poco series of phones which has become it’s own brand.
Oppo
Although gained in prominence in the past decade, Oppo has been selling mobile phones since 2001. They are part of the iconic BKK group that has owned other phone brands such as Vivo, Realme and Oneplus.
Oppo is on the top 5 smartphone maker list in the world with a market share of 9%. Just 1% shy of Xiaomi’s 10%.
Oppo not only makes smartphones, but also makes headphones, amplifiers, earbuds and even smartwatches.
Oppo makes many types of smartphones that range in prices from the A series, which is a budget series to the Oppo Reno series which is a premium flagship smartphone.
Oppo’s strategy in the smartphone market is to bombard the market with numerous models at similar price points with different features, ensuring that the buyer ends up with an Oppo phone.
The Oppo Reno series is one of the first smartphones to come up with the pop-up camera.
Oppo’s most popular series are the A series, F series, X series, Reno series and the Reno2 series.
Vivo
Vivo and Oppo belong to the same parent company, which is BKK. Vivo by itself has a global market share of 8%. Vivo’s market share combined with Oppo’s market share make them the third largest smartphone maker in the world.
Vivo’s phones are extremely popular in Asia and they have a sizable market share in most of the countries and in some countries, they are the number one smartphone brand.
Vivo makes a lot of phones and they have different ranges of smartphones. Like most Chinese smartphone brands, they are popular for their budget and mid-range phones.
The popular Vivo mobile series are Y series, S series, Z series, the very popular V series and U series. They easily have 10 to 15 models under each particular series.
Vivo’s phones are the standard Android phone that come with higher specs than the amount you pay for it.
Vivo also makes headphones and earbuds. The up and coming iQoo brand is a sub brand of Vivo, which will be spun off as a standalone brand.
Lenovo
A lot of people aren’t aware that Lenovo is a Chinese brand and not an American brand.
Nobody would have expected Lenovo to make this list, because Lenovo is mostly known for their laptops and desktop computers. In fact, Lenovo actually has a 3% market share in the mobile phone category.
Lenovo actually makes super budget phones that are under $100. Their budget phones are really popular and some of them are cheaper than the Redmi Note series. They have captured a sizable market share in the ultra-budget, sub-$100 smartphone category.
The popular Lenovo phone series are the A series, K series, Legion gaming series, Z series, S series, Q series (Blackberry lookalikes). And they also make feature phones like the E series.
Lenovo is a top Chinese mobile brand that nobody thinks is on top.
One Plus
One Plus needs no introduction. It’s another sub-brand under the BKK group. Unlike it’s sister brands such as Vivo and Oppo, One Plus stands apart.
In the global premium segment smartphone category, One Plus has a 2% market share. The uniqueness of One Plus is that they are similar to Apple. They don’t release multiple smartphones, but they release incremental versions of the same phones.
One Plus moved away from it’s premium tag by coming up with the One Plus Nord in 2020, which is a $400 phone which is unlike the $600 phones they generally make.
One Plus is known for their superior features and elegant style and amazing cameras. One Plus devices are hands down one of the most sought after mid-range Android smartphones in the market.
ZTE
ZTE is a fairly unknown brand to most people and many people don’t realize it was founded in 1985. They were predominantly in the field of manufacturing of carrier networks, telecommunication software.
ZTE is the 5th largest phone maker in China and they are massive in the home market. The share in the world market is nothing much to write about.
In 2011, they made the first smartphone with the dual GPS/GLONASS navigation system. The name ZTE by itself may not ring a bell, but their branded smartphones are quite popular.
The Nubia series of phones are from ZTE. Apart from that there’s the Axon series, Blade series, Maven series and the Grand series.
Realme
The new kid on the block, Realme has taken the world by storm. They’ve been a super strong competitor to Xiaomi’s budget phones and they are also part of the BKK group, which owns Vivo, Oppo, One Plus and Realme as well.
Realme is a budget, mid-range smartphone company. They are known for their amazing camera phones for cheap. They have double digit market share in countries like India and globally they are the fastest growing smartphone brand in the world.
Although they’ve been around for only a less time, Realme has already made a lot of phones. Apart from the flagship phones which are numbered such as Realme 5, Realme 6, Realme 7 and so on.
They also have the X series, C series and the U series which focus on different feature sets. It’s only a matter of time before Realme gets in the top 10 list of smartphone makers in the world.
TCL
TCL or ‘The Creative Life’ is a Chinese mobile brand that was founded in 1981. They are mostly known for their smart TV’s, but they started manufacturing smartphones as well.
TCL has massive market share in the Smart TV category and doesn’t have much of a share in the smartphone space. But their approach to the smartphone business has been interesting.
They have taken the One Plus route by manufacturing very few phones. The only smartphone series from TCL is the 10 series that has a few variations that are 10 SE, 10 Plus, 10 5G, 10 Pro, 10L.
Most of TCL’s phones are flagship material competing with the high-end phones of the other manufacturers.
Meizu
Meizu might not be a household name like the other brands mentioned here. It was started in 2003 as a MP3 player manufacturer and they moved to making smartphones.
But most importantly, Meizu is very popular because of their version of the Android OS, Flyme. The Flyme has been used in numerous smartphones in the past that includes the One Plus, HTC, ZTE to name a few.
In terms of their smartphone offerings, Meizu makes some pretty amazing phones at great prices. Their popular phone series includes the X series, M series, E series, U series and the numbered series such as the Meizu 17 Pro, Meizu 16T and so on.
Why are Chinese phones cheaper?
Chinese phones are cheaper because of Chinese manufacturing capabilities. They have the power of economies of scale, which means they are able to produce a lot more phones for much cheaper. From technical know how to supply chain to distribution, China knows the most efficient way to make and distribute phones.
What is the best cheap Chinese smartphone?
I’ll go with Umidigi. Umidigi as a brand is becoming quite popular in China and they have capabilities to manufacture smartphones, earbuds, smartwatches and more. As they are still not at the level of Xiaomi or Huawei, their pricing is quite reasonable, but their smartphones are pretty amazing!
Are Chinese smartphones reliable?
Brands like Xiaomi and Huawei are Chinese as well. They are reliable right? In fact, these phones are super popular worldwide. Chinese smartphones are reliable, but when it comes to very new brands in the market that has no name, you need to be a bit careful, as their smartphones might not be up to a certain standard. \
Now you have a list of phones to consider before investing in your new smartphone. Only be sure to check the network compatibility and you can there compare and contrast the features of these smartphones with any other flagship which comes at much expensive price. The Chinese Smartphones work incredibly well and also are well within the budget they are already giving brands like Apple serious competition. It is always wiser to choose a phone depending on features and price over a certain brand name.
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