2015 saw a tonne load of phone launches, from companies across several target groups. While most Chinese phones bet on having a lower price, some aimed to impress with their feature sets.
GizChina staff picked 20 of the best phones launched this year across several price ranges, specification sets, etc.
It is now your turn to help give this list some order by voting for your favourite phone!
So let’s get started.
Best of 2015: Phones
What we did was we first cumulated a list of the best 20 phones from this year and then marked each phone with who of the two, between Andi and myself, made the addition.
The list is here for you to see:
Gizchina News of the week
| Sr. no | Model | Voted by |
| 1 | Letv X600 | Both |
| 2 | Xiaomi Redmi Note 2 | Yash |
| 3 | Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 | Both |
| 4 | Meizu MX5 | Yash |
| 5 | Xiaomi Mi Note | Andi |
| 6 | ZUK Z1 | Andi |
| 7 | Asus Zenfone 2 | Andi |
| 8 | Lenovo K3 Note | Yash |
| 9 | Lenovo Vibe X3 | Andi |
| 10 | Xiaomi Mi 4c | Both |
| 11 | Elephone Trunk | Yash |
| 12 | OnePlus 2 | Andi |
| 13 | Ecoo E04 | Yash |
| 14 | Xiaomi Redmi 2 | Yash |
| 15 | Huawei Mate S | Andi |
| 16 | Elephone P6000 | Yash |
| 17 | JiaYu S3 | Yash |
| 18 | OnePlus X | Andi |
| 19 | Coolpad Note 3 | Yash |
| 20 | Blackview BV5000 | Andi |
Very clearly, Xiaomi rules this list with five entries; Lenovo, Elephone and OnePlus have two while every other phone in the list is from a different company.
Over to you
Here we ask you to vote for what you think should be the number one phone on this list. We’ll then publish the results in the first week of January.
Meanwhile, if you’re lost for context, feel free to click on any phone’s name to read its review! Vote here:
[poll id=”3″]
This should have been separated in different price categories.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 2, because of the price/value.
There isn’t anything even close to the Redmi Note 2, right now it sits at $130 shipped, but few weeks ago it was as low as $120.
Price, performance and quality, if it only didn’t look like a $130 dollars phone, but I guess is fine since it’s actually a $130 dollars phone.
there’s a thing that i don’t know how to explain and i invite anybody to reply to me with any kind of suggestion.
It’s about Huawei.
there’s only one Huawei phone on the list and it didn’t even get plenty of votes.
Now, numbers are saying that Huawei is the best Chinese company out there (speaking of sales)
so what’s the real deal behind it?
Probably because they are so expensive and most people will likely vote on the price/spec ratio which makes it hard to bet against either Xiaomi or Letv coming out top here.
I’m not sure it’s about price.
according to many Chinese phone enthusiasts 2014 best phone was Vivo XShot which wasn’t cheap at all.
That’s why I said price /spec ratio, the xshot is a great phone with an excellent camera that is hard to beat at any price. Personally speaking this year had been rubbish for phones, hasn’t been a single phone released that has appealled.
agree with you.
they made good solid phones but none of them shines, especially if we consider what Samsung did with their S6, or Note5.
This year my kudos goes to LeTV.
I’ve been very pessimistic about their launch and they came out with 3 nice phones for a great price.
few months later they opened a US store and after CES 2016 they might start selling phones in the US too.
I’m following them with a lot of interest.
Totally agree, got the X600 for a friend and apart from the seller completely screwing up the ROM (I haven’t managed to sort it yet) the phone is really nice and fast with a decent build quality. It got my vote as I don’t believe there was anything better this year. I’m actually looking forward to seeing some reviews of the Qiku Q terra and Shallots metal as they both look really promising especially since Cong said they used a liquid cooler for the SD810! Really intrigued to see how well it works as I’ve not heard of anyone using it before in a phone.
liquid cooler? no kidding!!!
i feel 2016 is going to be different.
While 2015 was the year of mid-rangers this new one will be the year of flagship phones.
Hoping to see Vivo and Oppo coming back too
I think there are going to be a few 6″ phones coming out next year (I’m looking at you Vivo Xplay 5s!) as there’s been a few already over the last month or so. Hopefully something with the SD820 or X20, 2K 6″ screen, stereo speakers, excellent camera and a nice light ROM with solid build is what I’m after, been dreaming about something like this all year and have a feeling 2016 is gonna make my dreams come true! lol Lets hope Chinese manufacturers start releasing phones with different specs instead of 10 almost identical models like they seem to have done this year.
Don’t full your self. Mid range & especially upper mid range will continue to dominate & expect lot less real Flagship’s.
it depends on where you live.
Defo not where i live (US)
Truth is a little different even in US now when you actually got to pay for the phone on contract.
For instance most of big brands are distancing them self from the flagship’s as all of them got burned out in 2015 with them including even Samsung. Why? Beats me. Either they miss calculated demand or something else. Anyway when you miss with a flagship it hurts as hell as the loses are huge. On the other hand they didn’t had any problems with sails of mid range models.
At the end if you set last year models on that list along with MI Note & redmi 2 in a mid range or high end mid range offering you will get to the 5 vs 5 result. Numerous friend.
well, it’s all about what people see i guess.
on my personal view i haven’t seen any mid-ranger out there.
they are all flagship, or last year flagship that still sell well and one (the redmi 2) which is a low-tier, not a mid-range for sure.
I agree about Readmi 2 & from our point of view it’s a like that but I added something to the previous coment you should read.
Edit:
Now ask your self how their is not a one phone from Huawei on that list & it’s a second largest manufacturer in the world.
Conclusion is simple who ever made that list have a huge lack of brain’s. Even 4th grader would make a more realistic one.
we can share our opinions but that list has been made by numbers: plain and simple.
that was the list of most selling phones(models) and not manufacturers
Apple (2nd largest manufacturer) has been bouncing between the first and second spot just selling one model.
Only recently they are making 2 of them.
on the other hand Huawei (3rd largest manufacturer) sells roughly 20 different phones worldwide and that gained them to reach the third spot as world largest manufacturer.
(total sales)
the point is that if you take the best selling huawei phone (i don’t know which model is, but that’s irrelevant ) the sales of that single phone are lower than any of those 10 I’ve listed above (source fortune.com)
for this reason that list makes sense to me, it’s a legit source, i have no reason to doubt numbers.
Also Samsung, Apple and Huawei are public so you can easily access to their numbers.
Xiaomi isn’t, but there are different sources of serious analysts that can confirm their numbers which are very close to the real ones.
I gave you a 2.5B reasons to doubt that list that makes a rightly 1 3rd of a world population. & the source you mentioned as a trust worth is far from that. Even if you use let’s say analytic number’s from Wiki (that are up to 2014) it would be with a grain of salt, but at least you would have a total of shipped units for Samsung & Apple (enough to dismiss that list anyway) as the most of manufacturers in China & India are not obtained as for the lack of analytic sources among other reasons. At the end it’s a simple deductive logic that you need to follow forming your own judgment.
dude, you have to be right at any cost don’t you?
you speak about China and India like the third world where you can’t get any data.
that list is made with sales numbers (where we both can’t doubt) and analytic numbers (the reason why we see Xiaomi in there)
you can talk about whatever you want, but unless you don’t provide me something concrete to justify what you’re saying then i have more reasons to trust a list which was made public on a trustworthy website rather than a guy who comments on a blog.
Isn’t this enough?
now, I’m offering you a chance to write down your top 10 of the most phone models sold in 2015
and please add a source (“because i say so” isn’t enough, at least until you earn a reputation)
I don’t want to hear any other bullshit. write down your list with the source otherwise i won’t even read it.
Damn you schooled him!
damn, i know we live in a world were there’s a conspiracy behind everything and the “doubt” is the fuel of knowledge but he went beyond that.
“the mid range market will continue to dominate…”
it don’t know if it will in the future but it didn’t happen in the past for sure (and numbers say so)
Apple and Samsung are the proof.
“That list doesn’t include China and India”
false again, there’s Xiaomi in that list, which should be enough to understand that at least China is included.
“That list has made by a 4th grader”
yet another bullshit, it was written on fortune.com where the author wouldn’t risk their reputation (and money) to write a non-documented report.
i really don’t get it what he was trying to do there rather than trying to be right at any cost.
That list was done by Counterpoint Research. They are a market research firm like IDC. They have a lot more weight in the industry than random Wiki (highly unreliable) numbers or whatever he was trying to get at.
Every list I have seen is similar to the one Max pasted, if you have something different from a reputable source I would love to see it.
China and India sales are tracked by IDC (whose lists are similar to the one above), they are not 100% reliable but they are pretty close. At the end its either you believe the industry insiders who track these things for a living or you form your own judgment without any evidence at all to back it up.
I don’t see any of the big brands distancing themselves from their flagships. What I have seen is newer phones being released for a cheaper price from brands like Samsung and LG. But that’s more the time of the season than them distancing themselves. Last years flagships are on their final legs with CES right around the corner. A few months from now all anyone will be talking about in the US is Galaxy S7 and LG G5.
Well they are all cutting the production of flagship’s & concentrating more on lower end models, mostly mid range ones.
& I can continue with link’s as much as you want.
A one advice to you. Don’t bullshit a bullshiter.
I guess you don’t actually read your links:
“Having said that, the company still is counting on its flagship models like the Samsung Galaxy S7 and the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge to help it stay on top of the global smartphone market.”
And one advice to you. Don’t bullshit someone who actually reads links.
not quite right they will still concentrate on the flagship… its a rat race for the top slot my man…
Looks like they missed Huawei P8, G8, 7i, Honor 7, Nexus 6P, Mate 8, X5, G7 Plus.
Yea I don’t know how they P8 doesn’t make it but they include two Elephones and a Blackview. That is just hilarious.
hey What about Honor series… Honor 6 and Honor 7.
they are really good spec/price/perform… wise. even they are not included..
this baffles me.
They raised up prices a lot in this year wile they didn’t get any better than before so they are not exactly a much of a value of any kind any more.
so what’s their secret?
they are the first manufacturer in a country (China) where there’s the hardest competition.
Is it brand loyalty?
Certainly not a costumer loyalty.
It’s complex;
they are known as a quality manufacturer & as a brand,
They made a good distribution network in EU (including & couple of research centers) & they are making one in India & naturally their is Google Nexus that opened them a back door & to the other markets like US (from which they where banned).
Naturally there are & manufacturing capabilities that they have.
I don’t like Huawei much & it’s from private experience but that’s a completely different story.
I guess in the end they actually got lucky as for instance roses are not blaming to Lenovo that is similar to Huawei in many ways.
When someone rises so high their is only one way to go & thats downhill.
Huawei was never banned in the US, they withdrew voluntarily after their were widespread reports that linked them to spying accusations, which have never been proven. They are making a huge push to reenter the US market and have already signed deals with three of the top 4 US cell providers: ATT, Tmobile and Sprint. Verizon will be selling Huawei branded accessories such as mobile hotspots and dongles.
Those deals aren’t made yet & I am aware they are repairing to come back in to US. Ok they weren’t based just satanized & official Chinese government ordered them to pull back. By the way that really makes a big difference with baning. Actually I still claim they ware banned by pressure from US government on the Chinese government that ordered (& you listen to them as a Chinese citizen if you want your head to stay where it is) them to leave. Now when they raised the prices they will be allowed to go in with no problems. Do you see a connection?
They are launching the Honor series for the US market at CES this year. They were banned (Along with ZTE and a few others) from bidding on US Government contracts, but that had nothing to do with phone sales in the US. That is a completely separate issue. The US Government would need a lot more than rumors to completely ban them from sales in the US and if they were banned it would take a lot longer than a year for them to be allowed to sell in the country again. Given what we are seeing now that didn’t happen.
I’m not sure what you mean by “they raised the prices”. Huawei phones have always been very expensive compared to other brands.
I think it’s their very (super) aggressive marketing, here in Italy they are practically everywhere ;billboards, carrier leaflets, even freaking youtube ads u name it. I’m not 100% sure but it might be a reason.
Ps. Uh and the nexus 6p
Huawei is one of the big three along with Lenovo and Oppo that are sold in almost every Asian country and several continents around the world. I often see any one of these listed as the best because most have never used Xiaomi or LeTV etc.
As for Huawei itself I love their phones and would include the P8 over the two crap Elephones on this list but they can be very expensive and their software isn’t always the best.