When we think about which will be the best-selling smartphone, it is usual that by inertia, our mind thinks of any of the most popular and well-known brands, precisely for that reason however, the reality is that the best-selling Android smartphone during the first quarter of 2017 does not belong to any of the best-known brands like LG, Xiaomi, Samsung or Huawei.
According to a new report by research firm Strategy Analytics, The OPPO R9 was the most popular Android phone for the first part of the year with 8,9 million units shipped all over the world.
OPPO faces the greats with its mid-range OPPO R9s
According to this report, Apple's iPhone 7 was the best-selling smartphone during the first quarter of 2017 with 21,5 million units shipped. It is followed by the iPhone 7 Plus with 17,4 million units and, in third place, the OPPO R9s, which thus becomes the best-selling Android smartphone of the period.
Completing the ranking are two mid-range models from South Korean Samsung, the Galaxy J3 with 6,1 million units and the Galaxy J5 with 5 million units, in fourth and fifth position, both launched in 2016.
Global shipment of smartphones and market share by model during the first quarter of 2017 | Source: Strategy Analytics
The firm responsible for this analysis, Strategy Analytics, has indicated that OPPO is a very popular firm in China that is also managing to increase smartphone sales in India, which would have helped drive global sales of the OPPO R9s, a mid-range smartphone.
Also the high sales of the 2016 editions of the Galaxy J3 and J5 phones would have been a great help so that Samsung would not notice the effects of the Galaxy Note 7 case that it is now going to launch again, perhaps at half the price.
The total figures indicate that OPPO would have sold 353,3 million smartphones worldwide during the first quarter of 2017, which implies a growth of 6,1% compared to the 333,1 million units sold during the same period of the immediately previous year.
Will OPPO manage to maintain this success after the launch of Samsung's Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus?
This is the best-selling smartphone at the beginning of 2017
For those unaware, the OPPO R9s is a mid-range smartphone that offers great performance and features.
At the design level, the truth is that looks a lot like an iPhone, especially by the very design of its metal body to the position of the speaker, unmistakably similar. We even found a metal ring bordering the home button (which includes a fingerprint reader) that, although it does not have the same shape, the design is traced. Even the rear camera sticks out of the body like the iPhone, albeit slightly.
As we can see, it is a very thin and light phone, with 6,6 mm thick and 145 grams of weight. And it enjoys a great build quality, with an all-metal body that gives it a great premium look: the buttons have a clean design, they do not move, which reveals a great attention to detail in aspects that sometimes go unnoticed.
The OPPO R9s has a 5,5-inch AMOLED display (that of the OPPO R9s Plus is 6 inches) with reduced side frames and protected against scratches by Corning Gorilla Glass 5, although some have found the screen strangely sensitive to scratches.
Inside we found a Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor accompanied by 4 GB of RAM, which should be more than enough power for multitasking.
Like many other phones, it includes dual-SIM support, although you can also use one of these slots for a microSD card of up to 256 GB and thus expand the 64 GB internal storage what includes.
One of the biggest drawbacks of the OPPO R9s is that its 4G LTE connectivity may be limiteda in some countries, such as the United States.
And in addition: 3,5 mm headphone jack, various audio profiles to adjust to the type of music and user, 3,010mAh battery non-removable system fast charge which promises to charge from 0 to 75% in just thirty minutes.
This is the best-selling Android smartphone of the first quarter of 2017, what do you think?
