The best smartphones of 2016( according to reviews).Top 10

9 place.

Apple iPhone 7 Plus 32Gb - the most powerful smartphone in the world

Average price - 51 000 rubles. The flagship from the cult American company appeared on sale in late September 2016. Apple iPhone 7 Plus has two more versions: with 128 GB of internal memory and with 256 GB.But for the rating chosen model with 32 GB becausethis amount of memory is enough for average user, in addition, this version is the most affordable.

iPhone 7 Plus 32gb scored 50% of fives on reviews in the Yandex Market( see reviews about Apple iPhone 7 Plus ).

Features Apple iPhone 7 Plus 32Gb: the newest operating system iOS 10( on the sixth iFhone was running iOS 9), a 5.5-inch screen with a resolution of 1920x1080, 32GB of built-in and 3 GB of RAM.Like all iPhones, there is no external memory card support and there is no support for the second SIM card. The battery capacity is 2900 mAh. Talk time - 21 hours, in standby mode - 384 hours, in music listening mode - 60 hours. There is protection from water.

Apple iPhone 7 Plus took the first place in performance in the study of the resource AnTuTu following the results of 2016.

iPhone 7 Plus has a dual main camera( 2 modules of 12 mp).It sounds impressive, but it was applied last year on the smartphone Huawei Honor 6 Plus and in reality it was not so impressive, becausewhen analyzing an object with just two sensors, blurring occurs on those areas of the frame where this does not happen with standard focusing. Compared with the sixth ayfon, the aperture has been improved to f / 1.8( in the past f / 2.2), which allowed 50% more light to be transmitted;lens of six lenses;Optical Image Stabilization( OIS) for photo and video;Slo-Mo shooting in the resolution up to 1080p;a special processor for processing information from the camera( Image signal processor), which makes it 60% faster than before. Is it possible to consider the camera of the 7th iPhone as the best in the world today? Unfortunately for fans of iPhones, this is not so. The resource keddr.com conducted among its readers a blind comparison of cameras( when people compare only the quality of photos and video without knowing which model they made) three flagships: the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge( which was on sale in March 2016), last year's Apple iPhone 6sand Apple iPhone 7 Plus. In the end, with a huge advantage won camera Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, she won all 6 tests on the photo and one of the two on the video, slightly giving way to the 7th iPhone as a 4k video. Seventh iPhone took the second place, while losing the sixth in a single photo test and in one video test. The same results were in a blind vote on the portal phonearena.com, where the 7th iPhone also lost to the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge. As for the front camera of the 7th iPhone, it has a matrix of 7 mp( for the 6th iPhone 5 mp, for the Galaxy S7 Edge also 5 mp ).

The creators of the 7th iPhone decided to abandon their smartphones from the analog audio output to go to the fully digital standard CDLA or Continual Digital Lossless Audio. However, this is not a revolution at all;even in the spring this was used by the Chinese in the flagship LeEco Le Max 2. In practice, this means that the standard headphones for the 7th iPhone are not suitable: either you need an adapter, or wireless headphones from Apple, which are not cheap, namely $ 159, which according to the currentthe rate of about 10 thousand rubles.

Why is the Apple iPhone 7 Plus model chosen for the rating, and not the standard version of the Apple iPhone 7, which has a resolution of 4.7 inches? In my opinion, the 4.7-inch iPhone with a very modest resolution of 1334x750 looks an anachronism in 2016, when the tablets( ie smartphones with a screen of at least 5.5 inches and a resolution of at least 1920x1080) finally captured the world market. In addition, the Plus version outperforms the standard version in performance. The standard 7th iPhone does not even have an interesting solution with 3 cameras( like the iPhone 7 Plus version).In general, the owners of the 7th iPhone note that it did not go much further than the model of the iPhone 6s, so it's only worth the owners of iPhones of 2014 and earlier to switch to the 7th iPhone.

see also Rating of the best iPhones

8 place.

Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge 32Gb - the most popular Android-smartphone in the US and Germany in 2016

The average price - 46 000 rubles. The flagship from the leading manufacturer of smartphones in South Korea and the world appeared on sale in March 2016 and today received a very modest 43% of fives on reviews in the Yandex Market( see reviews about the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge).

Galaxy S7 Edge in 2016 became the best-selling smartphone of the South Korean company, and also entered the top three most popular Android smartphones in the world. The most popular model was in the United States, where it won first place in sales at the end of the year. Every 10th Android smartphone sold in the US last year was Samsung's flagship. Also Galaxy S7 Edge won first place in sales in Germany and Hong Kong.

Technical characteristics: 5.5-inch screen with a resolution of 2560x1440, operating system Android 6.0, 32 GB of permanent and 4 GB of RAM.There is a slot for memory cards up to 200 GB.Battery capacity - 3600 mAh. The battery life in talk mode is 27 hours, in the mode of listening to music 74 hours. If the previous flagship Samsung Galaxy S6( as, incidentally, all iPhones) supported only one SIM card, the Samsung Galaxy S7 got rid of this defect and supports 2 SIM cards.12-megapixel main camera and 5-megapixel front camera. Samsung brings the following advantages of the camera in this smartphone: the lens of greater aperture( F1.7) and the larger pixels of the matrix( 1.4 microns) capture much more light, which allows to receive always clear and detailed photos even in low light conditions;smartphones support Dual Pixel technology: all pixels of the matrix have two photodiodes, and not one by one, which allows the sensor to focus as quickly and clearly as the human eye, and the Dual Pixel technology provides such fast and perfect autofocus that you can capture even the harshesttraffic in low light conditions;The first time you can shoot motion in the mode of animated panorama.

You can also note the possibility of very fast wireless charging and full waterproof( you can shoot video for 30-40 minutes at a depth of 1 meter under water).Always active screen will display useful information on the locked device. This feature is advanced enough to automatically turn off when the smartphone is in your pocket or bag, screen down or when the smartphone is almost empty.

If you compare this model with the 7th iPhone, then the iPhone has better performance, while Samsung is cheaper by as much as 6 thousand rubles, has a better camera, longer battery life, and also supports an external memory card, so it stands above our competitor. However, neither model can boast of excellent reviews.

see also The best smartphones Samsung

7th place.

Google Pixel 32Gb - smartphone with the world's best camera

Average price - 44 950 rubles. The model from the American manufacturer, presented in October 2016, received 56% of fives on reviews in the Yandex-Market.

Technical characteristics Google Pixel: 5-inch screen with a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels, the latest operating system Android 7.1, 32 GB of permanent and 4 GB of RAM, support for one SIM card. The smartphone does not support an external memory card, but Google provides unlimited storage for photos and videos shot on Pixel. In addition, a backup of all data is automatically created on Google Drive. After that, the phone will offer to free up space on the internal storage by deleting already copied files. Battery capacity 2770 mAh. The battery life in talk mode is 26 hours, in standby mode - 456 hours, in music listening mode - 110 hours.4-core processor Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 MSM 8996 Pro with graphics accelerator Adreno 530. Fingerprint scanner on the back panel. Housing material - aluminum and glass.

The main advantage of the Google Pixel smartphone is its camera. This is the best camera in the world smartphone. Resource Dxomark put the camera Google Pixel 89 points, making it ranked first in the ranking of the best cameras, bypassing 1 point shared second place HTC 10, Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge and Sony Xperia X Performance. Another authoritative resource Phonearena conducted a comparative test of cameras( 9 parameters) of the following models: Google Pixel, iPhone 7 Plus, Samsung Galaxy S7 edge, LG V20.The places in the final list were distributed as follows: Google Pixel took the first place, the second - Galaxy S7 edge, the third - LG V20, and the last one was iPhone 7 Plus.

What is the Google Pixel camera? There is a Sony IMX378 sensor with a resolution of 12 MP and a F2.0 aperture. There is a laser focusing system. There is no optical stabilization, it is replaced by a digital one. In the camera, HDR + mode is enabled by default, in many respects due to which the excellent quality of shooting is achieved. It is worth noting that optics in itself still does not guarantee a perfect shooting in smartphones. A big role is played by software. For example, the same sensor Sony IMX378 has last year's flagship Xiaomi Mi5S, but thanks to the superiority of Google software Pixel squeezes out of the camera all that it is capable of. To be surprised it is not necessary, tk. It is known that Google is the developer of Android OS, so it has an advantage over all other smartphone manufacturers. If you want to use Android exactly as Google intended it, you should buy Google Pixel.

The front camera is equipped with a sensor at 8 mp with an aperture of F2.4 and the ability to shoot video in 1080p.

see also The best cameraphones( smart phones with a good camera) for 2016

6th place.

HTC 10 32Gb

Average price in Russia - 30 550 rubles. Buy HTC 10 on Aliexpress for 25.2 thousand rubles ( delivery to Russia is free). The flagman from the second-largest Taiwanese manufacturer came out in May 2016 and today has gained 66% of fives on reviews in the Yandex-Market. Specifications: Android 6.0 OS, AMOLED-screen 5.2-inch resolution of 2560x1440, 32 GB of permanent memory( of which 23 GB is available to the user) and 4 GB of RAM.Support external memory card. Support for only one SIM card. Battery capacity - 3000 mAh. The talk time is 27 hours, in standby mode - 456 hours. There is a fingerprint scanner.

The main advantage of this model is its cameras. The main one is 12 mp, the front one is 5 mp. Optical image stabilization is first introduced in both the main and front cameras. The camera perfectly removes in poor light conditions. The manufacturer's website says: "You can wait for the perfect lighting for great photos, and you can trust the main camera HTC 10, which captures up to 136% more light in each image, no magic - only the new generation UltraPixel technology, supplemented by optical stabilization and a high-speed lens ƒ /1.8 ".The front camera HTC 10 produces no less impression than the main one. The size of its photosensitive elements is increased, the lens has a diaphragm ƒ / 1.8, and the screen perfectly performs the role of a flash. A wide-angle lens will capture not only your own portrait, but also a company of friends. In HTC 10, shooting video in 4K format was supplemented for the first time with Hi-Res recording of 24-bit stereo audio. The audio track recorded in this format contains 256 times more details and reproduces twice the larger frequency range. The camera HTC 10 starts in 0.6 seconds - that is almost instantly.

Various reviews and comparative tests indicate that the from HTC 10 is one of the best cameras in the world today in the .Resource Phonearena in July 2016 conducted a comparative test of the flagship cameras, in which HTC 10 took the first place, surpassing the LG G5, iPhone 6s, OnePlus3, Samsung Galaxy S7, Sony Xperia X Performance.

see also The best smartphones HTC

5 place.

ASUS Zenfone 3 ZE552KL 64Gb

Average price in Russia - 21 900 rubles. Buy Zenfone 3 ZE552KL 64Gb on AliExpress can be for 16.1 thousand rubles( shipping to Russia is free). The flagship from the leading Taiwanese manufacturer, released in June 2016, today scored 66% of fives in reviews in the Yandex Market( see reviews about ASUS Zenfone 3) .Specifications: Android 6.0 OS, 5.5 inch screen with 1920x1080 resolution, 64 GB built-in and 4 GB RAM, there is a memory card slot up to 128 GB.Battery capacity 3000 mAh. The case of ASUS Zenfone 3 is made of high-strength Corning Gorilla Glass with rounded edges( 2.5D technology).

The main camera is 16 mp, the front camera is 8 mp. The slogan of this model is "Created for a photo", thus it is positioned as a camera phone. As the sensor of the main camera, the latest Sony IMX298 sensor is used. The ZenFone 3 is equipped with a f / 2.0 high-speed lens and a unique system that TriTech does not have in other smartphones. For the first time in the world, ASUS engineers have combined three technologies to aim the camera of the smartphone for sharpness - laser, phase and tracking, and have achieved tremendous efficiency. The focusing time is only 0.03 s - under various shooting conditions and scenarios. ZenFone 3 will focus 10 times faster than you can blink. If you add a highly efficient system of optical and electronic image stabilization, as well as a color correction sensor, you can rest assured that clear pictures and videos with natural, saturated colors can be obtained with just one touch. When taking photos, the 4-axis optical stabilization system detects camera vibrations and compensates for image blur, and 3-axis electronic stabilization helps to record smooth movies even when shooting with hands or while walking.

Thanks to the use of speakers with 5 magnets, a voice coil with a metal frame and a resonant chamber of a special design, it produces a rich and clear sound. In addition, by connecting to ZenFone 3 headphones, you can enjoy audiophile sound in the format of 24 bits / 192 kHz - 4 times better than the quality of ordinary audio discs. Of course, in this model, the proprietary Asus user interface ZenUI is implemented, this time with the newest version 3.0.

see also The best smartphones Asus

4 place.

ZTE Nibia Z11 Mini S 64Gb

The average price in Russia is 18 000 rubles. Buy Nubia Z11 Mini S on Aliexpress can be for 15.8 thousand rubles( shipping to Russia is free). Slightly reduced in size and the most technically advanced version of the flagship of the family ZTE Nubia, released in October 2016, received 75% of fives for reviews in the Yandex Market . Specifications: 5.2 inch screen with a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels, Android 6.0 operating system, 64 GB permanent and 4 GB of RAM, there is a slot for an external memory card. Support for two SIM cards. Battery capacity - 3000 mAh. There is a fingerprint scanner that, in addition to unlocking the smartphone, can be used to control the camera, create screenshots, and make mobile payments using NFC.

Main camera 23 mp, front 13 mp. The main camera uses the Sony IMX318 module, as in the ASUS ZenFone 3 Deluxe.

see also The best smartphones ZTE

3 place.

LG G5 - the world's first modular smartphone

The average price is 21 400 rubles. The flagship from the South Korean manufacturer, released in April 2016, received 82% of fives according to reviews in the Yandex market. LG G5 became LG's most popular model in South Korea in 2016( antutu.com resource data).At once it is necessary to make a reservation that we are talking about the flagship of LG G5, which is not officially sold in Russia, so it can not be bought in the official LG store or large retail chains, but there is no problem in small Internet shops( if you do not have an advertisement,then the list of stores selling LG G5, you'll see a little lower).In Russia, officially only the lite version of the LG G5 SE is officially sold, while its average price is much more expensive( 28,000 rubles), and the characteristics are weaker, in particular, the less modern processor and less RAM.Therefore, the choice in favor of a full flagship at a lower price, in our opinion, is obvious.

Features LG G5: 5.3-inch screen resolution of 2560x1440, 32 GB of internal memory and 4 GB of RAM, there is a slot for memory cards with the support of a fantastic volume - up to 2 TB( while you have to choose a second SIM card or cardmemory).Operating system Android 6.0.Battery capacity - 2800 mAh. Processor Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MSM8996 with video processor Adreno 530. And three cameras: 16-megapixel main camera, 8-megapixel wide-angle camera( viewing angle - 135 degrees) and 8-megapixel front camera. The wide-angle camera is located in the same place where the main camera is located on the rear panel. Unlike the dual camera of the 7th iPhone, where image analysis is performed by two sensors at the same time, which can affect the quality of the frame for the worse, becausethere may be blurring of the image in some areas, LG G5 goes in a different way: two photos are taken at once with two different cameras: wide-angle and basic, from which you can choose the best one. Also, the wide-angle camera is good where you need to shoot a large object without having the opportunity to move far away from it so that it fully fits into the frame when shooting with a standard camera.

The LG G5 camera received 86 points in the famous photographic resource Dxomark, as well as the camera of the 7th iPhone. As for the comparison with another last year's flagship Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, the resource hi-tech.mail.ru conducted a comparative test of their cameras and the results were as follows: "The flagship Samsung still shoot better, which is especially noticeable at night. However, when taking self-portraits, LG leads, which has another important advantage: the ability to make wide-angle images with a viewing angle of 135 degrees. "The phonearena.com portal conducted several comparisons of the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge and LG G5 cameras, where the quality of the images was assessed both by blind voting and by experts. In a blind vote, won the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, but experts explained this victory with more vivid unnatural colors in the Samsung camera and preferred the LG G5.Therefore, it is fair to say that the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge and LG G5 main cameras are about the same level, while the LG G5 has the advantage of shooting with a front camera, plus an additional plus in the form of a wide-angle camera.

This model is the world's first smartphone with a modular equipment principle. The user can replace the battery in a few seconds or install one of the LG Friends modules: a special unit LG Cam Plus with additional camera control buttons or LG Hi-Fi Plus with an audio chip. With the first module, the smartphone becomes a full-fledged compact camera with a comfortable grip, and with the second it turns into a real audio player. The module LG Cam Plus has its own battery for 1200 mAh. But do not just sum up the capacities, it's a little different: as soon as the battery of the smartphone sits down, it is immediately recharged from the battery in the LG Cam Plus unit. So, in fact, we have in front of us an extra external battery. The modules are purchased separately. LG Cam Plus costs from 900 rubles, but the purchase of LG Hi-Fi Plus will cost 6 thousand rubles .

see also The best smartphones LG

2 place.

Honor 8 32Gb

The average price of in Russia is 20,500 rubles. Buy Honor 8 64Gb on AliExpress can be for 16,4 thousand rubles( shipping to Russia is free). The flagship of the Honor family of the leading Chinese manufacturer( and the third in the world) appeared on sale in China at the end of July, and in Russia at the end of August 2016 and today got 78% of fives on reviews in the Yandex-Market. In just 2 months of the third quarter of 2016, Honor 8 entered the top eight most popular smartphone sales in China and ranked second among the entire Huawei model catalog( after Huawei P9).

Technical characteristics of the model: the screen is 5.2 inches with a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels, the operating system is Android 6.0, 32 GB of permanent and 4 GB of RAM, support for two SIM cards, the slot for the second SIM card is combined with a slot for a memory card. The 3000 mAh battery and Smart Power 4.0 power-saving technology provide up to 1.77 days of operation at the usual and up to 1.22 for intensive use. For example, on Honor 8 you can watch online video for 11 hours in a row.8-core HiSilicon Kirin 950 processor. There is a fingerprint scanner.

The model has a dual main camera with laser autofocus, which received two 12 megapixel Sony IMX286 sensors( like the Huawei P9), color and monochrome. The camera allows you to change the focus point after shooting. The professional mode offers the adjustment of the entire set of shooting parameters in both SLR cameras. The front camera received a sensor resolution of 8 megapixels.

Separately worth noting the design of the smartphone. Without a doubt, this is the most beautiful smartphone Huawei: the front and back sides use glass with a mirror effect and a rounding 2.5D, the side faces are made of metal, and there are several bright colors.

see also The best smartphones Huawei

1 place.

OnePlus 3T 64Gb

Average price in Russia - 26 300 rubles. Buy OnePlus 3T 64Gb on Aliexpress can be for 24.9 thousand rubles( shipping to Russia is free). This model, released in mid-November 2016, is an improved version of OnePlus 3, which appeared in June 2016, received the title of "killer of flagships" due to its excellent technical characteristics and affordable price, and also got into the top 6 best-selling smartphones inworld by the end of the year. For today, the updated version of OnePlus 3T has 76% of fives in reviews in the Yandex Market( see reviews of OnePlus 3T). Specification: Android OS 6.0, AMOLED-screen 5.5 inches with a resolution of 1920x1080, 64 GB of permanent memory. If the other flagships in this rating have a RAM of 3 or 4 GB, then OnePlus3T has an incredible 6 GB of RAM, which allowed it to become the fastest and most powerful Android smartphone in 2016( only released in 2017 Galaxy S8 was able to surpass it).OnePlus3T took the third place in performance in the study of the resource AnTuTu in 2016, losing only the iPhone 7 Plus and the iPhone 7. In practice, this performance means that you can keep two dozen tabs open in Chrome and a couple of games in the background.

OnePlus3 does not support an external memory card, although at 64 GB of memory it is not particularly needed. Battery capacity - 3400 mAh. There is a fingerprint scanner. Support for two SIM cards.

The advantages of the model include incredible strength. The hot Gorilla Glass 4, which protects the screen, coped with the scratch resistance test( similar tests conducted by the famous YouTube blogger Zack Nilsson).Representatives of OnePlus, in order to prove the strength of their flagship, took the bold step and dropped OnePlus3 from the flying plane at an altitude of about 230 meters( for comparison: the main MSU building has a height of 240 meters).The smartphone fell to the ground screen down, but it did not affect its appearance or performance.

The OnePlus 3T has a 16 megapixel Sony IMX298 sensor with a f / 2.0 aperture, optical stabilization, phase autofocus and pixel size of 1.12 microns. The front camera has a 16-megapixel sensor. The Phonearena resource in July 2016 conducted a comparative test of the cameras of the flagships, as a result Phonearena gave the OnePlus 3( the same main camera for the OnePlus 3T), fourth place, it lost to HTC 10, LG G5, iPhone 6s and outperformed Samsung Galaxy S7 and Sony Xperia XPerformance. However, if you compare the camera Samsung Galaxy S7 and OnePlus 3, then the OnePlus 3 clearly wins only as a front camera, pictures from it are better than most major smartphone cameras. With regard to the main camera Samsung Galaxy S7, then visually it is better than the main camera OnePlus 3.

OnePlus 3T, no doubt, there are no competitors either among Chinese or Taiwanese smartphones due to smart performance, good autonomy and high-qualitycamera, as well as strength. If you compare it with the Galaxy S7 or the seventh iPhone, the OnePlus 3T wins in the "price-quality" ratio, while having comparable technical characteristics. The only competitor for the OnePlus 3T is LG G5: it's cheaper, has some advantage as a camera, and also supports an external memory card. At the same time, OnePlus 3T significantly outperforms in terms of performance and battery capacity, has a larger amount of permanent memory and is more stable, therefore, with a small margin, this model ranks first in our rating.

see also Rating of the best Chinese smartphones for 2016