Best Android Phones

Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, despite being released in March 2016, is still among the leaders in sales, and this is not really a surprise. Its octa-core Exynos 8890 processor backed up by 4GB RAM manages most tasks with a speed you will hardly find in many other smartphones. This Android phone handles games with 'heavy' graphics without so much as a flinch. Apps with lower demands simply flash before your eyes.

The storage capacity here is 32GB. In our personal opinion, it is more than any average smartphone user may need, but if there is nothing average about your smartphone usage and you store lots of FullHD movies on your phone, Samsung offers an option to replace one of two SIM cards with a microSD (up to 256GB in size).

There are also other upgrades. Or shall we say the great comeback? Samsung Galaxy S5 had the IP67 protection against water and dust which was removed in S6. Now it is back and it got better! IP68 certification of S7 Edge allows submerging it 1.5 meters underwater for 30 minutes so no worries if you drop it into your bathtub or in the sea for a bit. Whether you are a white collar worker or an avid hiker, this model is a good choice.

ZTE is not the name you hear every time you choose a new smartphone in the US, probably, but the company earned some recognition in its home country and we dare say it's nothing trifle. Then, Axon 7 allowed ZTE to break into the world market for Android phones. Let's look closer at what good things we have here.

• 5.5" display with AMOLED panel and 2560 x 1140 pixels resolution. That's 2K video playback, great color rendering and viewing comfort. Could pick a fight with Samsung Galaxy S7 and maybe even get a draw.
• Corning® Gorilla® Glass 4. Top-notch scratch protection and overall enhanced durability.
  
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 Processor and Adren 530 GPU. High operation speed and performance. Work-related tasks are a game, gaming is a breeze.
  
• Metal housing. Durable.
• 20MP rear camera. Insanely good photos for a smartphone of this price category.
• Fingerprint customization. A peculiar feature, allows not only unlocking with a fingerprint but also launching certain apps with different fingers.
• 64GB of internal storage capacity. Well, that's quite a number!

These are not all. We'll talk a bit about a feast that is Axon 7's sound below!

Chinese smartphone manufacturers release a ton of devices annually, and the growing competition causes lowering of prices accompanied by the ever growing features range. A feast for customers Huawei didn't remain uninvolved in.

Huawei Honor 6X has everything a general user may need and some more; there is a metal housing, a fingerprint scanner, an operation time that is quite long for the price, and a fairly nice camera. 5.5" IPS display is nothing to be surprised at today but it is still a display that looks good from whatever angle you look at it. The not-so-common feature here is an aggressive brightness adjustment, a mode where the screen works at 20–40% of its capacity to save energy. Might seem a drawback to some customers and a benefit to others. Operational time with general and energy saving modes combined appears to be around 2 whole days if you do not overuse your phone. Charging takes 2 to 3 hours with the native charger.

As for the performance, the Octa-Core HiSilicon Kirin 655 CPU is used in several high-quality Chinese smartphones and we can say it is a reasonable choice. With it and a 3GB RAM in this smartphone, the Android OS is swift and responsive. If you aren't into having a lot of massive apps, 32GB of internal space available here is just fine but if you make a lot of photos or prefer storing all your music library in your pocket, a microSD card can be put into the second SIM card slot.

Motorola might be a part of Lenovo corporation right now, and it might have switched owners a couple times but it is still afloat. It counts for something. At least, the company was worth buying. And here's one of the reasons why.

Moto G4 Play is considered by many users the best of the best options at the rock-bottom price range. It has a solid quality 5" IPS display with a resolution of 1280 x 720, more than one may need to watch YouTube videos, Vines, and movies to spend time. It even supports multitouch. Might not be the model for heavy gaming but we find it pretty okay for many popular entertainment apps. Built-in memory is 16GB, and the smartphone supports microSD, same as most other models today.

Moto G4 Play is compatible with most popular carriers and supports both 3G and fast 4G LTE, so wherever you are on the planet, you will probably be able to use this phone to full extent.

When selecting among several cheapest Android phones, one might find they are mostly the same. In the end, it comes down to the actual price difference and to the design. We can't say BLU R1 is over-the-top functionality-wise, although it's not bad either. It's average. 2GB RAM, IPS screen, 1280 x 720 HD resolution. The processor handles multitasking just fine but it's not a heavy-duty device. At first glance, nothing to write home about. So why this and not any other cheap Android phone?

To put it simply, it's all about design. The smartphone is very slim and smooth-looking, metal trim making it look sophisticated. It has a  Corning® Gorilla® Glass 3 which is praised for reduced reflectivity and for handling fingerprints and smudges better than its predecessors. The display itself is a little curved, the images on it look really nice and the phone is neat and easy on the eyes. It is really attractive and it does not seem cheap. 

The sensors work great. The phone is unlocked so you can use it anywhere in the world, the only thing you need is to buy SIM cards (two of them can be plugged here). If you're an Amazon Prime user, you'll probably find the Offers & Ads feature convenient but if not, there is an option without them.