The smartest smartphone. Most original flagship: Xiaomi Mi Mix

Price: S7 - 49,990 rubles, S7 edge - 59,990 rubles

Last year Samsung Galaxy The S6 and S6 edge were good, but far from perfect. This year, the Koreans have done a very competent work on the mistakes: they returned the memory card slot, added protection against dust and water, increased the battery capacity and made the devices more convenient, retaining the recognizable design.

And all this is combined with the powerful new proprietary Exynos 8890 chip, a cool AMOLED screen with Always On function and one of the best flagship mobile cameras. The resounding success was not long in coming, even despite the high prices.

Best camera: Google Pixel

Price: from 50,000 rubles (not officially sold in Russia)

It seems that it is a little strange to give this title to a smartphone, in the photomodule of which there is not even an optical image stabilizer. But Google Pixel takes not "hardware", and software algorithms.

The always-on HDR bet has worked flawlessly, with users enjoying vibrant photos with rich colors and no dips in highlights and shadows. We are looking forward to a similar approach in competitors' flagships in the coming year.

Optimal balance: Honor 8

Price: from 27 990 rubles

For the second year in a row, Huawei has been able to produce the most balanced smartphone in the price category "up to 30,000 rubles." Honor 8 is such a sweet spot between affordable middlings with weak cameras and uncompromising flagships.

The gadget has a beautifully shimmering glass body in direct light, a powerful and stable processor and, most importantly, a cool dual camera. It is the latter, combined with regular discounts in the manufacturer's official online store, that makes the device a very attractive purchase.

Most original flagship: Xiaomi Mi Mix

Price: from 49,000 rubles (not officially sold in Russia)

The most unusual smartphone this year was presented not by eminent brands with a long history, but by the Chinese from Xiaomi. Almost frameless "shovel" Mi Mix with a diagonal of 6.4 inches and a ceramic body is impressive at first glance.

The sound instead of the earpiece is made by the display here. It vibrates at a specific frequency and it really works! It's even a pity that in pursuit of the wow effect and record performance, the developers completely forgot about cameras and good battery life.

Android for the demanding and budget conscious: OnePlus 3

Price: 31 990 rubles

The noble Chinese OnePlus 3 has a powerful Qualcomm chipset (Snapdragon 820), 6 GB of fast LPDDR4 RAM, AMOLED display, two good cameras (16 MP - main and 8 MP - front) and 64 or 128 GB of permanent memory.

And all this, along with a 3000 mAh battery, is packed in a neat and thin metal case. The real dream of the most demanding and thrifty - the gadget costs less than 30,000 rubles from gray suppliers.

An improved version of the gadget has recently been released - OnePlus 3T with Snapdragon 821, 16-megapixel selfie camera, 128 GB of memory in the base and a larger 3400 mAh battery. It is intriguing, but there is no longer any talk about economy: in Russia such a device costs under 40,000 rubles.

Best Compact: iPhone SE

Price: from 34 990 rubles

The best among compact smartphones of the year is also the Apple gadget. We are talking, of course, about the small iPhone SE, in which the Americans managed to fit the powerful stuffing from last year's iPhone 6S. If this fact suddenly upsets you, then try to find at least one 4-inch Android smartphone with a decent camera and high performance.

Big smartphones of the year: Huawei Mate 9 and iPhone 7 Plus

Price: Huawei Mate 9 - from 45,000 rubles (not officially sold in Russia), iPhone 7 Plus - from 67,990 rubles

In August, it seemed that the title of the best smartphone of the year with a large diagonal by default was assigned to the Samsung Galaxy Note 7. But it did not grow together - problems with the battery led to fires, the recall of the model around the world and a halt in production.

Now the only alternative in the premium class is the 5.9-inch Huawei Mate 9, which has not yet been officially sold in Russia, with a very decent Leica dual camera and a brand new Kirin 960 proprietary chip, which is not much inferior to Snapdragon 821.

Apple's small but highly coveted line of smartphones also has its own super-shovel - the iPhone 7 Plus. This time it differs from the usual "seven" much more: the camera is equipped with a two-fold "zoom" and can programmatically blur the background when shooting portraits.

The only pity is that since the iPhone 6 Plus (2013, by the way), Americans have not bothered to improve ergonomics. As a result, the 5.5-inch iPhone 7 Plus is almost identical in size to the 5.9-inch Huawei Mate 9.

Best Power Optimization: Moto Z Play

Price: 34 990 rubles

It would be logical to note at this point some plump and faceless smartphone with a 5000-10000 mAh battery, but the Moto Z Play looks much more appropriate here. Yes, it's expensive (35 thousand rubles in Russia). Yes, weird design. Yes, not the best performance and camera.

This ranking will feature the top 10 best smartphones (i.e. mobile phones supplemented with the functionality of a pocket personal computer) as of December 2016. The rating is based on reviews in the Yandex market (only those smartphone models that scored at least 40% of the top fives got into the top 10). The technical characteristics of the smartphone were also taken into account (the amount of built-in and RAM, the quality of the main and front cameras, the quality of the display) and the price-quality ratio.
This list includes only flagships - i.e. models that are positioned by each manufacturer as the newest and best smartphones in the lineup. But the price is not affordable for everyone and can go up to 70 thousand rubles. However, this does not apply to Chinese manufacturers. The quality of their products is often not inferior to smartphones from American, South Korean, Japanese and Taiwanese brands, but the price is much cheaper. For example, the cheapest smartphone in this top belongs to a well-known Chinese brand and costs only 12.5 thousand rubles.

The rating includes the flagships of six of (American company Apple, South Korean Samsung and LG, Chinese Huawei, Xiaomi, ZTE). The top ten global manufacturers also include Chinese brands Oppo, Vivo, TCL and Lenovo, but the products of the first three are not represented in Russia, and as for Lenovo, this company is concentrated in last years in the budget segment, and the flagship models are produced under the subsidiary brand Motorola, which is mainly focused on the American market. Instead of Oppo, Vivo, TCL and Lenovo, the ranking includes the leading Taiwanese manufacturers ASUS and HTC, the Chinese brand OnePlus, as well as the American company Google, whose Pixel smartphone, according to experts, has the best camera for today, so it cannot be ignored.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 32Gb

The average price in Russia is 10,800 rubles. Buy Redmi Note 4 32Gb on AliExpress you can for 9 thousand rubles (delivery to Russia is free). Xiaomi unveiled Redmi Note 4 at a presentation in Beijing on August 25, 2016. Flagshipbeloved by buyers of the Redmi family, whose sales in the world have long exceeded 100 million devices,scored 59% of fives in reviews in Yandex-Market(cm.

2016 is coming to an end, it's time to take stock. Among mobile devices, smartphones are the most interesting. Let's talk about them now. I must say right away that each device from this collection is not just a piece of hardware from the outgoing year. All smartphones are decent and have a decent margin of safety. That's why they are the best.

This collection does not claim to be the most objective and complete. Of course, I could not cover the entire market of mobile devices. Something, for one reason or another, passed me by, but some device is worthy, but it is not sold here and is not interesting to compatriots. We will also disregard such devices.

I communicated with all the devices presented here in one way or another. Therefore, I advise you to pay attention to them when choosing your mobile assistant.

We will line up all our heroes in a certain gradation. Let's break down the selection into nominations. There are expensive devices, there are mid-range ones, and there are also budget models. In each segment, we have the leader in the first place, the device in second, and then it’s clear. Go!

Tops. From 40,000 rubles

The most expensive and high quality devices of this year. Buying them, you get a full minced meat, the maximum possible. The manufacturers of such devices usually provide the best service to their customers, and that also costs some money. That is why, spending 45 thousand rubles and more on a smartphone, you should not squeeze another 5-10 thousand and it is better to buy a gadget from an official delivery, with full service and a guarantee. Do not agree? Well, God is your judge.

Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge

A truly chic smartphone with a large, curved display at the edges. I did not share the well-deserved first place with his younger brother (the usual one), because he looks somewhat cartoonish against the background of a large and serious "edge".

Samsung, as always (last 2-3 years), managed to create the most technologically advanced device. If you want to be at the peak of progress, get the best display, a camera that plugs a digital camera worth up to 20 kilo rubles, and the most sophisticated software - take the S7 Edge. An uncompromising solution from all sides, with the corresponding cost - 59,990 rubles.

iPhone 7

This device has begun another two-year cycle of the company's smartphones, which means that it offers an interesting design and characteristics of a qualitatively new level than its predecessor.

You can treat Apple as you like, scold it endlessly, call it “cake” or vice versa, worship and mindlessly buy up all the new items. But we have to admit the objective reality - everyone wants an iPhone. Young people only talk about him. In the advertisement of the washing powder there is an iPhone on the housewife's table, on the advertising brochure in the passage of a bank specialist at the workplace, too, an iPhone. In the next newfangled series, your favorite hero has what? The iPhone, of course! He is everywhere and whether we want it or not, but it is a symbol of our time.

For those who did not understand. Samsung and Apple smartphones are useless and pointless to compare with each other. The first one is bought because it is a technologically perfect device, the second one because society insists on the “correct” choice. And that's two different worlds: logic reigns in one, emotions, psychology and product placement in the other. Nevertheless, smartphones are iconic and unambiguously dictate the rules for the entire market.

Former A-brands

There were no more top-end, and most importantly, iconic devices for the whole year. Sony makes some nice but weird smartphones. Everything seems to be good, cool, but you start comparing, you realize that they are asking for the same amount of money as for the Galaxy S7 / iPhone 7. In general, well, in fig.

LG is generally one big experiment that only causes bewilderment. Last year there was a very interesting G4, this one.

HTC - what kind of company is this?

At the end of the year, we were presented with a fierce device that is not really sold anywhere yet and no one can boast of the experience of close communication with it. Hence, the 9th "mate" does not participate in our selection and, most likely, will be able to claim the title of one of the best market players in the first half of 2017.

Flagships are cheaper. 30,000 - 40,000 rubles

Quite frankly, this is the most meaningless category. Smartphones at this level are all odd. They fall short of flagship and expensive devices (read iPhone 7 and Galaxy S7 / S7 Edge) for various reasons. And in comparison with the rest of the market, they all lose in price. Take, for example, the HTC One 10 - a boring, seemingly productive, but unforgivably expensive smartphone. For the same OnePlus 3, it is never a competitor.

Nevertheless, I still managed to find three devices that are worth paying attention to. Anyway…

Oneplus 3

The smartphone was released this summer and, unlike the previous, second generation, regained the status of the "killer" of flagships. In my opinion. He has a gorgeous build, slim, sleek design, monstrous filling (6 GB of "RAM", for a minute), an excellent camera, but most importantly software. Perhaps there are no devices in the world that have been so excavated along and across, where you can install not one, not two, but several dozen quite high-quality and amusing firmware.

Disclaimer. Why am I mentioning the Letyshops service? And because, firstly, I myself have not tried anything else, and secondly, I want you to save money. This collection is not only entertaining, it should also be useful. This is my extended answer to you on the topic: "What to buy for ... rubles?" Use it to your health!

And thirdly, yes, I get a small percentage from Letyshops. So, these three reasons have successfully coincided at once.

Nubia z11

Official delivery

Smartphones from the "went and bought on the way home from work" series. Gadgets are perfect for several important criteria for many: there is a certain amount of money, you want it here and now, with a guarantee and so that there is no bullshit without the Russian language and normal firmware.

Asus Zenfone 3

The Zenfone series surprises me extremely positively. Or rather, only one model -. I have not reached the others yet, but by analogy with the previous generation, I estimate that they will not really suit me.

ZE520KL is perhaps the most balanced, powerful, beautiful and officially sold device in our company. If you take something within 25,000 rubles, then only him.

Last year, I was truly pleased with the Zenfone 2 ZE551ML. It was sold for 18,000 rubles and for this money it was impossible to buy something even close in quality and performance. I have recommended it to so many people. Almost everyone obeyed, bought and were satisfied. All this I mean is that this year the situation is repeating itself. So I have high hopes for the next Zenfon.

Actual cost: 23,990 rubles

Huawei Nova

If not the third Zenfone, then definitely the Nova. Almost the same, with very minor differences, with the same excellent camera and a very promising Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor. A thing for those who, for some reason, did not like Asus.

Price: 22 990 rubles

Top state employees. 10,000 - 18,000 rubles

Buying any device from this category, we spend little money, we get a lot of goodies. Unfortunately, we will not find anything interesting here in the official retail. All smartphones will have to be ordered from China. So much the better - more savings.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 Pro

Success of the year. If people order a smartphone from China, then it is XRN3 Pro, because in terms of the ratio of characteristics and cost, we have a top-end gadget. And it remains so now. It is not for nothing that many online stores continue to make various promotions on it. By the way, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 650 processor is a good start for the future. Its performance will last for a year, and there already the Note 5 will arrive in time to replace it.

Current price: 10,000 rubles

Nice appearance, good screen and processor, excellent software optimization - all this creates the feeling that the device is worth more than it actually is. And the sensations are true, I must admit.

Price: 5,000 rubles

Conclusion and predictions

In 2016, a lot of smartphones came out. New names have entered the market and Huawei has become the world's third largest smart mobile device provider. In the meantime, Apple and Samsung have made several strategic mistakes. And if the misses of the Cupertinians will be noticeable only tomorrow, then the South Korean giant felt the negative and very serious consequences almost instantly.

All this I mean that we live in a very interesting time and become witnesses of events on a truly planetary scale, albeit within the framework of one sphere of human life. In just one year, so much has happened, so many phenomena have influenced the development of the market, which means that everything is accelerating and will continue to accelerate in 2017.

In any case, the purpose of this article is to help you make the right choice. I hope this collection and our site as a whole is useful to you. In the meantime, I wish all readers a Happy New Year! Health, happiness and wellbeing!

“All these years we've been selling the Nexus at a low price like fools, by God. But Apple is cutting money - we also need to join the premium, "- decided the guys from Google and released smartphones of the Pixel family. To prevent the new "super-prestigious" Googlephone from being confused with its cheap predecessors, the developers at all presentations insistently emphasized that this is an "all-new" ("completely new") smartphone, which was developed by non-subsidiary brands (LG / Samsung / Huawei / HTC / Motorola), and Google itself! However, it's not a secret for anyone that the assembly of smartphones is still handled by the respected Google HTC.

But politics and marketing are of less interest to us, let's better talk about the technical component. In this regard, the new Googlephone pleases with an excellent camera (the best among smartphones in general, according to some experts), a good AMOLED display and a very powerful Snapdragon 821 processor with perfect system optimization.

By the way, about the system - now they have added exclusivity to it and endowed the newest "blank" Android Nougat with a new design, and English-speaking users can now talk with a smartphone like a person. That is, no more "inexpensive pickled cucumbers" - you can immediately address the phrase "Pixel, but where can you buy a good snack nearby?" Nice innovations? Yes, just great! The Pixel's design is a little odd, but smartphones are unmistakable.

Another question is that the 8.5 mm model (like the Xiaomi Redmi 3S with 4100 mAh) has a ridiculous 2770 mAh battery. However, due to the perfectly optimized Android and AMOLED matrix, the Pixel will still last a day. But almost any flagship smartphone is more compact than the new Googlephones, in which they did not even bother to introduce optical stabilization into the camera.

And most importantly, such a pleasure costs from 50 to 65 thousand rubles, even simply in terms of European prices (Russians are so rich that usually smartphones in Russia are more expensive than in Europe). Would you like to pay a thousand dollars for a "prestigious" Google nameplate? Yes, everyone already understands that you do not want, and therefore Pixel is not for sale in Russia. And for 65 thousand in Russia, smart guys buy an iPhone 7 Plus with 128 GB of memory from gray suppliers or the still cool Samsung Galaxy S7 edge for 40 thousand. And rightly so.

The Pixel is a great model in and of itself, and the best alternative to the great and terrible iPhone (which is why the smartphone made it to the list). But for record-breaking performance at a high price, we already have Samsung, and Google's “unique” software can be made to work at all on cheap smartphones. That is, whatever Google creates, it turns out to be Nexus. Only this time, the expensive Nexus, which does not dispose to re-flashing, failed to leap higher than its glass "head".

4. Honor 8

In contrast to Google, Huawei knows a lot about "color differentiation" and has been successfully selling almost identical smartphones under different nameplates for a couple of years now. For citizens who are greedy for the image component, mobile phones are released under the name Huawei. And to everyone who does not care about Scarlett Johansson and the nameplate of partner brands, the Chinese offer Honor models.

So in 2016, the engineers "rebuilt" the expensive Huawei P9 into a glass case, dismantled the Leica logo and began to sell such a model 40% cheaper than the flagship. Even by Russian standards, Honor 8, worth 28 thousand rubles, looks very cool - of the models of similar quality, only the "gray" versions of Xiaomi and Meizu are cheaper.

And you can't say that Huawei saved something on customers: a good fast processor (although not as cool as your Snapdragon 820), two cool rear cameras with which you can "blur" the background in photos, a high-quality display. Honor 8 is not a flagship of the “better than anywhere” format - it is rather a golden mean between expensive “top models” and mid-range smartphones. Such smartphones have become an endangered species - Chinese brands are now arrogant and strive to compete in price with Samsung, so it was impossible not to mention the "anti-crisis" Honor in a special order.

3. Apple iPhone 7 Plus

iPhone just got better. Better by N percent, because it is not proper for noble donors to focus on the characteristics of mobile phones. Parasites-designers, apparently, still go for unrestrained fun with relaxed girls and "washing powder" (iPhone 6 with almost the same appearance appeared in September 2014). But the revolution, comrades, starts from the "bottom", and buyers of iPhones are still satisfied with the design of the case. Moreover, the fans of innovations still received the duty "glossy black" color - an important detail for those who want their new iPhone to be immediately distinguished from the old one.

In general, improved versions of the iPhone with the previous design of the case usually receive an additional index S, but the name iPhone 6SS would sound defiant, and, in all honesty, technical innovations have accumulated enough to change generations.

Apple iPhone 7 Plus

Judge for yourself: the new touch-sensitive Home key with imitation pressing, "identical to natural". Waterproof, which is not very useful in everyday use, but reduces the risk of "killing" the smartphone with liquid. Stereo speakers with a very compact case and a processor, which, with four cores at an ordinary frequency, took and plugged all Qualcomm and MediaTek of any degree of steepness into the belt. 2x optical zoom (a trifle, it doesn't always work, but still comes in handy). And this despite the fact that the iPhone, as we know, has never competed with rivals for show on the principle of "who is longer"!

The disadvantages of the iPhone 7 Plus are still full: ridiculous strap suitability, no support for fast charging, rather dull shooting quality compared to Android flagships, amputated "for fun" or out of Apple's greed, the headphone jack.

Apple iPhone 7 Plus

But in order to criticize, you need to offer something in return. Google Pixel is not sold in Russia, and it can no longer boast of the slogan “Android smartphones are always cooler for the same price”. Samsung Galaxy S7 edge has reached the "retirement" age on the assembly line, but is still too expensive, has the most modest 32 gigabytes of internal memory (a little more than 20 GB is available for games and applications), easily soiled and fragile. It is, of course, very technological in itself, but has changed little since the breakthrough S6 edge. And there are already enough high-quality and cheaper flagships based on Android.

With such a preamble, the iPhone award sounds like a glorification of the best of the worst smartphone, but Apple's flagship still raises the bar with each new generation just enough to prevent iPhone users from migrating to Android phones and envy Samsung Galaxy users.

2.Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime

They did not expect? But I think that the budget Xiaomi has deserved such honors. Because Redmi has become a symbol and the most coveted budget smartphone during the crisis period, not only in Russia, but also in other post-Soviet republics. To be honest, in 2016 Xiaomi made two "revolutions" at once - first, in January, the Redmi 3 was born, which brought an unprecedented 8-core processor (not cheap, Kwalkom bottling!) And a metal case in the budget ranks. And at the end of the year, when Huawei and Meizu released retaliatory smartphones, Xiaomi finished off all competitors with the release of Redmi 4 Prime.

Bright Full HD display in a smartphone for 8-9 thousand rubles! The coolest Snapdragon 625 - before that it was found in models at least 3 times more expensive! And a capacious battery that pulls all this stuffing in a thin case for a long time.

Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime

Why not the Xiaomi Mi Mix? Because now it is a very expensive and not very practical prototype smartphone with a flagship processor, but a mediocre camera. Why not Redmi Note 3? Because there is nothing breakthrough in it - Note 3 has become a "restyling" of Redmi Note 2, and Note 3 Pro just got a slightly faster and more intelligent processor. Xiaomi Mi5, over time, also looks like "just" another inexpensive Chinese flagship, but the "compact" Redmi are developing much more rapidly.

And I understand those who think that such portions of praise for a budget smartphone are unnecessary. Still, you will have to bring it to mind and Russify it yourself, the cameras in Redmi 4 are still mediocre, fast charging again not supported due to cost savings.

Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime

But there was nothing cooler in the budget class, there is, and will not be in the foreseeable future - in exchange for 8-10 thousand you can “taste” the quad-core models, disgusting in speed and quality, from slightly more impudent vendors, or, at best, buy a plastic Meise for based on the "deformed" old MediaTek processor. Moreover, if there have never been any problems in choosing good and expensive smartphones, then Redmi almost single-handedly defends the honor of really cool budget models, for which it receives "silver" in our today's rating.

The rating is based on reviews in the Yandex market (only those smartphone models that scored at least 40% of the top fives got into the top 10). The technical characteristics of the smartphone were also taken into account (the amount of built-in and RAM, the quality of the main and front cameras, the quality of the display) and the price-quality ratio.

This list includes only flagships - i.e. models that are positioned by each manufacturer as the newest and best smartphones in the lineup. But the price is not affordable for everyone and can go up to 60 thousand rubles. However, this does not apply to Chinese manufacturers. The quality of their products is often not inferior to smartphones from American, South Korean, Japanese and Taiwanese brands, but the price is much cheaper. For example, the cheapest smartphone in this top belongs to a well-known Chinese brand and costs a little less than 14 thousand rubles.
The rating includes the flagships of 6 leading smartphone manufacturers in the world (Samsung, Apple, Huawei, Xiaomi, Lenovo, LG), as well as models from the leading Japanese manufacturer Sony, the leading Taiwanese manufacturer ASUS, the well-known American brand Microsoft and not yet too well-known. but rapidly gaining momentum, the Chinese manufacturer LeEco, which made a splash, was the first in the world to release a smartphone without an analog audio output.

10th place. Microsoft Lumia 950 XL Dual SIM

The average price is 34 260 rubles. The flagship from the American company and the only representative of this rating, running on Windows, received 46% of the fives in reviews in Yandex-Market. Main camera 20 MP with optical stabilization, F / 1.9 aperture and triple natural LED flash, photo resolution 4992x3744, video shooting in 4K format, front camera 5 MP. Other characteristics: 5.7-inch display with a resolution of 2560x1440 pixels, the latest generation of Windows operating system for smartphones - Windows 10 Mobile, 32 GB of permanent and 3 GB of RAM, support for 2 SIM cards.

9th place. Sony Xperia Z5 Premium

The average price is 47,500 rubles. The flagship from the leading Japanese smartphone manufacturer scored 62% of the top fives in reviews in the Yandex market. 5.5-inch screen with a resolution of 3840x2160 pixels, Android 5.1 operating system, 32 GB of permanent and 3 GB of RAM, support for only one SIM card (there is a slightly more expensive Premium Dual model that supports 2 SIM cards). This model is recommended for those who need not just a smartphone, but also an excellent camera. Sony said the model is the world's first 4K smartphone (4K means four times the resolution of Full HD). Each inch of the display is broken down into 806 pixels for extraordinary sharpness. The pixel density is 10 times that of Full HD TVs and twice that of most smartphones. The characteristics of the matrix of the main camera are striking - 23 megapixels (the front has 5 megapixels). You can capture frames from video: from videos shot in 4K format, you can select valuable frames and take high-quality 8-megapixel photos. Other advantages of the smartphone include a fingerprint scanner and water resistance. This smartphone has a cheaper (37 thousand rubles) version Sony Xperia The Z5 has a traditional Full HD display, the Sony Xperia Z5 also has a single-and dual-SIM variant.

8th place. LeEco (LeTV) Le Max 2 32Gb

The average price is 19,800 rubles. The flagship smartphone from the Chinese company LeEco (formerly known as LeTV) was presented in China back in April 2016, but in Russia the company officially presented LeEco Le Max 2 only 5 months later, in September 2016. To date, the model has scored 57% of the fives in reviews in Yandex-Market. This model is notable for the fact that it was the first smartphone to lose the analog audio output. LeEco decided to switch to an all-digital CDLA standard or Continual Digital Lossless Audio ( new standard broadcasting digital audio content, allowing you to avoid unnecessary compression and provide the consumer with music in the version in which it was created by the authors). After 5 months this innovation was applied by Apple in the 7th iPhone.

Of course, this is not the only advantage of the smartphone, just look at its technical characteristics and it becomes clear that this model can compete with the flagships of the leading smartphone manufacturers in the world: a 5.7-inch screen with a 2560x1440 pixel resolution, the latest Android 6.0 operating system, 32 GB constant and 4 GB of RAM (no memory card support), dual SIM support. The main camera, using a Sony matrix, has a fantastic resolution of 21 megapixels, the front camera is also impressive with its 8 megapixels. As befits a flagship, the model has a fingerprint scanner. Battery capacity 3100 mAh. Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MSM8996 4-core processor.

7th place. Lenovo Vibe X3

The average price is 15 400 rubles. Vibe X3 is Lenovo's flagship (this company is one of the three leading smartphone manufacturers in China and the top five in the world). This model went on sale at the end of February 2016 and today has gained 71% of the top fives in reviews in Yandex-Market. Specifications: 5.5-inch screen with a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels, Android 5.1 Lollipop operating system, 32 GB of permanent and 3 GB of RAM, support for two SIM cards. The main camera is 21 megapixels, the front camera is 8 megapixels. The main camera has a Sony IMX230 Exmor RS sensor with phase detection autofocus. This model is also distinguished by stereo speakers, thanks to which the smartphone can be a home theater.

6th place. Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 Pro 32Gb

The average price is 12,700 rubles. This smartphone from the Chinese brand Xiaomi, which is among the top 5 smartphone manufacturers in the world, received 77% of the top fives in reviews in the Yandex Market (see reviews of Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 Pro). Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 Pro is the flagship version in the beloved Redmi family, whose sales in the world have already exceeded 110 million devices. This model went on sale in January 2016. Specifications: 5.5-inch screen with a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels, Android 5.1 Lollipop operating system, 32 GB of permanent and 3 GB of RAM, support for two SIM cards. The main camera is 16 megapixels, the front one is 5 megapixels. This model is the most popular android smartphone in Russia, China, Hong Kong, India, Vietnam and Malaysia in the first half of 2016 (data from antutu.com).

5th place. Apple iPhone 7 Plus 32Gb

The average price is 70,800 rubles. The flagship from the cult American company went on sale at the end of September 2016 and has received few reviews so far, so when determining the place in the rating, let's take a look at its technical characteristics and price-quality ratio. Features: the latest operating system iOS 10 (the sixth iPhones were running iOS 9), a 5.5-inch screen with a resolution of 1920x1080, 32 GB of internal memory and 3 GB of RAM. Like all iPhones, there is no support for an external memory card and there is no support for a second SIM card. Talk time - 21 hours, standby time - 384 hours, listening to music - 60 hours. There is protection against water.

The iPhone 7 Plus has a dual main camera (2 modules of 12 megapixels). Sounds impressive, but it was applied last year on a smartphone. Huawei Honor 6 Plus and in reality turned out to be less impressive, because when analyzing an object with two sensors at once, blurring occurs on those areas of the frame where this does not happen with standard focusing. Compared to the sixth iPhone, the aperture has been improved to f / 1.8 (formerly f / 2.2), which allowed 50% more light to pass through; six-lens lens; optical image stabilization (OIS) for photo and video shooting; Slo-Mo shooting in resolution up to 1080p; a special processor for processing information from the camera (Image signal processor), which does it 60% faster than before. Is the camera of the 7th iPhone considered the best in the world today? Unfortunately for iPhone fans, this is not the case. The resource keddr.com conducted among its readers a blind comparison of cameras (when people compare only the quality of photos and videos, not knowing which model they are made) of three flagships: Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge (which went on sale in March 2016), last year's Apple iPhone 6s and Apple iPhone 7 Plus. As a result, the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge camera won with a huge advantage, it won all 6 tests in photos and one of two in videos, slightly inferior to the 7th iPhone in the quality of 4K video filming. The seventh iPhone took second place, while losing to the sixth iPhone in one photo test and one video test. The same results were obtained by a blind vote on the portal phonearena.com, where the 7th iPhone also yielded to the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge. Therefore, we have to admit that today the 7th iPhone has only the second highest quality camera in the world. As for the front camera of the 7th iPhone, it has a 7 MP matrix (the 6th iPhone has 5 MP, the Galaxy S7 Edge also has 5 MP, and the LG G5 has 8 MP).

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

Why was the Apple iPhone 7 Plus 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, a 4.7-inch iPhone with a very modest resolution of 1334x750 looks anachronistic in 2016, when tablet phones (i.e. smartphones with a screen of at least 5.5 inches and a resolution of at least 1920x1080) finally took over the world market. But the point is not even this, but the fact that, according to the technical characteristics, the 7th iPhone is a completely ordinary model with only 2 GB of RAM, while even the Chinese flagships within 15 thousand rubles have 3 GB of RAM. The standard iPhone 7 doesn't even have an interesting 3-camera solution (like the iPhone 7 Plus variant). In general, the owners of the 7th iPhone note that it has not made much progress in comparison with the iPhone 6s model, so only owners of iPhones of 2014 and earlier should switch to the 7th.

Apple iPhone 7 Plus has two more varieties: with 128 GB of internal memory and 256 GB. But for the rating, the model with 32 GB was selected. this amount of memory is quite enough for the average user, besides, this type is the most affordable in terms of cost, although 70 thousand is still a lot compared to flagships of other manufacturers, therefore, in terms of price-quality ratio, the iPhone 7 Plus is clearly not among the leaders. which prevents him from claiming first place in this rating.

4th place. Huawei Nexus 6P 64Gb

The average price is 32,560 rubles. Nexus 6P is a joint development of the largest Chinese smartphone manufacturer (and the third in the world) and Google, which owns the Android operating system. The collaboration between the two tech giants has produced excellent results. This model scored 70% of the top fives in reviews in Yandex-Market. Specifications: 5.7-inch screen with a resolution of 2560x1440 pixels, Android 6.0 operating system, 64 GB of constant and 3 GB of RAM, support for two SIM cards. The cameras deserve special praise. Phone Arena experts compared Nexus 6P and iPhone 6S Plus cameras and gave them the same points. The Nexus 6P's 12.3-megapixel main camera is equipped with laser autofocus and dual LED flash. For the 8-megapixel front camera, autofocus also works. Taking photos and videos is done using the Google Camera app, which is very easy to learn and use. At the top of the screen, you can select Scene Modes, turn on the flash and HDR function, and set up timer shooting. Below is the shutter release, switching between cameras and the entrance to the gallery of images.

3rd place. Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge 32Gb

The average price is 52,950 rubles. The flagship from the leading smartphone manufacturer in South Korea and in the world went on sale in March 2016 and today has received 43% of the top fives in reviews in Yandex-Market. Specifications: 5.5-inch screen with a resolution of 2560x1440, Android 6.0 operating system, 32 GB of permanent and 4 GB of RAM. There is a slot for memory cards up to 200 GB. Battery capacity - 3600 mAh. If the previous flagship Samsung Galaxy S6 (like, by the way, all iPhones) supported only one SIM card, then Samsung Galaxy S7 got rid of this drawback and supports 2 SIM cards. 12MP main camera and 5MP front camera. Samsung cites the following advantages of the camera in this smartphone: a lens of higher aperture (F1.7) and larger pixels of the matrix (1.4 microns) capture much more light, which allows you to consistently get 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 each, which allows the sensor to focus as quickly and clearly as the human eye, and Dual Pixel technology provides such fast and flawless autofocusing that you can capture even the sharpest driving in low light conditions; for the first time, you can capture motion in an animated panorama mode. Comparative tests show that the Samsung Galaxy S7 camera is the best smartphone camera in the world today, even after the release of the 7th iPhone.

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

2nd place. ASUS Zenfone 3 ZE552KL 64Gb

The average price is 25,690 rubles. The flagship from the leading Taiwanese manufacturer, released in June 2016, was so liked by users that today it has scored 100% of fives in reviews in Yandex-Market. Specifications: Android 6.0 OS, 5.5-inch screen with a resolution of 1920x1080, 64 GB of built-in and 4 GB of RAM, there is a slot for a memory card up to 128 GB. Battery capacity 3000 mAh. ASUS Zenfone 3 is made of high-strength Corning Gorilla Glass with rounded edges (2.5D technology).

The main camera is 16 megapixels, the front camera is 8 megapixels. The slogan of this model is "Created for photography", thus it is positioned as a camera phone. As the sensor of the main camera, the same sensor is used as in last year's flagship Samsung Galaxy S6, which became the best camera phone in 2015, even surpassing the 6th iPhone. ZenFone 3 features a fast f / 2.0 lens and TriTech triple-servo AF with an AF speed of 0.03 seconds or less. Add to this the highly efficient optical and electronic image stabilization system and color correction sensor, you can be sure that you can get clear pictures and movies with natural, rich colors with just one touch. When taking photos, 4-Axis OIS detects camera shake and compensates for image blur, while 3-Axis Electronic IS helps you capture smooth videos even when shooting handheld or on the go.

Using 5-magnet speakers, a metal-framed voice coil and a specially designed resonance chamber, it delivers rich and clear sound. Plus, by connecting headphones to ZenFone 3, you can enjoy audiophile sound at 24-bit / 192 kHz - 4 times better than regular audio CDs.

Of course, this model implements the proprietary Asus user interface ZenUI, this time the latest version 3.0.

1st place. LG G5 SE H845

The average price is 36,900 rubles. The flagship of the South Korean manufacturer, released in April 2016, received 83% of the top fives in reviews in the Yandex market. Specifications: 5.3-inch screen with a resolution of 2560x1440, 32 GB of internal memory and 3 GB of RAM, there is a slot for memory cards up to 200 GB. Operating system Android 6.0. Battery capacity - 2800 mAh. And as many as three cameras: a 16-megapixel main camera, an 8-megapixel wide-angle camera (viewing angle - 135 degrees) and an 8-megapixel front camera. The wide-angle camera is located in the same place as the main one - on the rear panel. Unlike the dual camera of the 7th iPhone, where the image is analyzed by two sensors at once, which can affect the quality of the frame for the worse. blurring of the image may occur in some areas, the LG G5 is taking a different path: two pictures are taken at once with two different cameras: wide-angle and main, from which you can choose the best one.

The hi-tech.mail.ru resource conducted a comparative test of the LG G5 SE and Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge cameras, the results were as follows: “Flagship Samsung still shoot better, which is especially noticeable at night. advantage: the ability to take wide-angle shots with a viewing angle of 135 degrees. " Phonearena.com conducted several camera comparisons between the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge and the LG G5, where the quality of the images was assessed by both visitors and experts. In a blind vote, the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge won, but experts explained this victory with brighter, unnatural colors in the Samsung camera and preferred the LG G5. Therefore, it would be fair to say that the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge and LG G5 have the main cameras on the same level, while the LG G5 has an advantage in shooting with the front camera, as well as 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 LG Cam Plus unit 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 LG Cam Plus module has its own 1200mAh battery. But don't just add up the capacities, everything is a little different: as soon as the smartphone's battery runs out, it is immediately recharged from the battery in the LG Cam Plus unit. So, in fact, we have in front of us an additional external battery.

LG G5 SE H845 can be safely called the best smartphone on the Russian market today (there is a slightly more advanced model LG G5 H860N, but it is not supplied to Russia) in terms of price-quality ratio. If we compare this model with another Korean flagship Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, then with similar technical characteristics LG's flagship price is 40 percent lower, while the rave reviews rate is doubled.