Top Chinese Phone Brands and Their Best-Selling Models in India

Over the years, India has emerged as one of the fastest growing smartphone markets in the world. As the world’s second largest smartphone market, it is constantly attracting global brands seeking to expand their market share. According to the latest report from Counterpoint Research, Chinese brands Xiaomi, vivo, Realme and OPPO accounted for 73% of India’s market in terms of shipments in Q1 2020. Here are some of the Chinese titles performing well in the Indian market.

SEE ALSO: Top Chinese Mobile Phone Brands

Best Chinese phone brands in India 2020

Xiaomi and Redmi Note series

India is now Xiaomi’s biggest mobile phone market. In Q1 2020, it led the Indian smartphone market with a 30% market share. Aggressive offline expansion, customer focus and affordable prices have boosted company’s business there. The Redmi Note series handsets, including the Redmi Note 8 series and the Redmi Note 9 series, are the most popular smartphones under Rs. 15,000 in the country.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 Pro – Rs. 12,999

The Redmi Note 9 Pro is a killer phone hitting India in March, the new budget phone from Xiaomi’s sub-brand Redmi comes as the successor to last year’s Redmi Note 8 series, with a lowered starting price of Rs. 12,999. It packs a 6.67-inch LCD screen with a 60Hz refresh rate and achole-punch frontal camera. The handset runs on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G SoC which is surprisingly powerful for this price range. The Redmi Note 9 Pro is also equipped with a powerful 5020mAh battery, supporting 18W fast charging.

Vivo and vivo Y series

Vivo saw its market share in India grow from 12% to 17% last year. Vivo phones mainly target fashion conscious smartphone buyers, who are looking for a good camera, audio functionality, sleek design at a low price. The Y series models, usually featuring AI selfie capabilities, a dual-camera, a bezel-less screen, and a Qualcomm SoCs, performed well in Q1. The best-selling vivo Y series smartphones included the Y91, Y95, Y83, Y53. They are priced starting from Rs. 6990.

Vivo Y91 – Rs. 7,950.

The Vivo Y91 launched in January 2019, is a stripped-down variant of the Vivo Y95. The phone comes with a 6.22-inch display, 4,030mAh battery, and is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 439 processor. Its Halo FullView Display offers users an immersive viewing experience. The Y91 has a 13MP+2MP dual rear camera setup and an 8MP front-facing camera. The rear camera setup is reinforced by features such as Portrait mode, Autofocus, and more. The front camera includes AI Beautifying effects. The Vivo Y91’s starting price on Amazon is Rs. 7,950.

Realme and first 5G phone India

Realme started as a sub-brand of OPPO until its separation in 2018. It launched its first product, the Realme 1 exclusively in India in May 2018. Realme grew ferociously by heaping 119% year-over-year in Q1 this year. It now commands 14% of the Indian smartphone segment, surpassing OPPO’s 12%. The Realme X50 Pro 5G was the first 5G phone in the Indian market. The Realme 5i and C3 are currently the hottest Realme phones in India under Rs. 10,000.

Realme C3 – Rs. 6,999

The Realme C3 is the latest budget smartphone from Realme, the successor to the Realme C2. With a starting price of Rs. 6999, the affordable phone has helped win market share for Realme in Q1 2020. It has a 6.5 inch display with 89.8% screen to body ratio, Corning Gorilla Glass 3, and a 5,000mAh battery. It features a dual camera 13MP + 5MP set up and runs on the new Helio G70 processor and Mali G52 GPU that guarantee fast performance in both routine tasks and mobile gaming, even while playing heavy games like COD and PUBG.

OPPO and A series

OPPO has emerged as India’s favorite innovative handset brand in the premium segment. OPPO constantly focuses on camera capabilities and long-lasting and fast-charging batteries, which have impressed young customers the most. OPPO has similar offline marketing strategy to vivo. People can see OPPO and vivo selling everywhere in India. The budget friendly OPPO A5 series, A31 and A9 2020 have shown especially good performance.

OPPO A9 2020 – Rs. 17,390

The Oppo A9 2020 has a large 6.5-inch screen with a 89% screen-to-body ratio. The display comes with a water drop notch and Gorilla Glass 3+ for protection. It has a 5000mAh ultra battery with reverse charging capability, and a 48MP ultra wide quad camera setup supported by a 16MP selfie camera featuring AI beautification. The Snapdragon 665 + Game Boost 2.0 provide faster performances and smoother, more responsive gaming experience. OPPO A9 2020 comes with 128GB of ROM, which can be backed up by up to 256GB of additional memory thanks to a three-card slot (Dual Sim + MicroSD) for tons of extra storage.

OnePlus and Note 8 Pro series

Chinese phone brand OnePlus has become the new leader of India’s premium smartphone segment (≥ Rs. 30,000 retail price), followed by Samsung and Apple in 2019. In 2019, its shipments grew 28% YoY and captured one-third of India’s premium segment.

OnePlus 8 – Rs 41,999

The OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro were launched a couple of weeks ago at an online event. The anticipated high-end phone is now available for pre-bookings in India on Amazon.in. The OnePlus 8 starts at Rs. 41,999 for the base 6GB + 128GB storage model, while the price for the 8GB + 128GB variant is set at Rs. 54,999. The OnePlus 8 is a little bit smaller than the Pro variant with a 6.55-inch display. Additionally, it is equipped with a Snapdragon 865 processors, and supports 5G.