Top 10 best mobile brands in the world in 2024

Last Updated: February 7, 2024

The global smartphone market boasts a plethora of brands, but in this article, we tell you the top 10 worth your consideration. Our rankings are grounded in the latest quarterly (October to December 2023) shipment data from Omida’s global smartphone report. Furthermore, we’ve curated a selection of the most popular smartphones from each brand, drawing insights from 91mobiles.

Table of Contents

Apple

Apple is a juggernaut in the premium smartphone market thanks to iPhones and a solid walled ecosystem. Despite witnessing a downfall in Q3 2023, the American giant has recovered well to secure the first spot. The iPhone 15 series brought noticeable upgrades like USB-C, Dynamic Island across all models, handier design, Titanium build, AAA games support and Action Button on the pro models. The brand recorded total shipments of 78.7 million units in Q4 2023 which is the highest for Apple since Q4 2021.

Best selling Apple smartphones

Samsung

Android is the most used mobile operating system in the world and Samsung being the major OEM, is bound to be the biggest player. It recorded shipments of 53.2 million units in Q4, 2023, per Omida’s data. However, this number has fallen from Q3 2023 in which Samsung recorded 58.3 million unit shipments. Even after a year-on-year performance dip, it is still way ahead of Xiaomi, OPPO and others. Most of its phones (even the middle-order and lower-tiered ones) have a comparable design and decent software plus hardware offerings.

Best selling Samsung smartphones

Xiaomi

Xiaomi is in the 3rd spot primarily thanks to value-for-money phones in the lower-end and lower-midrange segments. That said its premium phones are also competent spec monsters. For instance, the Xiaomi 14 Pro has a Leica-branded 50MP triple rear camera setup, 120W fast charging, Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC, 120Hz LTPO display, and HyperOS software. In Q4 2023, the OEM contributed 41.2 million shipments, which is a slight dip compared to the previous quarter.

Best selling Xiaomi smartphones

Transsion

Transsion is a Chinese brand that releases phones under the brand names Tecno, Infinix and Itel. These offer good competing phones at budget prices. Out of the lot, Tenco appears to have the more premium offerings in the form of Phantom X2 Pro. Compared to Q3 of 2023, the brand has managed an 11.1 percent quarter-on-quarter surge in shipments which is 30.1 million units. During the last three months of 2023, the company overtook OPPO to grab fourth place in global smartphone shipments.

Best-selling Tecno smartphones

Best-selling Infinix smartphones

OPPO (includes OnePlus)

OPPO and OnePlus together have garnered 24.4 million shipments in Q4 2023, which is a 2.8 percent year-on-year increase. OPPO is a substantial player in the offline market in countries like India. It has some solid flagships like the Find X5 series with Hasselblad cameras, customer imaging NPU, 80W charging, and a 1 billion colour display. There is also OPPO Find N3 and Find N3 Flip with seemingly crease-free hinge, slim build, high-end cameras, Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, custom software features and more.

Best-selling OPPO smartphones

Best selling OnePlus smartphones

Vivo

Vivo has some great offerings in the higher-end segment. The X90 series, for instance, has upstate specs, exceptional camera quality, and a commanding appearance. It also brings goods to the more affordable segments. The phones in general are known for their camera trickery and decent overall repertoire. It has raked in 24 million shipments in Q4 of 2023.

Best selling Vivo smartphones

Honor

Honor, once a Huawei subsidiary, now exists as an independent brand. The phones have Google Mobile Services and can also feature Qualcomm chips. In India, the brand works as HTech and is led by Madhav Sheth, the former Realme India CEO. Honor 90 was able to grab attention because of features like a quad-curved AMOLED display, a 200MP main camera, a 30-day return policy, and more. Globally, the brand has clocked 15 million unit shipments in Q4 2023.

Best selling Honor smartphones

Motorola

Motorola is the veteran brand in the scene that is still releasing decent phones at various price slots. While thinking of Motorola, close-to-stock Android software and bang-for-buck phones come to one’s mind, today, the company has a head-turning folding phone and power-packed top-rung phones too. In the recent quarter, it has pulled off 12.5 million shipments.

Best selling Motorola smartphones

Huawei

Once a brand poised to take over Samsung in the Android space, but then hit by the US sanctions, it lost its momentum and started struggling to secure processors and software for its phones. It took some time but the brand managed to ship phones still, high-end phones at that. In Q4 2023, it has had 12.3 million shipments.

Best selling Huawei smartphones

Realme

Realme didn’t have too many offerings in store but it had some good-selling models like Realme 11 Pro with a standout design. Following the same strategy of offering design and camera-centric smartphones, the company recently unveiled the Realme 12 Pro series which carries a distinct vegan leather design, periscope cameras, and curved AMOLED panels. It had 12.1 million shipments in the fourth quarter of 2023 which is an increase of 6.6 percent from Q3 2023.

Best selling Realme smartphones

Top 10 best smartphone brands in the world (Q4 2023)

Mobile brands	Quarterly shipments in millions
Apple	78.7
Samsung	53.2
Xiaomi	41.2
Transsion	30.1
OPPO	24.4
Vivo	24
Honor	16
Motorola	12.5
Huawei	12.3
Realme	12.1

Factors to consider when choosing a mobile brand

Quality of the product

Your primary focus must be on the product you are buying; whether it meets your needs and is the best that you can get for the price you are paying. Sometimes, a product may be good but the brand may not be popular or preferable to you. In that case, you have to decide whether it is worth risking for the product.

Warranty and customer support

You should see if the product you are buying is covered under a warranty policy. A good brand is likely to have an industry-standard warranty policy including the coverage period and damages covered. Even if the product is out of warranty coverage, you need to know if the brand offers repair and components.

Ecosystem integration and accessory support

Once you buy a phone, you may also want to invest in accessories, and secondary products like smartwatches, earphones, etc from the same brand. A good brand ensures the phone owner gets good options for accessories like cases, chargers, etc on the brand’s store itself. It will also ensure the secondary products work seamlessly with the phone and may even open up convenient use cases and quality-of-life features. The warranty and after-sale support associated with the accessories and secondary devices are also important.

Brand image and lifestyle

The above reasons contribute to a brand becoming a brand. But once it is a brand, an aspirational value is associated with owning its products. You may want to own a specific brand’s product to show it off to people around you. Also, sometimes depending on the kind of lifestyle you have, you may want to buy a specific brand’s phone.

Resale value

The bigger the brand, the more its product’s perceived value is. So, even when you go to sell it, the second-hand buyer would be ready to pay relatively more than what a non-branded or inferior branded phone would get you. So, the resale value of a specific brand’s phone is also something you need to consider.

Which is the number 1 Android brand?

Samsung is the Number 1 Android brand in terms of shipments. It had the highest shipments in Q3, 2023 at about 58.8 million units.

Which mobile brand is best for gamers?

There is no one-shot answer for this. It depends on your requirements. If you are a hardcore gamer, then going with something like ASUS for its ROG gaming phones would be better. Otherwise, you could buy any good smartphone that fits your budget from any of the brands above.

Which mobile brand has the best camera?

Considering both photos and videos, Apple’s iPhones would be your best bet. Samsung, Vivo, OPPO, and Xiaomi also have great camera phones. Even Google’s Pixel phones are known for their camera quality.