SAMSUNG

With 37% of the votes, Samsung is still our readers’ favorite mainstream smartphone brand. For sure, 2016 was an eventful year for the Korean company: it started the year well with the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge, and followed both acts up brilliantly with the Galaxy Note 7. Alas, the Note 7 ended with a bang, and as they say, the rest is history. Samsung concluded that aggressive battery design was to blame, and has come up with a new comprehensive 8-point battery safety check measure to prevent such incidents from happening again. While the new Galaxy A series phones are Samsung’s first smartphones in 2017, it’s clear all eyes would be on the upcoming Galaxy S8. Coming in second is Xiaomi, purveyor of some very fine smartphones such as the Mi 5, Mi Note 2, and Mi Mix. And in third place is ASUS, maker of the ZenFone series, which includes the ZenFone 3, ZenFone 3 Zoom, ZenFone 3 Max, and ZenFone 3 Deluxe - just to name a few.