Despite the ups and downs of the mobile market, the brands that enter and leave the industry and the new models that are launched, consumers are quite loyal to the models they buy, as demonstrated in the best-selling mobile data.
The analysis firm Counterpoint Research has recently published the list of the 10 best-selling mobile phones in the world in the second quarter of 2023 and it is a ranking monopolized only by the 2 best-known brands: Samsung and Apple, which are precisely the ones that total units sold, despite the advance of Chinese brands in recent times.
The 4 most sold models in the world between April and June were different variants of the series iPhone 14 and iPhone 13 –the current iPhone 15 had not yet been launched–, while the rest is distributed by the mid, low and high ranges of the Samsung Galaxy launched in the last year.
But beyond telling you which are the 10 best-selling mobile phones in the world today, let me tell you in this article what are the characteristics that are shared between the different models and what the average user who buys a mobile phone in this market is looking for. anus.
Price: iPhones increase the average ticket to 760 euros
In the most popular mobile phones that were sold in the second quarter of 2023, The approximate average price that consumers paid was 760.70 euros.
Here I have used as a basis the price with which they were launched in Spain in their base version, and an approximation in the case of the 2 terminals that have not been sold in our country: the Samsung Galaxy A14 4G and the Galaxy A04e range of entrance.
It is a somewhat capricious fact because it is the average between smartphones with very different specifications: on the one hand there are the high-end iPhones and the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, which usually exceed 1,000 euros, and on the other hand, entry-level mobiles that are around the 100 euros.
In addition, it must be taken into account that the real average of what users have paid will most likely be lower due to price differences in different countries, the price drop over time and the offers of the retailers.
The final data leaves us with 50% high-end mobile phones, 30% mid-range and 20% entry-level or medium-low range for less than 200 euros.
Screen: OLEDs prevail with an average refresh rate of 93 hertz
At the screen level, from the data of the best-selling mobile phones we can extract that the OLED technology It is something that global consumers highly value, since 70% of the most popular smartphones have a panel of this type, which is illuminated with independent pixels and which allows the function of screen always on.
Another aspect that I have taken into account has been the refresh rate, one of the data that users pay most attention to. gamers and the one on which manufacturers have placed the most emphasis, which already reaches 165 hertz in some cases.
The most popular mobile phones are divided between those that still have a 60 hertz refresh rate, the minimum value of current mobile screens (40%), and those that adopt 120 hertz and allow more fluid movement for consumers (50 %).
Since only one terminal in the list adopts the intermediate refresh value of 90 hertz, The average of the top 10 is therefore at 93 hertz of refreshment..
Battery: 4,400 mAh and 19W average
The battery is another of the main aspects that users who buy a new mobile phone usually take into account, and in this section we must take into account both the capacity, which is measured in milliamp hours (mAh), and the fast charging, measured in watts (W).
At battery level, The average capacity of the 10 most successful mobile phones in the second quarter of 2023 is 4,400 mAh. Apple is largely responsible for these figures not being higher, since all 6 Samsung phones have 5,000 mAh batteries.
Despite this, we must remember at this point that given that the final battery life of a mobile phone also depends on other factors such as processor technology, integration with the operating system and specific consumption, greater capacity does not always mean a better battery life. longer lasting battery.
Although the capacity has not advanced much in recent years, one aspect on which there are manufacturers that have put a lot of focus recently is fast charging, which in certain models already exceeds 100 watts and charges in less than 15 minutes.
Despite its great importance for the manufacturers’ strategy, fast charging does not seem to be a factor that users value too much when choosing their new mobile phone, since The average fast charge on the market is just over 19 watts.
This is because all the models in the top 10 belong to 2 brands, Apple and Samsung, which no longer include power adapters (i.e. charger plugs) in the mobile phones they sell, so it is an aspect in the one that is not making much progress but that does not seem to be penalizing them.
Performance and camera: 5G and 128 GB or more of storage prevail
In this category I have included the rest of the values ​​that are usually used as great claims to sell mobile phones in recent years, such as the camera and the internal configuration.
At the camera level, the panorama of the top 10 is quite varied, because mobile phones with a 12-megapixel main sensor such as the iPhone 13 and 14 coexist with the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra and its 200-megapixel main lens.
Despite this, 70% of the best-selling mobile phones have 48 megapixel main cameras or more, a clear trend that places the average at just over 53 MP.
Refering to RAM memory, the most common values ​​are 4 and 6 GBand there are only 2 terminals that deviate from this norm: the entry-level Samsung Galaxy A04e, with 3GB, and the high-end Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, which starts at 8 GB although it can reach 12 GB.
The average of the top 10 mobile phones in the second quarter results in a consistent 5.1 GB.
The storage, for its part, gives an average of 118 GB and shows that among the best-selling mobile phones in the world today, the preferred option, at least in its basic configuration, is 128 GB, present in 60% of the members of the list.
Another aspect of performance is support for 5G networks, a feature that is already beginning to be practically generalized in mobile launches in the last year, but which still represents a significant percentage of the market in sales volume.
The top 10 best-selling terminals of the second quarter show that 5G is becoming an increasingly important feature for consumers as well, as 80% have support for 5G.
