Smartphone trends of 2021: 8 features the average Android phone had this year

With just a couple of months left for 2021, we decided to look back and reflect on how the year went by. Despite the shortage in the chip industry, the smartphone manufacturers continued to surprise us with new technology such as 120W fast charging, virtual RAM expansion, and under-display selfie cameras. In addition to this, 5G phones became more mainstream than last year, the percentage of smartphones with 120Hz increased, and MediaTek SoCs were found on more smartphones than ever before. However, according to popular smartphone benchmarking site AnTuTu, the features of the average smartphone of Q2 2021 are quite different. Let’s take a look at the features that were most commonly found on Android phones in Q3 2021.

8 features the average Android phone had this year

1. 6.7-inch screen size

Android phones have been getting bigger for the past few years, but it has really picked up during the COVID-19 pandemic. The lockdown and other restrictions forced many users to consume content out of their smartphones. As a result, the demand for devices with bigger screens increased. The report highlights that almost 29 percent of users had an Android smartphone with a  screen size of 6.7 inches in Q3 2021. This is up by 0.8 percent in Q3 and 13.7 percent in Q1. The next most popular screen size was 6.5 inches at 15.2 percent, while the proportion of screen sizes less than 6.3 inches decreased, added the AnTuTu report.

2. FHD resolution

Full HD is still the preferable screen resolution for Android smartphone buyers across the world. The majority of the AnTuTu users were found using smartphones with 1080p screen resolution, among which the proportion of 1,080 x 2,400p was the most popular. It occupied 50.2 percent of the market share. This was followed by 1,080 x 2,340 and others with 17 percent proportion each. The proportion of QHD+ and HD+ displays amounted to around 16 percent.

3. Qualcomm dominates but more takers for MediaTek

Qualcomm is still the biggest chipset brand in the market. The Snapdragon silicon continues to power the biggest chunk of Android smartphones in 2021. Per the latest AnTuTu report, 62.9 percent of its users were on Qualcomm-powered devices. However, it’s still a decline of 0.4 percent from Q2 2021. That said, the second-ranked MediaTek chipset share increased by 4.2 percent during the same period to 16.8 percent. This seems to be the result of the company’s aggressive strategy to push its chipset on more and more smartphones. On the other hand, Samsung’s Exynos and Huawei’s HiSilicon are losing market share. 

4. Octa-core processors

It doesn’t come as a surprise. Octa-core processors have been rated to be the best to handle all those graphically-advanced games and other activities. As a result, you can now find the processor in almost all devices out there. AnTuTu in its Q3 reports notes the same. The proportion of 8-core mobile phones continued to rise by 0.2 percent to 98.3 percent compared with the second quarter of this year.

5. 6GB RAM

The average smartphone in Q3 2021 had 6GB of RAM, according to the report. However, it seems 8GB is close to replacing it. The proportion of 6GB RAM on smartphones, accounting for 33.9 percent, decreased by 1.8 percent in Q3, while the 8GB RAM proportion increased by 2.9 percent to 33.5 percent.

6. 128GB storage

128GB became the standard storage size for most smartphones, from budget to premium category, in 2021. By Q3 2021 more than 50 percent of Android devices had 128 gigs of ROM. The trend is likely to continue next year as well; however, it may face stiff competition from 256GB storage whose demand is slowly creeping in. The ROM market share increased by 2.3 percent to 22.4 percent in Q3.

7. Android 11

As for the software side things, Android 11 was more prevalent than Android 10 in Q3. This has to do with the fact that the former was the latest operating system, and it was rolled out to many of the old smartphones via OTA update. In addition to this, pretty much every smartphone launched this year had Android 11 running out of the box.

8. 120Hz refresh rate

120Hz mobile screen refresh rate, along with 90Hz, saw an uptick this year; however, they are still not the market leader. The majority of AnTuTu users were found using smartphones with a 60Hz refresh rate. It could be due to the majority of people using old mobile phones. That said, an increase in the proportion has been noted with high screen refresh rate phones. The share of smartphones with a 120Hz refresh rate display increased by 7.1 percent from Q2 to Q3, while the 90Hz refresh rate phones’ shared increased by 3.1 percent.

The post Smartphone trends of 2021: 8 features the average Android phone had this year first appeared on 91mobiles.com.

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