While we think synthetic tests shouldn’t be your basis when purchasing a smartphone, we still consult them from time to time to give us an idea of how a certain handset performs.

So while we await the global ranking from benchmarking tool Antutu, we’re sharing with you the just-published October 2021 list of best-performing Android mobiles released in the world’s biggest smartphone market, China. A lot of them have international versions, after all. Which ones made the cut? Read on.

Top 10 flagship Android smartphones

Xiaomi‘s Black Shark 4S Pro, launched in October, dislodged the RedMagic 6S Pro from the top with a whopping 875,902 average benchmark score. The gaming phone boasts UFS 3.1 storage in RAID configuration for faster read and write speeds when opening apps and accessing content. It also features a 6.67-inch E4 AMOLED screen with a 144Hz refresh rate and 720Hz touch sampling and a 4,500mAh battery that supports 120-watt fast charging.

If you take a look at the devices that made it to last month’s top 10, you’ll see that all of them are powered by either a Snapdragon 888 Plus or a Snapdragon 888. This goes to show that Qualcomm still dominates the premium Android category on the Antutu platform — something that the chipmaker has prided itself for a long time now.

Top 10 midrange Android smartphones

Unlike in the recent past, Qualcomm is now flexing its muscles in the mid-level category. Seven of October’s 10 best-performing Android models use a Snapdragon chipset, with six of them getting a Snapdragon 778G SoC, led by former Vivo sub-brand’s iQOO Z5. Other units that are based on the said processor included the Xiaomi Civi, Honor 50 Pro, Honor 50, Huawei Nova 9, and Huawei Nova 9 Pro.

Non-Snapdragon-based phones that got into the latest Antutu ranking were the OPPO Reno6 5G with MediaTek Dimensity 900, Redmi 10X 5G with Dimensity 820, and Huawei Nova 8 with Kirin 985.

Main image via Weibo

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