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The best Android phones of 2016, according to you

Every month we create a new poll, asking our readers what they think is the best Android phone on the market. Here are the results after collecting data for nine months.
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Published onDecember 29, 2016

As you’re probably already aware, we’ve been keeping our best Android phones list updated throughout the year, adding new devices each month as we see fit. Since April 2016, we’ve been including a poll in our list, asking our readers what they this is the best Android phone out there. Of course, the list changes every month as devices are added and removed, which makes things interesting. So we thought it’d be a good idea to look back and see what you, our readers, thought were the best Android phones of the year.

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Below you’ll find a list of the top five Android phones of each month, according to our readers. We’ve only been holding our “best Android phones” poll since April, which is why data from January through March is missing.

Do note that the numbers next to each smartphone represents the number of votes each phone received that month. There are normally around ten phones included in the poll every month, but to save space, we’ve rounded up the data on the top five phones with the most votes for each month. Also, December’s poll is still open, so those numbers may fluctuate a bit depending on when you look at the table.

1st place2nd place3rd place4th place5th place
April
1st place
Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge - 4,258
2nd place
Nexus 6P - 3,093
3rd place
Samsung Galaxy S7 - 1,616
4th place
LG G5 - 1,022
5th place
Motorola Moto X Pure Edition - 635
May
1st place
Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge - 4,433
2nd place
Nexus 6P - 2,463
3rd place
HTC 10 - 1,996
4th place
Samsung Galaxy S7 - 1,706
5th place
LG G5 - 1,234
June
1st place
Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge - 5,889
2nd place
Nexus 6P - 3,730
3rd place
HTC 10 - 2,212
4th place
Samsung Galaxy S7 - 1,451
5th place
LG G5 - 845
July
1st place
Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge - 4,550
2nd place
Nexus 6P - 2,455
3rd place
HTC 10 - 1,322
4th place
Samsung Galaxy S7 - 1,277
5th place
LG G5 - 693
August
1st place
Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge - 4,980
2nd place
Nexus 6P - 1,386
3rd place
Samsung Galaxy S7 - 1,147
4th place
ZTE Axon 7 - 1,047
5th place
Moto Z Force - 1,002
September
1st place
Samsung Galaxy Note 7 - 4,180
2nd place
Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge - 3,173
3rd place
Nexus 6P - 1,883
4th place
ZTE Axon 7 - 1,146
5th place
Moto Z Force - 1,135
October
1st place
Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge - 4,964
2nd place
Samsung Galaxy Note 7 - 4,165
3rd place
Nexus 6P - 2,297
4th place
ZTE Axon 7 - 1,340
5th place
HTC 10 - 1,338
November
1st place
Google Pixel XL - 4,105
2nd place
Google Pixel - 2,505
3rd place
Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge - 2,379
4th place
LG V20 - 1,409
5th place
ZTE Axon 7 - 864
December (still open)
1st place
Google Pixel XL - 4,177
2nd place
Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge - 2,093
3rd place
Google Pixel - 2,020
4th place
LG V20 - 1,086
5th place
ZTE Axon 7 - 701

As you can see from the chart above, one Android smartphone certainly stands out above the rest, reaching the top one or two spots every month since we’ve held these polls. That phone, of course, is the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge. Keep in mind that the S7 Edge has been available since the beginning of the year, while others like the Google Pixel, Pixel XL and LG V20 have only just recently become available.

The Galaxy S7 Edge has been voted the best Android phone for most of 2016
So what phones have dethroned the S7 Edge this year? For the brief stint that the Galaxy Note 7 was on the market, according to our readers, it was the best Android phone in September. That is, until it started exploding and had to be removed from our best Android phones list. Then in October the S7 Edge overtook the Note 7 midway through the month, as this was the time the Note 7 was recalled.

Lately, though, the Google Pixel XL has taken the top spot for the months of November and December, raking in a steady 4,100 votes each month. The Google Pixel also managed to achieve a top spot in recent months, receiving between 2,000 – 2,500 votes in November and December.

What about the other guys?

It’s clear that the Galaxy S7 Edge, Google Pixel XL and Note 7 (for a brief time) were the very best Android phones according to the majority of our readers, but what about the other guys? The HTC 10, LG G5, ZTE Axon 7 and a few others were good enough to make the list this year.

The Axon 7, HTC10 and LG G5 made a few appearances, as well
While the Pixel XL, Pixel and S7 Edge took the top three spots in November and December, the LG V20 made the #4 spot both months. The ZTE Axon 7 wasn’t too far behind, either, coming in at fifth place. In fact, the Axon 7 managed to achieve the fourth and fifth place spots since it was added to our list in August. Pretty impressive for a phone that costs almost half the price as others on the list.

Up until the Pixel and Pixel XL made the list, Google’s Nexus 6P was floating around the #2 and #3 spots from April through September, which is quite impressive considering it was released back in 2015.

Throughout the April-September timeframe, we also saw the HTC10, LG G5, Moto Z Force and even the Moto X Pure Edition take up the third, fourth and fifth place spots.


So there you have it, the best Android phones of 2016, according to you. Do you agree that the Galaxy S7 Edge should have made the top of the list for the majority of 2016? Also, how long do you think the Pixel XL will remain at the top? Let us know your thoughts in the comments, and be sure to check out our best Android phones list to vote on your favorite device.

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