The best selling Android phone in 2019 was 85% cheaper than the Galaxy S20 Ultra

Apple and Samsung are the two most popular smartphone brands in the world today. Unsurprisingly, it looks like both companies had a great 2019 in terms of sales.

Tracking company Omdia revealed its list of the top ten best-selling smartphones of 2019 (h/t: MacRumors), and it looks like Samsung had a bumper year. However, it wasn’t the Galaxy S10 or Note 10 families that delivered the goods for the South Korean giant.

As you can see from the table below, the Galaxy A10, Galaxy A50, and Galaxy A20 were listed in third, fourth, and fifth spots respectively. Android’s best-seller, the Galaxy A10, isn’t available officially in the US, but it retails for around the $200 mark on Amazon. This all goes a long way to showing that Samsung’s decision to focus on feature-packed yet affordable budget phones is paying off. Samsung’s Android Go-toting Galaxy J2 Core also showed up in tenth spot, giving the Korean company four phones in the top ten.

It also shows that for all of the attention being paid to $1,000 flagship phones, the real volume-shifting Android phones are found in the $300 and under segment. In fact, this year saw no Android flagships in the top ten, while 2018 had two devices.

Xiaomi was the only other Android OEM in the top ten, with its Redmi Note 7 in eighth position. It’s still a pretty big deal, as there are loads of quality budget phones in this price segment.

It’s also interesting to note that HUAWEI doesn’t have a phone in the top ten in 2019. This is despite the likes of Canalys and Counterpoint Research reporting that it’s passed Apple to take second place in terms of global marketshare.

Speaking of Apple, it’s no surprise really that the iPhone XR and iPhone 11 are at number one and two, given Apple’s popularity. It’s worth noting that both devices are more affordable iPhones (relatively speaking), with the iPhone 11 starting at $699. Meanwhile, the iPhone XR retailed for $749 at launch, but received a $150 price cut (to $599) following the iPhone 11 series launch.

What’s also noteworthy is just how many more iPhone XR units Apple sold in 2019 compared to the iPhone 8. Both are the previous year’s cheapest iPhone that hit the number one spot in the following year, but the iPhone XR reportedly sold almost 15 million units more than the iPhone 8.

Apple devices also accounted for the sixth, seventh, and ninth spots on the list, featuring the iPhone 11 Pro Max, iPhone 8, and iPhone 11 Pro respectively.