Huawei and Samsung dominated an annual study of quality by China Mobile’s Group Device arm, which also saw Chinese vendors showing marked improvements compared to the 2016 report.

Jingxin Ma, vice general manager at the company (pictured), said the improvement of Chinese vendors in the 2017 China Mobile Device Quality report is a sign handset manufacturing in the country is “moving forward” as vendors focus on “optimising features and personalised user experience”.

A total of 57 devices from 22 vendors were evaluated, including products from Chinese vendors Huawei, ZTE, Oppo, Meitu and LeEco, along with global brands Samsung, Apple and Nokia.

Devices were split into four price ranges: 13 units priced under CNY1,000 ($147); 18 in the CNY1,000 to CNY2,000 range; 13 between CNY2,000 and CNY3,000; and 13 at CNY3,000 and above.

Huawei devices accounted for two of the top three devices in the highest price tier, with its P10 and P10 Plus taking first and third spots respectively, split by Samsung’s Galaxy S8+ in second.

However, the top three positions in each of the other price points were dominated by Chinese-made devices (see chart below, click to enlarge).

Ma, who presented the results of the survey at the Global Device Summit during the recent Mobile World Congress Shanghai, said Chinese vendors Xiaomi, Meizu and Smartisan made the most progress compared with the operator’s 2016 report.

Processors
A number of device features were evaluated across the price ranges, including the performance of modems and applications processors, through to more consumer-oriented features covering the quality of front facing cameras (through selfie tests) and sound quality.

In the modem tests, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 ranked the highest in terms of indoor download throughput, with Mediatek’s X30 taking the crown at walking pace and Huawei unit HiSilicon’s Kirin960 top at driving speeds.

Qualcomm also ranked highest in terms of anti-interference properties, followed by HiSilicon and Mediatek.

The Snapdragon 835 also rated highly in terms of application performance, with Ma explaining the chip is well balanced in terms of fluency and power consumption during gaming.