The global 5G smartphone race among Android vendors is highly competitive. 

The global Covid-19 pandemic has not had as big an impact on 5G demand as anticipated. Globally 5G smartphone shipments are on pace to surpass 4G smartphone shipments.

Samsung and Xiaomi are the two leading contenders in the Android 5G smartphone race.  They swap leadership on an almost quarterly basis. 



In the most recent Q2 2021 Xiaomi led, on the basis of healthy growth in India and China and by grabbing share given up by Huawei in Europe.

OPPO and vivo are also in the Android 5G Top-5, having captured much of Huawei's share in China.  They are also aggressively pushing into India and Western Europe, threatening Xiaomi there.

The global Android 5G race is not settled.  While Samsung and Xiaomi will remain neck-and-neck through 2022, there are opportunities for break-throughs for other vendors.

Clients of Strategy Analytics' Device Technologies (EDT) service can learn more about the race in the report Global 5G Smartphone Shipments Forecast by Vendor by Region by Quarter, here.