Newsletter 
AnTuTu, the maker of one of the most widely used benchmarks in the mobile world, has released its official rankings for the top ten performers in 2016 in a number of categories. In the overall smartphone category, the iPhone 7 and the iPhone 7 Plus won with average scores in excess of 170,000. These are the only iOS devices in the overall top ten as the OnePlus 3T is leading the Android charge boasting an average score of approximately 163,000. Aside from sharing a processor with the fourth-placed LeEco Le Pro 3, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 821-packing powerhouse is surprisingly tailed by a couple of contemporaries that are one processor revision behind. The next Snapdragon 821 device we see on the chart is the Xiaomi Mi 5S which placed fifth. Surprisingly, the larger variant of that phone was beaten out by the only Android device on the list that lacks a Snapdragon 800-series processor, the ASUS ZenFone 3 fueled by the Snapdragon 625. The ZTE Axon 7 rounds out the chart, while the Google Pixel and the Pixel XL are nowhere to be found.
On the Android-exclusive side of things, we see the same rankings from the overall chart, but with the addition of the Google Pixel and the Pixel XL at the bottom, right on the ZTE Axon 7’s tail. The ranking places the OnePlus 3T at the top, followed by the LeEco Le Pro 3. The Snapdragon 820 makes a stand on the charts with the Moto Z and the OnePlus 3 but stands down for the Xiaomi Mi 5S powered by the Snapdragon 821. The Snapdragon 625-packing ASUS ZenFone 3 actually beats out the Xiaomi Mi 5S Plus, then the Snapdragon 820 appears once more in the ZTE Axon 7 before the charts give way to the Google Pixel and the Pixel XL. Of the two, the Pixel XL performed better.
2016 was a surprising year in the world of Android performances, as phones boasting the Snapdragon 821 processors occasionally fell behind their 820-based counterparts, not to mention the presence of a phone powered by the mid-range Snapdragon 625 on the list of best overall performers. On the iOS side of things, the iPhone 7 and the iPhone 7 Plus ruled alongside the latest iPad Pro. As for custom skins, they’re mostly absent from the charts with the exception of LeEco’s Le Pro 3 and Xiaomi’s two devices.
