As we wrap up the year we take a look back at the most popular reviews on our website and we are now to Q2. These are the phones everybody was most eager to learn more about in the months April through June.

While the first quarter of 2020 saw the review section dominated by flagship devices, Q2 was the scene of a true budget battle of epic proportions. The original trio of Realme 6 phones technically made a debut in March, but it wasn’t until they hit the scene in April that hype really kicked-up. The vanilla Realme 6 and its 6 Pro sibling both brought snappy 90Hz IPS panels to the table, as well as solid performance on a budget – battery and otherwise. Understandably, the Realme 6 Pro soaked-up a bit more of the spotlight, mostly for its inclusion of a dedicated 12MP telephoto camera – a feature that not even its Realme 7 Pro successor got to enjoy.

But just because Realme hit first doesn’t mean they hit the hardest. As per our review statistics, that distinction clearly goes to the soon-to-follow Xiaomi Redmi Note9’s line of phones. A line that is as impressive for its value propositions as it is confusing with its endless string of model variations and regional flavors and re-badging. The Redmi Note 9S, Note 9 Pro and vanilla Note 9 all got solid readership and made it to the Q2 top 10 in that order. The three phones managed to be very similar and yet still different enough to gather massive audiences of their won. A slight chipset, camera, charging or otherwise feature tweak here and there proved to be enough to cover a lot of use cases in more than a few markets.

It definitely seems like a while ago now that the iPhone 12 is the new hot-ticket item, but the iPhone SE (2020) was very-much a major 2020 highlight release and still is. While arguably overshadowed a bit by the iPhone 12 mini in terms of compact Apple experiences, the iPhone SE (2020) remains the budget king in Apple’s lineup and has become wildly popular on that merit alone. That and the fact that it has proven itself a formidable little device, capable of living-up to most Apple user 2020 expectations.

The budget-centric Q2 of 2020 still saw some major flagship reviews make the top 10 list. The OnePlus 8 Pro remains the flagship in the company’s roaster. Granted, one that has the OnePlus 8T breathing right down its neck in most respects, making it less of an obvious recommendation than before, but still a device with major significance.

Then there is Sony with the Xperia 1 II and its persistent different and particularly approach to the flagship phone recipe. Being different, or rather the exact kind of Sony-different is clearly working if review readership is anything to go by.