Android Phones with UFS 2.0 Universal Flash Storage Internal Memory

Smartphones have come a long way both regarding features, as well as in performance. A modern smartphone can outdo a system from the mid-2000’s. Yes, the phones have one major limitation, and that is limited power availability. Under strict thermal envelopes, today’s smartphones can still outperform anything that we had before. However, in the last couple of years, we saw smartphones reach a saturation point. Cheaper phones started competing with its bigger rivals and cut right through the bottom revenue line. Today, Smartphones and Laptops have reached similar specs which were unbelievable in the past. Recently at CES, Companies like Samsung and Asus have already showcased phones with 6-8 GB of DDR4 RAM. The Snapdragon 835 is going to be at least 20% faster than its predecessor, the Snapdragon 821. In all these Spec madness, one thing did not evolve as quickly as it should. No, it’s not the Li-ion batteries but the internal storage. Yes, the internal storage options have grown from a modest 8 GB to 256 GB options that you can buy today. But the throughput of the internal MMC cards remained stagnant. When Samsung released its first GS6 phone with UFS 2.0, it was a game changer. The Galaxy S6, S6 Edge were the first phones to hit the market with Hi-Speed UFS 2.0 based internal storage. It created an industry trend followed by other manufacturers like Xiaomi and Oneplus. They also released their latest flagships with UFS internal storage. We decided to compile a list of the top phones available with UFS 2.0 storage. Read along!

Also Read: UFS 2.1 vs 3.0 vs eMMC 5.0

List of Phones with UFS 2.0

1. Google Pixel and Pixel XL

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The Google Pixel and the Pixel XL needs no introduction. Google dropped their Nexus branding in 2016 and instead started branding their phones (Dropping OEM branding) as Pixel. Both of these phones are the flagship phones of 2016 and is officially marketed as “Made by Google.” With top of the line specs and a no-compromise performance, this indeed was the flagship of 2016. However, even on Google’s website, it does no explicitly mention the presence of UFS 2.0 internal storage in its specifications list. However, Google later independently confirmed the use of UFS 2.0 in the Pixel phones. It would help the overall phone experience. Here is a quick look at their spec sheet below.

2. Samsung Galaxy S6 & S6 Edge

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Released in March 2015, The Samsung S6/S6 Edge/S6 Edge+ were the flagships phones of Samsung in 2015. Except for the screen size (5.7″ vs. 5.1″), all the three have identical specs. At Launch, these phones were preloaded with Android 5.1.1 Lollipop. However, after subsequent updates, these phones now run the latest edition of Android, i.e., Nougat 7.1. Just like to Google Pixel, the presence of a UFS 2.0 based storage is not highlighted anywhere in the spec sheet. Here are the quick specs down below:

3. Samsung Galaxy S7 & S7 Edge

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Released in March 2016, the S7 and S7 Edge were Samsung’s flagship phones for 2016. Just like its predecessor, the S7 edge is the bigger sibling of the Samsung Galaxy S7 (5.1″ Vs 5.5″). The Exynos 8890 Octa uses 2.15 GHz Kryo performance cores and 1.6 GHz Kryo efficiency cluster cores. The Exynos 8890 uses the LPDDR4-1866 vs. an LPDDR4-1600 on a Snapdragon 820 SOC. It gives a little more theoretical memory bandwidth over its closest competitor, the 820/821. However, it’s UFS 2.1 Nand is where the real world performance is. It only loses to the Apple iPhone 6s and the iPhone 7 & 7 Plus. The iPhones use a high-performance NVMe based Nand storage from Toshiba, whereas Samsung uses their own. The Apple iPhone’s storage performance is more in both the sequential reads/write speeds. About 400+ Mbps vs. 240 Mbps read speed on iPhone & Galaxy S7 respectively. In write speeds, the iPhone pulverizes the S7, 166 Mbps vs. 62 Mbps. Nonetheless, the Galaxy S7 is one of the fastest Android phones out there. Here are the quick specifications:

4. LG G5

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Released in April 2016, this is another South Korean giant’s flagship offering. In addition to UFS 2.0 Nand, it also sports a set of dual cameras at the rear, which acts as a primary and a secondary camera. First one is a 16 MP while the second one is an 8 MP shooter. Primary camera features phase detection autofocus and optical image stabilization whereas the 8 MP secondary camera features 135-degree wide-angle fish-eye optical lens. The primary camera is your normal camera, whereas you can always use the 8MP secondary camera for capturing wide-angle shots such as landscape, sunset and so on. In the case of pure Nand performance, the LG G5 is a little behind that of the Galaxy S7/S7 Edge. Here is the list of full features:

5. Xiaomi Mi 5

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 Xiaomi’s flagship for 2016, the Mi5 also used a Samsung based UFS 2.0 Nand for its internal storage system. Even though the Read/Write throughput is not as much as the Samsung S6 & S7, it is great when compared to the price bracket it sells for and the competition that it has.

6. OnePlus 3 & 3T

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OnePlus is famously known as the flagship killer. They have been killing flagships since its first release, the OnePlus One. Its latest iteration, the OnePlus 3/3T, the phones come with a lot of performance under the hood. Unlike the bigger manufacturers, the OnePlus and the Xiaomi Mi5 does explicitly mention the use of UFS 2.0 Nand storage for performance reasons. With about 280 Mbps Read & 58 Mbps write speeds, it’s well ahead of the LG G5 in pure storage performance. Here are the quick specifications:

7. Le Pro 3 (US Model)

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Le branded Le Pro3 is one of the first (Other being Le S3) of the two phones launched in the USA. It marked LetV’s entry into the US market. Le Pro 3 is a flagship phone with top of the line specifications. As you would expect, Snapdragon 821, 6 GB or 8 of GB LPDDR4 memory and 64 GB UFS 2.0 based internal storage options. Along with this, 4k video recording and 16 MP camera Rear (No OIS) and 8 MP FF camera as standard offerings. Here is a glance at the specification list.

8. Asus Zenphone 3 Deluxe (Silver/Gold, 64 GB & 256 GB Models)

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Asus drifted away a little from their traditional business model of building mid-range phones to ultra-High end territory. We are talking about Google Pixel, Samsung Galaxy S7 or for that matter, iPhone territory. With top-notch hardware and high-speed UFS 2.1 internal storage, Asus went all up against its competitors. The phone comes with a lot of preinstalled bloatware, something which they traditionally include with their mid-rangers. The ZenUI is one of the better Android Skins out there and is user-friendly. However, the primary concern lies with its Android updates. A lot of customers using their predecessor, a.k.a. The Zenphone 2 still runs Android 5.0 with no updates, except monthly security patches. Here are the specifications:

9. Huawei Mate 9 / Mate 9 Pro (Grey/Gold, 64 GB Model)

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Based on Huawei’s own custom ROM, called EMUI 5 is based on Android Nougat 7.0. The device uses a 64 GB UFS 2.1 Samsung NAND for high-speed internal storage. To top it up, the Huawei Mate 9 uses a rear Dual Camera setup based on Leica optics. In the current setup, one camera captures black & white, while the other in color. The pictures output is stunning with a little bit of over saturation.

Here are the quick specifications down below:

10. Lenovo Zuk Z2 Plus / Z2 Pro (4GB RAM & 64 GB Model Vs. 6 GB RAM & 128 GB ROM)

Price Starts $239.99/Rs. 17,499.00/£220.90

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The Lenovo Z2 can easily be dubbed as the cheapest Snapdragon 820 phone available in the market.  Cheaper than the Xiaomi Mi5, the phone comes with similar specifications. To keep up with the powerful processor, Lenovo also provides a UFS 2.0 official ROM for its internal storage. Currently, there are three variants with different data capacities available in the market. 32GB/64GB/128GB variants are available where the 32 GB is only available with the Z2 Plus, whereas the 128 GB is only available with the Z2 Pro edition. The Ze plus sports a 5″ FHD display, whereas the Z2 Pro comes with a 5.2″ FHD display. There are also differences in the battery capacity as well,  3100 Vs a 3500 mAh battery, etc. The form factor is a bit dated, though. With only 72% body to screen ratio, the phone can easily be confused with a 5.5″ form factor phones.

Here are the quick specifications for Lenovo Z2 Plus and Z2 Pro:

11. Samsung Galaxy S8

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The Galaxy S8 is the flagship phone of 2017 from Samsung. It comes with an astonishing 84% body to screen ratio. To put things into perspective, the Xiaomi Mi Mix is a bezel-less phone and has a body to screen ratio of 83.6%. So how does Samsung does it? With curved edges obviously. The phone is taller and narrower which makes it on par with a 5.5″ phone from other flagships. The phone dimensions make it one of the tallest Android phones currently available in the market. With a resolution of 5.8″ Inch 1440 x 2960, Super-AMOLED display, it is currently one of the best. Then there is the Snapdragon 835 from Qualcomm’s flagship offerings. This time, Samsung is not using their in-house Exynos chips, at least for now. The graphics are handled by an Adreno 540 GPU coupled with 4 GB of DDR4 RAM and 64 GB UFS 2.1 ROM. The camera module for both front and rear has been unchanged, maybe because it is already excellent.

Here are its specifications:

12. Samsung Galaxy S8+

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If the Galaxy S8 was not tall enough for you, you could buy the Galaxy S8+ (read: Plus) edition. With a taller screen of 6.4″ and curved edges, it gives you a pixel density of 529 PPI, makes it one of the tallest phones out there. The battery is slightly larger at 3500 MaH to support the larger display. Apart from the phone price, device dimensions, screen size, and the battery capacity, all other specifications are identical when compared to the Galaxy S8.

Here are it’s summarized specifications.

12. HTC U Ultra

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HTC has not been able to keep up with the top Android manufacturers recently. Almost all the Android phones of this time are under the shadow of Samsung Galaxy S8 & S8 Plus. However, the HTC U Ultra also features decent features like Snapdragon 821, a display resolution of 2560 x 1440 / with a 5.7 inch Screen. The phone is fairly big and difficult to hold and single-handed operation, in particular, is fairly difficult. The phone uses a UFS 2.0 storage for its internal NAND, which comes in either 64 GB or 128 GB. With 4 GB of low-power, DDR4 RAM does a decent job of smooth multitasking with over 60% of memory to spare.

Here are the quick specifications of the HTC U Ultra:

13. Sony Xperia XZs & XZ Premium

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Sony released the world’s first smartphone with a 4K screen. It is also an HDR10 compliant display and Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection. The front camera comes with a 19MP Motion Eye camera, with Sony’s own 1/2.3” Exmor RS™ proprietary Sony sensor. The Sensor’s Pixel density stands at 1.22μm, which we think is quite good any smartphone standards. The internal storage is confirmed to be UFS 2.1 storage, and this is why this phone made it to our list of phones with UFS 2.0.

Here are the quick specifications of the Sony Xperia XZ:

14. ZTE Axon 7

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Released in May 2016, the ZTE Axon 7 is still an accomplished phone currently available at a discount in the market. With high-speed UFS 2.0 and 4 GB of RAM, the phone performance is top notch. The Snapdragon 820 chip does a decent job of delivering a smooth mobile experience without any hiccups. The rear camera takes excellent photos, thanks to its larger pixels and a 20 MP camera. The phone also comes with a built-in DAC for an enhanced sound experience. The dual-front speakers do an excellent job of delivering loudspeaker output. All in all, it’s a performance all-rounder.

Here is a quick look at its Phone Specifications:

The list of Phones with UFS 2.0 have been increasing throughout 2017 and we are down to a bulleted list instead. Here are some of the Phones with UFS 2.0 available in the market. See below:

• OnePlus 5
• Huawei Honor V9
• Huawei P9
• Huawei Honor 8 Pro
• Huawei P10
• Huawei Mate 9
• Huawei P10 Plus
• Huawei Mate 9 Pro
• HTC U11
• LG G6
• Samsung Galaxy Note 5
• Xiaomi Mi 6

Conclusion

We are actively updating this list. However, if you think we have missed some, do let us know.

We hope that you like our list of Phones with UFS 2.0. If you have any comments or suggestions, please feel free to drop us a comment below in the comment section.