For the average Nigerian, there’s no special shopping season for buying phones. Phones are mostly bought when needed, except for some of us who’d like to upgrade during the celebration season — Nigerians are known big time spenders during such periods like the Christmas season.

So, if you are in Nigeria, here are the top 10 smartphones you can buy get for yourself (or for somebody else). The order is written in no particular order:

Nokia X
OS: Android 4.1
Screen size: 4 inches
Camera: 3.2MP
Processor: 1GHz dual-core CPU, 512MB RAM
Battery: 1500mAh
Price: 17,000 naira

The Nigerian environment is already stressful enough, the last thing you would  need from your smartphone is more stress.

That said, Nokia’s first Android-powered phone is as stable as ****, and has, even though it’s less than four months old, been updated a couple of times.

If you can live without a web cam and LED flash, the Nokia X is a good choice as it perfectly matches the average Nigerian’s smartphone buying power at just 17,000 naira.

Without being told, electricity in Nigeria (like in most developing countries) can never be trusted, and one needs a phone partner with a rugged battery to decrease the chances of being stranded. The Nokia X is one phone with a powerful, long lasting battery.

Opsson D1sOS: Android 4.2
Screen size: 4 inches
Camera: 5MP
Processor: 1.2GHz dual-core CPU, 1GB RAM
Battery: 1700mAh
Price: 15,000 naira

While many don’t know about the Opsson D1s yet since it’s relatively new, it’s predecessor, the D1 might sound more familiar.

The D1s is a mirror of the D1 except the former has more 512MB of RAM but Opsson still manged to keep an identical pricing for both.

Opsson D1s is not a spec beast, but will run most games and apps on the Google Play store with ease. It’s 5MP snapper will take care of the camera job you, while the VGA front-facing camera that adorns it’s front is there for you  if you are with the selfie crowd.

Nokia XL
OS: Android 4.1
Screen size: 5 inches
Camera: 5MP
Processor: 1GHz dual-core CPU, 768MB RAM
Battery: 2000mAh
Price: 25,000 naira

Nokia XL is a bigger alternative to the Nokia X. And with more size comes comes more improvement — at least as with Nokia’s ideology here.

The XL has a front-facing camera and LED flash. The bigger body sees that it features a bigger battery, and bigger ego too, moving the price 8k north of that of the Nokia X.

Asides internals, the Nokia XL looks very cool. In fact, it’s one of the best looking mobile phones out there.

BlackBerry Bold Touch 9900
OS: BlackBerry OS 7.0
Screen size: 2.8 inches + QWERTY keyboard
Camera: 5MP
Processor: 1.2GHz CPU, 768MB RAM
Battery: 1230mAh
Price: 50,000 naira

BlackBerry Bold 5, as it’s popularly known in Nigeria, is still one of the best phones out there and that’s why it got a spot in this list.

Apart from it’s responsive wide touchscreen and full QWERTY keyboard for those that love typing, the Bold Touch 9900 (and most BlackBerry smartphones ) stands out of the pack with affordability of Internet via BIS.

Though there isn’t much to say about the phone’s battery, it’s 5MP camera is massively sharper than a whole lot of newer smartphones’ cameras out there.

So, if you can afford 50,000 naira for a smartphone — the ‘UK-used’, aka refurbished ones are way cheaper — there’s nothing to complain about the Bold Touch 9900. BlackBerry is even planning to start producing the smartphone again.

Samsung Galaxy S5
OS: Android 4.4
Screen size: 5.1 inches
Camera: 16MP
Processor: 2.5GHz quad-core CPU, 2GB RAM
Battery: 2880mAh
Price: 105,000 naira

Samsung’s current flagship device device isn’t any stranger to this website. For 105,000 naira, you can get yourself a piece of this water-proof, 16MP-camera, fingerprint sensor-packing beast.

Not much of the Samsung Galaxy S5 can be squeezed into this article so you can read more on the specifications of the phone here.

BlackBerry Z10
OS: BlackBerry 10
Screen size: 4.2 inches
Camera: 8MP
Processor: 1.5GHz quad-core CPU, 2GB RAM
Battery: 1800mAh
Price: 34,000 naira

The BlackBerry Z10 as a very good smartphone but not many know that and you can blame it on BB’s poor marketing for the device.

The Z10 hasn’t been enjoying much publicity in Nigeria, forcing BlackBerry to shrink the price of the BB10 OS-powered smartphone all the way from over 100k to under 35k.

That has deployed a gold rush for the smartphone since the beginning of this year and many are now coming to terms that the Z10 is an excellent masterpiece.

Gionee Elife E7
OS: Android 4.2
Screen size: 5 inches
Camera: 13MP
Processor: 1.5GHz quad-core CPU, 3GB RAM
Battery: 2500mAh
Price: 65,000 naira

Gionee Elife E7 unsurprisingly graces our list as  one of the best smartphones to buy in Nigeria at the moment.

The phone, which has been always touted as the smartphone with the best camera by it’s producer, isn’t bad at all, considering it’s loaded next-gen specs and all that.

The first noticeable down slide on the E7 is the absence of microSD card slot on the device.

Apple iPhone 5S
OS: iOS 7
Screen size: 4 inches
Camera: 8MP
Processor: 1.3GHz dual-core CPU, 1GB RAM
Battery: 1560mAh
Price: 130,000 naira

If you want to stand out from the Nigerian crowd, Apple iPhone 5S should be  your easiest gateway.

The iPhone 5S won’t let you get away with it that cheaply though. The 16GB version will set you back 130k the 32GB, 150k while the 64GB edition will make you part 170k..and oh..there’s no space for microSD slot.

The iPhone 5S dazzles with it’s premium aluminum shell, features fingerprint scanner and cripples many other smartphones in terms of stability. The major issue is that it costs an arm an a leg here in Nigeria as there are no Apple Stores and hardly any recognized dealer.

Nokia Lumia 520
OS: Windows Phone 8
Screen size: 4 inches
Camera: 5MP
Processor: 1GHz dual-core CPU, 512MB RAM
Battery: 1430mAh
Price: 18,000 naira

The Lumia 520 is powered by Windows Phone 8 operating system and comes with a very much strong battery.

No one can easily recognize you are using an 18,000 naira smartphone as the Lumia 520 looks really premium with it’s polycarbonate cover.

The smartphone also lets you stand out of the crowd as not many people go with the world’s most popular Windows-powered phone in Nigeria.

Samsung Galaxy Note 3
OS: Android 4.3
Screen size: 5.7 inches
Camera: 13MP
Processor: 2.3GHz quad-core CPU, 3GB RAM
Battery: 3200mAh
Price: 108,000 naira

The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is one the best smartphones ever made. This monster, with it’s 3GB of RAM and Snapdragon 800 processor, sidelines some 2014 computers in terms of processing power.

The Note 3 has a stylus for quick navigation, drawing and typing. The phone’s massive 5.7-inch screen makes it fall into the category of phablets (phones with large very screens) and the battery, the giant 3200mAh battery on the Note 3 can survive several days of use.