Vendors shipped 362.9 million phones worldwide in the third quarter of 2016, an increase of 1 percent over the same period last year, according to research firm IDC. Strategy Analytics' estimates were a little higher, coming in at 375 million units shipped during the quarter, an increase of 6 percent.

Differences in overall numbers aside, both researchers still had Samsung on top of the market with a 20 percent share, dipping from 23 percent to 24 percent. Apple held about 12 percent of the market, losing 5 percentage points, according to IDC, while Strategy Analytics pegged the loss at 2 percent.

"Samsung's market dominance in the third quarter was unchallenged in the short term even with this high-profile Galaxy Note 7 recall, but the longer term impact on the Samsung brand remains to be seen," Melissa Chau, associate research director for mobile devices at IDC, said in a statement.

Huawei, Oppo and Vivo rounded out the list of top five phone vendors worldwide, unchanged from the previous quarter. But Oppo turned in the most improvement in market share, jumping from 121 percent to 7 percent, according to IDC, while Strategy Analytics gave it a 6 percent share on 140 percent growth.