The U.S. smartphone market has excellent phones to choose from, but we’d be lying if we said there weren’t cool phones elsewhere, too. From crazy foldables to camera powerhouses, there’s a whole world of devices that rarely make it stateside.
5
Vivo X200 Pro
Vivo is a brand that’s been pushing the boundaries of smartphone technology for many years, and that shows with the X200 Pro, which has a pretty wild camera setup. Besides the 50MP main sensor and 50MP ultrawide, there is a huge 200MP, 1/1.4″ periscope telephoto lens with 3.7X zoom. The massive megapixel count allows for up to 20X digital zoom without losing so much resolution.
4
Realme GT 7 Pro
Realme isn’t a name that’s as well known as Xiaomi or Oppo, but it has sneakily been putting out great phones for a long time as well. The GT 7 Pro is a performance monster with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, up to 16GB of RAM, and the biggest battery for a non-folding phone on this list: 6,500mAh. You’d think a battery that big would take a while to charge, but it can fill up to 50% in just 13 minutes with 120W wired charging.
3
Xiaomi Redmi Note 14 Pro+
Xiaomi’s Redmi series has always been about offering great value, and the Note 14 Pro+ really showcases that. This mid-ranger boasts a whopping 200MP main camera sensor (and two secondary cameras), a big 5,110mAh battery with fast 120W wired charging, a 6.67-inch 120Hz AMOLED display, and the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 processor. All this for around $520 (if it was available in the U.S.).
2
Oppo Find N5 Foldable
Here’s a phone that may eventually come to the U.S. under a different name. The Oppo Find N5 is one of the thinnest foldable phones we’ve seen–each half is barely thicker than the USB-C port. There’s not much information about it yet, but it will most likely launch in the U.S. as the OnePlus Open 2. It looks incredible.
1
Huawei Mate XT
Another foldable that has received a lot of attention is the Huawei Mate XT. This is a phone that doesn’t only fold once but twice. It can be used in three modes: a standard 6.4-inch phone, a 7.9-inch mini-tablet, and a full 10.2-inch tablet when fully unfolded. The phone is also a powerhouse with a Kirin 9010 processor, 16GB of RAM, and a 5,600mAh battery. Sadly, if it did come to the U.S., it would not have the Play Store.
These are just a few of the great phones that are currently unavailable in the U.S. We’re certainly not lacking in choices, but there’s no doubt we’re missing out on some innovation. We can only hope for a day when we can get our hands on more interesting devices.
