The Best Phones You Can’t Buy in the US

Other Good International Phones

These phones are worth considering if you have yet to see something you like.

Photograph: Simon Hill

Xiaomi 17 Pro Max for £767: With a refreshing design featuring a second, smaller screen on the back that encompasses the camera lenses, the Xiaomi 17 Pro Max and 17 Pro are a little different. Xiaomi came up with various cute ways to employ this auxiliary display, including selfie preview for superior selfies with the main camera, music controls, customizable themes, and virtual pets. There’s even a retro gaming case that lets you play Angry Birds on there, though it feels a bit silly when there’s a 6.7-inch screen on the other side. Aside from the second screen, the 17 Pro Max is a typical Xiaomi specs beast, and the 17 Pro isn’t far behind, but neither has been officially released outside of China yet.

7 Best Phones You Cant Buy in the US Tested and Reviewed

Oppo Find X9 Pro for £1,099: Photography fans must check out the Oppo Find X9 Pro. The 200-megapixel telephoto lens supports 3X optical zoom and can take excellent shots at 6X zoom by cropping images down to 50 megapixels. But to kick things up a notch, you’ll need the detachable Hasselblad Teleconverter Kit. This enormous lens slots into place on the case and adds another 3.28X zoom, though it’s tricky to use without a tripod. An additional trio of 50-MP lenses, with all four supporting 4K video recording at 60 fps with HDR, makes this a great pick for creatives. Impressive specs include a 6.78-inch flat display, IP66/68/69 ratings, and a 7,500-mAh silicon-carbon battery that’s good for two days.

Xiaomi Poco F8 Ultra for £749 and F8 Pro for £549: Xiaomi’s cheaper, fun, youthful brand Poco gives it room to experiment, but the company’s own 15T Pro is a better buy in this price bracket. What the F8 Ultra offers that you won’t find elsewhere is a fun or awful (depending on your tastes) denim finish on the back. There are also Bose-tuned speakers, an excellent 6.9-inch display, and an enormous 6,500 mAh battery. It also has a flagship-level Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 and generous RAM and storage. There’s even a trio of 50-MP lenses in the camera. The F8 Pro is slightly smaller, but drops little from the spec sheet, making it the better bargain.

Honor Magic 7 Pro for $1,021 (£849): Honor’s Magic 7 Pro was last year’s excellent flagship phone, featuring a solid triple-lens camera, a gorgeous 6.8-inch screen, speedy performance, good battery life, and a dual IP68 and IP69 rating. Honor’s Magic OS boasts polished AI features, and Honor announced an increased commitment to seven years of Android version and security patch updates with this phone. On the downside, the Magic 7 Pro has a large camera cut-out on the front, the camera processing is sometimes heavy-handed, and the ultrawide camera struggles to match the other two lenses.

Image may contain Electronics Mobile Phone and Phone

Honor 400 Pro for $800 (£478): A solid alternative to the 15T Pro above, Honor’s sleek and slick 400 Pro is packed with goodies ordinarily reserved for flagship phones. The rounded edges and soft finish feel lovely in-hand. Honor has bet big on AI features, including a debut for Google’s image-to-video AI. The triple-lens camera comprises a capable 200-MP main shooter with a 50-MP telephoto lens and a weak-link 12-MP ultrawide that also handles macro photography. There’s a 50-MP selfie cam too. The 6.7-inch screen is very bright when you need it to be, there’s a relatively snappy Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor, Wi-Fi 7 support, and the 400 Pro scores an IP68/69 rating. The 5,300-mAh silicon-carbon battery provides plenty of stamina and charges fast, at up to 100 watts wired and 50 watts wireless. Honor promises six years of Android updates for this phone.

Xiaomi Poco X7 Pro for $349 (£349): Xiaomi’s Poco X7 Pro is a compelling bargain that combines a lovely 6.67-inch display with relatively fast performance, good battery life, speedy wired charging, and IP68 water resistance. The 50-megapixel main camera is decent. The Poco X7 Pro runs Android 15 with HyperOS on top, and Xiaomi offers three Android version updates and four years of security patches. This was my budget pick, but the newer Poco F7 has unseated it.

Doro Aurora A20 for £229: Doro is a Swedish company focused on providing devices for older folks, mostly phones, but also a decent video doorbell. The Aurora A20 is an odd spin on the flip phone that may help some people transition to a touchscreen device. It’s like an old candybar HTC Android phone with a flip-out keypad attached to the bottom. There are lots of thoughtful features, including an alarm button, a spacious keypad, and simplified software. It’s also fairly cheap, but I found the performance sluggish, the camera poor, and the design a bit chunky and heavy.

Oppo Find N5 foldable mobile phone shown from the front with app icons on the screen and shown from the back displaying...

Oppo Find N5 for $1,429: It’s a real shame that the Find N5 won’t even land in the UK or Europe, because the world’s slimmest book-style foldable (3.6 millimeters open) is a lovely phone. The 6.62-inch cover display and 8.12-inch inner display are excellent, and the Find N5 has top specs all the way (Snapdragon 8 Elite, 16 GB RAM, 512 GB storage, 5,600-mAh battery, 80-watt wired and 50-watt wireless charging). The triple-lens camera (50-MP main, 50-MP telephoto, 8-MP ultrawide) is the most obvious compromise, a necessity for this form factor. The slightly buggy software and bloatware are the only other detractors, but the potential pain of importing will be enough to put most folks off.

Xiaomi Poco F7 Ultra for £569 and F7 Pro for £449: While Poco has traditionally been a budget brand, the aptly named F7 Ultra takes it into new territory. This phone boasts a few flagship-level features, such as the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset with the VisionBoost D7 for graphics, a powerful triple-lens camera, and a lovely, high-resolution 6.67-inch display with a 120-Hz refresh rate. It also scores an IP68 rating and offers up to 50-watt wireless charging. The catch is a price hike over previous Poco F series releases. The F7 Pro is more in line with what we expect from the brand, with an older processor, limited camera, and no wireless charging. Both run Xiaomi’s HyperOS 2 and have too much bloatware, but Xiaomi now promises four Android version upgrades and six years of security patches.

Realme 14 Pro+ for €530: The color-changing finish may be gimmicky, but it’s fun, and this phone looks and feels far more expensive than it is. There are more highs than lows on the spec sheet. You get a triple-lens camera, an IP68/69 rating, a 6,000-mAh battery, and a 6.83-inch OLED display with a 120-Hz refresh rate, but the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 chipset is limited, there’s no wireless charging support, and no charger in the box. It is still quite a bargain.

Xiaomi 15 for £650: Folks seeking a more compact phone than the Xiaomi 15 Ultra could do a lot worse than its smaller sibling. The Xiaomi 15 feels lovely, with a 6.36-inch screen, a decent triple-lens camera, and top-notch internals. But it’s a conservative design, and it has the same software and bloatware issues as the Ultra.

Honor Magic 7 RSR for £1,550: Designed with Porsche, this souped-up version of the 7 Pro above has a fancier design with a hexagonal camera module, a slightly improved telephoto lens, 24 GB of RAM (likely largely pointless), 1 TB of storage, and a bigger battery (5,850 mAh). It’s lovely, but it doesn’t do enough to justify the additional outlay.

A book teal mobile phone and pair of glasses on a wooden surface

Honor 200 Pro for £350: I don’t love the design of the Honor 200 Pro, but it has a versatile triple-lens camera with a capable portrait mode. There are also some useful AI features, and the battery life is good, with fast wired and wireless charging. It cost more at launch, but at this new lower price, it is a far more attractive option.

Oppo Find X8 Pro for £1,200: The last two Oppo flagships didn’t officially make it to the UK and Europe, so the X8 Pro marked a welcome return. This is a polished phone with a quad-lens camera (all 50 MP), but it feels like a downgrade from the Find X7 Ultra I tested because of the smaller sensor. It is fast, with excellent battery life, speedy wired and wireless charging, IP68/69 protection, and no obvious omissions. But it’s pricey, and flagships should not have bloatware.

Avoid These Phones

These aren’t bad phones necessarily, but I think you’d be better served by something above.

Nothing Phone (3a) Lite: There’s a retro-cool to Nothing’s translucent hardware and pixelated software, and this is currently the cheapest phone it offers in the UK (it wasn’t released in the US). The screen, battery life, and software are decent, but the camera and bloatware were disappointing. I don’t think the Nothing Phone (3a) Lite is bad, but you can do better.

Nubia Z80 Ultra: This is a similar phone to our gaming pick above, though it trades off a better camera for slightly diminished performance and screen quality. It’s also a real brick with an enormous camera module on the back, making it awkward to handle, though I do like the dedicated camera button. Despite a very impressive spec sheet for the money, it manages to feel like less than the sum of its parts. Nubia’s software is well below par, and it commits to only three years of security updates and a single Android version upgrade for this phone.

Realme 15 Pro 5G: Aside from it being quite difficult to get your hands on, this is a weird mixed bag with a lovely, large display and a huge battery, but limited processing power, patchy connectivity, and an inconsistent camera that lacks a telephoto lens. Realme sent me the frankly bonkers Game of Thrones edition in black leather with a golden dragon motif. It’s a great collector’s item, but the regular designs are quite dull, and there are too many compromises here for me to recommend this, even at the now heavily discounted price.

Oppo Reno 13 Pro 5G: This slim, lightweight midranger boasts a 6.8-inch screen (brightness is limited), a triple-lens camera (solid 50-MP main and telephoto lenses with a disappointing 8-MP ultrawide), and an impressive IP69 rating. Battery life is good, and wired charging is fast, but there’s no wireless charging. It’s packed with bloatware but also AI features and tools covering transcription, summarization, image editing, and more that may add value for some folks. Performance-wise, it can’t keep up with the similarly priced Poco F7 Ultra above. After some time with the 13 Pro, I’m not convinced it justifies such a major price bump over last year’s 12 Pro (it costs an extra £150), and you can do better for this money.

Xiaomi Mix Fold 4: Only officially released in China, the Xiaomi Mix Fold 4 is a stylish folding phone with a 6.56-inch outer screen that folds open to reveal a 7.98-inch inner screen. It also offers solid performance and battery life, but despite having a large quad-lens camera module, the camera is underwhelming. The crease is also pronounced, and using a Chinese model is a bit of a pain as various things are not translated, and there’s work in getting the apps you want.

Hand holding a Realme G.T.7. Pro an orange phone with large camera lenses

Realme GT7 Pro: This potential flagship killer has a 6.78-inch OLED screen, a Snapdragon 8 Elite chip, and an enormous 6,500-mAh battery. You also get a triple-lens camera, but the 50-megapixel main and telephoto lenses are let down by the 8-megapixel ultrawide. It also lacks wireless charging, and you’ll have to import it to the UK, as it only seems to be on sale in Germany.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 14 Pro+: An attractive, durable design (IP68), a 200-megapixel Samsung camera sensor, and decent battery life with superfast charging (120-watts) must be balanced against middling performance, poor ultrawide (8 MP) and macro (2 MP) lenses, and a ton of bloatware. Ultimately, there’s little improvement over last year’s Redmi Note 13 Pro+, and it’s not just that there are better phones for the same money; there are better Xiaomi phones.

Hand holding a slim mobile phone with rounded edges and the screen displaying an abstract wallpaper and app icons

Motorola Edge 50 Pro: It may be falling in price, but the Motorola Edge 50 Pro only has a couple of Android upgrades to go. While the design is compact and there’s a lovely display, I found it lacked processing power, with sometimes sluggish camera performance, and there are better options above.

Power up with unlimited access to WIRED. Get best-in-class reporting and exclusive subscriber content that’s too important to ignore. Subscribe Today.