7 Best Phones You Can’t Buy in the US (2026), Tested and Reviewed

Other Good International Phones

These phones are worthy considering if you person yet to spot thing you like.

Xiaomi 17 Pro Max for £767: With a refreshing plan featuring a second, smaller surface connected the backmost that encompasses the camera lenses, the Xiaomi 17 Pro Max and 17 Pro are a small different. Xiaomi came up with assorted cute ways to employment this auxiliary display, including selfie preview for superior selfies with the main camera, euphony controls, customizable themes, and virtual pets. There’s adjacent a retro gaming lawsuit that lets you play Angry Birds connected there, though it feels a spot silly erstwhile there’s a 6.7-inch surface connected the different side. Aside from the 2nd screen, the 17 Pro Max is simply a emblematic Xiaomi specs beast, and the 17 Pro isn’t acold behind, but neither has been officially released extracurricular of China yet.

Oppo Find X9 Pro for £1,099: Photography fans indispensable cheque retired the Oppo Find X9 Pro. The 200-megapixel telephoto lens supports 3X optical zoom and tin instrumentality fantabulous shots astatine 6X zoom by cropping images down to 50 megapixels. But to footwear things up a notch, you’ll request the detachable Hasselblad Teleconverter Kit. This tremendous lens slots into spot connected the lawsuit and adds different 3.28X zoom, though it’s tricky to usage without a tripod. An further trio of 50-MP lenses, with each 4 supporting 4K video signaling astatine 60 fps with HDR, makes this a large prime for creatives. Impressive specs see a 6.78-inch level display, IP66/68/69 ratings, and a 7,500-mAh silicon-carbon artillery that’s bully for 2 days.

Xiaomi Poco F8 Ultra for £749 and F8 Pro for £549: Xiaomi’s cheaper, fun, youthful marque Poco gives it country to experiment, but the company’s ain 15T Pro is simply a amended bargain successful this terms bracket. What the F8 Ultra offers that you won’t find elsewhere is simply a amusive oregon atrocious (depending connected your tastes) denim decorativeness connected the back. There are besides Bose-tuned speakers, an fantabulous 6.9-inch display, and an tremendous 6,500 mAh battery. It besides has a flagship-level Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 and generous RAM and storage. There’s adjacent a trio of 50-MP lenses successful the camera. The F8 Pro is somewhat smaller, but drops small from the spec sheet, making it the amended bargain.

Honor Magic 7 Pro for $1,021 (£849): Honor’s Magic 7 Pro was past year’s fantabulous flagship phone, featuring a coagulated triple-lens camera, a gorgeous 6.8-inch screen, speedy performance, bully artillery life, and a dual IP68 and IP69 rating. Honor’s Magic OS boasts polished AI features, and Honor announced an accrued committedness to 7 years of Android mentation and information spot updates with this phone. On the downside, the Magic 7 Pro has a ample camera cut-out connected the front, the camera processing is sometimes heavy-handed, and the ultrawide camera struggles to lucifer the different 2 lenses.

Honor 400 Pro for $800 (£478): A coagulated alternate 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 brushed decorativeness consciousness beauteous in-hand. Honor has stake large connected AI features, including a debut for Google’s image-to-video AI. The triple-lens camera comprises a susceptible 200-MP main shooter with a 50-MP telephoto lens and a weak-link 12-MP ultrawide that besides handles macro photography. There’s a 50-MP selfie cam too. The 6.7-inch surface is precise agleam erstwhile you request it to be, there’s a comparatively 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 artillery provides plentifulness of stamina and charges fast, astatine 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 simply a compelling bargain that combines a beauteous 6.67-inch show with comparatively accelerated performance, bully artillery life, speedy wired charging, and IP68 h2o resistance. The 50-megapixel main camera is decent. The Poco X7 Pro runs Android 15 with HyperOS connected top, and Xiaomi offers 3 Android mentation updates and 4 years of information patches. This was my fund pick, but the newer Poco F7 has unseated it.

Doro Aurora A20 for £229: Doro is simply a Swedish institution focused connected providing devices for older folks, mostly phones, but besides a decent video doorbell. The Aurora A20 is an unusual rotation connected the flip telephone that whitethorn assistance immoderate radical modulation to a touchscreen device. It’s similar an aged candybar HTC Android telephone with a flip-out keypad attached to the bottom. There are tons of thoughtful features, including an alarm button, a spacious keypad, and simplified software. It’s besides reasonably cheap, but I recovered the show sluggish, the camera poor, and the plan a spot chunky and heavy.

Oppo Find N5 for $1,429: It’s a existent shame that the Find N5 won’t adjacent onshore successful the UK oregon Europe, due to the fact that the world’s slimmest book-style foldable (3.6 millimeters open) is simply a beauteous phone. The 6.62-inch screen show and 8.12-inch interior show are excellent, and the Find N5 has apical specs each the mode (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 astir evident compromise, a necessity for this signifier factor. The somewhat buggy bundle and bloatware are the lone different detractors, but the imaginable symptom of importing volition beryllium capable to enactment astir folks off.

Xiaomi Poco F7 Ultra for £569 and F7 Pro for £449: While Poco has traditionally been a fund brand, the aptly named F7 Ultra takes it into caller territory. This telephone boasts a fewer flagship-level features, specified arsenic the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset with the VisionBoost D7 for graphics, a almighty triple-lens camera, and a lovely, high-resolution 6.67-inch show with a 120-Hz refresh rate. It besides scores an IP68 standing and offers up to 50-watt wireless charging. The drawback is simply a terms hike implicit erstwhile Poco F bid releases. The F7 Pro is much successful enactment with what we expect from the brand, with an older processor, constricted camera, and nary wireless charging. Both tally Xiaomi's HyperOS 2 and person excessively overmuch bloatware, but Xiaomi present promises 4 Android mentation upgrades and six years of information patches.

Realme 14 Pro+ for €530: The color-changing decorativeness whitethorn beryllium gimmicky, but it's fun, and this telephone looks and feels acold much costly than it is. There are much highs than lows connected the spec sheet. You get a triple-lens camera, an IP68/69 rating, a 6,000-mAh battery, and a 6.83-inch OLED show with a 120-Hz refresh rate, but the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 chipset is limited, there's nary wireless charging support, and nary charger successful the box. It is inactive rather a bargain.

Xiaomi 15 for £650: Folks seeking a much compact telephone than the Xiaomi 15 Ultra could bash a batch 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 blimpish design, and it has the aforesaid bundle and bloatware issues arsenic the Ultra.

Honor Magic 7 RSR for £1,550: Designed with Porsche, this souped-up mentation of the 7 Pro supra has a fancier plan with a hexagonal camera module, a somewhat improved telephoto lens, 24 GB of RAM (likely mostly pointless), 1 TB of storage, and a bigger artillery (5,850 mAh). It’s lovely, but it doesn’t bash capable to warrant the further outlay.

Honor 200 Pro for £350: I don’t emotion the plan of the Honor 200 Pro, but it has a versatile triple-lens camera with a susceptible representation mode. There are besides immoderate utile AI features, and the artillery beingness is good, with accelerated wired and wireless charging. It outgo much astatine launch, but astatine this caller little price, it is simply a acold much charismatic option.

Oppo Find X8 Pro for £1,200: The past 2 Oppo flagships didn’t officially marque it to the UK and Europe, truthful the X8 Pro marked a invited return. This is simply a polished telephone with a quad-lens camera (all 50 MP), but it feels similar a downgrade from the Find X7 Ultra I tested due to the fact that of the smaller sensor. It is fast, with fantabulous artillery life, speedy wired and wireless charging, IP68/69 protection, and nary evident omissions. But it’s pricey, and flagships should not person bloatware.

Avoid These Phones

These aren’t atrocious phones necessarily, but I deliberation you’d beryllium amended served by thing above.

Nothing Phone (3a) Lite: There’s a retro-cool to Nothing’s translucent hardware and pixelated software, and this is presently the cheapest telephone it offers successful the UK (it wasn’t released successful the US). The screen, artillery life, and bundle are decent, but the camera and bloatware were disappointing. I don’t deliberation the Nothing Phone (3a) Lite is bad, but you tin bash better.

Nubia Z80 Ultra: This is simply a akin telephone to our gaming prime above, though it trades disconnected a amended camera for somewhat diminished show and surface quality. It’s besides a existent ceramic with an tremendous camera module connected the back, making it awkward to handle, though I bash similar the dedicated camera button. Despite a precise awesome spec expanse for the money, it manages to consciousness similar little than the sum of its parts. Nubia’s bundle is good beneath par, and it commits to lone 3 years of information updates and a azygous Android mentation upgrade for this phone.

Realme 15 Pro 5G: Aside from it being rather hard to get your hands on, this is simply a weird mixed container with a lovely, ample show and a immense battery, but constricted processing power, patchy connectivity, and an inconsistent camera that lacks a telephoto lens. Realme sent maine the frankly bonkers Game of Thrones variation successful achromatic leather with a aureate dragon motif. It’s a large collector’s item, but the regular designs are rather dull, and determination are excessively galore compromises present for maine to urge this, adjacent astatine the present heavy discounted price.

Oppo Reno 13 Pro 5G: This slim, lightweight midranger boasts a 6.8-inch surface (brightness is limited), a triple-lens camera (solid 50-MP main and telephoto lenses with a disappointing 8-MP ultrawide), and an awesome IP69 rating. Battery beingness is good, and wired charging is fast, but there’s nary wireless charging. It’s packed with bloatware but besides AI features and tools covering transcription, summarization, representation editing, and much that whitethorn adhd worth for immoderate folks. Performance-wise, it can’t support up with the likewise priced Poco F7 Ultra above. After immoderate clip with the 13 Pro, I’m not convinced it justifies specified a large terms bump implicit past year’s 12 Pro (it costs an other £150), and you tin bash amended for this money.

Xiaomi Mix Fold 4: Only officially released successful China, the Xiaomi Mix Fold 4 is simply a stylish folding telephone with a 6.56-inch outer surface that folds unfastened to uncover a 7.98-inch interior screen. It besides offers coagulated show and artillery life, but contempt having a ample quad-lens camera module, the camera is underwhelming. The crease is besides pronounced, and utilizing a Chinese exemplary is simply a spot of a symptom arsenic assorted things are not translated, and there’s enactment successful getting the apps you want.

Realme GT7 Pro: This imaginable flagship slayer has a 6.78-inch OLED screen, a Snapdragon 8 Elite chip, and an tremendous 6,500-mAh battery. You besides get a triple-lens camera, but the 50-megapixel main and telephoto lenses are fto down by the 8-megapixel ultrawide. It besides lacks wireless charging, and you’ll person to import it to the UK, arsenic it lone seems to beryllium connected merchantability successful Germany.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 14 Pro+: An attractive, durable plan (IP68), a 200-megapixel Samsung camera sensor, and decent artillery beingness with superfast charging (120-watts) indispensable beryllium balanced against middling performance, mediocre ultrawide (8 MP) and macro (2 MP) lenses, and a ton of bloatware. Ultimately, there’s small betterment implicit past year’s Redmi Note 13 Pro+, and it’s not conscionable that determination are amended phones for the aforesaid money; determination are amended Xiaomi phones.

Motorola Edge 50 Pro: It whitethorn beryllium falling successful price, but the Motorola Edge 50 Pro lone has a mates of Android upgrades to go. While the plan is compact and there’s a beauteous display, I recovered it lacked processing power, with sometimes sluggish camera performance, and determination are amended options above.

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