// WIRED US/UK — INTELLIGENZA ARTIFICIALE
7 Best Phones You Can’t Buy in the US (2026)
There’s a world of excellent phones—flagship smartphones that push photography to new levels and budget buys that confound expectations—that you won’t find in the US for various reasons. Some Chinese phone manufacturers are banned domestically, while other brands prefer to focus their efforts in countries where Apple doesn’t have a massive market share. Whatever the explanation, I have a strong grasp on the best phones you can’t officially buy in the US, having tested the global handsets for years.
Many of these Chinese phone manufacturers release multiple devices under sub-brands. With that in mind, here’s some basic information: Xiaomi is the brand behind Poco and Redmi; Nubia came from ZTE; Honor was a subsidiary of Huawei but separated after Huawei was banned in the US; and Realme spun out of Oppo. It’s also worth noting that folks in the UK and elsewhere in Europe can also buy many of the phones in our guides to the Best Android Phones, Best iPhones, and Best Cheap Phones that are on sale in the US.
Updated July 2026: I added the Honor Magic V6, Nubia Redmagic 11S Pro, Honor 600, and mentions for the Xiaomi 17T and 17T Pro; removed some older devices; and updated prices throughout.
The latest flagship sailing out of Xiaomi is the 17 Ultra (there was no 16), and I’m ready to crown it camera king. The now familiar design, with that huge circular camera module on the back, has ostensibly dropped a lens, but the main 50-megapixel shooter boasts a new 1-inch sensor and lens pairing that helped me capture stunning shots in a variety of scenarios. There’s just one telephoto lens on this edition, but it’s a 200-megapixel shooter that slides between 3.2X (75 mm) and 4.3X (100 mm) optical zoom. A 50-megapixel ultrawide and a 50-megapixel front-facing camera round out a truly top-notch camera system.
The rest of the phone ain’t bad either, with a flat 6.9-inch OLED display, speedy processor, and generous RAM and storage. You also get improved battery life and fast wired or wireless charging. I love the speckled green finish (regular black or white are options). Xiaomi has committed to four Android updates and six years of security patches, too. But no device is perfect, so you’ll have to deal with flaws like bloatware, Xiaomi’s HyperOS software, and that colossal camera bump. I also think Xiaomi’s AI features are slightly below par.
Last year, Xiaomi leaned in to its partnership with Leica with the 15 Ultra, but it goes even further with the special edition Leitzphone (£1,699, about $2,252). If you don’t mind spending a chunk more, this retro-camera-style beauty adds Leica touches inside and out but retains everything that makes the Xiaomi 17 Ultra so good.
For cutting-edge camera performance and AI assistance across the board, Honor’s Magic 8 Pro is tough to beat. While there are no major leaps here, the Magic 8 Pro brings a raft of refinements over Honor’s Magic 7 Pro. A slimmed-down design featuring subtle curves makes this a lovely phone to handle, and Honor has managed to pack in a much bigger silicon-carbon battery. The versatile camera can also zoom in further (3.7X optical zoom) and handles low light and shaky hands with aplomb (night photography is especially strong). That said, the image processing can be heavy-handed at times.
The 6.71-inch screen is gorgeous, razor-sharp, and gets very bright. Honor’s Magic OS 10 is seriously slick atop Android 16 (probably the best software of any manufacturer in this guide). This phone is imbued with Honor AI that genuinely adds value, from photo editing to contextual task handling, and you can bring it to life with the dedicated AI button. There’s also support for Google Gemini, if you prefer. This is definitely not a phone for AI skeptics. Throw in secure face unlock, incredibly fast wired (100 watts) and wireless charging (80 watts) with the right gear, plus seven years of Android and security patch updates, and you have a supremely sophisticated smartphone with very few disc