Long gone are the days when Chinese smartphones were synonymous with poor build quality and sluggish performance. Today, the four major Chinese smartphone manufacturers collectively sell almost as many handsets as Apple and Samsung, and they will likely outsell them in the near future. Brands like Huawei, OnePlus, or Oppo realize that it’s not enough for their products to perform just as well as the established brands—they must be better. As such, Chinese high-end smartphones offer fantastic value and terrific features.
| Product | Brand | Name | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
 | HUAWEI | HUAWEI P50 Pro Global Model EU/UKVersion Dual SIM JAD-LX9 - International Version - Cocoa Gold | Check Price on Amazon |
 | OnePlus | OnePlus 10 Pro | 5G Android Smartphone | 6.7” QHD+ Display | 12GB+256GB | | Check Price on Amazon |
 | OnePlus | OnePlus Ace 10R PGKM10 5G 128GB 8GB RAM Factory Unlocked | Check Price on Amazon |
 | Xiaomi | Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 4G Volte 128GB + 4GB Factory Unlocked | Check Price on Amazon |
 | ZTE | ZTE Axon 40 Ultra 5G Cellphone | Check Price on Amazon |
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Best Chinese Smartphones
1. Huawei P50 Pro
Despite Huawei’s enormous success in China, Europe, and Africa, Huawei smartphones capture less than 0.4% of the U.S. market, mostly for geopolitical reasons.
What’s behind Huawei’s global success? Quality, innovation, reliability, and excellent value, among other things. Their current flagship smartphone, the Huawei P50 Pro, perfectly exemplifies what Huawei is all about. It was co-engineered with Leica, who supplied the optics for the dual-sensor rear-facing camera. The camera uses quad camera 50MP + 64MP+ 13 MP+ 40 MP monochrome sensor alongside a 13 MP selfie camera.
The P50 Pro is equipped with the Kirin 9000 processor and cutting-edge Machine Learning algorithm to deliver consistent performance by automatically prioritizing CPU, RAM, and ROM resources based on user habits, according to the official website of the smartphone. T
Like most other flagship devices on the market, the P50 Pro comes with the USB Type-C reversible connector, a fingerprint reader, active noise cancellation, and the Gorilla Glass screen protection technology. Huawei’s engineers armed the smartphone with a 4360mAh battery, allowing you to remain productive much longer than your colleagues and friends who still think that Apple’s products are the pinnacle of mobile technology.
Buy it now: here
2. OnePlus 10 Pro
OnePlus is one of the best Chinese-based smartphones that you can pick up today. One of the cool things about OnePlus’ smartphones is that they aim to stay efficient than all of the major flagship phones today, while still offering top-tier hardware that you would find in a mainstream flagship phone. That’s what the OnePlus 10 Pro is all about.
That said, it comes with a beautiful Snapdragon 8 Gen processor, with a whole 8GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. It comes with an extremely impressive screen as well, sitting at a whole 6.7-inches in size. It has great battery life as well, and even comes with an impressive dual real camera.
Buy it now: here
3. Xiaomi Redmi Note 11
Speaking of affordable Chinese smartphones, one of the more reputable ones that you can buy is Redmi Note 11 by Xiaomi. It comes with a beautiful 6.43-inch display, and has top tier processing power like the Snapdragon 680 processor, 4GB of RAM, a whole 64GB of internal storage, and an impressive 5,000mAH battery.
Xiaomi generally keeps their phones even more affordable than OnePlus as well. And coming out of the box Unlocked, it should work on most GSM carriers.
Buy it now: here
4. OnePlus Ace Pro
OnePlus has made a name for itself as a company thanks to its clever marketing strategy and smartphones that consistently delivered the promised user experience. The OnePlus Ace Pro continues this tradition. The OnePlus Ace Pro experience is characterized by Android 12.
You can resize app icons on the home screen to your liking, add password or fingerprint verification to individual apps, navigate your device with custom gesture controls and adjustable buttons, or easily capture screenshots with the new Expanded Screenshot feature.
A superb performance is guaranteed by the presence of the Snapdragon 8+ Gen chipset, Adreno 730 GPU, and 12GB RAM. The smartphone is available either with 256 GB to 512 GB of storage space, but there’s, unfortunately, no microSD card slot for storage expansion. The battery in the Ace Pro has a capacity of 4800mAh, which provides consistent charging speeds even while gaming.
Buy it now: here
5. ZTE Axon 40 Ultra
Chinese smartphone manufacturers are known for selling their devices at a loss to capture the attention of customers. While ZTE isn’t a newcomer, it’s hard to believe that the Axon 40 Ultra isn’t at least partially subsidized.
The Axon 40 Ultra has a gorgeous 6.8” AMOLED capacitive touchscreen with the resolution of 1116 x 2480 pixels and the Corning Gorilla Glass 4 screen protection technology. Underneath the display is Qualcomm’s flagship chipset, the mighty Snapdragon 8 Gen . You also get 8 GB of memory and 128 GB of internal storage space. What’s more, the rear-facing camera has a triple camera with a resolution of 64 MP+64 MP + 64 MP and phase detection autofocus with optical image stabilization. The camera captures truly stunning pictures even in bad lighting conditions and records 1080p video footage at 30 /60 frames per second.
The Axon 40 Ultra features Android 12 . This user interface is fully customizable, easy to use, and surprisingly capable. We especially appreciate how light it is on resources, even when compared to some of the most minimalistic launcher apps out there.
Buy it now: here
6.Oppo Reno7 5G
The OPPO Reno7 5G is a premium midranger with excellent rear- and front-facing cameras, beautiful AMOLED touchscreen, and stellar performance. The new Sony IMX398 sensor was developed by Sony exclusively for OPPO. It provides excellent low-light performance, fast focusing speed, and vivid colors.
OPPO smartly decided to use a capable mid-range chipset, the MediaTek MT6877 Dimensity 900, which provides adequate performance even when deliberately pushed to its limits without raising the price of the smartphone as a high-end chipset would.
The 6.43” AMOLED capacitive touchscreen with the FHD resolution and Corning Gorilla Glass 5 is a pleasant surprise given the price of the smartphone. Also pleasant is the VOOC Fast Charge technology, which is said to top up the smartphone’s battery in around 15 minutes.
Buy it now: here
7. LeEco Le S3
Now here’s a smartphone from a company you’ve probably never heard of—and that’s a shame. LeEco is a total newcomer to the Western market, but they’ve already managed to earn quite a lot of praise from tech reviewers for the LeEco Le S3 flagship Android smartphone.
The LeEco Le S3 uses the ridiculously powerful Snapdragon 652 chipset and Adreno 510 GPU. Besides its benchmark performance, the chipset is also known for its excellent GPS and GSM reception and efficient power-management. When you also add in 3GB of memory, you’re really looking at a smartphone that can compete with most of the fastest devices on the market.
But LeEco didn’t want to amaze customers only by tech specifications that may or may not result in a better user experience. That’s why they developed their own user interface called eUI. The interface is based on the vertically integrated Le Ecosystem, aiming to improve the interactive relationship between people and the ecosystem and break the boundaries between application and service, as described by The Indian Express. Even though the UI could still use more polishing, it already shows plenty of promise.
Buy it now on Amazon
Best Chinese Smartphones Verdict
As you can see, there are a lot of excellent Chinese-based smartphones out there. A Chinese-based smartphone might sound off-putting at first; however, we included all of the reputable brands that you can trust, instead of the no-name brand that might not be the most respected. That said, you certainly cannot go wrong with the Xiaomi or the OnePlus 6T.
What’s your favorite?
| Product | Brand | Name | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| HUAWEI | HUAWEI P50 Pro Global Model EU/UKVersion Dual SIM JAD-LX9 - International Version - Cocoa Gold | Check Price on Amazon |
| OnePlus | OnePlus 10 Pro | 5G Android Smartphone | 6.7” QHD+ Display | 12GB+256GB | | Check Price on Amazon |
| OnePlus | OnePlus Ace 10R PGKM10 5G 128GB 8GB RAM Factory Unlocked | Check Price on Amazon |
| Xiaomi | Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 4G Volte 128GB + 4GB Factory Unlocked | Check Price on Amazon |
| ZTE | ZTE Axon 40 Ultra 5G Cellphone | Check Price on Amazon |
* If you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. For more details, please visit our Privacy policy page.
