According to WIRED's October 2026 roundup, the best phone you cannot officially buy in the US is the Oppo Find X10 Pro Max. WIRED praises what it describes as the first triple-lens 200-megapixel camera system, tuned with Hasselblad, and notes the phone also brings a 6.78-inch 144-Hz AMOLED display, a MediaTek Dimensity 9600 Pro processor, and a 7,150-mAh battery. For former OnePlus fans, WIRED says Oppo's flagship is now the closest option.
Runner-up Xiaomi 17 Ultra uses a 50-megapixel main camera with a new 1-inch sensor, a 200-megapixel telephoto, and a Leica-linked special edition called the Leitzphone. WIRED calls its camera system top-notch but flags HyperOS software, bloatware, and slightly below-par AI features. The list also explains brand relationships: Xiaomi owns Poco and Redmi, Nubia came out of ZTE, Honor split from Huawei after the US ban, and Realme emerged from Oppo.
WIRED attributes the absence of such phones from the US market to a mix of bans on some Chinese manufacturers and brand strategies that target regions where Apple has less dominance. The roundup is aimed at a US audience, but the message is that the most innovative devices are not always the ones on American carrier shelves.
Since this article draws on a single WIRED source, there are no conflicting accounts to weigh; the only tension is the gap between how compelling these phones are and how hard they are to buy in the US.