The high-end Chinese phones taking on Apple, Google and Samsung

It’s been 10 years since Chinese phone brand Oppo expanded to Australia as part of a push to the West to sell devices that were previously only available in China. Since then, a series of other Chinese brands have also become commonly sold here, including Xiaomi, Nubia, ZTE, OnePlus and Huawei – although it’s rare to see the latter following a stoush with the US.

Though originally mostly bought through importers or direct from the companies, it’s increasingly common to see these brands on store shelves, competing directly with the likes of Apple, Google and Samsung. And though they continue to be marred by a certain amount of trepidation and controversy (not unlike Chinese electric cars or Chinese social networks), the highest-end version of these phones offer a lot of style and performance.

Oppo’s latest, the Find X8 Pro, is essentially a 2025 phone you can buy today.

What’s the difference?

Historically, phones from Chinese companies have been seen as lower-cost alternatives. These brands are headquartered in the same country where most phones are manufactured, may benefit from government subsidies and have tended to closely copy other brands’ designs. They’ve also been accused of lower quality builds and less of a focus on safety and longevity, but these days, the differences are pretty slim across the board.

At the high end, many smartphones from Chinese companies have a focus on extreme performance, battery life and fast charging. While most phone brands allow up to around 30W of power while charging, some Chinese brands go to 100W or higher, which you could view as reckless from a battery preservation point of view but makes charging much faster.

Many Chinese phones also have cutting-edge hardware features even in lower-tier devices, like under-display cameras. But they also have some quirks that won’t mean a lot in a Western context, like IR blasters that can be programmed to act as a remote control for home appliances.

Is it safe to use a Chinese phone?

This is a question I see asked a lot, with some people sure that all Chinese-made phones are surveillance tools. Of course a huge majority of phones are made in China, regardless of which company designs and sells them, and even among Chinese phone companies there’s quite a bit of diversity in terms of international oversight and ownership.

The quick answer is that Chinese phones are as safe as any other Android phone if you use them carefully, but there are particular risks.

There has been evidence to show that built-in apps on some of these phones have been used to collect data on Chinese citizens, or that software pre-installed on the phones has been used to censor topics the Chinese government has mandated.

ZTE are among the Chinese brands of phones now available in Australia.Credit: AP

But then many of the brands sold here do comply with Europe’s pro-privacy General Data Protection Regulation laws, and run different software to those sold in China. Many phones these days come pre-installed with dodgy software that links out to gambling services or data-poaching games and apps, and your best bet is to remove or disable these and make sure only apps you trust have access to your information. Chinese phones are often filled with pre-installed apps from Chinese companies.

Android in general is relatively strong privacy-wise in terms of your ability to deny apps access to your information. In Australia, most people have no need to use app stores other than Google Play.

On Huawei phones, access to Google services may be difficult, but they’re pre-installed on most others. If you’re a politician or prominent business person, there have been enough security concerns thrown around that you may want to stick with Apple, but there is no hard evidence of Chinese phone brands misusing users’ data in the West.

Three of the latest

Oppo Find X8 Pro

To start with one of the most expensive options, and one of the most familiar if you’re coming from an American or South Korean phone, the $1800 Find X8 Pro is an absolute powerhouse. From its powerful MediaTek chip to its four 50MP cameras from Swedish firm Hasselblad with two periscope zoom lenses (one at x3, one at x6), and from an impressive IP69 water protection to a big 120Hz display, this phone is essentially competing with next year’s offerings from the big brands and leaves most 2024 phones in the dust.

Hardware-wise, it’s tough to find a fault, and the cameras perform amazingly well in most light, provided you’re not trying to zoom in the dark. That zoom, by the way, is quite incredible and can provide some viewable AI-assisted x60 results, while a macro lens works well and low-light video is impressive. The 80W charger makes for very fast top-ups.

With software, you get Oppo’s take on the same text summary and image-generation AI the other brands are pushing, which seems to work as well and is easy to ignore if you’re not into it. I’m not a fan of ColorOS, the bright and bubbly iOS-like take on Android that Oppo uses, but the phone comes with a guaranteed five years of updates, which is not bad.

Nubia RedMagic 10 Pro

For a game-forward phone, this one has a very sleek look. The least expensive model (around $1000) has a geometric pattern on the rear glass, while the others have a transparent panel that exposes some screws and a suggestion of the metal frame and cooling structure beneath. The only difference between the models is the amount of RAM (starting at 12GB).

The RedMagic 10 Pro is a gamer phone with serious power. Just don’t let it near water.

Inside is the phenomenally powerful Snapdragon 8 Elite chip, and this is one of the least expensive devices you’ll find right now to house one. Nubia has included a cutting edge silicon-carbon battery with a huge 7050 mAh capacity, with an 80W charger in the box. Since it’s designed for gaming, you can also shut the battery off and power direct from USB-C to reduce heat. Speaking of which, there’s also a built-in cooling fan with open vents that probably makes this one of the least waterproof phones you can get.

Other gaming-centric touches range from the useful (touch-sensitive index finger triggers) to the bizarre (a cartoon AI girlfriend / assistant who addresses you in heavily accented English as “captain”), and the 144Hz OLED with under display selfie camera makes for a clean looking device. AI smarts come via Google, but as usual with gaming phones, you’re getting the best performance possible at the expense of the cameras, which are ordinary.

Xiaomi 14T Pro

For a slightly less expensive option, this one can be found under $800 but compares very well to the likes of the Pixel 9 and Galaxy S24, which cost more. It has a bigger and sharper screen with a higher refresh rate, a higher capacity battery with a ridiculous 120W charge – that theoretically will get you from flat to 100 per cent in 20 minutes – and a trio of rear cameras from Leica.

The Xiaomi 14T Pro stacks up to its almost-flagship rivals but comes in at a lower price.

The phone has a unique all-metal appearance (the back is still glass, but it doesn’t look like it) but otherwise is pleasantly nondescript. The MediaTek chip is a step back from the one in the Oppo model, but still contains one of the most powerful processors currently available, and the Dolby Vision-capable OLED on the 14T Pro is phenomenal in this price range. Camera performance is great, except for just OK selfies.

Xiaomi promises four years of OS upgrades, but it’s yet to fully roll out its suite of AI features. For now, you get Google Gemini and a handful of original apps. The company has abandoned its MIUI Android wrapper for a new one named HyperOS, but it’s not remarkably different. It’s definitely an Apple-inspired take, but isn’t as busy or bubbly as Oppo’s version.

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