China's Getting All the Cool Phone Tech. Where's My Robot Camera and Rear Screen? - CNET
Living in the US means getting a great range of cool phones, but some just don’t make it onto store shelves over here. At Snapdragon Summit 2026, I handled a pair of phones that embody the injustice of not getting the cool devices more broadly available in other markets. Where are my cutting-edge phones?
Some blame rests with the peculiar phone payment hegemony run by US carriers, which has primed consumers to pay for their new devices over a few years as part of their monthly mobile service bill. If a new phone brand wants to enter the US market, it pretty much has to be sold through carriers, as OnePlus did and Huawei failed to do. Americans rarely buy their phones at their full price up front.
There are other slight technical reasons, as some of these phones from brands that aren’t established in the US don’t support all...
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