China might be the biggest smartphone market in the world, but the reality is that only the wealthy -- a small section of the population -- can afford to buy the latest iPhone or Galaxy. For the rest, price trumps all else. No one knows this better than the dozens of homegrown Chinese brands. One of them, Coolpad, which ranks number three behind Samsung and Lenovo with 11 percent marketshare, according to The Wall Street Journal -- makes one of the most popular smartphones in China. The company's 9080W runs Android Jelly Bean and retails for just over $300. It comes with a massive 5.7-inch screen, an 8-megapixel camera, a quad-core 1.2 GHz processor and dual SIM slots, which allows the phone to be used with two carriers at once.
Photos by CoolPad
YotaPhone
Have you ever had the urge to mash your phone and Kindle together to create the ultimate dual-screen device? Save yourself the trouble and just get a YotaPhone. This gorgeous piece of Russian tech has an e-ink display on its back that shows notifications like texts, alerts, and weather. You can even use the e-ink screen to answer phone calls or post to Twitter and Facebook. There's a thoughtful little light built in if you want to use it in the dark, and if you stick to the e-ink display exclusively, Yota promises 50 hours of battery life.
Photos by Yota Devices
Oppo N1
The Oppo N1 looks like someone took an HTC One and unceremoniously clipped a webcam on top. Fortunately, the capabilities of the camera more than make up for its clunkiness. The 13-megapixel shooter rotates 206 degrees - enough swing to cover the front, top and back - and locks at any angle. It shoots long exposures up to 8 seconds, shots can be controlled from afar via a Bluetooth remote, and your phone will instantly wake up if you swivel the camera. But there's more to the N1 than the fancy optics. The entire back is touch-sensitive, which means you can use the touchscreen from behind without your fingers getting in the way - it would probably make playing a Flappy Bird knockoff a tad easier. Oppo is currently setting giant markets like India on fire, but you can grab an N1 stateside for $600 on Amazon.
Photos by OPPO
China might be the biggest smartphone market in the world, but the reality is that only the wealthy -- a small section of the population -- can afford to buy the latest iPhone or Galaxy. For the rest, price trumps all else. No one knows this better than the dozens of homegrown Chinese brands. One of them, Coolpad, which ranks number three behind Samsung and Lenovo with 11 percent marketshare, according to The Wall Street Journal -- makes one of the most popular smartphones in China. The company's 9080W runs Android Jelly Bean and retails for just over $300. It comes with a massive 5.7-inch screen, an 8-megapixel camera, a quad-core 1.2 GHz processor and dual SIM slots, which allows the phone to be used with two carriers at once.
Photos by CoolPad
Have you ever had the urge to mash your phone and Kindle together to create the ultimate dual-screen device? Save yourself the trouble and just get a YotaPhone. This gorgeous piece of Russian tech has an e-ink display on its back that shows notifications like texts, alerts, and weather. You can even use the e-ink screen to answer phone calls or post to Twitter and Facebook. There's a thoughtful little light built in if you want to use it in the dark, and if you stick to the e-ink display exclusively, Yota promises 50 hours of battery life.
Photos by Yota Devices
The Oppo N1 looks like someone took an HTC One and unceremoniously clipped a webcam on top. Fortunately, the capabilities of the camera more than make up for its clunkiness. The 13-megapixel shooter rotates 206 degrees - enough swing to cover the front, top and back - and locks at any angle. It shoots long exposures up to 8 seconds, shots can be controlled from afar via a Bluetooth remote, and your phone will instantly wake up if you swivel the camera. But there's more to the N1 than the fancy optics. The entire back is touch-sensitive, which means you can use the touchscreen from behind without your fingers getting in the way - it would probably make playing a Flappy Bird knockoff a tad easier. Oppo is currently setting giant markets like India on fire, but you can grab an N1 stateside for $600 on Amazon.
Photos by OPPO
View the gallery in full screen for more details about each smartphone.
Good old America, land of the hot new smartphone. HTC Ones, iPhones, Samsung Galaxies - these devices are relatively common here and, thanks to the subsidized structure of our wireless plans, mostly within financial reach for large segments of the population. But in the rest of the world, only the elite can afford the ridiculously high price tags these devices command. Look beyond the one percent and you'll see a different picture - a panoply of smartphones being churned out by gigantic corporations you've never heard of, and often incorporating features you've never dreamed of. These are the smartphones of the world. Meet them now for the first time.
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