Why China gets all the cool phones we don't

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Some phones are China-exclusives, like the OPPO Find N, Honor Magic V and Xiaomi Mi Mix Fold. Others come to China first with a delayed international launch, like the OnePlus 10 Pro, the Xiaomi 12 or the Motorola Edge X30. In this video I explain why China gets all the coolest phones first.

The Story Behind - ep. 83

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[TechAltar]

The Nebula / CuriosityStream bundle is no longer active. Instead, you can sign up for Nebula directly with my discount now for about $2.5 a month with a yearly plan, which includes Nebula Originals AND the whole Nebula Classes platform, too, including my own class.

[thatguy]

What do carriers need to mess with the phones anyway? I buy phones from the stores I want and use with carriers that I want. A simple and free market model that works.

[kittyflier]

It's the same thing. We Chinese don't get many fascinating new cars on time or at all. There are multiple reasons, but profit is the key. Plus, the HUAWEI ban causes the absence of new HUAWEI phones even in Chinese market. What a pity. HUAWEI flagship phones used to be so awesome...

[zheningzhang]

For the first reason mentioned in the video, which is that Chinese phones don't need GMS certification, I don't think it's true.

So far, almost all flagship phones with 8GEN1 launched in China have GMS service framework. With the exception of a handful of devices (such as Huawei‘s new p50 family), the flagship phones sold in China are almost all GMS-certified models, even though they don't have apps from Google installed directly from the factory.

[lumpython]

Same thing happened before, when Japanese dominated mobile technologies, can you imagine back 2003 Japan already has 3 mega pixels with 2x optical zoom mobile phones?

[gericjohnm.olivar]

Xiaomi always dominates here in Philippines, despite the presence of other competing Chinese brands.
Though one thing I dislike, especially Xiaomi alone, is their MIUI software. Yes, you can root it to unlock its full potential, but it's like recently the worst Android skin so far. From bugs to weird glitches, you name it.

[chunye]

I got some phones from China directly in the past. The problem was that the Chinese ROMs (apart from coming without Google services which can be fixed) usually have aggressive "power saving" features that just freeze or kill almost any app running in the background except for maybe five whitelisted apps that are important in China, like WeChat. It's very hard or sometimes completely impossible to disable these features. Oppo has been the worst by far of the couple I had.

[dds]

As a Indian I don't understand how carrier regulate smartphone.
Please make the carrier based business model.

[iKnowReview]

I was allways wondering why but now iknow 😅 Great Video!

[rzpogi]

One thing the west doesn't get is a dual slot dual sim iphone. Only mainalnd China+Hongkong+Macau get those. International iPhones are often dualsim but the second sim is an e-sim. Dual slot dual sim smartphones are popular in Asia, Africa, Europe, South Africa, and Oceania as folks like to use two carriers at once, but for some reason, Apple doesn't want to release a dual slot dual sim iphone worldwide.

[malikfaisal]

The same thing happen here, me being from the eastern hemisphere. My country get a lot of Chinese flagship phone release, but iPhone or Google Pixel is not officially sold here.

[kamysamaa]

SD 8 gen 1 is a hot joke...I don't like very much the SD 888 either.
SD 870 or SD 865 is what my next phone will have.

[sanketjadhav]

Always learning new things from your videos, take care brother!

[rikiyrkshkmr]

Quite pretty insights of mobile phone business thanks!

[BruhHowDidIGetHere]

As an American, hearing about these Chinese made phones, knowing that International releases still means, not in the US, hurts.

[FrostGhost]

Really hoping the Honor Magic V launches globally at MWC. It's the best foldable ever!

[yisaleyderleydery]

It's amazing you answer the questions that running around in my head, tganks!

[vitsboy]

This makes a lot of sense, thanks a lot ♥️♥️

[jeromekiley]

An interesting video that is really well produced!

[vandalpaulius]

that transition to Nebula promo was smooth!