The Next Xiaomi Could Be On This List. 5 Chinese Mobile Brands You've Probably Never Heard Of

Do you remember when Xiaomi phones were for “experts”, they were bought imported and all sorts of things were done to them with ROMs to adapt them. A lot has happened since Xiaomi landed in Europe and set out to conquer the global market for mobile phones and other gadgets. Others Chinese mobile brands unknown in the West They could follow in their same footsteps.

We are trying to discover the “next Xiaomi” in five chinese mobile phone brands that you certainly haven’t heard of. Some of them have already started their international expansion in the markets of Asia, Africa or America, while waiting to dare to compete in Europe.

Infinix

Infinix GT 20 Pro

We have been telling you about Infinix from time to time at Xataka for its mobile launches in Latin America. Founded in 2013 and with offices in Hong Kong and Franceis one of the most prolific brands on our list, with several ranges such as the Zero, Note, Hot, Smart and GT series.

Infinix, which is owned by Transsion, the unknown mobile maker that has crept into the top 5 and is growing faster than Apple, Samsung and Xiaomi combined, It is available in more than 50 countries

many of which are in Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America, although it is officially available in some European countries such as Poland, the Czech Republic or Turkey.

The Infinix brand focuses on mobile phones with good specifications and a better price for emerging markets, although it does not lack high-end terminals like the Infinix GT 20 Pro, with Dimensity 8200, 144 Hz AMOLED screen and 5G. Infinix phones use XOS, the latest version of which is XOS 14 based on Android 14.

Probability of becoming the next Xiaomi: medium.

Tecno

Tecno Camon 19 Pro

From the same house, Transsion, comes Tecno Mobile, which managed to cause a sensation at the last Mobile World Congress with some original ideas while the usual brands brought more.

Tecno Mobile was founded in 2006 and is based in Shenzhen, although it focuses on the same markets as Infinix: Africa, Middle East, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe. Tecno sells phones, laptops and all kinds of gadgets like smartphones, headphones or even a robot dog. Yes, like Xiaomi’s.

With several series under his fan, like CAMON, POVA, SPARK or POPis one of the few brands on this list that has managed to capture the attention of an international audience and one of the most likely to follow in Xiaomi’s footsteps. TECNO mobiles come with HiOS pre-installed.

Probability of becoming the next Xiaomi: moderate.

Such

Itel S24

Transsion’s third brand is Itel, also focused on the African, Middle East, Asian and Eastern European markets. Itel was founded in 2008 and is also headquartered in Shenzhen.

The Itel brand has a wide catalog of smart devices such as home automation sockets, smartwatch, powerbanks, mobile phones, tablets, laptops and TVs. In the nomenclature of their cell phones, there is a certain similarity between the one they use and that of Samsung, with models like the Itel S24 or the Itel A05S.

Such focuses on Africawhere it operates in almost 50 countries, while in Europe it appears only in Russia. Several Itel models stand out for their design and, focusing on emerging markets, it is not surprising that several are based on Android Go.

Probability of becoming the next Xiaomi: low.

iQOO

We have already told you about iQOO, because it is a sub-brand of Vivowhich in turn belongs to BBK Electronics. Although Vivo has finally arrived in Europe, for the moment iQOO remains in Asia. It operates in China, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and India.

The iQOO brand is the youngest on our list: it was founded in 2019 and is based in Dongguan. Since the beginning of the iQOO brand focused on mobile gaming a bit over the top in terms of specifications, something that has more or less been maintained to this day.

Halfway between an independent brand and Vivo’s gaming mobile series, iQOO would have a hard time exploiting itself on a global scale like Xiaomi did, since launched some models and for now it doesn’t have another device ecosystem. iQOO phones come with Funtouch OS 14, like Vivo.

Probability of becoming the next Xiaomi: low.

Smartisan

The Smartisan R2

Finally we have Smartisan, a Chinese brand founded in 2012 and based in Beijing. Smartisan launched artisan inspiredwith a name that combines “smart” and “artisan,” which is evident in the details of some of its cell phones.

Unfortunately, despite its catchy name, the special emphasis on its Android layer Smartisan OS and some interesting ideas, the last mobile phone launched by Smartisan was the Smartisan R2, with Snapdragon 865 and Android 10 (and up to 16GB of RAM, in 2020). The Smartisan site is still operational but it seems that its activity has stopped.

Does this mean that Smartisan can’t be the next Xiaomi? Of course, it’s the “unknown” Chinese brand that This is the most complicated of our entire list.even though everyone loves amazing personal development stories. Now, they haven’t posted anything on their Weibo for three years, so it’s not looking good.