The 5 best Android flagships that aren’t Huawei or Honor

Upcoming Huawei and Honor phones might not have Google services, but there are plenty of other great options

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We say it’s almost bezel-free because it still has a noticeable chin at the bottom. (Picture: Chris Chang/Abacus)

Published: 10:51pm, 21 May 2019Updated: 9:04am, 20 Sep 2019

This article originally appeared on ABACUS

Google’s suspension of support for Huawei means that for consumers outside of China, upcoming Huawei and Honor smartphones will come without the Google Play Store and popular Google apps like Gmail, Google Maps and YouTube. Even though existing Huawei device owners will still be able to use those apps, new Android updates might be delayed or not happen at all.

It remains to be seen how long the ban will last or if other Chinese smartphone brands will be affected. If you’re in the market for a new Android phone right now, though, we have some suggestions for you.

OnePlus 7 Pro

OnePlus has been one of China’s rising stars in the international smartphone space for a few years now. It’s known for combining solid specs with reasonable pricing, and its latest flagships do not disappoint.

OnePlus, the Chinese smartphone startup that made a mark in the West

The OnePlus 7 and OnePlus 7 Pro both sport the Snapdragon 855 chipset, use AMOLED screens and have in-display fingerprint sensors. The Pro version kicks it up a notch by using a pop-up selfie camera, which gives the device an almost bezel-free 6.7-inch screen without making the handset feel too big.

The Pro version also includes three rear cameras: The main 48MP camera, a 117-degree wide-angle lens and a 3x zoom telephoto lens. That’s not as impressive as the Huawei P30 Pro’s camera lineup, but it’s still pretty good considering the handset costs much less than the Huawei flagship. Even the fully-specced-out 12GB of RAM with 256GB of storage version of the OnePlus 7 Pro costs just US$749. That’s a significant savings over the US$1,000 it’ll cost you to get the 128GB Huawei P30 Pro.

See our hands-on with the OnePlus 7 Pro here. Head of Abacus and iPhone user Ravi Hiranand had a mostly positive experience with it.