When it comes to smartphone manufacturers, Unihertz is something of an exception. The design of its handsets is a bit unusual compared to those produced by its main competitors, and the way it markets them is different too. The manufacturing aspect, however, is a little more difficult to pin down. Unihertz says on its website that it has its “own smartphone manufacturing plant with a complete production line,” but it does not specify where the factory is located. Regulatory filings for a number of Unihertz phones, however, name Oblue Communication Technology as the manufacturer of many of its handsets, with the facility listed as being located in the Chinese city of Shenzhen, a huge technology hub and electronics manufacturing hub.
Oblue describes itself as the “creator and developer” of Unihertz, saying it provides everything from hardware and software development to manufacturing. It’s unclear whether Oblue’s factory is the one Unihertz is referring to, but Oblue’s listing as a manufacturer of various Unihertz handsets, including the Jelly, Titan, TickTock, and Tank models, strongly suggests that most, if not all, of the company’s phones are made in China.
Chinese technology companies enjoy a head start in the smartphone sector because they operate within the world’s most comprehensive phone supply chain, with numerous component companies, large-scale manufacturing facilities and a large pool of skilled assembly workers. They also benefit from a huge domestic market that finances and powers rapid product cycles and innovation. And even though many companies like Apple have diversified into other countries in recent years, China’s huge manufacturing ecosystem is one reason why non-Chinese tech companies continue to use Chinese manufacturers for their devices, with cost-effectiveness an added benefit.
The unusual range of Unihertz
Unihertz has steadily grown in prominence since launching its Jelly phone in 2017. With a tiny body and small 2.45-inch screen, the Android phone positioned the newcomer as a niche handset maker. Unihertz also took a less usual route to market, turning to Kickstarter to try to fund the device. The campaign reached its $30,000 goal in just one hour before raising an impressive $1.25 million. Unihertz returned to the crowdfunding platform with more handsets, some of which took on features that had mostly disappeared from consumer smartphones.
The Titan series, for example, launched in 2019 with a physical BlackBerry-style keyboard. Four iterations later, the Titan 2 Elite was born. Landing in 2026, the warmly reviewed device features the familiar physical keyboard as well as a four-inch 120Hz AMOLED touchscreen, a 50-megapixel main camera and a 32-megapixel front-facing camera, a decent battery life of around two days, 12GB of RAM, and up to 512GB of storage.
Other models, like the TickTock series launched in 2021, are much less conventional, with a watch-like secondary screen built into the back, marking it as a dual-screen smartphone like no other. And then there’s the Tank from Unihertz’s sub-brand, 8849. The latest model, the Tank 5, launching in 2026, continues the series’ extremely rugged design while adding a brighter 1080p projector, a powerful 17,600 mAh battery, and 120W charging. Unihertz’s formula of spotting a niche, validating it via Kickstarter, then iterating on the device looks good work for the company, helping it create unusual and fun handsets for people interested in an alternative to more predictable traditional offerings. If you’re a fan of unusual design, check out these other handsets you probably didn’t know existed.
