Hardware & Devices

Alexa, Google Assistant & Siri 🇺🇸 non-EU

You can buy a European speaker. You cannot buy a European voice.

No European alternative

Android / iOS 🇺🇸 non-EU

Two American companies, one duopoly, every European pocket.

• /e/OS by Murena French de-Googled Android, shipped on phones you can just buy. Still built on Google's AOSP underneath. 🇫🇷
• Sailfish OS Jolla's Finnish mobile OS, with EU sovereignty as an explicit goal. 🇫🇮
• Ubuntu Touch UBports Foundation's convergent mobile Linux. 🇳🇱
• postmarketOS German-led project putting real Linux on old phones. Still alpha on most handsets — not yet a daily driver. 🇩🇪

Anker & Belkin 🇨🇳🇺🇸 non-EU

Cables and chargers from Shenzhen and California.

• Hama Monheim, Bavaria. Family-owned since 1923. 🇩🇪
• Xtorm Dutch, focused on recycled-plastic power banks. 🇳🇱
• Fresh 'n Rebel Rotterdam design, colourful and cheap. 🇳🇱
• goobay Wentronic, Braunschweig. The cable people. 🇩🇪

Audio-Technica & Crosley 🇯🇵🇺🇸 non-EU

Japanese and American record players.

• Pro-Ject Audio Vienna, built in Europe, the entry-point standard. 🇦🇹
• Rega Essex since 1973. The Planar 1 is the usual first good deck. 🇬🇧
• Thorens Swiss-founded 1883, now built in Germany. 🇩🇪
• Transrotor Bergisch Gladbach, hand-built high end. 🇩🇪

Bambu Lab & Creality 🇨🇳 non-EU

Chinese desktop 3D printers, cheap and closed.

• Prusa Research Prague. Open source, made in Czechia, supported for years. 🇨🇿
• UltiMaker Utrecht, and the professional desktop standard — merged with MakerBot in 2022, so Stratasys holds a large stake. 🇳🇱
• BCN3D Barcelona, spun out of the polytechnic university. 🇪🇸
• Zortrax Olsztyn, Poland. 🇵🇱

Beats, JBL & Bose 🇺🇸 non-EU

American headphones.

• Sennheiser Wedemark since 1945. The consumer line is now Sonova, also European. 🇩🇪
• beyerdynamic Heilbronn, 1924. Hand-built studio headphones. 🇩🇪
• Focal Saint-Étienne. French high-end drivers, made in France. 🇫🇷
• AIAIAI Copenhagen. Fully modular — every part replaceable. 🇩🇰

Canon, Nikon & Sony 🇯🇵 non-EU

Japanese cameras, near-total market share.

• Leica Wetzlar since 1914, and it invented 35mm photography. 🇩🇪
• Phase One Copenhagen. Medium-format digital backs. 🇩🇰
• ZEISS Oberkochen. Lenses for everyone else's cameras. 🇩🇪
• Novoflex Memmingen. Adapters and supports, made in Germany. 🇩🇪

Chinese rare earth refining 🇨🇳 non-EU

In every motor, turbine, hard drive and headphone. Refined in one country.

No European alternative

Dell, HP, MacBook & Lenovo 🇺🇸🇨🇳 non-EU

Laptops assembled far away, supported from a call centre.

• TUXEDO Computers Augsburg-built Linux laptops with their own firmware and support. 🇩🇪
• SCHENKER / XMG German configurable laptops and workstations. 🇩🇪
• Slimbook Spanish Linux-first laptops in partnership with KDE and Kubuntu. 🇪🇸
• NovaCustom Dutch laptops shipping with coreboot and Dasharo firmware. 🇳🇱

Dell, LG, Samsung, ASUS & BenQ 🇺🇸🇰🇷🇹🇼 non-EU

Every panel on every European desk comes from East Asia.

No European alternative

DJI 🇨🇳 non-EU

One Chinese company owns roughly three-quarters of the drone market.

• Parrot Paris, and used by several European police forces — but Parrot has left the consumer market for defence and enterprise. 🇫🇷
• Quantum Systems Gilching, Bavaria. Fixed-wing mapping drones. 🇩🇪
• Delair Toulouse, long-range industrial inspection. 🇫🇷
• Wingcopter Weiterstadt. Delivery drones with tilt rotors. 🇩🇪

Fitbit, Apple Watch & Whoop 🇺🇸 non-EU

Continuous health data, exported continuously.

• Withings Paris health devices: watches, scales, blood pressure, EU data hosting. 🇫🇷
• Polar Finnish sports watches; the company that invented the heart rate monitor. 🇫🇮

GoPro, DJI Osmo & Insta360 🇺🇸🇨🇳 non-EU

The one camera category Europe never entered.

No European alternative

HP, Canon, Epson & Brother 🇺🇸🇯🇵 non-EU

An American duopoly and three Japanese houses. Nothing else.

No European alternative

Intel, AMD, Nvidia & Qualcomm 🇺🇸 non-EU

Europe builds the machines that print chips, and almost none of the chips.

No European alternative

iPhone, Samsung Galaxy & Xiaomi 🇺🇸🇰🇷🇨🇳 non-EU

Premium phones, none of them made here.

• Fairphone Amsterdam-built modular, repairable phone with an 8-year support promise. 🇳🇱
• HMD Espoo-based maker of Nokia phones, including repairable models. 🇫🇮
• SHIFTPHONE German repairable phones with a deposit-return scheme. 🇩🇪
• Nothing London design-led Android phones. 🇬🇧

Meta Quest, Apple Vision Pro & PlayStation VR 🇺🇸🇯🇵🇨🇳 non-EU

A headset watches your eyes, your hands and your living room.

No European alternative

Microsoft Windows 🇺🇸 non-EU

The desktop, with telemetry and a Microsoft account requirement.

• Ubuntu Canonical's London-run distribution; the most common Linux desktop. 🇬🇧
• openSUSE German-rooted distribution with the excellent YaST admin tooling. 🇩🇪
• Zorin OS Dublin-built and deliberately designed to feel like Windows. 🇮🇪
• Linux Mint The friendliest landing spot for someone leaving Windows. 🇮🇪

Netgear, Linksys & TP-Link 🇺🇸🇨🇳 non-EU

The box every byte in your house passes through.

• AVM FRITZ!Box Berlin. The German default for a reason: long firmware support and a genuinely good interface. 🇩🇪
• devolo Aachen. Powerline and mesh for houses with thick walls. 🇩🇪
• MikroTik Riga. Cheap, extremely configurable, and a favourite of people who run networks for a living. 🇱🇻
• LANCOM Systems Würselen. Business networking, and German-hosted cloud management. 🇩🇪

Razer & Corsair 🇸🇬🇺🇸 non-EU

Gaming keyboards and mice, lit from Singapore and California.

• CHERRY Auerbach. It invented the MX switch everyone else licenses. 🇩🇪
• Sharkoon Pohlheim, Hesse. Very good value. 🇩🇪
• Endgame Gear German esports mice and pads. 🇩🇪

Ring, Nest & Arlo 🇺🇸 non-EU

Doorbell footage, stored in Seattle.

• Bosch Smart Home German smart home with local processing and EU cloud. 🇩🇪
• Netatmo French cameras and sensors that store footage locally by default. 🇫🇷
• Homematic IP eQ-3's German system, VDE-certified, works fully offline. 🇩🇪
• Ajax Systems Kyiv-built professional alarm and security systems. 🇺🇦

Roku, Fire TV & Chromecast 🇺🇸 non-EU

Three American boxes that decide what your television shows you.

• Nokia Streaming Box Built by StreamView in Vienna under Nokia licence — running Google's Android TV. 🇦🇹
• TechniSat Daun, Eifel. German receivers and streaming boxes. 🇩🇪
• Zappiti French media players for large local libraries. 🇫🇷
• Xoro German Android TV boxes and receivers. 🇩🇪

Samsung, LG & TCL 🇰🇷🇨🇳 non-EU

Korean and Chinese panels in every European living room.

• Loewe Kronach, Bavaria, since 1923. Twice insolvent and relaunched, so check support before buying. 🇩🇪
• TechniSat German televisions and receivers, made in Saxony. 🇩🇪
• Metz Zirndorf, Bavaria. One of the last televisions actually assembled in Germany. 🇩🇪
• Bang & Olufsen Struer, Denmark. Expensive, and the picture and sound justify some of it. 🇩🇰

Samsung, SK hynix, Micron & Kioxia 🇰🇷🇺🇸🇯🇵 non-EU

Europe assembles the drive. Nobody here makes what is inside it.

No European alternative

SanDisk & Western Digital 🇺🇸 non-EU

American flash storage.

• Intenso Vechta. The German value option, widely stocked. 🇩🇪
• Angelbird Vorarlberg. Professional video media, made in Austria. 🇦🇹
• iStorage London. PIN-authenticated, FIPS-certified encrypted drives. 🇬🇧

Seagate, Western Digital & Toshiba 🇺🇸🇯🇵 non-EU

Three companies left in the world make spinning disks. None is European.

No European alternative

Sonos / Bose 🇺🇸 non-EU

Speakers that need an app, an account and a firmware update.

• Teufel Berlin direct-sale speakers with a cult following and honest pricing. 🇩🇪
• Bang & Olufsen Danish design audio with genuinely long product support. 🇩🇰
• Devialet French amplification and speaker engineering. 🇫🇷
• Loewe German audio and television built in Kronach — a fine product from a company that has been through insolvency twice. 🇩🇪

Sony, Samsung & OmniVision 🇯🇵🇰🇷🇨🇳 non-EU

Whatever camera you buy, the part that sees is Japanese.

No European alternative

Tizen, webOS, Google TV, Fire TV & Roku 🇰🇷🇺🇸 non-EU

You can buy a European television. Its software will not be.

No European alternative