Is there any phone brand with acceptable quality?

It's an older one but my Nexus 5 has worked flawlessly for me. After a battery replacement it's good as new. So I have no hesitation in recommending LG/Google brand

 

If would go for the Zenfone Zoom.... If the price was okay for me...

 

I hate Samsung anyways. (Reason: Note 7)

I mostly use mid range devices...

 

I had a Note7, replaced it with an Oppo R9 Plus, and have been very happy ever since.

Don't particularly care for S8 and S8+, will pass on those.

 

Asus is Taiwanese I guess...

 

FYI...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-China_policy

However this is OT for this thread and any discussion might be better over in P&CA.

 

I've been happy with Oppo phones for the last four years, and before that I had a Lenovo, which I was also happy with. I've never had a Xiaomi, but I know a few people who do, and they seem to be happy with them. I think Huawei should be ok as well, and seem to be very much favoured by government employees, from what I've seen.

Apart from the Samsung Note7 briefly, I did have a couple of Samsungs before, they were ok.

 

It sounds like you may have just been unlucky with your previous devices. Even the best manufacturer will have some duds and perhaps you are just a magnet for them.
Generally it's best to stick with the major brands which typically have more consistent quality and better customer service when something does go wrong, also better parts support and more online information from sites such as this and XDA.
Have you checked that the Zenfone from the US will work in your country on your carrier of choice?

 

Think you mean CDMA. Which isn't used in Europe anyway. Basically it's a cellular mode that's only really used by certain carriers in America, China and Japan.

Suggest you verify it with http://willmyphonework.net/ just in-case this imported phone's 3G or 4G/LTE are American bands and modes only or something, like you might find there's only partial support for European networks.

 

Yup as Mike said there are two signal modes, CDMA and GSM. So if the phone is GSM and not CDMA that is a good thing for you. However it may still not support the specific frequency bands and speeds that are used by your carrier and in your country, so it's very important to verify these things before purchasing a phone that is not originally intended for your domestic market. If the phone does not support the required bands it's a hardware limitation and there isn't anything you can do to fix it.

 

No, with all the different bands and protocols in use there is no phone that is guaranteed to work anywhere. You really do have to check even if it's a so-called "worldwide" phone. While such phones may be able to function on some level in most places they won't have optimal coverage or speed due to missing and incompatible bands.
And even if you're not a power user, 2G is quite painful to use on apps that expect a much faster connection. You'll find yourself constantly looking for WiFi connections to get decent speed.
Finally don't expect an imported device to be able to receive any updates. If the manufacturer posts them online and has a PC app for connecting to the phone you may be able to do updates that way.

 

seems like LG is the better phone if you want quality imho

 

Yes there are phones that work anywhere in the world but they cost thousands of US Dollars. Are you prepared to pay the cost? It's an incredibly niche market.