ZTE is well known for their mid-range smartphones that are available
at incredibly affordable price points. However, the company did make
quite an impression in the high-end market last year with the Axon phone,
a worthy flagship smartphone that found the perfect balance between
specifications and price, resulting in it being significantly cheaper
than the competition.
The Axon phone was followed by Elite, Pro, Mini iteration as well, that once again provided fantastic bang for your buck. ZTE is back again with their latest premium flagship, but does it continue to offer what made its predecessor so great? We find out, as we go hands on with the ZTE Axon 7!
The ZTE Axon 7 retains the design language of previous Axon smartphones
for the most part, and once again featuring a full metal unibody
construction. The front of the phone remains the same, with dual
front-facing speakers to be seen, housed under a distinctive grill
pattern, which gives the device a unique design element.
The display dominates the front, and the ultra-thin bezels along the sides of the screen, and the relatively thin speaker grills above and below it, make for a relatively compact smartphone. This results in a smartphone that offers a handling experience that is better than what can be expected from a 5.5-inch device, and helping it is the rounded corners and tapered sides on the back, that help the device nestle comfortably in the palm of your hand. However, the smooth metal backing can be a touch slippery, and can take some getting used.
At
the back is where the differences in design can be seen. For starters,
the dual camera system is gone, but the look is still maintained, with a
fingerprint sensor now taking the place where the second rear camera
used to be. Also gone is the unique grill pattern that used to be found
between the two cameras, with the dual LED flash now occupying this
space.
The camera is slightly raised as well, which is kind of disappointing to see, given that the Axon 7 isn’t a particularly thin device. The buttons and ports are found at their usual places, with the volume rocker and and power button found on the right side, and a USB Type C port and headphone jack placed at the bottom and top of the phone respectively. Something that has not been retained is a dedicated camera shutter button.
The
ZTE Axon 7 is a beautifully designed smartphone and features a premium
build quality that can give any current generation flagship a run for
its money. If ZTE manages to maintain their aggressive pricing policy,
the Axon 7 will definitely have a leg up over the competition, and that
starts with the design.
The
ZTE Axon 7 comes with a 5.5-inch AMOLED display with a Quad HD
resolution, resulting in a pixel density of 538 ppi. This is a
Samsung-made AMOLED display, and the company’s display prowess
shines through once again here. You get everything you’d expect from an
AMOLED screen, including deep, inky blacks, and vibrant, saturated
colors, along with high contrast, and good brightness and viewing
angles. The Axon 7 will certainly allow for a great viewing experience,
and is another big plus for this device.
The
Axon 7 is a flagship smartphone, and as such, it’s not surprise that
the device comes with the latest and greatest processing package
currently available. Under the hood is a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor, clocked at 2.15 GHz, and backed by the Adreno 530 GPU and 4 GB of RAM.
Interestingly, this is just the “standard” version, with their being another iteration that comes with a whopping 6 GB of RAM, making the Axon 7 one of the first smartphones to offer this. The Snapdragon 820 has proven to be a fantastic processing package, as seen with the other flagship devices out there, and we can expect more of the same with the Axon 7.
64
GB and 128 GB are the built-in storage options that are available, with
the latter coming with 6 GB of RAM. Expandable storage via microSD
card, up to an additional 128 GB is also to be found, but this uses the
secondary SIM slot, so users will have to make the choice between dual
SIM capabilities and expandable storage.
Audio
is once again a big focus for ZTE with the Axon line, with the Axon 7
featuring dual front-facing speakers with Hi-Fi audio chipsets, along
with Dolby Atmos surround sound features. Its predecessor offered one of
the best audio experiences around, from both the speakers and when
using good quality headphones, and we can expect that to continue with
the Axon 7.
The
device comes with a fingerprint scanner on the back, placed to be
within comfortable reach of your index finger, and should be as fast and
accurate as expected. The Axon 7 also comes with a pressure sensitive
touch panel, similar to Apple’s 3D Touch, called Force Touch, which will
come only with the 6 GB RAM/128 GB storage version of the device.
On
the battery front, the Axon 7 comes with a large 3,140 mAh battery,
that should comfortably allow for at least a full day of use, but of
course, more testing will be required before we can arrive at a
conclusion. The device does come with a USB Type C port (USB 3.0) and
support for Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0,
which should get you back up and running in no time. ZTE claims that a
charge for half an hour will give you 50% of the battery life back, with
a full charge requiring around a 100 minutes.
The
Axon 7 comes with a 20 MP rear shooter with a f/1.8 aperture, OIS and
EIS, and phase detection auto focus, and should allow for good low-light
photography, and is coupled with an 8 MP front-facing camera. The
camera app comes with a slew of features and modes, including a manual
mode, various selfie modes, slow motion capture, multi exposure and long
exposure modes, and a Super Auto mode. Previous Axon smartphones
featured impressive cameras, and we can’t wait to put this camera
through its paces.
On
the software side of things, the Axon 7 is running the MiFavor UI 4.0
based on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow. ZTE has had issues with bloated
software experiences in the past, but that doesn’t seem to be the case
with the Axon 7. What you get here is a mostly stock-like user
interface, with ZTE keeping Google’s Material Design elements intact as
well. There are a few useful features that have been added, and you also
get a Themes engine if you are looking to completely change the look
and feel of the UI.
The Axon phone was followed by Elite, Pro, Mini iteration as well, that once again provided fantastic bang for your buck. ZTE is back again with their latest premium flagship, but does it continue to offer what made its predecessor so great? We find out, as we go hands on with the ZTE Axon 7!
Design
The display dominates the front, and the ultra-thin bezels along the sides of the screen, and the relatively thin speaker grills above and below it, make for a relatively compact smartphone. This results in a smartphone that offers a handling experience that is better than what can be expected from a 5.5-inch device, and helping it is the rounded corners and tapered sides on the back, that help the device nestle comfortably in the palm of your hand. However, the smooth metal backing can be a touch slippery, and can take some getting used.
The camera is slightly raised as well, which is kind of disappointing to see, given that the Axon 7 isn’t a particularly thin device. The buttons and ports are found at their usual places, with the volume rocker and and power button found on the right side, and a USB Type C port and headphone jack placed at the bottom and top of the phone respectively. Something that has not been retained is a dedicated camera shutter button.
Display
Performance and hardware
Interestingly, this is just the “standard” version, with their being another iteration that comes with a whopping 6 GB of RAM, making the Axon 7 one of the first smartphones to offer this. The Snapdragon 820 has proven to be a fantastic processing package, as seen with the other flagship devices out there, and we can expect more of the same with the Axon 7.
Camera
Software
Specifications
| ZTE Axon 7 | |
|---|---|
| Display | 5.5-inch AMOLED display 2560 x 1440 resolution, 538ppi Gorilla Glass 4 |
| Processor | 2.2GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 |
| GPU | Adreno 530 |
| RAM | 4/6GB |
| Storage | 64/128GB |
| MicroSD | Yes, up to 128GB |
| Cameras | Rear: 20MP Samsung ISOCELL sensor with sapphire lens, OIS, EIS, PDAF, f/1.8 aperture, dual LED flash Front: 8MP |
| Dual SIM | Yes |
| SIM type | Nano SIM SIM 2 also supports microSD card expansion |
| USB Type | USB Type-C USB 3.0 |
| Connectivity | Bluetooth 4.2 NFC Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n/ac 2.4 GHz/ 5 GHz |
| Networks | GSM/EDGE:B2/3/5/8 CDMA BC0/1/10 UMTS/HSPA: B2/B5/B4/B1/B8 LTE: B2/B4/B5/B12/B13/B17/B7/B3/B1/B20/B29/B30/B25/B26/B41 2CA: B2+B4，B2/4+B12，B2/4+B29, B2/4+B5, B41+B41, B25+B25 |
| Fingerprint sensor | Yes |
| Software | Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow with MiFavor UI 4.0 |
| Battery | Non-removable 3,140mAh battery Quick Charge 3.0 |
| Dimensions and weight | 151.8 x 75 x 7.9 mm 185 grams |
| Colors | Ion Gold, Quartz Grey |
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