ZTE has been steadly climbing up the ranks in the U.S., currently situated at the fourth largest smartphone manufacturer spot. In the past weeks, they’ve given us a tease that something significant was coming, dubbed the Axon phone.
Today is the day we got to hear what it’s all about, and she’s quite a contender.
Coming in at a starting price of $450, we’re not looking at a budget phone, but not a pricey beast either. ZTE is reinforcing their stance in the U.S., claiming that “Axon is a flagship phone designed in the U.S. for the U.S.”. Their aim was to make a phone that encompassed all that consumers desired in a phone. That’s a bold undertaking, let’s review what they’ve come up with:
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- Design/Build: Metal chassis, 9.3mm thickness, Ion Gold, Chromium Silver, or Phthalo Blue color options
- Display: 5.5″ QHD LCD with Gorilla Glass 3
- SoC: Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 @ 2.0GHz
- RAM: 4GB
- Storage: 32GB
- Camera: Dual rear (13MP + 2MP depth sensor) and 8MP front
- Speaker: Mono front-facing, from the bottom of the phone
- Battery: 3,000mAh
- Buttons: Capacitive navigation and a dedicated camera button
- OS: Android 5.1 Lollipop with light ZTE UI tweaks
If the Axon performs well, I would say this is an outstanding value. ZTE has also made a point to deliver outstanding audio. The Axon is said to contain two dedicated audio chipsets for HiFi sound from your headphones and HiFi recording via twin microphones.
Although this is a phone aimed for U.S. customers, it is GSM only. Thus, Verizon and Sprint customers are left out. This fact leaves me scratching my head. How can you make a phone for the U.S., but ignore two of its major carriers?
The Axon phone is now up for pre-order, with shipments beginning as early as July 27th. Hit up the source link for more info. Did ZTE sway you with the announcement or are you underwhelmed?
Source: ZTE
