[Smartphone review] | ZTE Axon 7 | revisited

Is this the BEST?

ZTE is trying to make a name for itself outside China. Looks like they're gonna do it this time with their latest Axon phone. ZTE Axon series was always well known for It's exceptional audio capabilities. But the expense was not very friendly for most people. But this phone has pretty much everything that a flagship has to offer, at almost half the price! Let's check out the ZTE Axon 7.


Design: I have to say, even in these days where we're surrounded by beautiful smartphones, this phone still manages to boast it's own stunning looks. It's entirely made out of a single price of aluminum and looks absolutely gorgeous. The volume rocker and power button are on the right side.

On the top there's a 3.5 mm headphone jack and on the bottom there's a USB type-C port. On the left side there's the sim tray which has dual sim capabilities. The second slot is a common hybrid slot. The phone is 8.7 mm thick and weighs 185 gm. It has front firing speakers with Dolby Atmos audio. They're rich and vivid pair of speakers and will definitely give htc boom sound, a run for its money.

I bet it does!

Display: The phone houses a beautiful 5.5' quad HD AMOLED display supplied by Samsung, at 534 ppi. It's clear sharp and crazy bright. It's just as good as the galaxy S7/S7 edge. I think Samsung has provided the same panel used on the galaxy s7. That's great, since their amoled panels are undoubtedly the best in the world. Great viewing angles, great saturation and great sunlight legibility. What more can you possibly wish for??

An audio beast!

Performance: No compromise here! The Axon 7 is powered by the monster we see in all flagships these days, the Snapdragon 820. It's clocked at 2.15 GHz along with an Adreno 530 GPU and 4 GB/ 6 GB of DDR4 RAM. The phone performs exceptionally well as you would imagine. There's 64 GB/ 128 GB internal storage expandable up to another 200 GB.

The phone runs in ZTE's MiFavor 4.0 UI on top of Android 6.0.1 marshmallow. The UI is buttery smooth, with swift animations. There was no lag at all anywhere in the day to day use of the phone. There is no app drawer though but you can always swap the stock launder for a third party launcher app from the play store!
The fingerprint sensor on this phone is just crazy. It's faster than the Nexus 6P and equal to the blazing fast Oneplus 3. It's located at the back and it also acts as a shutter button for the camera, for taking selfies comfortably.

Not the best camera I've seen

Camera: The phone has a 20 mp rear sensor with f/1.8 aperture and OIS. The front camera is an 8 mp sensor. Both cameras are excellent. Photos done out to be crystal clear with excellent white balance and perfect exposure during daytime. My only small gripe with this camera is the low light performance. It's not bad, but not as good as you would expect from such a large sensor. Photos had quite a bit of grain and the larger aperture didn't seem to help out a lot.

Selfies were great. The quad HD resolution photos from the front camera are clear and have well balanced colors. The camera app itself is pretty fast in it even has a manual mode of you like to play like a pro. I'm very impressed with the phone's optics overall.

Fast charging via USB type C

Battery: This phone packs a 3250 mAh removable battery that supports quick charge. The battery life was excellent. Even with dual sims on, there was no way the phone died out before the day. Even after a full day of heavy use there was more than 20% left. That's impressive considering the hardcore specs and the power hungry display. An awesome choice for power users like myself.

Price: This is the best part. The phone retails for just 26,000 INR. In your face, Oneplus! It's a direct competition to the similarly specced Oneplus 3T. But judging by the awesome sound output, great battery life, better display and better headphone drivers built in to the phone, this in my opinion, is the clear winner, for now.


Liked what you saw? Go ahead and share it with your friends! Click on the 'share' button below. Cheers!