This smartphone has the same specs as the Galaxy S7 but costs $250 less
To design the Axon 7, ZTE collaborated with BMW's design arm Designworks, which also designed the BMW X series and the two-man bobsled for the USA Olympic Bobsledding team.
This collaboration resulted in a sleek all-metal phone that looks and feels great. It comes in the gold color option you see here. At the same time, it does feel a little heavy compared to most other phones.
It also comes in metallic gray.
The Axon 7 has a beautiful 5.5-inch 1440p AMOLED display that looks as good as Samsung's Galaxy S7 screen, and is better than the iPhone 6s, LG G5, and HTC 10's display.
On paper, the 20-megapixel camera has all the makings of a great shooter. It has optical image stabilization (OIS) to compensate for shaky hands and an f/1.8 aperture for good low-light performance.
In a bright daylight environment, the Axon 7's camera keeps up surprisingly well with the best smartphone camera we've tested so far, the Galaxy S7.
Zoomed in 100%, the Axon 7's 20-megapixel camera actually captures more detail than the S7's 12-megapixel shooter. In fact, the amount of detail the Axon 7 captures is astounding.
While the Axon 7's f/1.8 lens can absorb a lot of light for brighter shots in the dark, it still doesn't perform as well as the Galaxy S7's camera, which is also the best low-light smartphone camera we've tested.
Running on the latest and powerful Snapdragon 820 processor along with 4GB of RAM, the Axon 7 runs quickly and smoothly, with no problems on apps.
ZTE also thankfully decided to keep its own layer of software that runs on top of Android relatively light. That means that the version of Android running on the Axon 7 looks and feels mostly like the pure, raw Android operating system.
Other phone makers like Samsung tend to add heavy layers of their own software and design, which renders Android almost unrecognizable.
You'll still find a few of ZTE's own superfluous and redundant apps, like Email, but you can at least delete them from the home screen.
The Axon 7 comes with a minimum 64GB of storage, while many other Android flagships come with a minimum of 32GB. You can also add storage with a microSD card.
It uses USB-C for fast charging and data transfers.
The fingerprint sensor works quickly when it registers, but I have some grumbles about fingerprint sensors on the back. For one, I find it harder to line up my finger with a rear-facing sensor than my thumb on a front-facing sensor. Reaching for the sensor on the back with my natural hand position also forces me to use the side of my finger, which doesn't register as well as the flat surface of my finger.
Of course, I could use the flat surface of my finger, but I have to hold the Axon 7 (and any phone with a rear-facing fingerprint sensor, like the latest Nexus phones) in an awkward position to do so.
The Axon 7 by ZTE costs $400, and it's a worthy competitor in the $400 range, but...
I like the Axon 7, but I prefer the OnePlus 3 in almost every respect, which has similar specs and also costs $400. If the OnePlus 3 wasn't around, the Axon 7 would be a clear winner, but the OnePlus 3 ups the Axon 7 in design and the fact that it runs a version of Android that's even closer to the pure, raw version. And while the Axon 7 has a superb camera, the OnePlus 3 also has a fantastic camera that should suit anyone's needs.
Read our quick OnePlus 3 review here, and a comparison of the OnePlus 3 and Galaxy S7's cameras.
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