As some of you may know, I’m hoping to change up the type of content that I offer on this site. Instead of being all food I’m going to try and post articles about photography, technology, travel (hopefully) and just about anything else I’m interested in at the moment. No I’m not giving up on food. Food has been the backbone of my site and it’s still a love of mine so I won’t be abandoning her anytime soon.
I was mentioning this to someone and, lo and behold, they said that they work for ZTE Canada and then asked if I’d be interested in trying out their latest device, the ZTE Axon Pro. Needless to say (I’m going to say it anyway) I jumped at the chance. I had only just recently become aware of the ZTE brand, even though I’m a self described Android fan, but I honestly didn’t know that this Chinese company, with their Android based phones, was the fourth largest smartphone supplier in North America.
Zte Axon Pro
Before we start I just want to say if you’re expecting a full technical review of this phone with all the minute details about whats under the hood then unfortunately I won’t be giving you that. Instead, I’m just going to give you my thoughts about this device and some of its features.
Hand feel
I have to say I love how this phone feels in my hand. It’s heavier and thicker than my LGG4, but not so much so that it feels uncomfortable. It just feels solid, but in a good way. This “solid” feeling is due to the fact that it’s encased in aluminium, rather than plastic, and the slightly rounded back allows it to sit properly in the hand. I did, however, find it a bit difficult to navigate the entire 5.5 inch display with one hand and it was during these times that I felt that the metal casing would cause the phone to slip out of my hand.
Display
The LCD display on the ZTE Axon Pro is nice and bright without being oversaturated. ZTE managed to pack in 534 pixels per inch and was very usable even when outside on a sunny day. The colours on the screen are fantastic and it makes watching videos on the AMOLED screen a fun experience. It’s actually a pleasure to use. ZTE definitely delivered with this display. It also comes with anti-microbial Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection, but I’d also recommend a screen protector.
Sound
This is another area where this phone shines. At the front of the phone there are two speaker grilles, one above and one below the display. The top grille houses the earpiece for the phone, while the one at the bottom is where the speaker is located.
Front grille
You’ll notice that I said that sound quality is where this phone shines, but I’m not talking about the speaker here. The single speaker is loud but it’s nothing spectacular. The shining part of the sound system of this phone comes when you plug in the earbuds that come with the phone. ZTE brought in JBL and Dolby to bring HiFi sound to this phone and they definitely succeeded. They’ll have you singing along to your favorites tunes in no time.
Camera
To me the quality of the camera in a cell phone is the deciding factor on whether I choose that particular phone for my personal use or not. Why? Sometimes I don’t have my DSLR with me and I have to rely on my cell phone to ensure I always get some good quality shots for my Instagram feed (It’s all about the food porn). The camera on the ZTE Axon Pro is very good, not the best I’ve seen, but still very good.
The dual lens camera
The camera app may look simple but dive in a little and you’ll notice that it’s filled with quite a few modes and effects. It also offers a full manual mode where you can adjust settings such as the ISO, shutter speed, exposure, white balance, and focus point. One of my favorite things in this camera is the Bokeh mode. Bokeh is the blurred, out of focus effect that you get with some camera lenses. The Bokeh mode on this phone allows you to adjust the amount of blurring after taking the photo.
Here’s an example of the Bokeh mode in use, as you can see the apple is in sharp focus but the candy bar in the background is blurred more and more as the level is increased. This feature also allows you to blur the foreground, so if I wanted I could have the candy bar in sharp focus and the apple all blurred out.
The video camera on this phone is also a beast (that means good). It can capture 4K high definition video with its primary camera, the highest resolution current smartphones support.
Final thoughts
While I did find a lot of things to like about this phone, there were some things that I didn’t like:
- While the metal body is nice, it can also get quite slippery at times.
- The camera is good but it it’s not in the same class as the cameras on phones from LG and Samsung. I also found that it struggled a bit in low light situations and some of my shots were a bit washed out.
- It only comes with 32GB of storage which may not be enough for some people.
- Even though the phone is equipped with a non-removable 3,000mAh battery I still found that it needed recharging sooner than my LG G4 even though the usage was about the same. If you’re expecting this phone to last you throughout the day you may be disappointed.
- I found that the back of the phone got considerably warm after a few minutes of gameplay or watching videos.
Would I purchase this phone for myself? Yes I would. For one thing this unlocked phone is way cheaper than an unlocked one from some of the bigger players on the market like LG or Samsung. The performance of the camera, which I mentioned is important to me, performed surprisingly well in most situations, and finally, it comes with a really good sound system.
If you are interested in purchasing this unlocked phone, you can find it at Newegg.ca . The 32GB model is currently listed at for $499.99, while the 64GB model could be yours for $649.99 (Both prices are in Canadian dollars).
Here are a few unedited photos I took with the camera on this phone.
Disclaimer: I was not compensated for this post, instead I was lent a ZTE Axon Pro which was returned after this article was published.
