Turn for analysis of the ZTE Axon 7, one of the most interesting high-end mobiles of 2016 for its outstanding value for money, its spectacular display and its high quality sound with the Dolby Atmos seal, is it worth buying?
To the high-end assault
The ZTE Axon 7 lands in Spain as one of the best Android mobiles of 2016, a strong bet by the Chinese company to fight in the most demanding segment of the market against such established brands as LG, Sony, Huawei, HTC or Samsung.
Arguments for fighting the best are not lacking. It boasts a spectacular display, an outstanding camera and an unmatched experience when it comes to playing multimedia content thanks to its stereo speakers and Dolby Atmos stamp, at least on paper.
Throughout this analysis of the ZTE Axon 7 we will assess point by point all its characteristics to try to decipher if it really rises to the expected. For now everything sounds like heavenly music, especially its price, which is well below what the competing flagships cost.
Metallic and elegant design
The Axon 7 lands with Designworks, a subsidiary of the BMW Group, which is responsible for the device at the design level. And the truth is, it shows. Firstly because in the back we can read that the smartphone is designed in the United States, but above all because we are looking at a terminal in which the details have been taken care of.
It is a onebody phone one hundred percent metallic in which we find no trace of plastic, something that is worth praising in view of the sale price. At first glance it is quite elegant and draws attention to the solution designed to place the stereo speakers. In the hand it is very ergonomic, although to be fair you also have to say that it is something slippery.
The incorporation of the stereo speakers does not come for free: if we examine the dimensions of the ZTE Axon 7 in depth we will see that we are facing a terminal something bigger than other high-end Androids, so it is important to try the phone in a specialized store before buying it so as not to get a surprise.
The front is dominated by the 2.5D glass that features Corning Gorilla Glass 4 protection against scratches and small bumps, although unfortunately the mobile does not have any certification against dust or water as some of its rivals can boast.
The screen is surrounded by a black frame that does not over-fuld the multimedia experience, at least in the silver model that we were able to test in this review of the ZTE Axon 7. In the lower frame we have the virtual buttons, which are always active and fortunately do not interfere with the screen. In the upper frame we have a small LED notifier and above, in the middle of the speaker, the front camera.
The screen glass blends with the very elegant curved metal housing. On the left side we have the removable tray to insert two cards and on the right both the off/lock button and the volume button.
At the top edge we have the minijack for the headphones and at the bottom the reversible Type-C USB connector that has already become standard within the high range.
The rear is marked by the antenna bands in the style – for example – of what we saw on the iPhone 6S. The main camera protrudes from the body, although only slightly so we will have no problems placing it on a flat surface – like a table – and interacting with it.
In short, it is a very elegant smartphone that has little to envy of the competition, although it lacks water resistance and is slightly more bulky by stereo speakers.
A screen to match
The ZTE Axon 7’s display doesn’t go de-demesting either. We are talking about a 5.5-inch OLED panel with QHD resolution (2,560 x 1,440p) that offers an average density of 538 pixels per inch.
The numbers reveal that we are facing one of the most attractive panels on the market and, if that were not enough, we have another very important element when deciding: when writing these lines the Axon 7 is the smartphone with OLED display and QHD resolution (2,560 x 1,440p) cheaper on the market, apart from the Smart Platinum 7 that Vodafone markets.
The screen is therefore one of the most noteworthy elements of this phone, and that is a success of the Chinese manufacturer because it will allow us to enjoy a much more immersive experience when it comes to playing multimedia contents.
The panel is vibrant as we always say of the OLED, offers very bright colors and a spectacular contrast with very deep blacks. The bad news is that we can’t manually calibrate the color temperature; we’ll have to settle for selecting from a couple of pre-established configurations.
The viewing angles and brilo level are equally protruding, without too much to envy the best terminals on the market.
Out-of-class performance
Underneath the shell of this Axon 7 lies this year’s quintessential Android processor: Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820, which comes with no less than 4 GB of RAM. This configuration has already proven to be winning on other devices and shines again on this ZTE phone, which moves with extreme fluidity in all kinds of scenarios, including managing multitasking or running really demanding video games.
ZTE Axon 7’s performance tests and benchmarks place the device among the best of the year, a short distance away, for example, from the Samsung Galaxy S7 that everyone talks about wonders in this section.
Does the Axon 7 get too hot? That’s one of the questions anyone asks himself before he buys a mobile phone. And in this case the truth is that we have not noticed problems of overheating since the terminal is able to return to its normal temperature in a matter of seconds after moments of great demand and, in addition, the management of apps through software has a positive impact on this sense.
Finally special mention for the fingerprint reader that in our tests has turned out to be quite accurate and fast. We can use five different footprints and configure each one to perform a certain action, such as opening the front camera or a certain application.
Android Marshmallow with dressings
The software is usually one of the main weaknesses of smartphones coming from China, also within the high range. On this occasion ZTE seems to have been used thoroughly to cut distances from competition, although it is still somewhat behind the best manufacturers in this regard.
The Axon 7 works with Android Marshmallow (6.0.1) and at the moment there is no news about a possible update to Nougat. Either way the experience stays out of stock due to the MiFavor UI customization layer, in its version 4.0.
To start, you don’t have an app drawer to use, but you’ll have to organize them using folders on your desktop. In the settings section we see some extra functions like Mi-Pop to be able to manage the mobile better with one hand. We also have a multitude of gestures available, including double tap the screen to activate the mobile.
The «My Voice» function, ZTE’s virtual assistant, which at the moment can only be used to unlock the phone with our voice, has been released to Spain. We have some pre-installed apps from the factory apart from google’ ones, such as the music player or the gallery along with a number of tools that we will surely use very little.
We also have some interesting extras such as the possibility to create animated GIFS from images using the file manager. All this leaves us about 49 GB available from the original 64 GB, although as we say we can increase the storage by up to 128 GB additional through a microSD card.