The ZTE Axon 40 Ultra is a terrific phone in and of itself, even though it lacks the under-display camera that is its main selling point. The Full HD 6.8-inch display and top Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 CPU make it a premium experience, and the phone’s build quality feels good in the hand. Even better, there is absolutely no notch or punch hole anywhere on the display, making it a fantastic smartphone for watching media. But is the ZTE Axon 40 Ultra a worthwhile purchase? It’s difficult to say. It’s advised to avoid taking selfies if you do it more frequently than once per month. Alternatively, if you rarely snap selfies but want them to be of the highest quality, you should still decline. But if you don’t care about selfies, keep reading. You could use this phone. also you will learn our article on ZTE Axon 40 Ultra review.
ZTE Axon 40 Ultra review: Design
From a distance, it would be simple to mistake the ZTE Axon 40 Ultra for the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra since, up until you notice the “ZTE” badge on the former, the two smartphones resemble each other almost exactly. This indicates that the ZTE phone is substantial, measuring 163.3 x 73.6 x 8.4mm and weighing 204g, just as the Samsung smartphone. It will likely extend your hand. The ZTE has a “waterfall” display, which means that it curves dramatically at the sides, just like the Samsung. Fortunately, this design makes it more comfortable to hold, somewhat alleviating the awkwardness of its large overall size. The power button and volume jack are located along the right edge of the device, and there is a USB-C port but no 3.5mm headphone jack, which is fairly typical for high-end phones. The former is just about within reach, but not so much the latter. The back of the phone’s design is one aspect of design that we might prefer on the ZTE over the Samsung. The camera bump is less of a dust magnet thanks to the textured glass rear, which feels smooth to the touch.
Display
Really enjoyed using the ZTE Axon 40 Ultra’s AMOLED display. For one, it matches the Samsung S22 Ultra in size at 6.8 inches, making it ideal for watching any kind of material. We can’t say we really noticed the decreased resolution of 1116 x 2480 as opposed to 1440 x 3088, though. The Axon has a screen-to-body ratio of 93%, which is outstanding considering the thin bezels at the top and bottom of the device. Even better, the 144Hz refresh rate was significantly superior to that of other smartphones we’ve used, especially when it came to social media scrolling and playing games with a high frame rate. However, the under-display camera may be seen in the correct lighting, which makes it appear worse than if they had simply embraced the hole-punch. It’s undoubtedly preferable to a notch, but let’s face it, anything is preferable to a notch. The outstanding brightness range of the ZTE Axon 40 Ultra enhances the entire experience in both bright and dim areas. The device was clearly visible in bright sunlight, even when watching dark videos, thanks to its maximum brightness of 1500 nits. It performs better than the Pixel 6 despite not being quite as bright as Samsung’s most recent OLEDs. In contrast, the device wasn’t so bright in dimly lit areas that it interfered with your ability to sleep for the following week. It is impossible to emphasize how cool the waterfall show is either. Without a case, this screen looks fantastic and doesn’t feel overly large. Sure, once you put a case on it, you won’t be able to enjoy it nearly as much. At a wedding, it was the first thing people said to us after we pulled out the camera, and it generally improves the viewing experience. you can read our article on ZTE Axon 40 Ultra review.
ZTE Axon 40 Ultra review: Software
ZTE’s own derivative of Android, MyOS 12, is installed on top of Android 12 on the Axon 40 Ultra. It is less well-known than Samsung’s OneUI or Xiaomi’s MIUI. The user interface (UI), which is typical of most Chinese brand-built Android forks, is quite crowded with big app icons and vibrant, creative backgrounds. It just depends on your preferred style of design whether this is a positive or bad. Pre-installed apps may not be to everyone’s taste (WPS Office, Booking.com and Facebook are already installed on the phone when you first boot it up). However, this is actually a surprisingly little amount of bloatware in comparison to many other phones we’ve seen. The more we utilised MyOS, the more we realised how open it is. The icons for the fast settings menu are big enough to display information clearly and make it simple to press and toggle them. Those who have trouble using tiny, intricate on-screen controls will benefit greatly from this phone. The phone’s internal processing power makes it incredibly rapid to switch between menus and launch apps. We occasionally ran into a few bugs, such as one where notifications would only partially expand, causing the text to be cut off, but these incidents weren’t frequent enough or severe enough to make using the phone unpleasant.
Hardware and performance
In a way, there isn’t much to say about performance because it is so good and easily competitive with other high-end phones. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, the most well-liked flagship phone processor this year, powers the 40 Ultra. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that the phone’s benchmark results are strong and roughly in line with those of the other premium smartphones from this year. It performs better than most in the graphics-focused GFXBench tests, but the phones we chose to compare it to typically have screens with higher demands and resolutions. Real-world use follows a similar pattern, with no lag or stutter during our phone use. This has strong enough specifications to run smoothly for years to come, and it will handle multitasking and productivity just as well as it will gaming. As the standard configuration for the phone’s worldwide release, our review unit has 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, with the option to upgrade to 12GB RAM and 256GB storage. The phone can even be upgraded in China to 16GB RAM and a massive 1TB storage, but sadly that model won’t be available everywhere. The phone still wows beyond its basic specifications. NFC, Bluetooth 5.2, Wi-Fi 6E, and 5G connection are all incorporated as a matter of course. A capable in-display fingerprint scanner and even the choice of face unlock are available for security. And yes, that functions through the screen. It is the fastest one we’ve tried, however it has trouble with sunglasses.
ZTE Axon 40 Ultra review: Camera
Similar to the Axon 30 Ultra, ZTE wrote a huge check for this device’s photography department: three 64MP rear-facing cameras. Although it is a substantial array, if you enjoy zooming, it might be a good fit. After the first shot, it was easy to see the detail in the basic 35mm photos, and it only became clearer as we used it more. This is a fantastic focal length to utilize while travelling. The colours were vivid, the image was clear, and they simply looked nice without any processing or filters. It captures plenty of detail with the 0.4x zoom, even in images taken with the ultrawide (16mm). Without the AI power behind the array on the Pixel 6 Pro, for example, you wouldn’t expect the 64MP cameras to impress more than you did overall. Even while the telephoto lens produces excellent images in good lighting, we weren’t particularly thrilled with the painterly quality of anything beyond the optical zoom (91mm, 3.5x). Even at 10x, the image starts to become noticeably hazy, and each increase up to a maximum of 40x only makes things worse and falls short of the digital zoom offered by Google or Samsung. This camera array is not designed for zoom like the Samsung S22 Ultra, but that’s not a necessity—more of a novelty. The ZTE watermark may also be seen in the images. That is turned on by default, which is yet another illustration of poor software choices made by ZTE. We left it on for laughs so you could see how ridiculously stupid it makes pictures appear. The standout camera feature isn’t the 64MP array on the back. On a display this expensive, the under-display selfie camera, which is much more visible than you’d like, does not produce images suitable for Instagram. When you take a picture, the pixels above the camera turn off, but even after you clean the display, the pictures still come out blurry and drab.
Battery life
The Axon 40 Ultra has a 5000mAh battery, which is what we’d anticipate from a device with such high-demanding screen specifications. However, this specification truly needs to be put to the test in the real world to see how it holds up because often just looking at the numbers doesn’t tell the whole story. The phone performed admirably in our tests, providing a good day’s worth of battery life when used both moderately and intensively. also you can check our article on ZTE Axon 40 Ultra review. To give specific examples, watching a YouTube video for an hour on the default screen settings decreased the percentage by 6%, and listening to Spotify music for an hour depleted the battery by 4%. The battery can be quickly topped off once more with 65W wired charging when it needs to be recharged. We are unsure of how quickly the phone could be charged using the brand’s exclusive UK charger because our unit came with a European charger. You will need to use the conventional method of charging because there is no option for wireless charging here.
ZTE Axon 40 Ultra review: Price and availability
Given the features and aesthetics on offer, the Axon 40 Ultra’s $799 / £709 (about AU$1,200) price is shockingly inexpensive. It comes with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. The price of a variant with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage is $899 / £809 (about $1,430 AU). For comparison, the 128GB standard Samsung Galaxy S22 costs $799/£769/AU$1,249, whereas the iPhone 13 is slightly more expensive in some regions at $799/£779/AU$1,349. Therefore, despite having a much more luxurious build, the ZTE phone either matches or undercuts two important rivals depending on where you live. The phone debuted in China in May 2022, but it wasn’t available for purchase outside of China until June. Australia doesn’t currently have access to the device.
Conclusion
Most fundamental aspects of the Axon 40 Ultra are executed well, producing a powerful, long-lasting smartphone that charges in under an hour. With the addition of versatile rear cameras and that full-screen experience made possible by a covert selfie camera tucked beneath the display, you have an intriguing yet capable offering at a very affordable price. However, it’s obvious that the Axon 40 Ultra has some weaknesses, beginning with those unimpressive selfies. Just under $800 is a high asking price for a phone that doesn’t have an IP rating, wireless charging, or a long-term update guarantee, even at a more moderate flagship price.
