World's BEST Under-Display Camera Smartphone – ZTE Axon 40 Ultra Review!

Almost two years ago. Last year, they introduced their second generation under display cam in the axon 30., both of which were very much mid range smartphones. Its now 2022 and zte are so confident in their third generation under display camera tech that they have finally decided to include it in their latest top end flagship, the zte axon 40 ultra last years, axon 30 ultra was one incredible smartphone that came in at just 750 us dollars, but it used a punch, hole, selfie camera. This years, accent 40 ultra not only introduces under display camera technology in a fully fledged flagship, but has only increased its price by just 50 bucks other than the in display camera. This device is packed with some serious hardware were talking: a triple 64 megapixel camera setup, a 120 hertz 6.8 inch curved amoled display with 1440hz pwm dimming snapdragon 8gen1, chipsets, 9 layer, cooling system, large battery and very fast charging. This is tech nick, and this is my unboxing and review of the zte axon 40 ultra. The global version of the xn40 ultra only comes in one color variant, that being black. It is an anti glare glass though, and it does have micro textures on the back. For a super smooth look, i guess you could say and feel i like: the simplistic branding and the elegant squared off rectangular camera module at the back, which houses some impressive cameras more on that a bit later inside. The body of this beast sits a 5 000 milliamp hour battery and 65 watt wide charging, not to mention a snapdragon 8gen1 chipsets, nine layer, vapor chamber, liquid cooling, enhanced lp, ddr5 ram and ufs 3.

1 storage. The front and back is protected by gorilla glass and there is an aluminum frame wrapping around the device that comes in at just 1.5 millimeters thick two of those 64 megapixel cameras are imx, 787 sensors, that being the ultra wide and the main sensor and the third 64 megapixel camera is a 91 millimeter periscope talking about focal length. The main sensor is 35 millimeters, which is pretty different from the usual 24 or 26 millimeter focal length and when comparing it to the iphone 13 pro max, on its left hand, side with a 26 millimeter focal length, you can see its quite zoomed in on the Axon 40 ultra via with the 35 millimeter lens, but you got to remember that the ultra wide camera is the same sensor, the imax 787. So you can actually zoom out from the main sensor, kicking into the ultra wide sensor for a 0.7 x zoom. Getting you relatively 26 millimeters of focal length, speaking of the ultra wide camera, it looks superb at native 64, megapixels spinning it down 16 megapixels with 4 to 1 pixel binning looks even better 64 megapixel main looks fantastic, putting it down to 16 megapixels once again, even Better thanks to ai, we can also do native 64 megapixel with the periscope and pin it down as well. It gets around 5.7 times optical zoom when youre basing it on a 26 millimeter focal length. Switching back to the 64 megapixel ultra wide.

As you can see, the lighting is a bit harsher over here. It does a really good job at turning it down, brightening it up and, at the same time, filling detail over there when burning down whether using the ultrawide, the main or the periscope over here. Once again, the periscope zoomed in looks darn fantastic, but once we hit 10 times we go into digital zoom. It doesnt look quite as good, not too bad, though 30 times starts to blur out 40 times is a bit of a no go. That is the max zoom, however, taking portraits with the 35 millimeter focal length main camera looks absolutely phenomenal and shooting to your ultra wide sensor makes for a useful macro, cam too, and once again, that ultra wide also has another trick up at sleeve that being 8k At 30 frames per second video recording pretty much the only phone ive ever heard of that does 8k video recording with the ultrawide sensor. You can also do 4k 60fps when recording with the ultrawide, and you can enable anti shake when you switch over to 4k for it to be nice and buttery smooth. Of course, we can also do 8k 30fps using the main sensor over here slightly smoother than that of the ultra wide and shifting over to 4k 60fps. With the main. Once again, we get treated to anti shake over here and once again, nice and smooth a little bit jittery here and there.

But overall the picture quality is absolutely phenomenal. We do have 4k 25 fps with stabilization enabled here, with the main she does a fairly decent job same with the ultra wide sensor over here. They both do a pretty decent. I guess job when youre running around 8k 30fps at night, using the ultrawide cam, looks. Okay, 8k at night, its actually probably the best ive, seen on a flagship, smartphone 4k 60fps ultra wide. With that ultrawide camera once again looks phenomenal. You can drop down the frame rate as well, but for some strange reason it doesnt really brighten up much. What it does have up its sleeve, though, is ultra wide night video mode once again, pretty much a first that ive seen in a smartphone. We also have 8k 30fps recording at night with the main sensor, which does just as good, if not as had but better of your job when compared to the ultrawide sensor, it is brighter, even at 4k 60fps when compared to the ultrawide sensor. That is pretty given, though, since it has a wider aperture, and we also have 4k 25 fps recording at night brightens things up a tad but dims down the decel a tad bit. But once again we do have the night video option when using the main sensor of course, capped at 1080p and 30fps still brightens it up and covers quite a bit of detail over there now taking photos at night with the ultrawide doesnt look the best but kicking In that night mode and things are like night and day pretty much same thing with the main sensor via night mode off and switching to night mode on, it is insane how much brighter and how packed with detail.

It really is now moving on to the periscope over here. Doesnt do as good a job when compared to the ultra wider main, especially when you go to 10 times digital. When you turn night mode on its a bit fuzzy and blurry over there, though it does brighten things up 30 times, not the best with night mode off or night mode on and 40 times is the max zoom, though unfortunately, no night mode option available when shooting At 40 times zoom, the back cameras are absolutely phenomenal. If you ask me and on the right side of the device, we have a textured power button above that a volume rocker at the bottom. We do have a dual sim 5g tray. Unfortunately, no expandable storage over here, though there is a water resistant seal, even though theres no ip68 certification. Next to that, we have a usb 3.1 type c port and alongside that is the first dual stereo speaker. Second, one is at the top and theyre both paired with dtsx ultra. We also have that wonderful under display selfie camera. It is the third generation over here and when comparing it to the likes of a samsung galaxy s22 ultra, you can see the camera on the samsung and it is invisible on the zt xn40 ultra, which is indeed a 16 megapixel snapper. However, the photos come out. Okay, it looks okay when you take a regular selfie in good lighting, but as soon as you switch over to the portrait mode, something weird happens to my face: a bit reddish over there.

As you can see, switching to portrait now, it kind of blows the whole shot out of proportion. But if you use the clear portrait mode and stick to the main photo mode, it does a more than decent job. Whats up guys technic here, recording a 1080p at 30 fps selfie video on the brand new zte accent: 40 ultra. Yes, the under display selfie camera flagship smartphone. Let me know what you guys think of the audio and video quality, even though it is capped at 1080p and 30 frames per second recording at night with the selfie cam doesnt. Look too good, but youve got to remember that pretty much all phones recording with the selfie camera knight dont really come up too great and taking snaps at night flash mode or flash mode on over here. Flash mode looks a hell of a lot better. There is no night mode option with the selfie and portrait mode with flash on or off just does not look good. The selfie camera results are a bit of a mixed bag, but it still does a fantastic job of hiding. It were gon na get into some more details on that in a sec, but you can see that even moving it left to right. You cant really see it at all, even with my studio lights enabled over here, we do have an under display fingerprint sensor, though it is optical, it does a more than decent job, its not the fastest optical reader, ive seen around and its unfortunate, its, not ultrasonic, But it still gets the job done right.

We also have 2d face unlock over here, but once again, its not 3d face unlock, so its not very secure and it utilizes the selfie camera, but its fairly snappy. If you ask me, of course, that selfie camera getting back into that with the screen on, of course, comparing it to the s22 ultra on the left hand, side both of them bear in mind, have the same size screen. They both look fantastic, but the screen to body ratio on these et is just streaks ahead of that of the s22 ultra and speaking of that camera, which you cannot see hidden under the display. It actually has 400 pixels per inch which completely matches the displays ppi. So that you cant tell a difference between the screen over the in display camera and the screen itself. Because of that blue diamond pixel arrangements. And we also have an under display camera pro chipset so that it works in perfect harmony with the display and the screen covering the camera. It doesnt even jitter when you switch from black to white with the red magic 7 pro with that under display camera, you can actually see a little square box when you switch between black and white and its just not there at all on the accent 40 ultra, Which is just done fantastic? Of course, we can also adjust this in settings, which is the first ive ever seen. An under display camera smartphone able to do in terms of customizing it and changing the areas brightness, which is awesome, and the screen itself is of course massive at 6.

8 inches. It is amoled its pretty curved, its full hd plus, unfortunately, not qhd plus we do have a billion colors. It is 10 but 100 dcr, p3 color gamut and a crazy 1500 nits of brightness over here, which is fantastic, not to mention. We do have a 120 hertz refresh rate option, though it is fixed at 120 hertz. Unfortunately, there is no ltpo tech in here, probably because of that in display selfie camera. So i guess its kind of a toss up. Do you want ltpotech, or do you want a beautiful screen with no cutouts over there? We do have 360 hertz touch sampling and, more importantly, 14 40 hertz pulse width, modulation, dimming and the average phone. If an average phone actually has a pwm dimming sits at around 480 hertz, like the iphone 13 pro max that you can see. On the left hand, side this really minimizes eye strain when youre using your device for a long time or maybe just playing a couple games or reading an ebook. So that is a fantastic feature to have in such a flagship, worthy smartphone and the brightness. While its up there, its not the brightest ive, seen still does a fantastic job at this price point. Of course we are skinned with my os 12 over android 12 over here. It is very, very stock like we have google discover. We have google assistant. Everything is very simple in the app drawer as well as the notification trailer.

It looks a tad different and we have a ton – and i mean a ton of personalization settings over here from wallpaper to fingerprint animation, not to mention it is housed with a snapdragon 8 gen, 1 cpu, which is still super powerful, getting sn2 to score of 935 379 points, which is just shy of the average ive tested on my channel same, can be said with geekbench version 5 over here, while its single and multi core scores are still pretty similar to other snapdragon, 801 phones, ive tested. It is still a tad bit lower and when it comes to 3dmark wildlife, we got an average frame rate of 52.8, which is almost 6 frames less than the average seen on most snapdragon 801 smartphones ive personally tested. But, of course, this is not just about testing benchmarks, its also about playing games, and, just like me, im sure you enjoy playing a game here and there and testing out with the most graphically demanding game, i think, is out there gentian impact with the highest possible Graphics, settings max frame rate is 60 on this game, so its capped at 60. Even though the phone can do 120 natively, the game is capping it at 60, so thats impossible and were getting an average of 41 fps, which is pretty similar to the average of 43 fps. I get on most snapdragon 801 phones that ive tested this year, but weve got a slightly lower min and the same max fps that ive seen with other phones, ive tested pretty much at this price point.

I guess you could say, but it forces the next game over here. Ultra settings and the frame rate cap is unlimited, so no cap at all were getting a min of 117 max of 120, very similar to other snapdragon. 801 phones, ive tested actually a higher min than those, and i got an average 120 fps, which is pretty fantastic for a non gaming centric device. But what about those speakers? They are kitted with dts x. Ultra audio lets go ahead and give them a listen Music. The zte axon 40 ultra lacks an ip68 water resistant certification, wireless charging and a wqhd resolution display, but it makes up for this in so many ways. It has a breathtaking 120hz 6.8 inch curved amoled display that boasts in color accuracy, very high brightness levels: 14, 40. Hertz pulse width, modulation, dimming and, most importantly, an extremely well implemented third generation under display selfie camera. The sensor is hidden extremely well, however, selfie photos and videos come out a tad washed out, but in all fairness, this is expected, since the technology is still relatively new. Another sense hidden under the display is the fingerprint reader which is still optical but gets the job done flip the phone around and you are treated to a triple 64 megapixel camera setup, which produces insanely good results. Regardless of the lens you use, and while the new 35 millimeter focal length main camera takes some getting used to its certainly worth it for the extra flexibility, the design may be simple, but its very classy, thanks to its textured anti glare glass finish.