ZTE Axon 40 Ultra Review: Great Screen, Meh Cameras, Good Price

So this is the zte axon 40. Ultra by now you saw the intro. You already know the standout feature of this phone: this phone houses an in display selfie camera right here in the upper middle corner of the screen, but you cant see it when its not in use, because it is hidden underneath the display. Now. This is not the first time zte has done something like this. Ztes last flagship also had an under display selfie camera, but that version was not perfect. Well, it wasnt even good, because that screen, if you look at it from the side a little bit, you can actually see where the cutout was where the selfie camera had to be placed. Underneath the display this version. Now, you cant see anything so the technology around. This, if youre not familiar, basically what they do is they put the display panel completely covering the front facing camera? So lets say this: is the screen its just covering the camera like this, but what foam brands are doing now? Is they make the specific part of the screen thats covering the camera? They make the pixels a little bit less dense, so the camera can see through. So imagine instead of a screen covering a camera like this. It covers it like this theres, like gaps in between the pixels for the camera to peek through and then what phone brands have been doing is using software algorithm. You know computational photography to kind of identify the gaps that the cameras seen through and stitch together, an image that looks to be unobstructed, like you, dont see the little pixels thats blocking the view now, because of that, the selfie camera its ultimately going to be compromised.

Like theres no way around it, theres no way you can take a selfie picture like this and have it look as sharp as an unobstructed selfie like this, so im just gon na get all the way. The selfie photos that you take with this on the screen. Cameras are definitely below par if you compared to any other normal selfie camera on the market. Now, if youre, someone who loves taking selfies like youre one of those people, whos instagram, accounts its just selfies everywhere, then this is not the phone for you, because the selfies captured here are below par compared to every other phone on the market. Now, if youre, someone like me who dont really care about taking selfies, then maybe this sacrifice like for a completely unintuitive screen may be worth it for some people. I can say that, right now the screen already looks really good right, completely uninterrupted display, but when youre watching full screen videos particularly really good. Looking videos like this one right here, you will see that it just looks so much more immersive and visually mesmerizing on a screen that doesnt have a notch. Doesnt have a hole punch, it looks so much better than the iphone 13 pro max video right and yes, you also have stereo speakers here, so this phone is really good for watching movies and runs around guys. Videos can go and see clip after clip of this. Now everything else about this phones – hardware is just about on par with all the 2022 premium flagships up there.

So you have a snapdragon 8 gen 1 chip inside 12, gigs of ram and either 128 or 256 gigs of internal storage and all the standards are the latest, so ufs 3.1 lpddr5 ram theres a 5 000 million hour battery inside that can be fast charged at 65 watts and the charging brake comes with the package. The phone weighs 204 grams and measures 8.41 millimeters in thickness, so its not the lightest stainless phone around, but its not bad. It feels pretty comfortable in the hand but yeah. You can tell this boxy design that zte took a lot of inspiration from the samsung galaxy s 22 ultra, and before that the note ultra series yeah, these two phones look very similar side by side, except one of these have an interrupted display. Now this back plate is glass, but it has this frosted silky coating on it, thats very similar to the backs of the vivo x80 pro and the oneplus 10 pro now look at the camera, so you have a triple camera system here. All three of these are 64 megapixel sensors that shoots pixel bin 16 megapixel shots. So up top is a 64 megapixel ultra wide camera. F, 2.4 aperture, the f 2.4 aperture is a little bit slow. So this ultra wide camera is pretty good during the day. But night photos are quite soft in the middle is the main camera also 64 megapixel, but it has a much more respectable, f.

1.6 aperture. Now this main lens has a tighter crop than most main lens of other phones thats, because this is a 35 millimeter equivalent. So that should be good news for photographers, because 35 millimeter, its a very popular standard, go to lens for people to shoot general photos. You know like you want to take portraits, then you use something a little longer like 50 millimeter, 70 millimeter, but for general photos you want to use around 35 millimeter and thats what this phone offers now down here. Finally, its a periscope camera also 64 megapixel, f. 3.5 aperture it has an optical zoom range of around 2.6 times. Now you may be thinking 2.6 times. Optical zoom seems a little bit low. Even the iphone telephone lens can do three times optical zoom, but you have to remember this 2.6 times, zoom its a magnification of the main camera and, as i just said, the main camera has a tighter field of view than most other smartphones already. So when youre going 2.6 times a tighter view, that means its actually a longer zoom than a three times zoom on the iphone 13 pro max. You can also digital zoom all the way up to 40 times, but at 48 times images look bad. I mean in fact, even 20 times. Zoom images look pretty bad, so i would say this periscope zoom lens its better than nothing but its. Not that good! Definitely you know if you compare it to a galaxy s2 ultra.

This phone can zoom much much better than the zt axon 40 ultra now looking at photo samples, i think youd agree that, for the most part, the main camera and the ultra wide camera of the zt axon 40 ultra does a pretty good job. During the day. I like that, because both the ultra wide and main camera use the exact same sony, imx 787 sensor, theres a little bit more consistency between the main and ultrawide shot like you, dont get. These color deviation that you might get in another phone now when you move to low light situations, then the ultra wide camera suffers quite a bit as i mentioned, but the main camera still holds up pretty well now, video performance, unfortunately its a little bit disappointing, whether Its 4k 30 or 1080 30, even though this phone is ois, youll see that stabilization just isnt as fluid as any other flagship ive tested in 2022. I mean every step. I walk. You can see the video bobble a little bit its not too bad. If im not walking, you can see video still turns out pretty nice, but you know its just not up to par with the videos. I can get from my iphone 13 pro or galaxy s 22 ultra or even like a oneplus 10 pro. So, overall, i would say the zt axon 40 ultras cam system is solid, but definitely not up to par with something like a galaxy, s22 ultra or vivo x80 pro or google pixel 6 mode.

Now this is a 120 hertz panel, but unfortunately, i dont think refresh rate. Can dynamically adjust itself all the way between, like 1 to 30 to 25 to 120? I think its either 120 or 60.. Now, for the most part, because the 5 000 million battery is still pretty large, you can still get all days use maybe 12 hours of use on a single charge for most people, if youre, a real, really heavy user, though like youre out and about taking a Lot of photos like constantly have with the screen on then i dont think this will last like more than eight hours at a time, but at least theres a charging, brick thats included with the package, and it charges pretty fast at 65 watts. Now, looking at the software, this phone runs android 12 with zts android skin, on top its called my os 12.. For the most part, the software is okay. It doesnt really get in the way of main android. That much like you have an app tray. You can swipe down from anywhere to bring down the notification shade. You have useful features like screen recorder. You have shortcut gestures like slide down with three fingers to grab a screenshot. Unfortunately, this phone does not support floating windows for apps. So that means, if you want to multitask the only way to multitask, is going to split screen, multitasking, so thats it. You can only split the screen. You cannot have the app open in the floating window, which i like to do and im able to do on.

Just about every other android phone now now theres an in display fingerprint scanner, optical scanner and it works pretty well, it works as advertised. I dont think again. I have any complaints about this. So overall, the zt x140 ultra is a solid 2022 flagships. I wouldnt say the camera cameras the best i wouldnt say the software is the best. However, you do get a completely uninterrupted screen and apparently a lot of you guys care about that, because i just reviewed the honor magic 4 pro recently and even though i really like that phone, i do see comments down there saying or the whole punch cutter looks Stupid and anytime, if i review an iphone people, make fun of the notch. So there are people out there who really value a completely uninterrupted display. Now one other selling point of the zte axon 40 ultra is its relatively cheap and its also selling worldwide, including the us a lot of other chinese brands. You know like xiaomi, oppo vivo, they dont sell in the us this one actually does and in the us it starts at 799 us dollars youre getting a snapdragon 8gen1. An immersive 120 hertz 6.8 inch display a large battery that can power the phone all day. For most people and the camera system is um solid, so yeah thats about it for this review of the zt axon 40 ultra. I hope you enjoyed this video if you want more content like this, please subscribe to my channel.

I have a lot more stuff coming up, including im going to review the m2 macbook pro pretty soon so stay tuned.