The ZTE Axon 10 Pro is a smartphone with a 6.5 inch, FHD+ AMOLED display, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 processor, 256GB of storage, at least 8GB of RAM, and a starting price of $550.
While I wouldn’t exactly call this a flagship phone with a mid-range price tag, the price is probably one of the phone’s most attractive features at a time when the prices of flagships has been creeping ever-upward.
First unveiled in May, the ZTE Axon 10 Pro is now up for pre-order in the United States, and it should begin shipping to customers in early September.
B&H is taking pre-orders for two models:
The retailer is also throwing in a 10,500 mAh power bank and a 3-month pre-paid Mint Mobile SIM card for no additional charge.
The smartphone features a 6.47 inch, 2340 x 1080 pixel display, an aluminum alloy body, an in-display fingerprint sensor and support for facial recognition, and a microSD card reader with support for up to 2TB of removable storage.
While there’s no headphone jack, the phone does come with a 3.5mm to USB-C adapter.
There’s a 20MP front-facing camera built into a small notch, and the phone features an AI portrait mode that allows you to snap selfies with a blurred background.
On the back of the phone, there’s a 48MP primary camera, a 20MP wide-angle camera (125 degrees, and an 8MP 3X telephoto camera.
ZTE says the phone supports up to 20X digital zoom, but you’re probably going to get sharper photos if you stick to 3X optical or 5X hybrid zoom.
Possibly the most interesting thing about the ZTE Axon 10 Pro is that the Chinese phone maker is producing new flagships at all. The company had a rough 2018 as it dealt with the fallout of trade restrictions imposed and then revoked by the US government and for a while it wasn’t clear at all if the company would survive.
I bought their previous flagship, the ZTE Axon 9 Pro. I got it for 350 on aliexpress (couldn’t resist the mix of value plus waterproofing). It has been great. Support for 4G in Mexico (same as the US), good camera, and fast.
Big note, this phone (and I’m assuming the Axon 10 has it too) has a DeX-like desktop mode when you connect it to an external screen (wirelessly or by USB).
These phones really hold their own.
Currently, the Axon10 Pro is the cheapest Flagship/Luxury phone.
It might be one of the worst options there, but it’s as cheap as some of the Upper-Midrange/Highend phones. Easily making this a value king!
I remember a few months ago this was still the case in China, but even then this was a difficult phone to get because availability was low. This news confirms that they’re dropping the price slightly and ramping up production to meet demand, probably left by Huawei’s issues.
I have of course heard of ZTE but do not know anyone who has ever owned one. How are they on updates?
I’ve owned a few lower end models and have had terrific experiences. but they were not too good on the updates. really, almost nobody is good on updates anymore other then Google and strangely the Essental phone people.
I bought the zte axon 9 pro back in June. In that time I downloaded a pre-existing update to android Pie, and at least two feature updates including security updates. It is currently sporting the Android August 1st security patch level.
I doubt know how long it’ll last but this means at least a year of updates and that they are timely with security updates.
The only issue is how much region will affect that. I bought it on aliexpress which means it’s also a Chinese variant (with Google services) which is their home turf and more likely to receive updates.