Ever since the concept of under-display cameras has come out, it seems that few phones are willing to try this new technology. It’s true that taking selfies with it will be poor, but you can’t ignore the fact that it can give us a perfect display of a full screen. As one of the pioneers of under-display camera phones, ZTE has upgraded this technology on their latest flagship phone: Axon 40 Ultra. It is probably the best under-display camera smartphone you can buy right now.

ZTE Axon 40 Ultra Review: Design & Under screen Display

I’ve been using this phone for a week now, and while its square design is not destined to fit in my palm, I still love it. It’s different from other phones in that the top and bottom are flat, much like the previous Samsung Note series. But you still can tell the difference between them by the camera module. The Axon 40 Ultra has a similar camera module to its predecessor, but because the camera has been upgraded, it is much larger overall. The SIM slot is still dual-SIM only. There is an infrared emitter and stereo speakers with DTS support. And the joint between the frame and the back panel is smoother, making it better to hold than the Axon 30 Ultra. So the Axon 40 Ultra has little change in appearance compared to the Axon 30 Ultra, but the details are better done.

You must be very concerned about its under display camera, and so am I. So is this third-generation under-display camera selfie better? No, I don’t feel that its selfie effect has been improved. As with the previous under display camera phone, if you like to take selfies, I suggest you choose another phone. Especially in low light, believe me, you won’t be thinking about taking selfies.

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The upgrade point is mainly in the display part. Axon 40 Ultra can finally drive the pixels in the front lens area independently. Compared to Axon 30, you can notice that the resolution of the font will not be reduced. This time, you really don’t notice it when watching videos or playing games. It is also not darker than other areas at the highest brightness.

However, we still found its weakness, there will be a black streak in the front lens area in the gray interface or at low brightness. But don’t worry, you won’t find this problem most of the time you use it. Let’s hope that this problem will be fixed through the system when the global version is officially launched.

The Axon 40 Ultra’s screen looks good overall, with a peak brightness of 1500 nits. The default color is a bit greenish, but it’s good to know that you can manually adjust the screen color temperature yourself. I think the visual impact of this complete and flawless screen is better than any specification.

ZTE Axon 40 Ultra Review: Camera Performance

The Axon 40 Ultra’s camera system is not only very strong, but also very interesting. Most phones use a 28mm lens for the main camera, but the Axon 40 Ultra main camera is a 35mm one.

Many users who like photography should know the benefits of a 35mm lens. With less distortion than 28mm and wider than 50mm, it is one of the favorite lenses of many street photographers. Simply put, the photos look better with a handful of shots. The colors are not overly bright either, very clear and very nice. What I like most is the way ZTE handles night scenes. Taking a picture in auto mode will restore the scene as your eyes see it. If you take a picture in night mode, it’s just like any other flagship phone, the picture is very bright. In scenes with more light sources, it doesn’t pull up the exposure even when the night mode is turned on, still retaining the atmosphere of the night. 

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This approach, which allows the user to make their own choices, is also reflected in the autofocus. If you’ve seen our vivo phone review, you know how much I hate it when the system AI automatically switches lenses. The Axon 40 Ultra lets you choose whether the lens is switched by AI, and if you turn it off, you can lock in a lens shot even if it’s not Pro mode. I super love this switch, I hope Vivo can learn from it.

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It is rare that the Axon 40 Ultra uses a large area sensor for both the ultra-wide camera and the telephoto camera. Both cameras perform very well. The telephoto lens in particular gives very good image quality even at night. In my week of use, I can use any focal length I want without reducing the image quality, which is a very good camera experience.

What surprised me even more is that Axon 40 Ultra supports 4k 120fps or 8k video recording for both main and ultra-wide cameras. The telephoto camera is also supposed to support 8K video recording, as the official Chinese website says so. But perhaps because we are the lab system version or the global version, so the telephoto camera can not currently shoot more than 4k resolution. Even so, I have been very satisfied with its video performance.

ZTE Axon 40 Ultra Review: Performance and Gaming

The Axon 40 Ultra is powered by Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. The benchmark score, which you can pause to look at, is the normal 8 Gen 1 level. What disappoints me is the gaming performance, ZTE doesn’t seem to want to let go of all the performance of the processor and let us play to our heart’s content.

If it’s a game like PUBG that doesn’t require full performance Axon 40 Ultra can really run stable. But once your gaming needs get high, then its frame rate curve becomes less than pretty. Just like Vivo, the mobile games that took superb photos this year didn’t perform well, so we’re not going to blame this ZTE’s photo flagship.

The Axon 40 Ultra Global Edition has a charging power of 65w, which is not superfast, but it’s good enough. 33% is charged in 10 minutes, and it takes 45 minutes to fill. Unfortunately, there is still no wireless charging. The battery capacity has been increased to 5000mAh, except when the game will consume more power, the battery life is basically the same level as other Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. If my personal use scenario, turn on the 5G network and do not play games, a full charge can be used for about 8 hours out.

The new MyOS 12 system has become much better. Many features are available, and the operation logic is very reasonable. If the previous MyOS was not that good, this time MyOS is really able to compete with other brands’ systems.

Axon 40 Ultra is actually an improved version of Axon 30 Ultra. The strength of each lens has been strengthened, the hole-punch has been removed, the battery capacity has been increased, and the system has become better.

You can have many reasons not to buy it, but one reason to buy it is enough, that is: Axon 40 Ultra is currently the world’s best under display camera phone.

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