There are some smartphones that are able to attract the
attention of enthusiasts simply through their data sheet. Among these there is
certainly ZTE Axon 30 Ultra, top of the range sold for 749 euros on the
official portals of the well-known brand in its 8 / 128GB variant (the 12 /
256GB model costs 849 euros instead). The price is therefore lower than that of
many other flagships, but at the same time the device does not seem to lack
essentially anything by taking a look at the specifications. We've been testing
the smartphone over the past few weeks to understand its strengths.
An elegant design with an impressive camera module
ZTE Axon 30 Ultra looks like a refined device from the first
contact . It is something difficult to describe in word, but already at the
first start you have the feeling of having a "Premium" product in
your hands. The screen with slightly curved edges in fact made us exclaim a
spontaneous "wow", just as the materials used immediately attracted
our attention: glass and aluminum. The backcover of the Black color that we had
the opportunity to try, the only one available on the market, surprised us: we
thought it was the classic "dark" color, but in reality the light
effects provided by the latter are excellent.
At the front there is also a screen with a small hole for
the camera (2.6mm) positioned at the top center, which does not
"bother" the display of multimedia contents. In short, the design of
the device in general is widely promoted.
The only aspect that makes the nose turn up a bit is the
protrusion of the massive rear camera module, which makes the device a little
"wobble" when placed on a flat surface. In any case, this is nothing
transcendental and the "problem" can be solved using the convenient
transparent cover present inside the sales package.
About the latter, inside we found, in addition to the
smartphone and the case, a USB Type-C / USB Type-C cable, various manuals, the
pin for extracting the SIM compartment, a USB Type adapter -C to audio jack,
discrete headphones with jacks and a 65W charger . In short, the equipment is
complete: there is everything that the user can request.
The dimensions of the smartphone are very interesting:
161.53 x 72.96 x 8 mm, for a weight of 188 grams . Of course, it is certainly
not a "compact" device, but the handling is excellent, also
considering the other smartphones on the market. The right side of the ZTE Axon
30 Ultra features the power button and the volume rocker, while at the top we
find a microphone.
At the bottom, however, there are speaker, USB Type-C 3.1
port, second microphone and trolley for the SIM (Dual nanoSIM). As for the
unlocking methods, there is no shortage of both the classic facial recognition
and a fingerprint sensor positioned under the display: the speed is normal. Too
bad only for the lack of impermeability.
Top-of-the-market performance
Getting to the heart of the technical data sheet, ZTE Axon
30 Ultra has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor , flanked, in our
configuration, by 8GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 128GB of UFS 3.1 internal memory (not
expandable). Of course, the more attentive among you will know that the
Snapdragon 888 Plus SoC was recently unveiled , but that changes very little: it
is a smartphone with top performance on the market. The benchmarks confirm the
smartphone sensations in hand: 790.008 points on AnTuTu Benchmark v9, as well
as 1.128 points in single-core and 3.642 points in multi-core on GeekBench.
To be clear, Black Shark 4, a gaming smartphone, scores
600,226 points on AnTuTu. To support this "brute force" we find a
4600 mAh battery, which can take advantage of a 65W cable charging (wireless
charging is absent). The autonomy is good: it is not a battery phone, but we have
always managed to bring home the classic working day without problems. Of
course, a "stress" type of use can lead to little residual charge
arrived in the evening, but the possibility of recharging the smartphone
quickly solves the question.
Another sector in which essentially nothing can be said to
the smartphone is the multimedia one. In fact, the 6.67-inch AMOLED display
with Full HD + resolution (2400 x 1080 pixels), 144 Hz refresh rates , Corning
Gorilla Glass 5 protection, hole for the camera positioned in the top center
and slightly curved edges is excellent. The color balance has been done
properly and the brightness is high. The Widevine L1 DRMs are also inevitable
to view the contents of platforms such as Amazon Prime Video and Netflix in
high resolution, as well as an Always On mode.
The stereo sound is also not bad, good for both general
quality and maximum volume. In short, ZTE Axon 30 Ultra is a device that winks
at lovers of multimedia content: watching your movies and TV series with this
model is a pleasure.
At the photographic sector level, we find what the
manufacturer calls Trinity Camera System . The latter includes a 64MP quad rear
camera (f / 1.9, 35mm, for Portrait mode) + 64MP (Sony IMX686, f / 1.6,
wide-angle) + 64MP (ultra-wide, 120 degrees) + 8MP (telephoto , 5x optical
zoom, 10x hybrid zoom and 60x digital zoom). There is also no shortage of laser
autofocus and Dual LED flash. At the front, however, a 16MP sensor peeps out.
The photos are very good in all contexts, both day and night (thanks also to
the use of the special mode and artificial intelligence).
It is a smartphone that takes good shots in almost all
scenarios - even wide-angle photos are great. Excellent zoom, which up to 5x
(but sometimes even 10x) is just fine for social use. Good shots taken by the
front sensor, which will convince many users.
As for the videos, later we arrive at 8K / 30fps. Those
looking for perfect stabilization will want to go down a bit with the
resolution, but the quality of the videos is great overall. In any case, ZTE
Axon 30 Ultra can actually be called a cameraphone: it is difficult to miss a
shot with this device and surely enthusiasts will find bread for their teeth in
the myriad of options available through the Camera app (for example, there is a
feature called Multi-camera, which allows you to "capture" a moment
with more zoom at the same time). In any case, if you want to deepens the
photographic qualities of the device, you can refer to our Drive folder
dedicated to ZTE Axon 30 Ultra .
Nothing is missing in terms of connectivity: the device
supports 5G, NFC, Wi-Fi 6E, Dual SIM and Bluetooth 5.2 . In short, the
manufacturer has thought of everything: even the absence of the audio jack for
headphones is "solved" by inserting a special adapter in the package.
ZTE Axon 30 Ultra, between software and gaming
The operating system of ZTE Axon 30 Ultra is Android 11 with
myOS 11 customization . At the time of writing, the securitys patches are those
of May 2021. The customization itself convinces: the interface is up to date
and there are not too many gross errors in terms of translation (sure, don't
expect perfection, but the mistakes and the few writings left in English do not
represent anything transcendental). We were particularly convinced by the idea
of increasing the size of the quick toggles, positioning only the Flashlight,
Bluetooth Data, Wi-Fi and brightness at the top, "relegating" the
rest to the expansion of the curtain.
The design of the app drawer is also not bad (the latter can
be sorted by letter, by installation date or by frequency of use). Then there
is no kind of pre-installed bloatware: simply, the manufacturer has added apps
like ZTE Cares (for assistance) and Private space (to keep files
"safe").
In any case, among the most interesting additions to the
classic basic experience offered by Android, we find ZTE Locker , which changes
the background every time the screen is activated, Z-POP (a menu that allows
you to perform customized actions quickly) and above all Syncmind. This last
tab of the settings allows you to access real-time statistics relating to the
quality of your Internet connection and system usage.
In short, myOS is a software customization that has its why.
Among other things, thanks to the high refresh rate of the screen, the system
fluidity is excellent. The real unknown? Software support. In fact, given that
the brand has only recently decided to focus seriously on our market (this is
the first smartphone from ZTE that we try on these pages), there are not many certainties
and we know how intricate the question is in these cases.
What is certain is that the performance of the ZTE Axon 30
Ultra is also excellent for gaming. In fact, despite the lack of a special mode
dedicated to this type of use, the device defends itself very well. To be
clear, Call of Duty Mobile runs as it should with details on "Very
high" and FPS on "Max" . Ark: Survival Evolved, on the other
hand, is playable well with the "Alto" preset. Finally, the Fortnite
experience is pleasant with the "Epic" preset at 30 FPS.
For the rest, the Triple Cooling System, this is the name
given by the brand to the advanced cooling system based on vapor chamber and
graphite used by the smartphone, is able to keep temperatures low in most
contexts: during our test we found some heat on the body after long gaming
sessions, but without exaggerating.
