ZTE Axon 30 5G in for review

The first phone in the world with an under-display camera was the ZTE Axon 20 - and even though it introduced this cool tech to the market it was overall a bit uninspiring. Its successor is here with us - the ZTE Axon 30 - and not only brings second-gen UDC technology, but also a bunch of other upgrades that should elevate the overall experience.

Even the Axon 30 still sits lower than the Axon 30 Pro and Axon 30 Ultra it now comes with a Snapdragon 8-series chipset in the 870. Plus it has a larger screen than its siblings and one devoid of any interruptions thanks to the new UDC camera.

ZTE managed to double the PPI to 400 in the area on top of the camera, and now we have a fully immersive experience. It is slightly noticeable only on a white screen where it looks like the display has some dust over it - with other colors it is invisible in real life, while Black makes it disappear entirely. Of course, it is still visible under certain angles and unusual scenarios, but in reality, you have to really try if you want to be bothered by it.

The 6.92” OLED panel has also been upgraded to 120Hz refresh rate, but unfortunately hasn't picked up Gorilla Glass protection.

Looking at the back, we also see two big circles for the quad-cam setup - the main 64MP cam is in the top one, while the 8MP ultrawide and 5MP macro cameras are in the lower one alongside the 2MP depth sensor.

We'll examine all the cameras on the Axon 30 in detail in our review, but we still wanted to give you a few samples from the selfie shooter under the display now. ZTE uses AI algorithms to tackle the light refraction through the screen. However we'd suggest you manage your expectations when it comes to quality as the more "invisible" the UDC is the less light hits the sensor, which is not very big to begin with.

The first samples we took look only okay in normal indoor conditions and rather horrendous when faced with a challenging backlight. In the latter case you get more of an AI-generated drawing of yourself than a photo. Still there are many other shooting scenarios to go through in our review, so we'll refrain from passing any verdicts at this point.

Portrait selfie • Regular AI-assisted selfie • Portrait selfie • Regular AI-assisted selfie

Plus there's much else to test about this phone - from its powerful chipset to that ample screen and the battery, so stay tuned!