ZTE Axon 7 review: The brightest sound
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- AnonD-386467
- kiQ
- 28 Oct 2016
Finally you all post a review! What took you so long?!
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- Anonymous
- sUw
- 28 Oct 2016
GSMArena plz do a oneplus 3 vs axon 7 review.
these are the two best phones at 400$.
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- Anonymous
- sUw
- 28 Oct 2016
Also GSMarena didn't mention warranty of the phone being 2 years instead of the usual 1 year warranty.
plus ZTE will home drop and pickup under warranty at no extra cost.
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- Anonymous
- sUw
- 28 Oct 2016
KMB877, 27 Oct 2016Even more, the Axon 7 was designed by the American BMW Desi... moreagreed. those two high end DAC's cost a lot too.
also being aluminum...it is one of the toughest aluminum phones out there. ZTE did a bend test too. it doesn't bend under pressure like mi5 or iphone.
i think this phone costs easily around 300$ or more unlike other premium offerings where the phone costs 150-250$ and sold for 500-600$
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- Anonymous
- bCk
- 28 Oct 2016
Anonymous, 27 Oct 2016You obviously don't understand how batteries work. Batte... moreSwitch to Li-Poly batteries... :)
- J
- Jack-theiphoneKiller
- KIA
- 27 Oct 2016
It is seriously really sad that this phone failed to find any customers in US for this price? Had it been available in my country, I would have bought it in a heartbeat.
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- hasapi
- Aef
- 27 Oct 2016
I was looking at this device vs the LG G5 as the G5 is also now at 400usd. The zte has 64G vs LG 32G, but the LG has much better camera esp low light and panorama with its wide lens. Very close, but i think ill stick LG. My 2 cents.
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- stantheman
- 4M8
- 27 Oct 2016
I own the phone. It DOES NOT have a 3250 battery but if you go here - https://community.zteusa.com/thread/13026
You will see that the battery is ONLY 3140. ZTE lied!
Not only that but the phone struggles or fails when in a weak signal area compared to other phones. I know as I have personally experienced it. Buyer beware!
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- AnonD-589154
- 3PJ
- 27 Oct 2016
Lovee, 27 Oct 2016I don't understand why people even call non-removable batte... moreI don't know how much time you spent with your phone and how frequent you use it, but if you charge it every single day and even twice a day, just after 1.5 years you'll understand what the advantige is easy and safe to replace the battery of the phone. At this period of usage the capacity is redused to 60-70% or less from the time you're buy it 1.5 yeas ago ;)
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- Anonymous
- sUw
- 27 Oct 2016
John0087, 27 Oct 2016Actually I was surprised when I read about headphones attac... moreme too.
GSMarena plz review the audio test again if possible.
or do a competitive shootout like you did for camera of various devices.
do it for audio
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- Anonymous
- mTn
- 27 Oct 2016
Lovee, 27 Oct 2016I don't understand why people even call non-removable batte... moreYou obviously don't understand how batteries work.
Batteries have a limited full charge cycles. Usually this is 500 full-charge cycles for lithium based batteries. LG has batteries with an 800 charge cycles in a handful of models. Since GA (nor LG) doesn't mention that any more (they did with the G3 I think) it's hard to know if their current phones still have these batteries with 800 charge cycles.
Anyway, if you fully deplete the battery and fully charge (overnight) every day than these 500 cycles translates in about 1,5 or 2 years. After these 500 charge cycles batteries loose a considerable amount of their capacity (I reckon about 30%). Which let you recharge the phone even more frequently. So by about 1000 cycles (roughly 2,5 up to 3 years) you're down to about 40% or less of it's original battery capacity.
Which doesn't necessary translates in bad standby times but either in severely capped call- and usage-time. You make only one phone call and you need to recharge.
Power-banks are useless here because every phone (and laptops and tablets as well) uses their primary battery as their main source of power. Power-banks ONLY recharges the main battery and can't be used AS the primary power source. Since you will deplete the power-bank more frequently, you will inevitably decimate the power-bank's own 500 charge cycles too. This will put more stress on power-bank. Not to mention that you already loose a lot between transfer from power-bank to main battery. people always end up with less charge cycles from a power-bank as they'd expect.
The only proper solution is to exchange your (partly) depleted primary battery. Which you cannot do yourself with many devices these days.
Of course you can send your phone away for a battery replacement. But then you have no phone for a couple of WEEKS (a disaster for many people like doctors, plumbers, service engineers etc...!). And secondly we all know how incompetent these "repair"-centers sometimes are. More often you get your device back in worse condition than that you send it. Or the fix one thing while breaking another. Especially troublesome with these modern fragile glass and metal bricks.
In fact I've always wondered. If you exchange your battery of your water-resistant phone, is that phone than still water-resistant?
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- AnonD-589154
- 3PJ
- 27 Oct 2016
If this phone is so good as I think this will be my next phone. I hope I can buy it from bulgarian store. It's just an Iphone & Samsung killer !
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- Anonymous
- mTn
- 27 Oct 2016
"...a slim profile...."
Strike no 1. "slim profile" is another word for "inadequate battery". :-(
"...ZTE hasn't managed to light them up..."
It only uses more battery and after awhile you find them blindingly. In fact I've disabled the key-illumination on my SGS5 too. As long as they give haptic feedback, it's no big deal...
"The top houses..."
no IR-blaster, grrrr..... They force fed us into IR in 2014 to take it all away in 2016. I bloody hate this. I DO use IR-blaster. I use it more than that stupid "heart-rate sensor" on my phone. In fact the heart-rate measurement can be done with the camera and LED-flash too. So IMHO it's better to ditch that and keep the IR-blaster (Yes, Samsung that's YOU I'm looking at!)
"The ZTE Axon 7 is flaunting a 5.5" AMOLED panel with a QHD resolution..."
Great, yet another battery wasting QHD screen on the market. You only use that resolution for VR which, by defintion, isn't something you'd use regularly on a phone. I'd rather have a slightly smaller FHD screen with more FPS (and thus smoother) on (non-VR) games and video-playback than QHD.
"Minimum brightness is 4.4 nits so it should go easy on the eyes when you use the phone in a dark place."
... if it wasn't for Android blinding white notification panels and other blinding white stuff in it's flat and ugly UI! I want Holo back! I love black and blue! That was easy on the eyes without resorting to an ultra low screen-brightness.
"...and the result is a rating of 70 hours..."
Djeez, my 2 year old SGS5 (with less efficient SoC and even on kitkat) still has better battery life (72hours) than this 2016 beast. I expected much better in 2016. What have these battery manufacturers done all those years? Sleeping? Oh, wait.... it's that QHD screen fault... told y'a!
"....The LTE connectivity is Cat.7 which means up to 300Mbps downlink and up to 150Mbps uplink...."
Instead of a pissing contest of LTE categories can we please push telecom-operators into giving us 1) more monthly data volume and 2) give us more speed beyond the 50mbps they're giving us since 2012 and haven't updated since. Thank you!
"...which take away from the otherwise okay feel of the launcher."
Yeah but the launcher is replacable isn't it? So what? Mention that these launchers (and lockscreen-apps) can be replaced (even by Google's official one) is enough to remove some the quirks. You see, the advantage of Android. Don't like it, replace it! But do mention that because too many people are completely clueless.
"...that poor software optimization is to blame..."
...the typical Achilles heel of Android... :-(
"...The QHD resolution of the Axon 7's 5.5" panel doesn't seem to be much of a hurdle for the GPU..."
Eh? It decimates framerates by 50% and you call that "not much of a hurdle"? WTF? It seems that GA has much lower standards of expectation than me :o)
"The Dialer itself is pretty basic..."
Can you PLEASE also review whether it has call-recording capabilities (on on-device as on BlueTooth)? Some of us (including me) find that more important than the colours o/t buttons.
"...as notifications and ringtones are so loud that at a certain point they become nagging. ..."
Not when the phone sit in a lovely leather pouch, in your jacket at the backseat of the car. or when in a ladies handbag or backpack.
Phones need to be loud and obnoxious! :o)
"The 8MP front-facing camera captures...."
Euhm... isn't that a severe fish-eye effect?
"Battery life is very good with an endurance rating of 70h, beating the OnePlus 3 by four hours."
So you find THAT good? It's lower than a 2014 flagship phone. And those phones were also cheaper then today's offerings (even this one).
Love the review though. At least this one is also usable in Europe with the properly supported LTE-bands unlike the Xiaomi Mi5.
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- AnonD-509743
- tug
- 27 Oct 2016
Lovee, 27 Oct 2016I don't understand why people even call non-removable batte... moreWhy its a disadvantage you say? Just take a look at what happen to Samsung Note 7. The phone was discontinued & recalled which can be easily avoided if the phone battery can be removed.
Secondly, by having a removable battery your phone will last longer in term of service life. Because the battery ability to hold charge will degrade over time so you need to buy new phone when that happen. And by having a removable battery you can just buy new battery & keep your phone.
For Samsung's flagships (S7 Edge) that have IP68 water resistant it is understandable why they need the battery to be unremovable, but for a phone like OP3 or ZTE A7 that doesnt have those water resistant theres no reason why the battery should be unremovable.
Personally the removable battery feature on the LG V20 is one good reason why I would pick the LG V20 over the S7 Edge. But due to LG V20 price, makes the ZTE A7 the perfect choice for me.
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- Anonymous
- SH4
- 27 Oct 2016
Lovee, 27 Oct 2016I don't understand why people even call non-removable batte... moreWhen you have a removable battery you can buy a replacement and change it yourself, with non-removable batteries you need to go to a service store to replace it so with removable battery you sabe time and money (if you open the phone on your own with the closed devices you may also lose the warranty)
On the other hand I prefer my phone to be scattered when falling down (solution: use cover) than sending it back to the store because of a battery explosion recall. Ask samsung, they know about this lately ;)
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- Lovee
- u1E
- 27 Oct 2016
I don't understand why people even call non-removable battery a disadvantage.
It's been more than 4 years since non-removable batteries were introduced in smartphones.
Moreover it's an advantage since your phone don't scatters when it fall on the floor :D
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- AnonD-393912
- Ki3
- 27 Oct 2016
Anom, 27 Oct 2016SD820 is perfectly normal. The Axon 7 came out 5 months ago... moreI think there is misunderstanding,
What i meant is that this is a SD820 class of phone yet it doesn't have a front button back-lit.
It's without that backlit, in a glance it feels like its a SD410 class phone.
I know, its bit weird. But backlit less phones annoys me somehow. especially on $200+ phones.
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- Anon
- g@E
- 27 Oct 2016
Anonymous, 27 Oct 2016does anybody knos the policicy of ZTE to upgrade android to... more7.0 is definitely coming. ZTE marketed the Axon 7 as a Daydream device, and has stated that they're working with Google to get it certified. They've posted some sneak peaks of 7.0 OS on their site.
- K
- KMB877
- Y7c
- 27 Oct 2016
AnonD-442781, 27 Oct 2016You're completely wrong about the costs of making a device.... moreEven more, the Axon 7 was designed by the American BMW Design Centre...
- K
- KMB877
- Y7c
- 27 Oct 2016
AnonD-514671, 27 Oct 2016i think you should turn off dolby atmos when you test audioNope, you're not the only one. Axon it is a superior device to one+3.
Also, one+3 does not have assistance snd/or service vs. Axon with US and EU service and 2 year warranted.
Finally, Axon has all 3G, 3.5G, 4G and LTE used in US and EU, great for roaming (One+3 is missing a few).