ZTE Axon Pro review: Ready and willing

Controls

The earpiece of the Axon Pro sits under the grille above the display. The 8MP front-facing snapper, the ambient light sensor, as well as the proximity sensor of the smartphone are also located above the screen.

A look above the display

Below the screen is where the device's three capacitive buttons for navigating your way around Android reside. The sole loudspeaker of the Axon Pro is also part of the setup.

The view below the screen

The volume button sits alone on the left side of the smartphone. The power/lock key and the nano-SIM card tray are located on the right.

The sides of the Axon Pro

On the back of the Axon Pro, you will find the 13MP main camera, its 2MP companion sensor, and the dual-LED flash. A ZTE and Axon logo keep them company.

The back of the handset

Battery performance

ZTE Axon Pro is powered by a non-removable 3,000mAh battery with Quick Charge 2.0 support. The manufacturer promises up to 10 days of standby and 12 hours of talk time.

We put the Axon Pro through the paces of our battery test. The handset achieved an endurance rating of 60 hours, thus meaning that it can easily make it past two days of use if you opt for an hour each of telephony, web browsing, and video playback daily.

We tested the Axon Pro on T-Mobile’s superb 4G LTE network in New York City and were pleased to find out that, in terms of talk time, the handset did even better than the manufacturer’s estimate. The same goes for its standby performance, though it’s worth noting that this particular aspect depends heavily on the number of accounts synced with the smartphone and the use of location services among other factors.

Poor video playback and web browsing battery performance prevented the handset from achieving a better endurance rating. However, we found the brightness of the display to be a bit too high at 50%, so real-life performance with automatic brightness is all but certain to be better.

Connectivity

ZTE Axon Pro has all the bases covered in terms of connectivity. The basics include quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE and 3G globally, as well as 4G LTE connectivity with support for AT&T and T-Mobile bands in the United States.

Also on board is Bluetooth 4.0 and NFC alongside Wi-Fi b/g/n/ac with Wireless Hotspot support. Wired connectivity is covered by a microUSB 2.0 port with USB host. GPS with A-GPS is also on board.

An FM radio is also part of the device's connectivity package. As always, it requires a wired headset to act as an antenna.

An IR-port would have been a welcome sight in the device's spec sheet but, at this price point, it's a tad too much to ask for. Overall, the Axon Pro won't leave you hanging in the connectivity department.