ZTE Axon 30 Ultra is an excellent and affordable smartphone

The last few years have been rough for ZTE. ZTE was accused of violating US sanctions, ZTE was banned from purchasing American components and forced to pay a $1 billion fine to the US. Under those circumstances, most companies focus on the global market but ZTE still trying to sell its devices in the US. And AXON 30 Ultra is the latest of those. ZTE offers top-of-the-line hardware, a crisp OLED display, and a handsome design but the features that disappointed you are poor connectivity and software upgrade policy.

Display:

The measurement of the phone is 6.4 × 2.9 × 0.3 and the weight is 7 punches. It is a tall and slim phone. It has the same size or weight as the OnePlus 9 Pro. But AXON 30 Ultra has curved edges which makes it slimmer and refined. AXON 30 Ultra has a 6.67-inch AMOLED display and a centered hole punch for the camera. The resolution is 2400 × 1080 pixels and with 335ppi density.

ZTE AXON 30 Ultra offers a 144Hz refresh rate and it can slow down 30Hz to save battery life. The display of the phone is bright with excellent contrast. The colors are vivid but not immersive as the Samsung Galaxy S21 and the OnePlus 9 Pro. There is an in-display fingerprint sensor like other high-end phones. The sensor is good, quick, and accurate.

Design:

If you flip the phone over you will find a glass shell with an earthy gray matte finish. On its top left corner, there is a large camera module. On its bottom right corner, there is a TCL logo. There are polished aluminum rails hidden between the curved display and backplate. There is a USB-C charging port, speaker grille, and dual sim slot on the bottom side of the phone. On the right, there is a razor-thin volume rocker and power button. The front and back of the phone are built with gorilla glass 5. IP68 rating is missing which you will find on the Galaxy S21 and the OnePlus 9 Pro.

connectivity:

The phone has terrible connectivity in the US. Most brands offer extensive band support on their phones and sell regional versions of their phones but ZTE does neither. The ZTE Axon 30 ultra has the same band coverage on the global and US versions. The phone is geared toward the UK and the EU but not the US. T-Mobile offers 5G and LTE networks.

On the other hand, Verizon offers only LTE coverage. In a test, the phone’s average speed is 20.2 down and 40.5Mbps up. ZTE offers much better speed but we had only one 5G band to work with. ZTE has supported VoLTE and voice-over Wi-Fi. With an 82dB volume, the earpiece is loud to hear on a busy sidewalk. There is also an NFC option. ZTE Axon 30 Ultra has a stereo speaker with DTS:X Ultra. If DTS:X Ultra is turned off sound is downright tinny.

Storage:

The Axon 30 Ultra is available in two variants. One is 8GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage and the other is 12GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage. You cannot expand storage via microSD. If you store everything then you may spend $100 most for the 256GB.

Performance:

The Axon 30 Ultra is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 and its performance is great. You can easily complete every task with the phone. There is no issue in gaming also. On Geekbench 5 test, the smartphone scored 1,116 in single-core and 3,497 in multi-core.

Battery:

The Axon 30 Ultra is paired with a 4600 mAh battery and it can last easily for a day with moderate use. With heavy use, it can last for 11 hours and 21 minutes. There is no wireless charging support. The smartphone is shipped with a 65W adapter which provides fast charging. Only in 50 minutes, it can fill it from 0 to 100%.

Cameras:

The Axon 30 Ultra is equipped with a quad camera on the back. 64MP main camera with wide-angle, ultra-wide, and portrait lenses. The phone also has an 8MP periscope lens with 5X optical zoom and 60X hybrid zoom. The wide-angle lens which works as the phone’s primary camera is a Sony IMX686 sensor with a large 1/1.72 optical format and optical image stabilization. And the 64MP lenses are Samsung ISOCELL GW3 sensors with a smaller format of 1/1.97. In good light, all the lenses perform well. In a low-light camera, performance is also excellent. With an ultra-wide lens, the daylight performance is also good. The smartphone has a 16MP selfie camera and doing a great job and the picture looks great. The result of the camera is fine enough for social media.

Software:

The Axon 30 Ultra runs on Android 11 and ZTE’s new custom skin, MyOS. MOS is a stripped-down version that it offers to its Chinese customers. The company does not have a formal software policy but it is said that to expect Android 12 later this year or early next year. The phone offers regular security patches but they are not enough and there is no guarantee on that.

The peril is that the company may not be able to upgrade the Axon 30 Ultra at all in the future. The ZTE Axon 30 Ultra is an excellent and affordable smartphone. It comes with a solid AMOLED display and interesting cameras. But we cannot recommend the smartphone to US buyers despite its strengths. Because poor connectivity and political uncertainty make it risky. If you want a small, affordable one that will just work no matter which carrier you choose then the Samsung Galaxy S21 is the best choice. The Samsung Galaxy S21 is similar to Axon 30 Ultra in terms of size and price. The OnePlus 9 Pro is another option.