Over the past few weeks my daily driver has been the ZTE Axon 7. How have I gotten on with this new flagship? Find out in the following review.
The ZTE Axon 7 is the latest Android flagship from ZTE’s Axon range. Like other models in the Axon range, the 7 is available in China and also in certain international markets including the U.S and Europe.
ZTE Axon 7 Review – Design
Axon carved out their own design language last year with the first Axon phones, and the Axon 7 is an evolution of those earlier models.
It’s clear that this is an Axon phone with it’s gold finish (grey is available too) and dual front facing speakers, but the new phone receives a much better looking and higher quality design. Gone is the fake leather of old, and now the entire rear of the device is alloy.
Keeping with the rear the actual look is very similar to a Meizu body, with rounded sides and corner, and single camera. Beneath the camera is a fingerprint scanner and between those two units is a dual LED, dual tone flash.
While the back of the phone has a matt gold finish, upper and lower sections of the front receive a brushed finish. It’s a rather nice look and I often wonder why the entire phone wasn’t offered like this.
Those brushed sections are where the front facing Dolby Atmos speakers live and (at the top) a front facing camera.
Black borders, a 2.5D glass panel and 5.5-inch display make up the rest of the face of the ZTE.
Most new phones now are coming with USB Type C and the Axon is no exception, plus it is nice that the phone retains a 3.5mm headphone jack. There are also physical buttons for the volume and power, along with a SIM slot on the left.
The high quality of the design, finish and materials is apparent as soon as you pick the Axon 7 up, as is the weight of the phone, you certainly notice the few hundred extra grams this phone has over similar 5.5inch devices.
ZTE Axon 7 Review – Hardware and performance
It’s hardly surprising that for their flagship, Axon went for a Snapdragon 820 chipset. This is the current gold standard and performance is good, but not blistering. The chipset has 4GB RAM to play with (average by today’s standards) and my version of the phone get’s 64GB internal memory.
This match up of RAM and SOC has been seen in plenty of phones this year, but ZTE don’t seem to be getting as much from the processing package as other manufacturers. It’s a very notable slow down when going to the Axon 7 from other phones, especially if you are more accustom to the speed of the OP3 and it’s 6GB RAM.
The flagship hardware features continue with a 5.5-inch 2K display. Its a stunning panel, one of the best I have used, but those extra pixels do take their toll on battery life and I wonder if the higher resolution screen might the be the reason for the slightly slower reaction times from the device.
External features include a 20 mega-pixel rear camera with OIS, a front 8 mega-pixel camera, dual front speakers and fingerprint scanner.
Gizchina News of the week
The fingerprint scanner is on the rear and offers great accuracy and decent speed. If I was to compare the Axon’s fingerprint scanner to the OP3 then the ZTE has the better performance, but it’s still Vivo who are lightyears ahead of the pack.
Speaker on the Axon 7 are well above average and with the option to turn on Dolby Atmos your ears are in for a real treat. With headphones plugged in the audio remains very good but again Vivo is a shade better here too.
ZTE Axon 7 Review – Camera
With OIS and a 20 mega-pixel sensor, plus very high quality lenses the Axon 7 is capable of some really very good photos.
If you like to take landscapes, low light photos, and enjoy having a ton of features on tap (including a Star Spiral mode) then the Axon 7 is going to impress and give you hours of photographic fun.
There are limitations to the camera though. The speed of the sensor is slower than other devices I’ve tested this year. If for example you need to take a photo of child running, or hope to grab a once in a life time snap, the 7 might not impress. Camera speed is way better from the OnePlus 3, and a million times better on the Xiaomi Mi5.
ZTE Axon 7 photo samples
ZTE Axon 7 review – Gallery
ZTE Axon 7 review – software
Software is the major issue that ZTE has with the Axon 7. So far I have not received a single update in the month I have had this phone, and I am not convinced any will come anytime soon, and this is a major worry.
From the get go, the Axon 7’s dodgy OS has been a little irritating. The start up wizard constantly crashed when first setting the phone up, and what should have been a 5 minute process turned in to an hour slog.
I’ve had issues with notifications not coming through all the time (similar issue to the OP3), but my major complain is the caller ID doesn’t work. Although my contacts are in the phone I never know who is calling, yet the call history words as you would expect.
ZTE Axon 7 Review – Conclusion
Although I’ve had issues with the OS, I have learned to live with the Axon 7 and enjoy it. I’ve taken some stunning photos with the phone, and it does everything I ask of it without issue.
The high quality build is reassuring and the phone has survived a good few knock to concrete without any major damage. I also love the fact that the Axon 7 has every hardware feature we have come to expect from a flagship phone too (NFC, OIS, etc).
I think I can happily with the with Axon 7 and I believe that if you chose this device for yourself you won’t be disappointed. It does need those updates though and I hope they will come soon.
In conclusion one of the best all rounded phones from a build and hardware perspective, but not the fastest of the current crop of phones.
you sure about the low light photography? its not bad but i dont think its great and i feel the video recording could be a bit better all in all a nice phone tho to bad i would have to pay around 600 dollars for it because of my countries insane custom fees
It’s hopefully not a few hundred grams heavier 😉
Thanks for the review. The OS worries me a bit…
“Software is the major issue that ZTE has with the Axon 7. So far I have not received a single update in the month I have had this phone”
This was my major concern about getting the Axon 7. Every ZTE I have previous had was terrible with updates. That is why as appealing as this is I bought the Honor 8 instead.
I knew you wouldn’t buy OP3.
Anyway, how is the honor 8?
I was really impressed by the OP3 but I used a P9 for a week and fell in love with that phone. The Honor 8 is close to being the same thing and I really liked the Blue color of it.
I am not sure how it is yet, it was just officially released a few days ago. Mine will arrive sometime next week.
how much u paid for honor8
I paid $399 but got a $50 gift card with it.
Finally, I knew you would buy it haha
I’m still deciding between so many phones lol
You can get the P9 at the same price.
On Amazon it is selling for $494 and buying it in the US gives you no warranty.
I see a few resellers at $450 which is the same H8 would be after state tax if applicable.
If I bought mine in my state (MA) it would have been $423 total for the phone plus taxes, but I bought mine in a neighboring state (NH) where there is no sales tax. Even for $450 you would still have to pay for shipping and possibly import taxes which could push it over $500 and you have limited or no warranty with it.
OneDigitals has it for $437 and free shipping/no tax, one year warranty, 30 day return policy.
That site has terrible customer service, everyone I know that has ever used has said to stay away from it. Their “warranty” is a joke. Also the $437 model has limited LTE support, the $489 model is the one with full LTE. Both of them still cost more than my Honor 8 and didn’t include the free headphones or $50 gift card I got with the 8.
Stop making excuses and order the P9, only an idiot would get the H8 when they are the same price.
Honor 8 – $399
P9 – $489
Only an idiot would be this bad at math.
Why would I order the more expensive phone when nearly everything is the same on the two and the cheaper one has an actual warranty in the US?
Hello? I just told you it was $437, do you have Alzheimer’s or do you just hear what you want to hear?
And I just told you that $437 model doesn’t support every LTE network and doesn’t have a real warranty. For all the LTE networks I need I would have to get the $489 model. Also, $437 is more money than $399. Are you really this bad at math/counting?
So again why would I spend more money for what is essentially the same phone with a worse warranty?
No phone supports EVERY LTE network, according to Frequency Checker this model gets AWS and B20 so it works in N. America and Europe. You have Tmob so it will work just fine for you. Quit making excuses and stop wasting money on inferior garbage. The P9 is superior to H8 in EVERY way.
But it is missing Band 12 which is very important for Tmobile where I live, it also doesn’t support VoLTE the Honor 8 does. The model with Band 12 is the one selling for closer to $500.
As for the P9 being superior in every way, that is kind of funny seeing as they share so many components. And the $399 Honor 8 has 4GB of RAM, your $437 P9 has 3GB. The Honor 8 has 3 months no questions asked replacement if the screen or glass cracks. Your P9 has a shoddy warranty from a reseller.
Where are the scores? And I mean not Antutu scores. Scores on build quality, battery, etc
ah, those meaningless ones. Do you really miss them?
They’re not meaningless. He means the scores at the end of other reviews. Those scores represent an overview/ summary of the reviewers experience in 1 glance. Antutu scores on the other hand changes its value with every update and doesn’t quite reveal how it scores and weighs each point making it useless. I for one would like to see the ‘end of review’ scores as well.
The problem with those scores is they are essentially meaningless because they often times don’t match up across every review and price segment. For instance the Redmi Note 3 scored an 8.5 for camera in it’s review. The Mi5 scored a an 8. The Mi5 has a much better camera than the RN3. So why does it have a lower score? Because the Mi5 will be compared to the best camera’s in it’s class like the Galaxy S7 or LG G5 and compared to those it is an 8. The RN3 will be compared to phones costing $150, and compared to those it is an 8.5. If you compared the camera from the RN3 to that of the Mi5 it would be somewhere around 6.5 or 7. But that’s not a fair comparison to make in a review because the Mi5 costs hundreds more.
When you have dozens of reviews that all follow this same logic the numbers eventually become meaningless. The best thing for sites like to do is get rid of the numbers and just have a conclusion with pro’s and con’s about each phone they review.
I always check the scores first, if it scores low I don’t bother to read the review. If they don’t do the end scores anymore on reviews, that is something I and probably other people too would like to know.
Like this phone but still super glad I chose oneplus 3 best software experience out there for android imho, love the smoothness and functionality, take it every time over a ZTE, huawei, Xiaomi. Oxygen OS cant be beat.
Check out flyme.
Yeah I got a Meizu phone, I love Flyme too, it is my favourite along with Oxygen but Meizu need to be better at bug fixing and updating to latest android versions. Most of their phones are stuck on Lollipop apart from a couple of the newest models.
remove belzes and just 4,7 inch , lol
I prefer Mi Note 2
I preffer Porsche.
Go for Axon 7 then.
I prefer Maserati.
+1
I could use someone’s help please…
ZTE Axon 7 – Mi5 – LeEco LeTV Le 2 Max – ZUK Z2 Pro
Which one is better?
I prefer a phone which is a bit small but I don’t mind if it is big.
I want a big storage at least 64GB and with great battery!
Please I really am very lost now.. I was really waiting for Mi5 but a lot of people say it is not that good. 🙁
Well I would wait to see how Xiaomi Redmi Pro Mini turns out. I prefer Audi RS.
O_O Is such model really coming out?
Don’t really know for sure, it should be judging by the leaks.
Any how by my opinion it would be by far the best Xiaomi one so far this year (if not a best one all around). It’s all I imagined; compact enough, 5.2“ FHD SAMOLED, have a big Battery 4000mAh, the best upper mid range SoC of the year S652, Micro SD card slot. It won’t have a fabulous main camera nor a not particularly better dual one as a non mini version but it won’t also brake a budget so price difference between those two you can invest in geting a mini one with more RAM & storage as you stated you would love to.
It’s a all phone no bullshits if you ask me.
Best regards.
Lazar, I have seen the leaks too but am wondering if the Redmi Pro Mini is real…A Xiaomi Mido geekbench appeared recently which is equipped with SD625 and 2gb ram, I am wondering if it is the Redmi Pro Mini or the Redmi 4. Honestly, I would love to see a Redmi Pro Mini but who knows when the device will be available. The price of the MI5 with 64GB storage is around 310€ now, maybe after 1 or 2 months it will cost only 280€. Difficult to make the right choice and am a bit to wait for the perfect phone.
It’s Redmi 4 you sow & pre production one as S625 actually scores more but I won’t mix that with Redmi Pro Mini nor S652.
It actually depends what is your idea of ideal. My is something like Mini. For me no SD card slot means no go so that pretty much exclude MI line along with LE models. I also game & use phone in general a lot so SOT & Game on time also means a lot to me…
Sounds promising..
I love Xiaomi myself, so I will wait for that. :3
Thanks 🙂
mi5 > zuk > axon > letv
eh tbh I did not hear anyone saying good or bad about letv..
But people say Mi5 is good and others say Axon and some say Zuk…
It is very confusing 🙁
I had bought a Le Max 2, but returned it because it really is pink, pretty hard to find the gold in the rose gold.
The Zuk Z2 pro has no notification led.
That leaves the axon and mi5. Mi5 is way smaller and apparently has way smoother operating system. It’s much cheaper too.
I think a lot of it will depend on where you live. For instance in the US the Mi5 would be very low on the list because it doesn’t support US LTE. But in Asia it would be very high on the list.
If you live somewhere that the Mi5 LTE works I would say:
Mi5, Z2 Pro, Axon 7, Le Max 2.
If not I would say:
Axon 7, Z2 Pro, Le Max 2, Mi5
Keep in mind though all 4 are very good phones and you won’t go wrong with picking any of them.
Zuk Z2 Pro is a bit small, great battery life and huge internal storage.
you sure about the low light photography? its not bad but i dont think its great and i feel the video recording could be a bit better all in all a nice phone tho to bad i would have to pay around 600 dollars for it because of my country’s insane custom fees
It’s hopefully not a few hundred grams heavier 😉
Thanks for the review. The OS worries me a bit…
“Software is the major issue that ZTE has with the Axon 7. So far I have not received a single update in the month I have had this phone”
This was my major concern about getting the Axon 7. Every ZTE I have previous had was terrible with updates. That is why as appealing as this is I bought the Honor 8 instead.
I knew you wouldn’t buy OP3.
Anyway, how is the honor 8?
I was really impressed by the OP3 but I used a P9 for a week and fell in love with that phone. The Honor 8 is close to being the same thing and I really liked the Blue color of it.
I am not sure how it is yet, it was just officially released a few days ago. Mine will arrive sometime next week.
how much u paid for honor8
I paid $399 but got a $50 gift card and free headphones with it.
You can get the P9 at the same price.
On Amazon it is selling for $494 and buying it in the US gives you no warranty.
I see a few resellers at $450 which is the same H8 would be after state tax if applicable.
If I bought mine in my state (MA) it would have been $423 total for the phone plus taxes, but I bought mine in a neighboring state (NH) where there is no sales tax. Even for $450 you would still have to pay for shipping and possibly import taxes which could push it over $500 and you have limited or no warranty with it.
OneDigitals has it for $437 and free shipping/no tax, one year warranty, 30 day return policy.
That site has terrible customer service, everyone I know that has ever used has said to stay away from it. Their “warranty” is a joke. Also the $437 model has limited LTE support, the $489 model is the one with full LTE. Both of them still cost more than my Honor 8 and didn’t include the free headphones or $50 gift card I got with the 8.
Stop making excuses and order the P9, only an idiot would get the H8 when they are the same price.
Honor 8 – $399
P9 – $489
Only an idiot would be this bad at math.
Why would I order the more expensive phone when nearly everything is the same on the two and the cheaper one has an actual warranty in the US?
Hello? I just told you it was $437, do you have Alzheimer’s or do you just hear what you want to hear?
And I just told you that $437 model doesn’t support every LTE network and doesn’t have a real warranty. For all the LTE networks I need I would have to get the $489 model. Also, $437 is more money than $399. Are you really this bad at math/counting?
So again why would I spend more money for what is essentially the same phone with a worse warranty?
Finally, I knew you would buy it haha
I’m still deciding between so many phones lol
No phone supports EVERY LTE network, according to Frequency Checker this model gets AWS and B20 so it works in N. America and Europe. You have Tmob so it will work just fine for you. Quit making excuses and stop wasting money on inferior garbage. The P9 is superior to H8 in EVERY way.
But it is missing Band 12 which is very important for Tmobile where I live, it also doesn’t support VoLTE the Honor 8 does. The model with Band 12 is the one selling for closer to $500.
As for the P9 being superior in every way, that is kind of funny seeing as they share so many components. And the $399 Honor 8 has 4GB of RAM, your $437 P9 has 3GB. The Honor 8 has 3 months no questions asked replacement if the screen or glass cracks. Your P9 has a shoddy warranty from a reseller.
Where are the scores? And I mean not Antutu scores. Scores on build quality, battery, etc
ah, those meaningless ones. Do you really miss them?
They’re not meaningless. He means the scores at the end of other reviews. Those scores represent an overview/ summary of the reviewers experience in 1 glance. Antutu scores on the other hand changes its value with every update and doesn’t quite reveal how it scores and weighs each point making it useless. I for one would like to see the ‘end of review’ scores as well.
I always check the scores first, if it scores low I don’t bother to read the review. If they don’t do the end scores anymore on reviews, that is something I and probably other people too would like to know.
The problem with those scores is they are essentially meaningless because they often times don’t match up across every review and price segment. For instance the Redmi Note 3 scored an 8.5 for camera in it’s review. The Mi5 scored a an 8. The Mi5 has a much better camera than the RN3. So why does it have a lower score? Because the Mi5 will be compared to the best camera’s in it’s class like the Galaxy S7 or LG G5 and compared to those it is an 8. The RN3 will be compared to phones costing $150, and compared to those it is an 8.5. If you compared the camera from the RN3 to that of the Mi5 it would be somewhere around 6.5 or 7. But that’s not a fair comparison to make in a review because the Mi5 costs hundreds more.
When you have dozens of reviews that all follow this same logic the numbers eventually become meaningless. The best thing for sites like to do is get rid of the numbers and just have a conclusion with pro’s and con’s about each phone they review.
Get an Samsung S7 edge instead it is cheaper
Not in the US. To buy it unlocked in the US it will cost you around $700, the Axon 7 is $399 unlocked. You could buy a used one on Ebay for $499 or an open box one for $450 but those both have risks associated with them and neither is cheaper.
Software wouldn’t be a problem for me as i would just root and install a cynogenmod, as says in the review, all useful hardware is there, i have noticed with other phones they lack one thing i really want, this seems to have it all, yet i am still torn between this and zenfone 3 deluxe
Like this phone but still super glad I chose oneplus 3 best software experience out there for android imho, love the smoothness and functionality, take it every time over a ZTE, huawei, Xiaomi. Oxygen OS cant be beat.
Check out flyme.
Yeah I got a Meizu phone, I love Flyme too, it is my favourite along with Oxygen but Meizu need to be better at bug fixing and updating to latest android versions. Most of their phones are stuck on Lollipop apart from a couple of the newest models.
remove freak border and just 4,5 inch , lol
I prefer Mi Note 2
I preffer Porsche.
Go for Axon 7 then.
I prefer Maserati.
+1
I could use someone’s help please…
ZTE Axon 7 – Mi5 – LeEco LeTV Le 2 Max – ZUK Z2 Pro
Which one is better?
I prefer a phone which is a bit small but I don’t mind if it is big.
I want a big storage at least 64GB and with great battery!
Please I really am very lost now.. I was really waiting for Mi5 but a lot of people say it is not that good. 🙁
Well I would wait to see how Xiaomi Redmi Pro Mini turns out. I prefer Audi RS.
mi5 > zuk > axon > letv
eh tbh I did not hear anyone saying good or bad about letv..
But people say Mi5 is good and others say Axon and some say Zuk…
It is very confusing 🙁
O_O Is such model really coming out?
Don’t really know for sure, it should be judging by the leaks.
Any how by my opinion it would be by far the best Xiaomi one so far this year (if not a best one all around). It’s all I imagined; compact enough, 5.2“ FHD SAMOLED, have a big Battery 4000mAh, the best upper mid range SoC of the year S652, Micro SD card slot. It won’t have a fabulous main camera nor a not particularly better dual one as a non mini version but it won’t also brake a budget so price difference between those two you can invest in geting a mini one with more RAM & storage as you stated you would love to.
It’s a all phone no bullshits if you ask me.
Best regards.
Lazar, I have seen the leaks too but am wondering if the Redmi Pro Mini is real…A Xiaomi Mido geekbench appeared recently which is equipped with SD625 and 2gb ram, I am wondering if it is the Redmi Pro Mini or the Redmi 4. Honestly, I would love to see a Redmi Pro Mini but who knows when the device will be available. The price of the MI5 with 64GB storage is around 310€ now, maybe after 1 or 2 months it will cost only 280€. Difficult to make the right choice and am a bit to wait for the perfect phone.
It’s Redmi 4 you sow & pre production one as S625 actually scores more but I won’t mix that with Redmi Pro Mini nor S652.
It actually depends what is your idea of ideal. My is something like Mini. For me no SD card slot means no go so that pretty much exclude MI line along with LE models. I also game & use phone in general a lot so SOT & Game on time also means a lot to me…
I had bought a Le Max 2, but returned it because it really is pink, pretty hard to find the gold in the rose gold.
The Zuk Z2 pro has no notification led.
That leaves the axon and mi5. Mi5 is way smaller and apparently has way smoother operating system. It’s much cheaper too.
Sounds promising..
I love Xiaomi myself, so I will wait for that. :3
Thanks 🙂
I think a lot of it will depend on where you live. For instance in the US the Mi5 would be very low on the list because it doesn’t support US LTE. But in Asia it would be very high on the list.
If you live somewhere that the Mi5 LTE works I would say:
Mi5, Z2 Pro, Axon 7, Le Max 2.
If not I would say:
Axon 7, Z2 Pro, Le Max 2, Mi5
Keep in mind though all 4 are very good phones and you won’t go wrong with picking any of them.
Zuk Z2 Pro is a bit small, great battery life and huge internal storage.
Get an Samsung S7 edge instead it is cheaper
Not in the US. To buy it unlocked in the US it will cost you around $700, the Axon 7 is $399 unlocked. You could buy a used one on Ebay for $499 or an open box one for $450 but those both have risks associated with them and neither is cheaper.
Software wouldn’t be a problem for me as i would just root and install a cynogenmod, as says in the review, all useful hardware is there, i have noticed with other phones they lack one thing i really want, this seems to have it all, yet i am still torn between this and zenfone 3 deluxe
There is update, you need to install it manually.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/axon-7/how-to/a2017g-b02-update-released-europe-t3440619
There is update, you need to install it manually.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/axon-7/how-to/a2017g-b02-update-released-europe-t3440619
Hey Andi, an almost complete review lacking just a few more info …. well, I guess i’ll go ahead and ask:
How’s the battery life, audio (i’m betting its superb) and call reception like. Anything to be worried about apart from the one’s mentioned in the review?
Hey Andi, an almost complete review lacking just a few more info …. well, I guess i’ll go ahead and ask:
How’s the battery life, audio (i’m betting its superb) and call reception like? Anything to be worried about apart from the one’s mentioned in the review?
Hi Andy , I have been looking forward to this axon 7 review and would like to ask how the audio (speakers and earphones) compares with lenova vibe x3 ? Cheers jono
Hi Andy, what is your rating of this phone?
Hi Andy , I have been looking forward to this axon 7 review and would like to ask how the audio (speakers and earphones) compares with lenova vibe x3 ? Cheers jono
Hi Andy, what is your rating of this phone?
hi, i am looking for a new phone maybe zte axon 7 or op3 or the mi5 or even the good oand old galaxy note 4. what would you recomand?
copy of mate 8
hi, i am looking for a new phone maybe zte axon 7 or op3 or the mi5 or even the good oand old galaxy note 4. what would you recomand?
OS looks different to the one on the International variant which is basically stock android.
OS looks different to the one on the International variant which is basically stock android.