The ZTE Axon 40 Ultra is official with an under-display camera, thin bezels
The Axon 40 Ultra comes with an under-display camera, and it does look “cleaner” because of it. There is no hole on the front at all, and its bezels are also extremely thin, which helps the overall impression. ZTE used metal and glass to make this smartphone a reality, while there is a large camera island on the back. All of its physical buttons are placed on the right, and the phone does look quite premium.
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is included, with up to 16GB of RAM
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC fuels this phone, while ZTE announced 8GB, 12GB, and 16GB LPDDR5 RAM variants. The phone also comes in 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB UFS 3.1 flash storage options. Different combinations are available. A 6.8-inch fullHD+ (2480 x 1080) AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate is included. It offers a 360Hz touch sampling rate, and a 1,440Hz PWM dimming. It gets quite bright at up to 1,500 nits.
Android 12 comes pre-installed on the phone, with ZTE’s MyOS 12 on top of it. There are two SIM card slots included here. A 5,000mAh battery is also a part of the package, and it supports 80W wired charging. Wireless charging doesn’t seem to be supported.
The phone features three 64-megapixel cameras on the back
There are three 64-megapixel cameras on the back, and a single 16-megapixel camera on the front. A 64-megapixel main camera (Sony’s IMX787 sensor, f/1.6 aperture, OIS) is backed by a 64-megapixel ultrawide camera (Sony’s IMX787 sensor with a wide lens). A 64-megapixel periscope telephoto camera (OmniVision’s OV64B sensor, 5.7x optical zoom) is also included, along with the ToF sensor. A single 16-megapixel camera sits on the front, and it’s hidden behind the display. An in-display fingerprint scanner is also a part of the package, and we’re guessing this is an optical unit, ut we’re not sure.
It has liquid cooling, and an upgraded X-axis linear motor
The phone does offer stereo speakers, and has a Type-C USB port at the bottom. Bluetooth 5.2 is also a part of the package, while the phone does support 5G and Wi-Fi 6E. It also offers dual VC liquid cooling, and an upgraded X-axis linear motor. The ZTE Axon 40 Ultra pricing starts at CNY4,998 ($743) in China, starting with an 8GB RAM model with 256GB of storage. The most expensive variant (16GB of RAM + 1TB of storage) costs CNY7,298 ($1,085). We’re still not sure whether this phone will make its way to more markets, but we’ll see.