ZTE subsidiary Nubia (aka the name behind some of the best gaming phones) debuted its budget-friendly foldable, the Nubia Flip 5G, at MWC 2024, and now we’ve got a better idea of where (and when) the upcoming phone will launch. 

Nubia itself has confirmed that the Flip 5G – which is known in selected regions as the ZTE Libero Flip – will officially launch in Europe on April 9 as part of a global reveal event. Set to kick off at 7am ET / 4am PT / 12pm BST, this event will presumably play host to a pricing and release date announcement, since we’ve already handled the Flip 5G in-person.

At MWC 2024, Nubia teased that the Flip 5G will be available in Africa, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and Southeast Asia for the local equivalent of $599, though pricing could vary with different specs in different markets. There’s a good chance that the phone will ship in the US, too, albeit at a later date (and potentially through third-party retailers rather than Nubia itself). An Australian release seems unlikely, though.

The Flip 5G now has a dedicated page on Nubia’s website, and UK shoppers can currently get £20 off by signing up to the company’s mailing list (you’ll also be entered into a free Nubia Flip 5G giveaway for your troubles).

As for what we already know about the device, the Nubia Flip 5G sports a 6.9-inch folding AMOLED display (1188 x 2790) with a 120Hz refresh rate, as well as a versatile external display that can function as a camera, a calendar, a stopwatch, and  more.

Under the hood, the Nubia Flip 5G is powered by Qualcomm’s mid-range Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 chipset, and a 4,310mAh battery with 33W fast charging. For comparison, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 boasts an objectively faster Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset, but that phone will set you back an almighty $999.99 / £1,049 / AU$1,649 (its 3,700mAh battery is significantly smaller, too).

On the cameras front, Nubia’s upcoming foldable is equipped with a 50MP wide lens, a 50MP telephoto lens and a 16MP selfie camera. Again, for comparison, the Galaxy Z Flip 5 sports a numerically lesser 12MP wide lens, 12MP ultra-wide lens and 10MP selfie camera, though the superior processing power of Samsung’s latest flip-style foldable could see it outperform the Nubia for image quality.

That said, the Nubia Flip 5G boasts an impressive suite of specs for its as-yet-announced $599 price tag; it’s all-but-certain to be half the price of the Galaxy Z Flip 5, but it's much more than half the phone. As for whether the Nubia Flip 5G will earn a spot on our list of the best foldable phones, the jury is out, but it could well end up being the best cheap phone of its kind. Roll on April 9!

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Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip 6 is hotly tipped to succeed the excellent Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 at Galaxy Unpacked this July, but it looks like the upcoming foldable will have one more clamshell rival to compete with when it does hit shelves in a few months.

ZTE subsidiary Nubia (aka the name behind some of the best gaming phones) has unveiled its first foldable device, the Nubia Flip 5G, at MWC 2024, and despite its budget-friendly price, this colorful clamshell shares more than just a form factor with the Galaxy Z Flip 5. 

Known in Japan as the ZTE Libero Flip, the Nubia Flip 5G boasts a 6.9-inch folding AMOLED display (1188 x 2790) with a 120Hz refresh rate, as well as a versatile external display that can double as – wait for it – a camera, a music player, a calendar, a stopwatch, a voice recorder, a step counter, a weather app, and, of course, a plain old clock.

On the back of the Nubia Flip 5G is a 50MP wide lens and a 50MP telephoto lens, while there’s a 16MP selfie camera on the front. For comparison, the Galaxy Z Flip 5 sports a numerically lesser 12MP wide lens, 12MP ultra-wide lens, and 10MP selfie camera, but we’d advise against drawing early conclusions based on megapixel count alone; often, the quality of images is equally dependent on processing power. And, judging by the specs, that’s where the Nubia Flip 5G could fall short of the Galaxy Z Flip 5.

Nubia’s first foldable is powered by Qualcomm’s mid-range Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 chipset, which is objectively less powerful than the Galaxy’s bespoke Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset. The Nubia Flip 5G won’t be a slow phone, by any means, but the newer technology inside Qualcomm’s 2023 flagship chipset does result in better battery life efficiency and heat dissipation. That said, the difference in on-screen performance will most likely be negligible.

Speaking of batteries, the Nubia Flip 5G boasts a 4,310mAh battery with 33W fast charging, which should keep things ticking along nicely for a day, at the very least.

The key selling point of this foldable phone, though, is its price: ZTE has confirmed that the Nubia Flip 5G will be available in Africa, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia for the local equivalent of $599, which means there’s a good chance it’ll cost the same price in the US (though you may have to pick one up through a third-party retailer rather than Nubia itself).

At that figure, the Nubia Flip 5G is almost half the price of the Galaxy Z Flip 5, which starts at $999.99 / £1,049 / AU$1,649, so here’s hoping its imminent release (we were told “Q2” at MWC) heralds the coming of many more genuinely affordable foldable phones. Your move, Samsung.

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Two-minute review

If you’re reading this Red Magic 7s Pro review, we’re guessing you’re curious about gaming phones. The ROG Phone 6 is currently the very best of the breed and the benchmark we're currently comparing all gaming phones against. In the past, Red Magic gaming phones have represented the other end of the spectrum, and were synonymous with poorly translated menus and big specs matched with a mediocre user experience. It looks like that's changing with the Red Magic 7 series, and specifically the latest 7s Pro.

The Red Magic 7 launched in February 2022, and was powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. Now that the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chip is powering handsets like the ROG Phone 6, though, Nubia – the maker of the Red Magic series – reckons it's time for an incremental upgrade. 

We've been testing out the Red Magic 7s Pro in its highest capacity spec – 512GB storage and 18GB RAM – that's mighty, outdoing virtually all the competition. The phone features an in-display selfie camera and has a much higher-capacity battery than the vanilla Red Magic 7, however, misses out on a 165Hz high-refresh-rate screen.

As is the case with most gaming phones, the Red Magic 7s Pro's power is its main selling point, but the in-display selfie camera is also a very cool added extra. Giving you an uninterrupted all-screen view, it's refreshing in a world of notches and punch hole displays. Matched with a quality AMOLED panel, the Red Magic showcases games and movies beautifully, though isn't quite as bright as some of its flagship competition. 

Powered by a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, which is matched with up to 18GB of RAM – on paper, nothing other than the ROG Phone 6 series can compete with the Red Magic's 7s Pro.

The Red Magic 7s Pro's gaming edge comes in the form of left and right shoulder triggers, a slider that fires you straight into Game Lobby, where you can see all your titles, and some intense gaming styling that climaxes in an exposed RGB fan.

This fan and the phone's heat management help things stay cooler than other gaming and non-gaming phones – like the Xiaomi 12 Pro and Black Shark 5 Pro – a boon for gamers.

The Red Magic 7s Pro ships with a large 5,000mAh battery. When we tested the Red Magic 7, it didn't fare too well with 4,500mAh of juice, but in all our tests, the 7s Pro performed respectably for a gaming phone, especially when the screen refresh rate was set to 60 or 90Hz.

The Red Magic 7s Pro is pricey, but it's also very cool. While there are some rough edges – a bit of bloatware and a couple of Chinese characters that have made it through to the Themes app, it's still a more polished phone than the Red Magic 7 was when we tested it. 

Ultimately, while the Red Magic 7s Pro isn't the best gaming phone around, it's nevertheless a good one that should give folks looking to game on the go plenty to sink their teeth into. 

Red Magic 7s Pro price and availability

• Starts from $729 / £669
• Two storage options are available
• Available through Amazon and redmagic.gg

The Red Magic 7s Pro launched globally on 26 July 2022.

The handset starts at $729 / £669 (approximately AU $1,120) – that’s for 12GB RAM and 256GB storage. There is one other configuration available: 18GB / 512GB, which costs $899 / £809 (approximately AU $1,460).

This means whichever option you go for, you'll be getting huge amounts of storage for the price, given most phones these days ship with 128GB internally.

Comparing the Red Magic 7s Pro's price to its predecessor, it's more costly out of the gate – the 512GB 7 Pro costs ($799 / £759). In turn, with the two phones being virtually identical in all other areas, the 7 Pro is a compelling, lower-cost alternative for anyone who doesn't need the very latest silicon. 

If power is your priority, though, £669 for a 256GB Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 phone represents decent value for gamers, and you can pick up the Red Magic 7s Pro at Amazon and on Red Magic's official site, redmagic.gg. 

• Value score: 4/5

Red Magic 7s Pro design

• Premium glass and metal
• Heavy and blocky styling
• Comfortable to game on

Just like the first gaming phones, from Asus's ROG Phone to Xiaomi's Black Shark, the Red Magic 7s Pro is loud, garish, and loaded with angry-looking design highlights. Our version, which is the Supernova color scheme, even has some camo patterning to make the point – this phone was built for COD stans.  

In addition to Supernova, you can pick the Red Magic 7s Pro up in a white Mercury option, which, based on renders, is our favorite, standing out from a sea of black gaming phones. If you pick up the lower-specced, 256GB version, it ships in an Obsidian color with no RGB fan. 

The front of the phone is a big flat screen that's notch-free and looks selfie camera-free too – but it isn't. The front camera's hidden underneath the screen, and Red Magic's implementation of this tech is much better than Samsung's on the Galaxy Z Fold 3 – you really can't tell there's a camera under the display here.

The Red Magic 7s Pro's sides are flat, stark metal; and the back is curved glass, with a cutout that's matte metal – that's the camo part we mentioned. If you stump up for a 512GB version of the phone, you get a window that sits alongside the camera, so you can peek into the fan, which is lit up by LED lights when gaming. Love it or hate it, it's pretty unique to the Red Magic 7 series.

The phone is bulky at 10mm thick, and weighs a hefty 235g, making it one of the biggest and beefiest options around – roughly the same weight as an iPhone 13 Pro Max. The shape and weight do, however, make it feel like a solid gaming device when held in landscape orientation, so if you like big phones, you'll likely find it comfortable enough.

The power button sits along the right side next to the volume rocker, and there's a USB-C port at the base. Unlike the ROG Phone 6, there’s no second USB-C port along the Red Magic 7s Pro's side, which would have made gaming more comfortable whilst charging. There is a 3.5mm headphone jack on the top side – missing from the likes of the Black Shark 5 – so you can plug in your wired headphones.

The Red Magic 7s Pro's frame is made from aviation-grade aluminum. As hardy as this may sound, the phone isn't water or dust-resistant. That being said, it is protected on the front, thanks to a pre-fitted screen protector, and there's also a case in the box. 

On the right side, there are responsive touch-sensitive triggers, which sport a 520Hz touch-sampling rate – up from 500Hz on the Red Magic 7 series, and with a flick of the left-hand slider, you can fire up the Red Magic Gaming Space.

• Design score: 4/5

Red Magic 7s Pro display

• Large 6.8-inch screen
• FHD+ resolution, 120Hz refresh rate
• Under-display selfie camera

The Nubia Red Magic 7s Pro's screen is uninterrupted thanks to a hidden, under-display front camera. In a world of notches and punch holes, there's a lot to be said for the expansive effect the phone achieves. 

The hidden front camera really is invisible, and the only time you'll spot it is when taking selfies. While the selfies aren't anything to write home about – more on that later – the all-screen effect is a winner.

Unlike the ROG Phone 6, the Red Magic 7s Pro doesn't feature a 165Hz refresh rate; instead, topping out at 120Hz. This is still respectable, and many will consider the trade-off a fair one for that under-display front camera. 

At the heart of the Magic 7s Pro's screen is a 6.8-inch panel with a Full HD+ resolution, HDR support and AMOLED technology. Far from the sharpest screen around, it's competitive for a gaming phone, given games are generally rendered at. Full HD resolution. 

With a 700 nits max brightness, the Red Magic 7s Pro doesn't beam as brightly as other flagships, so some may struggle with outdoor viewing, in sunny environments. 

The phone's touch-sampling rate – how responsive its screen is to the touch – is also very high at up to 960Hz, up from 480Hz on the Red Magic 7 and 7 Pro, so that should improve the feel of fast-paced gaming. There are also plenty of screen modes, so you can customize your visuals to add more pop, or dial saturation back a bit, as desired.

Ultimately, the Red Magic 7s Pro shines when used indoors, and out in overcast environments. Detail is where it needs to be, viewing angles are strong and colors are bold and punchy; with deep darks, and confident, nuanced highlights. We just wish it was a touch brighter.

• Display score: 4/5

Red Magic 7s Pro cameras

• 64MP main, 8MP ultrawide, 2MP macro
• Video capture at up to 8K
• 16MP under-display selfie camera

Nubia isn't prioritizing the camera specs on the Red Magic 7s Pro, and we wouldn't expect it to – gaming phones aren't brilliant camera phones; that's just the way it is. 

The phone's camera system is spearheaded by a high-resolution 64MP sensor with a wide aperture of f/1.8, though the sensor itself is small for a flagship phone, meaning it's far from a lowlight champ. 

There's an 8MP ultra-wide camera alongside the primary sensor, with a 13mm focal length and a 1/4-inch sensor. Finally, the main camera mix includes a 2MP fixed-focus macro camera, with an f/2.4 aperture. 

Front cameras are arguably more important for gaming phones, but don't expect miracles from the Red Magic 7s Pro – under-display selfie cameras are never peak-performers when it comes to photo or video quality, and the 7s Pro's is predictably weak. 

Any spec-whisperers reading this review should realize that things look underwhelming on the photography front. But, you never know, Red Magic's camera software might save the day.

You can get some great pictures from the Red Magic 7s Pro's main camera, despite its middling specs. It captures photos loaded with punchy colors and respectable amounts of detail. Close-up shots do pull out some pleasing background blur, and there's a decent portrait mode too for more distanced bokeh, though the phone can't handle low light scenes with the same confidence.

Across lighting conditions, photo contrast can be a bit high, so detail in the shadows might need to be pulled out in an edit, but we're happy with how the Red Magic 7s Pro generally handles photos given its midrange camera hardware and the lack of optical image stabilization. 

The ultra-wide camera does a fair job of adding extra versatility to the mix. While quality falls behind the main camera, give it a steady hand, and it isn't a let down until nightfall. The same can't be said of the macro camera which should be avoided day or night.

The night mode works to great effect on the main camera, however, doesn't fire up automatically. Forget to turn it on, therefore, and you'll end up with poor pictures in dimly lit environments. Worse still, it doesn't work with the ultra-wide camera. 

Video captured on the Red Magic 7s Pro looks fine, recorded at up to 8K resolution (30fps) or 4K resolution (60fps). The higher the quality, the less effective the image stabilization, and the video camera struggles with high contrast environments.

While you can eke out great snaps and footage from the 7s Pro, you can pick up significantly more reliable camera phones at half the price – the Realme 9 Pro Plus, for example.

• Camera score: 2.5/5

Camera samples

Red Magic 7s Pro performance and specs

• Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 power
• 12-18GB RAM
• 256-512GB storage

The Nubia Red Magic 7s Pro flexes its Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chip both on the outside and in, with the Qualcomm chipset branding etched into the back of the phone, giving you a suggestive peek under the hood. As with the ROG Phone 6 and Red Magic 7, modern-day games playback fast and furiously. 

When we put the phone through the Geekbench 5 benchmark test, it returned a multi-core score of 4,131, versus the Red Magic 7's 3,600. 3D Mark scores were also strong, with a Wildlife Extreme benchmark score of 2,763, giving our champ, the ROG Phone 6, a run for its money. 

With such a prominent fan around the back, illuminated by RGB lights, you'd expect the Red Magic 7s Pro to keep its cool – and it does for the most part. Restoring a 20GB WhatsApp backup or playing 30 minutes of Injustice 2 or Call of Duty at maxed-out settings certainly got it warm, but even without the fan, it didn't heat up as much as some alternatives, like the Black Shark 5. 

Fire up the fan, and you'll be able to game a little cooler, with our tests showing a 2º C drop in temperature after having the fan on for ten minutes at max settings. That doesn't sound like much, but considering heat management is already pretty good on the Red Magic 7s Pro, it could help keep frame rates that bit more stable.

• Performance score: 5/5

Red Magic 7s Pro software

Red Magic 7s Pro software

• Android 12 software
• Red Magic UI feels relatively stock
• Fewer issues than on past-gen devices

The Red Magic 7s Pro runs Android 12, with Nubia's latest gaming UI, Redmagic OS 5.5. When compared to the Red Magic 7, which we tested in June, the interface has been polished with tighter translations. There are still issues if you scratch the surface though.

In the image above, you can see the keyboard, and below it, the background – in this case, the apps tray. We pointed this exact quirk out when we reviewed the Red Magic 7.

If you can get past a few UI niggles though, app support is great, and the phone feels relatively stock – but more Android 10 stock than Android 12 stock, as Material You and other Android 12 highlights are missing.

Nubia does pre-load a bunch of widgets to help you quickly access gaming-focused features on the 7s Pro. The pre-deployed ones on our handset were fan speed control, a heart rate monitor by way of the fingerprint scanner, and a gameplay clock, so you can see how many hours you're spending in virtual worlds.

When you've fired up a game, the Red Magic 7s Pro's gaming enhancer adds more granular control over your system than non-gaming phones might. It goes without saying, you can manipulate obvious elements like fan control and switch between power-saving and performance modes. 

You can also take things a step further though – map the L and R shoulder buttons, so you can swipe, tap, or tap different parts of them to activate different commands. There's also scope to disable charging when plugged into power, allowing for extended gaming sessions while reducing heat build-up and putting unnecessary strain on the battery. The gaming enhancements available are extensive.

• Software score: 3.5/5

Red Magic 7s Pro battery life

• 5,000mAh battery is competitive
• Makes it through a full day with light gaming
• Fast 65W charging helpful for a quick top-up

Despite not getting the massive 6,000mAh capacity battery Asus ROG Phones have, the Red Magic 7s Pro still offers a respectably-sized battery and more mAh (milliampere hours) than the Black Shark 5 and Red Magic 7.

The phone's 5,000mAh cell will get you through a day comfortably if you have the fan off, the screen set to 60Hz or 90Hz, and use the phone liberally for messaging, photo taking, and a spot of gaming. 

Working through basic tasks, the Red Magic 7s Pro depleted 60 percent in 15 hours and 14 minutes at 60Hz, while at 120Hz, it took 11 hours 26 minutes. This highlights how big a difference screen refresh rate can make to battery life, and given the phone lacks auto-refresh-rate, owners should be on top of switching settings manually if battery life is a concern.

The phone charges up quickly with fast 65W charging, which powers up in a little over half an hour. There's no wireless charging, as is the case with most gaming phones, though reverse charging is supported.

• Battery score: 4/5

Red Magic 7s Pro review score card

Should you buy the Red Magic 7s Pro?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Also consider

If this Red Magic 7s Pro review hasn't helped you decide it's the one for you, here are some alternatives that you might want to consider.

• First reviewed July 2022

Two-minute review

Glance at the ZTE Axon 40 Ultra, and you might easily mistake it for Samsung’s top-end Galaxy S22 Ultra. It’s of a similar size and look, except for the logo and some deviation in the design of the camera bump. 

However, the more time we spent testing for this ZTE Axon 40 Ultra review, the more we became aware of some rough edges here and there. The devil’s in the detail, as the saying goes, and the ZTE does suffer a few bugs in the software and camera departments.

But with a price that comes in way below that of Samsung’s flagship, and a feature set that (aside of the camera lineup) is actually pretty similar, there are likely to be many folk who find the ZTE better suited to their needs. Don’t write off this device just because it’s from a lesser-known company.

One of the key features of the ZTE Axon 40 Ultra is its under-display front camera. It means the selfie snapper doesn’t obstruct a section of the screen, because it’s actually hidden underneath it.

As such, this device is superb for viewing videos or playing games. However, the downside is the quality of those selfies, which appear to display a ghostly glowing aura; it might seem artistic had it been intentional. Self portraits taken with this device aren’t great either.

Also of note in the camera department is ZTE’s handling of the triple-lens camera on the Axon 40 Ultra. Unlike the Samsung, which includes five rear snappers, each with different lenses and sensors, ZTE has opted to feature the same 64-megapixel sensor on all three rear cameras. Clearly, when it comes to the quality of camera phones, ZTE is putting its eggs in the basket of “more megapixels equals better pictures”.

This doesn’t exactly play out in the real world, though, and it’s another area where the Axon 40 Ultra flags behind the competition. However, this is on comparing this device to high-price rivals, not other phones in its price range such as the iPhone 13, Samsung Galaxy S22 and Xiaomi 12. Compared to those rivals the Axon is good, although inconsistent.

In other areas, the phone feels impressive for its price. Design-wise, it’s exquisite, with a “waterfall” display that sees the edges curve dramatically – which means the Axon 40 Ultra feels super-comfortable in the hand. The large rear camera bump gives the phone a commanding look, without being so big as to make the handset unwieldy.

The display is fantastic, delivering for high resolution, large size, high refresh rate and support for over a billion colors. As a result of those screen specs and the lack of an annoying front-facing camera to get in the way, watching movies or TV shows on the Axon 40 Ultra proved a real treat.

The handset is also super-powerful, bringing many good times playing games on the device. However, as is the case with most phones using the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset, the Axon 40 Ultra was prone to heating up quickly.

If you’ve been looking for an affordable alternative to the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra, then ZTE Axon 40 Ultra is a better choice than the Galaxy S22 and S22 Plus, offering a similar design and lots of power.

There are a few rough edges – save for in the design, ironically, where the edges are all smooth – but this is a great Android flagship that delivers way more than its price would suggest.

ZTE Axon 40 Ultra price and availability

The Axon 40 Ultra costs $799 / £709 (roughly AU$1,200) for 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage – a surprisingly low price given the specs and design on offer.

A version with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage comes in a fair bit pricier at $899 / £809 (around AU$1,430).

For context, the standard model of Samsung Galaxy S22 with 128GB of storage costs $799 / £769 / AU$1,249, while the iPhone 13 is a little bit pricier in some regions at $799 / £779 / AU$1,349. So, depending on where you live, the ZTE phone either matches or undercuts two significant rivals, despite offering a far more premium build.

The phone launched in May 2022 in China, but only went on sale in June for the rest of the world. The device isn’t currently available in Australia.

• Value score: 4/5

ZTE Axon 40 Ultra design

From a distance, it would be fairly easy to mistake the ZTE Axon 40 Ultra for the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra – the handsets look almost identical, at least until you catch a glimpse of the “ZTE” logo on the former.

This means that like the Samsung device, the ZTE handset is large, measuring 163.3 x 73.6 x 8.4mm and weighing 204g. Expect it to stretch your hand.

Also like the Samsung, the ZTE features a “waterfall” display, which means it curves dramatically at the sides. Thankfully, such a design makes it comfier to hold in the hand, somewhat mitigating the awkwardness of its large overall size.

There’s a USB-C port, but no 3.5mm headphone jack – fairly common for top-end phones – and both the power button and volume jack are mounted along the right edge of the device. The former is just within reach; the latter, not so much.

A design feature that we perhaps prefer on the ZTE, compared to the Samsung, is the design of the back of the phone. The textured glass rear feels smooth to the touch, and the camera bump isn’t as much of a dust magnet. 

• Design score: 4/5

ZTE Axon 40 Ultra display

The ZTE Axon 40 Ultra comes with a 6.8-inch display, which is the same size of display that features on the Galaxy S22 Ultra, and as mentioned, it’s a “waterfall” style, with edges that curve at the edges.

The difference is that the Axon has an Under-Display Camera (UDC), so the screen isn’t interrupted by a large notch or sizeable punch-hole. Instead, the camera sits under the screen.

This certainly elevates the experience of playing games and watching videos, with no annoying splotch getting in the way. However, on the flip-side, it does impact the quality of selfies, something we’ll cover in more detail in the “Cameras” section of the review.

The screen uses AMOLED tech and supports HDR10+ and over a billion colors, with a 1500 nits maximum brightness. As such, colors are bright and bold, with superb contrast.

In addition, the Axon’s 120Hz refresh rate is identical to that offered in the majority of top-end phones. It refers to the number of times the image updates each second; the higher the figure, the smoother motion is displayed. 

• Display score: 4/5

ZTE Axon 40 Ultra cameras

Since we’ve mentioned it already, let’s first look at the ZTE Axon 40 Ultra’s front camera.

It’s a 16-megapixel f/2.0 snapper; but the specs don’t quite matter for an under-display camera. More important are the AI smarts that help the camera to “work” through the screen – and there’s clearly an issue here. Selfies look pretty horrible.

There’s a lot of halation in snaps taken with the front camera – this is basically where light spreads beyond where it’s meant to be – and some noticeable overexposure issues, too. Add to this that in many instances the AI overcompensates, and you get problems with oversharpening as well. All in all, we took very few selfies that we’d be happy to share with anyone (except in this review, of course).

In terms of the rear snappers, the Axon 40 Ultra offers three rear cameras, each with a high-res 64-megapixel sensor. It’s a valiant effort, but does it pay off? Not exactly.

The main camera has a f/1.6, 35mm lens with OIS. The ultra-wide sensor is a 16mm and f/2.4, while the final one has a 3.5mm periscope lens that’s f/3.5 and 91mm.

You won’t be taking 64-megapixel pictures with these cameras, however – unless you jump into the Settings menu to enable it. Instead, the phone uses pixel binning to take 12-megapixel snaps. Pixel binning basically combines camera pixels to create larger ones; read our guide on the tech here.

In well-lit settings, the main camera actually performed pretty well, although with inconsistent results. Likely thanks to the pixel binning, pictures could be bright with vibrant colors, and the huge lenses led to a more natural and attractive depth of field than on your standard smartphone camera photo.

When we talk about inconsistencies, we’re referring to the phone’s viewfinder. Pictures would sometimes look pixelated on the phone’s screen, or displaying oddly flat colors; but these issues generally wouldn’t show up in the resulting picture. Odd, but things could be worse.

On a positive note, there’s an absolute smorgasbord of extra camera features here. There are exposure, astrophotography, multi-exposure, macro, document scanning, multi-camera and monochrome photography modes, and dolly zoom, time lapse and slow-mo video modes, amongst many, many others. People who love playing around with smartphone camera modes will find the Axon a veritable playground.

One selling point of the phone and its triple 64-megapixel snappers is that, in theory, you can shoot 8K footage at a standard, ultra-wide or 3x zoom field of view (on any of the rear cameras). However, a weird bug meant that, any time we tried to use the telephoto camera at 8K, the camera app crashed.

• Camera score: 3.5/5

Camera samples

ZTE Axon 40 Ultra performance and specs

Like many premium phones you’ll find for sale in 2022, the ZTE Axon 40 Ultra uses Qualcomm’s top-end chipset, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. This is a super-powerful chip that’s great for gaming and other intensive functions. However, we’ve also found that it has an issue with overheating, something we’ve experienced on many of the handsets that feature the chip.

In benchmark tests, the Axon 40 Ultra beat the Sony Xperia 1 IV and drew with the Xiaomi 12, showing that it has plenty of power on tap for processing games or editing.

However, like those phones, it becomes hot quickly whilst you’re playing online shooters or doing intensive tasks – or even charging it or conducting benchmark tests, for example.

Still, you’d be hard-pressed to find a powerful phone in 2022 that doesn’t overheat at the drop of a hat.

As mentioned, the Axon is offered in two configurations: one has 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage; the other bumps up the RAM to 12GB and the storage to 256GB. Lots of people prefer to opt for the higher storage allowance, but the price increase to do so might put off some buyers.

The phone is compatible with 5G networks, delivering access to the top data speeds – although your mileage with 5G will depend on your network and area.

• Performance score: 4/5

ZTE Axon 40 Ultra software

The ZTE Axon 40 Ultra runs Android 12, with MyOS 12 laid over the top – this is ZTE’s own fork of Android, one that’s less well-known than Samsung’s OneUI or Xiaomi’s MIUI.

Like most Chinese brand-built Android forks, the UI is fairly busy, with large app icons and very dynamic, artistic wallpapers. This isn’t necessarily a negative; it just depends on your design preference.

Some people may not like the presence of pre-installed apps (WPS Office, Booking.com and Facebook are already installed on the phone when you first boot it up). However, compared to many other phones we’ve seen, this is actually a refreshingly small amount of bloatware.

The more we used MyOS, the more we became aware of how accessible it is. When you swipe down for the quick settings menu, the icons are large enough to both convey information simply, and be easy to press and toggle. This phone would be great for people who struggle with small, fiddly on-screen functions.

Thanks to its powerful internals, the phone is super-quick for navigating between the menus and opening apps.

On occasion, we encountered a few bugs – a recurring one saw notifications only partially expanded and so the text was cut off – but these didn’t happen with enough frequency or severity to ruin the experience of using the handset.

• Performance score: 4/5

ZTE Axon 40 Ultra battery life

The ZTE Axon 40 Ultra doesn’t have the world’s worst battery life, but neither is it the best. We found that the 5,000mAh capacity unit would, at a stretch, last for a day; but this required careful use.

Long periods taking photos, or gaming, would see it fall short of making it through a full day, with use often having to resort to plugging it in during the evening.

However, the Axon’s quick-charge capabilities made up for this in part. The phone powers up at 65W, which is fairly fast – although nowhere close to the 80W or 120W delivered by some rival flagships. You can charge up from empty to full in about 40 minutes.

Unlike many other same-price flagships, there’s no wireless charging facility here; so don’t buy the Axon 40 Ultra expecting it to work on your charging pad.

• Battery score: 3.5/5

ZTE Axon 40 Ultra score card

Should I buy the ZTE Axon 40 Ultra?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Also consider

Now you're read to the bottom of this ZTE Axon 40 Ultra review, here are a few other phones that might also pique your interest.

• First reviewed June 2022

Two-minute review

Red is a Chinese brand that's been making gaming phones for ages. It's part of Nubia, which was once part of ZTE – and may still be; the internet is undecided on that fact. 

Why the history lesson? Because the Red Magic 7 feels like it's going through something of an identity crisis. Funny menu translations, some rough edges within the UI, and an underwhelming battery collide with what is otherwise an affordable gaming phone with tons of power and some neat gamer-tailored flourishes.

Now, if you're in the market for a gaming phone, you should expect an angry-looking design – and the Red Magic's styling transcends angry. The glass back is blazoned with glyphs that showcase its specs. On its most premium RAM and storage version, there's a transparent section, under which sits an RGB-lit fan. It's a lot. 

The Red Magic 7 is also big and bold with a cold, stark metal frame, prominent vents and flat sides. It's heavy, thick, and a handful, whether you're holding it like a phone or a controller.

With booming loudspeakers and that bold 6.8-inch 165Hz screen, the Red Magic 7 displays movies and games with impact – and thanks to stacks of power under the hood because of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, performance is on-point too.

The interface is the main area where the Red Magic 7 drops the ball. It runs Android, so app support is great, and Red's also added a bunch of widgets to the mix to help you quickly control its fan and access gaming features. That said, various English translations throughout the UI miss the mark, and there are also a few visual issues.

The battery will last about a day with medium to light operation, but only around 8 hours with heavier use, so gamers who don't have time for an afternoon charge should look at alternatives with bigger batteries like the ROG Phone 5.

At its price point, there are few phones with the same level of power and gaming-focused appeal that can compete with the Red Magic 7. 

That being said, the Poco F4 GT is an excellent alternative, with pressable shoulder buttons that are better than the Red Magic 7's touch buttons in our opinion. Its smaller screen also makes it a bit more manageable – and it has a better battery – though we'd have to say the watching of anything on it isn't as immersive. Also, the styling isn't as gamer-oriented as that of the Red Magic 7.

Alternatively, if you don't mind having 2021-grade internals, the Asus ROG Phone 5 and 5s Pro pack massive batteries and support for excellent accessories with Snapdragon 888-series power.

Nubia Red Magic 7: price and availability

• Price from $629 / £529 / AU$900
• Various RAM and storage configurations
• Affordable for a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 phone

The Red Magic 7 price falls well below most Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 smartphones. You can pick it up for $629 / £529 (roughly AU$900) with 12GB RAM and 128GB in an Obsidian color: this is the entry-level configuration. The 16GB RAM / 256GB storage model costs $729 / £619 (roughly AU$1,090) and is available in Pulsar – a pink/purple reflective color scheme. The Supernova color option, which features the RGB fan window and 18GB RAM costs $799 / £679 (roughly AU$1,200).

The phone went on sale in early February 2022 and is available SIM-free exclusively, with no major carriers or networks tethering it to a plan or contract.

• Value score: 4/5

Nubia Red Magic 7: design

• Available in Obsidian, Pulsar, and Supernova color options
• Large-sized Android phone
• Garish gaming-phone design

When we consider the evolution of gaming phones since the ROG Phone and original Black Shark were launched, Nubia's Red Magic 7 doesn't push the envelope too far when it comes to physical gaming tools. It's got touch-sensitive triggers, but that's about it. 

The front of the phone is a big flat screen that's notch-free; the sides are composed of flat, stark metal with grilles; and the back is curved glass. Each configuration is available in a different color. We tested out the Supernova option. What sets the Supernova apart from the rest of the Red Magic 7s is the window that sits alongside the camera, so you can peek into the fan, which is lit up by LED lights when gaming. 

The phone measures 170.6 x 78.3 x 9.5mm and weighs 215g, making it one of the biggest and beefiest options around – but it's still significantly lighter than an iPhone 13 Pro Max (238g). 

The power button sits along the right side, the volume rocker on the left, and the USB-C port is at the base. There’s no second USB-C port along the Red Magic 7's side, which would have made gaming more comfortable, but there is a 3.5mm headphone jack so you can plug in your headphones.

Around the back is a curved glass panel that's basically a glorified spec sheet. It's loaded up with glyphs and specs, seemingly every bit of information – from the phone's chipset to the screen's refresh rate and fan rotation speed – is proudly blazoned across the glass. The Magic 7 clearly wants everyone to know what it's touting.

Given the exposed vents and visible fan that pumps air through the phone, you shouldn't be surprised that the Nubia Red Magic 7 isn't water or dust resistant. That being said, it is protected on the front, thanks to a pre-fitted screen protector, and there's also a case in the box. 

On the right side, there are responsive touch-sensitive triggers, which sport a 500Hz touch-sampling rate, and with a flick of the left-hand slider, you can fire up the Red Magic gaming space.

• Design score: 3.5/5

Nubia Red Magic 7: display

• Large-size 6.8-inch screen
• FHD+ resolution, 165Hz refresh rate
• 720Hz touch sampling rate

The Nubia Red Magic 7's screen is big, bold, and bonkers smooth. Loaded up with a sky-high 165Hz refresh rate, it's smoother than any mainstream flagship, and with a nippy 720Hz touch-sampling rate, it's also responsive for gaming too. 

At the heart of the Magic 7's screen is a 6.8-inch panel with a FHD+ resolution and AMOLED technology. With a 700-nits max brightness, it doesn't beam as brightly as some competitors, but in side-by-side comparison, didn't fare too much worse than many of today's finest flagships. 

The whole Red Magic 7 line ditches punch-hole selfie cameras and notches, so that means you get an uninterrupted, full-screen experience, something of a novelty today. The result is a wide, expansive, ample display with punchy saturation and very zingy colors by default. In the settings, you can pare back the vividness for a more natural look. 

Of course, you don't need a 165Hz screen all the time, so you can easily toggle between 60Hz, 90Hz, 120Hz, and 165Hz through the quick menu in the notifications shade, or a widget that you can deploy on your home screen. That said, there's no auto-refresh rate, which doesn't bode well for battery life.

• Display score: 4/5

Nubia Red Magic 7: camera

• 64MP main, 8MP ultrawide, 2MP macro
• Lots of classic Samsung camera modes
• 8MP selfie camera

Just like many other gaming phones, including the Lenovo Legion Phone Dual, Nubia isn't prioritizing the camera specs like other smartphones currently launching. 

At the helm is a high-resolution, but small-sized sensor, which clocks in at 64MP and roughly half an inch. On the plus side, its lens packs a wide aperture of f/1.8. There's an 8MP ultra-wide camera too, with a 13mm focal length and a 1/4-inch sensor. Finally, the main camera mix includes a 2MP fixed-focus macro camera with a f/2.4 aperture. 

Front cameras are arguably more important for gaming phones, but the 8MP sensor in the selfie camera looks like it's the same spec as the ultra-wide camera, and doesn't promise too much based on numbers alone. 

Despite the Red Magic 7's middling camera specs, you can still get very decent pictures from the phone, especially in bright, evenly-lit scenes. With Qualcomm's latest image processing as part of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, Nubia has eked out decent dynamic range and punchy colors from daylight shots taken on the Red Magic 7.

Photo contrast can be a bit high, so detail in the shadows might need to be pulled out in an edit. All in all, the main camera's daylight photos exceeded our expectations. As for the ultra-wide camera, this does an okay job of adding extra versatility to the mix. However, quality falls behind with the main camera's photos, and the macro camera is the worst of the bunch.

When the lights drop, the detail does too. While photos aren't too grainy – which is good – the Red Magic 7 won't magic a dark scene into a bright picture like competing camera phones. The night mode helps with this, and boosts dynamic range in low-light scenes.

One area where the Nubia Red Magic 7's camera tries very hard to impress is with its photo modes. There are plenty of them, and they attempt to add tons of value. In addition to standard modes, the phone offers: Star trail, Starry sky, Electronic aperture, Light draw (light trails), Multi-exposure, Slow motion, Time-lapse, Clone, Trajectory, Macro, 3D, ID photo, Panorama, Zoom blue, Freeze frame, Phantom, VLOG, Hitchcock and Art camera. 

These modes are rough around the edges, but many are fun, so if you fancy getting creative, there's plenty here to play with. The video recording quality is also better than we thought it would be. Climbing up to 8K in resolution and 60fps when shooting at 4K or lower, the footage is steadied well and sharpness is on point. Low-light performance isn't good, but if you're okay with saving your video capture for daylight scenes, you'll probably be impressed with the Magic 7. 

• Camera score: 3/5

Camera samples

Nubia Red Magic 7: performance

• Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 power
• 12-18GB RAM
• 128-256GB storage

The Nubia Red Magic 7's sheer power is the area where it shines the brightest. With its Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip, it's able to handle all modern-day games, and the model we tested, with its fan pumping air through the phone, stayed relatively cool even under pressure. 

When we put the phone through the Geekbench 5 benchmark test, it returned a multi-core score of 3,600, which puts it above phones like the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra and gaming phones like the ROG Phone 5; it even bested some other Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 devices like the Vivo X80 Pro. 3D Mark scores were also strong, with a Wildlife benchmark score of 9,960, slightly exceeding the Poco F4 GT, which scored 9,930 in our tests. 

The Red Magic 7's speed isn't just a result of its power – the sky-high refresh rates also help the phone feel very fast. The only issue we had with the fan was that it fired up when running benchmarks, even when we manually turned it off. Otherwise, it behaved just fine. It didn't keep the phone ice-cold – 30 minutes of Genshin Impact warmed things up a lot, making the slab of a phone hot and uncomfortable to hold. That said, what we did notice was that the fan cools things down more quickly than fanless operations of phones like the Xiaomi 12 Pro. 

• Performance score: 4.5/5

Nubia Red Magic 7: software

• Android 12 software
• Red Magic UI feels relatively stock
• Lots of UI inconsistencies and rough edges

In the image above, you can see the keyboard, and below it, the background – in this case, the apps tray. We're pretty sure Nubia didn't intend for the keyboard to float like this, and if it did, it's an interesting choice. The next image is a quite funny low battery warning. Now, we're all for sassy interfaces filled with personality, but once again it feels like a poor translation rather than an intentional move. 

Despite these UI quirks (there are more), the Nubia Red Magic 7 runs Android 12, so app support is great. Nubia blocks some of the visual flourishes of Android's OS – Material You, for example, is missing, which lets you change the color scheme of the phone menus to match the wallpaper. 

Nubia also loads up a bunch of widgets to help you quickly access gaming-focused features of the Red Magic 7, so you can toggle fan speed, see your game time for the day, get a gaming reminder and adjust your screen refresh rate on the fly. 

Through its gaming software – accessible when you're playing a game – you can access fan control, limit background notifications, record the screen, and add '4D' vibration, so when the volume gets loud, the phone rumbles. This is also where you can set the touch-sensitive triggers and a controller. Frustratingly, button mapping for games only supports Red's own controller accessory. Therefore, you can't hook up a PS4 controller to a game like Genshin impact unless natively supported. 

So while the gaming elements within the Red Magic 7's interface are good, we just can't look past the lack of refinement in the rest of the UI.

• Software score: 3/5

Nubia Red Magic 7: battery life

• 4,500mAh battery is small for a gaming phone
• Seldom makes it through a full day when gaming
• Fast 65W charging

The Red Magic 7 has a 4,500mAh battery, which is on the small side for a gaming phone. There's also power-hungry 5G connectivity on board, as well as the top-tier power.

Achieving less than eight and a half hours of screen-on time, the Red Magic 7's battery life is bested by the gaming phone competition, with the ROG Phone 5 Pro pulling in over 15 hours with its 6,000mAh cell when set at the same brightness level.

What the Red Magic 7 does do is charge quickly, with the 65W supplied charger powering it up by 45 percent in just 10 minutes, and fully charging it in around half an hour.

• Battery score: 2/5

Scorecard

Should I buy the Nubia Magic 7?

Buy it if...

Don’t buy it if…

Also consider

• First reviewed May 2022

How we test

We pride ourselves on our independence and our rigorous review-testing process, offering up long-term attention to the products we review and making sure our reviews are updated and maintained - regardless of when a device was released, if you can still buy it, it's on our radar.

Read more about how we test

ZTE has used MWC 2022 to launch its latest wares on the cheap smartphone market, bringing out four new models in the Blade V40 range.

The angle is clear for each of these smartphones: focusing on size and battery power, rather than a combination of key features that will improve your way of life, this once again feels like a brute force approach to sales.

The ZTE Blade series of smartphones are often super-affordable Android phones that launch in the US, designed for people who don't need flashy features and want to get a device without breaking the bank.

While we don't know the Blade V40 range release date or prices, the limited specs we have received suggest ZTE is playing that familiar tune.

If there's a unifying feature between the new phones, it's that they all have giant displays and giant batteries - so they'll be a dream for people who like to stream media all day, though they might irritate people with shallow pockets.

Four new mobiles

We don't know everything about these new phones, as the information provided to the press was full of gaps, which is why we call these devices 'confusing'. But we know the key selling points of each device.

The first is the ZTE Blade V40 5G - this is the 'flagship' model from the brand, but all the materials so far are about how speedy and high-strength the 5G signal is going to be, combining 4G, 5G and Wi-Fi to deliver blinding speeds.

This isn't massively new technology, but it will (likely) come at a cheaper price than most other 5G phones.

We assume that a lot of the specs will be similar to the non-5G ZTE Blade V40, which lands with a large 6.67-inch screen at FHD+ resolution. The cameras on the back sound OK - a 48MP main sensor is fine in terms of spec, but with no information on what processing and optimization is going on to improve the image quality, you could end up with many darker, high-res pictures that underwhelm compared to the 12MP images other, more expensive phones can take.

In fact, ZTE says that 'high-quality photography can be realized... without any picture processing' which is a little worrying.

That's joined by a 4cm macro camera - ZTE is clearly flying the 'cheap phone' flag high, because that's a spec we see on many low-cost phones as a way to flesh out specs list. We're dubious that it adds much to the mobile.

However, as you can probably tell, details are rather thin on the ground right now - something that's prevalent in the descriptions of the other two phones.

The ZTE Blade V40 Pro is the real flagship, with a 6.67-inch OLED screen, with a clear focus on adding higher-quality images thanks to the wide color reproduction on offer. 

There's also a large 5,100mAh battery with 65W charging, so in theory you'll be able to juice it up in mere minutes and not worry all day long.

And finally, we've got the ZTE Blade V40 Vita, which is arguably the most interesting of the quartet. Seemingly aimed at the younger market, this is a phone with a huge 6.74-inch display, a 6,000mAh battery and a thin bezel - but a dig at the (limited) specs show a phone that skimps in other places.

Fast charging is capped at 22.5W, which is far slower than the V40 Pro and many other flagship phones (but decent if this is one of the cheaper phones on the market).

The HD+ resolution is far from market-leading, as is the waterdrop display, which sees a notch at the top that's just a small semi-circle - it's design that's just 'fine'.

The ZTE V40 series release date has been set for April this year, and will be landing 'worldwide' - although we've yet to have the exact locations confirmed.

ZTE no longer troubles the rankings of the biggest smartphone manufacturers in the world right now, but it's clear that it sees great opportunity in this budget range - big batteries and screens are the order of the day.

Will the addition of 5G make the difference? It's clear that in lower-cost markets, the tablet-esque displays, faster charging and easier connectivity is attractive - let's see if the Blade range can make a difference in 2022.

• MWC (Mobile World Congress) is the world's largest showcase for the mobile industry, stuffed full of the newest phones, tablets, wearables and more. TechRadar is reporting on the show all week. Follow our MWC 2022 live blog for the very latest news as it happens and visit our dedicated MWC 2022 hub for a round-up of the biggest announcements.

February is proving a busy month for smartphone launches, and Nubia has joined the fray, as it has announced its Red Magic 7 family of gaming phones will come along on February 17.

The company announced this via Weibo, a Chinese social media site that lots of brands from the country use for announcements. 

Other than the launch date, something stands out about the post: the Red Magic 7 is referred to as a 'series', suggesting more than one gaming phone is coming. Leaks suggest at least one phone could have 165W powering, which is staggeringly fast, and both are slated to use the top-end Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset.

Nubia's Red Magic phones tend to be mid-range alternatives to pricier gaming handsets from Asus or Lenovo - while we don't list the Red Magic 6 at the top of our rankings of the best mobiles for games, it was this writer's personal favorite from 2021, so we're looking forward to the next-gen version.

It's worth pointing out that the Weibo post says 'Follow + forward, and get a Red Devils 7 gaming phone on February 27' (a competition that's likely only open to Chinese phone fans). When we first read this, we assumed that meant the Red Magic 7 release date would be February 27th, but in hindsight that's not necessarily true - it could just mean that the competition winner would receive the phone then.

Red Magic phones usually debut in China first, but come to other regions like the US and UK without much of a delay, so you could be able to pick up this mobile around March.

Stay tuned for the Nubia Red Magic 7 launch, as we'll bring you everything you need to know about the new devices as soon as we can.

• When is someone going to make a gaming phone for adults?

Our series of guides about Chinese phones covers a range of brands, from large established names, to new up-and-comers. ZTE sits somewhere in between – it’s been around for years, yet remains fairly unknown in the West. 

That’s a shame, because ZTE is arguably the company bringing the most interesting smartphones to market – and by ‘interesting’ we don’t necessarily mean ‘top-spec’; we mean novel or quirky. Many of ZTE’s devices come with unique features, design quirks or tools that make it a brand that’s well worth keeping an eye on.

For example, the company’s Axon 20 was the first phone to feature an under-display selfie camera. Its Nubia Z20 had a screen on the rear of the device as well as on the front, and the Nubia Alpha smartwatch was in effect a phone for your wrist that came complete with a front-facing selfie camera.

Whether you’re interested in buying one of these novel smartphones, or simply curious about ZTE’s future devices, below we cover everything you need to know about the company including the smartphones and other tech it releases.

• These are the best 5G phones

A brief history of ZTE

ZTE was founded in China in 1985, and its main business is telecommunications, not consumer hardware. Nevertheless, there’s plenty of tech to explore. The company’s most well-known sub-brand, Nubia, was founded in 2012.

If you’re skeptical about technology from China – as some people are – it’s worth reading up on ZTE, even if it’s simply skimming the Wikipedia page. The company has a few controversies under its belt – and it’s partially owned by the Chinese state. That doesn’t mean your personal information will be beamed straight to China, of course, but it’s worth being aware of the company’s background. 

What phones does ZTE make?

ZTE has many handsets in its family of products, and they’re loosely organized into series – ‘loose’ being the operative word here. We’ll run you through all the phone lines worth knowing about.

Nubia, as a sub-brand, is fairly large, encompassing a number of phones. There are devices such as the Z20 and X 5G, which feature screens on the rear as well as the front of the device, and others such as the Z, X and V line. In terms of specs, these are best described as mid-range, but sometimes they come with more premium features.

The Nubia Red Magic line of smartphones is ZTE’s gaming line, and these are often some of the best gaming phones of the year, including such features as built-in cooling systems and super-high screen refresh rates. These phones come in a numbered main line with the occasional Pro or budget model too.

ZTE’s Axon line is made up of more premium-feeling handsets, units that come with top specs and features, although they’re relatively low in price. Of all ZTE’s ranges, the Axon line could be considered the most high end.

Then there’s the Blade range, which is ZTE’s budget phones, usually coming with physical fingerprint sensors and plastic shells – although there are exceptions to this rule.

ZTE phone availability information

There seems to be little rhyme or reason to ZTE’s release patterns, with new Axon, Blade and Nubia phones being launched all the time.

The one exception is the Red Magic line of gaming phones – the new entry in this line is released roughly annually, in the first few months of the year, although belated budget and Pro versions can come out later in the calendar.

Other tech ZTE sells

ZTE makes smartwatches, usually under its Nubia line. The two most well-known products are the Nubia Alpha and Nubia Watch, both of which featured long, curved displays that wrapped around the wrist. The former also included a camera.

The company has also launched affordable true wireless headphones, in the form of the LiveBuds and Nubia Buds, which were seemingly designed to be used with the company’s smartphones.

• These are the best smartphones money can buy

February is shaping up to be a busy month, as we know the Samsung Galaxy S22 family is launching then, and we'll possibly also see the Xiaomi 12 series around the same time - now, we also know 2022's first gaming phone is coming too.

In a post on Chinese social media site Weibo, ZTE-owned Red Magic teased its slate of upcoming products for 2022 including a router, gaming monitor, VR headset and, as the title of this news story suggests, the Red Magic 7.

The Nubia Red Magic 7 is expected to be the next mid-range gaming phone from ZTE, following on from the Red Magic 6 last year.

The post confirms that the Red Magic 7 is coming in February 2022, and will be "the strongest on the surface" according to a rough machine translation. It's not clear if that means the strongest phone in general, or just in the gaming niche, but we'd assume the latter.

Analysis: a new gaming champ?

The Red Magic 6 was great for gaming because of the responsive physical side triggers which could be assigned to in-game buttons. Simply by having this feature again, the Red Magic 7 could be a better mobile for prolific gamers than its contemporary Februarians like the Samsung and Xiaomi.

Gaming phones focus on some specs more than others - display, processing power and a utilitarian design are all much more important than chic looks, camera capability and wireless charging, for example. So it's easy for Nubia to specialize its phone for competitive gaming.

We'll also likely see the Red Magic 7 launch for less than its same-month rivals, as Nubia's devices tend to be mid-rangers.

Judging by past entries in the series, the Nubia Red Magic 7 probably won't be the best phone in the world, but it could be a great mobile for gaming, especially if it comes at a competitive price and with bespoke game features.

When we hear more about the Red Magic 7 sometime in February we'll bring you everything you need to know about the new gaming phone - as well as all the information on those other upcoming devices we mentioned too.

• 10 best upcoming phones of 2022: the handsets we're excited to see

Two-minute review

The Axon 30 is ZTE’s next flagship phone that packs a ton of impressive specs alongside its standout feature: a truly edge-to-edge screen. Unlike nearly every other phone on the market, the Axon 30’s display doesn’t have a notch or cutout for the front-facing camera.

To achieve this, ZTE has incorporated an under-display camera, one of the few in mainstream phones, which is visible when you’re taking front-facing photos but - disappears completely when not in use. 

Well, almost completely, for if you look closely there’s a small off-color square that the camera hides behind. 

It’s effective in hiding the selfie camera for an uninterrupted screen, which leads to an inarguably better display experience than any other phone on the market with a notch or punch-hole. For many, the absence of a screen notch or other cutout alone will be enough to sell them on this phone, but that undersells its quality as a massive 6.92-inch Full HD Plus AMOLED screen that’s great for watching media or playing games. 

The Axon 30’s cameras are also impressive for its price, capable of capturing great daylight photos with its range of ultra-wide and macro capabilities. It doesn’t have a telephoto lens, and its night mode requires some light to function – which pales compared to the flagship capability of phones like the iPhone 13 Pro and the Samsung Galaxy S21.

Overall, the ZTE Axon 30 is a great mid-range phone that offers excellent value compared to more expensive handsets – and has a feature that won’t come to other flagship phones until 2022 or later.

ZTE Axon 30 price and release date

The ZTE Axon 30 was released on September 9, 2021, and costs $499 / £429 (around AU$680) for 8GB RAM and 128GB of storage, or $599 / £519 (around AU$819) for 12GB RAM and 256GB of storage, and two colors – a black-and-gray hue and aqua (a greenish teal). 

Compare that to the ZTE Axon 30 Ultra 5G released back in June 2021, which retails for $749 / £649 (around AU$965) for the 8GB RAM and 128GB storage configuration, and up to $849 USD, £739 GBP (around AU$1,095) for the 12GB RAM and 256GB configuration

There's currently no word on whether the phone will be made available in Australia.

Design

The ZTE Axon 30 is a big phone, and while it doesn’t have the premium touches of flagship phones, it’s a sleek device with a design and materials comparable to competitors at its mid-range price tier. It’s less refined than its flagship sibling, the ZTE Axon 30 Ultra, but it’s much bigger, too. 

In fact, the Axon 30 is bigger than most phones on the market. Not quite big as a foldable phone, but its size (with a nearly 7-inch display) means it’s almost too large  to hold comfortably. But the plastic sides, which narrow to a thin ridge, are easy to get a grip on.  While squeezing them isn’t too comfortable, it’s enough of a hold to help prevent you from dropping the phone. 

The front of the Axon 30 has the 6.92-inch glass display, which is the phone’s best feature. In 2021, there are few phones without a notch or a punch-hole, and methods to keep the display clear like retracting selfie cameras on the OnePlus 8 Pro have quietly disappeared. The Axon 30 manages to do this like its predecessor did with an under-display camera, which is unnoticeable during normal use and is only barely visible when the camera mode is activated.

The Axon 30’s back is plastic, and it’s the cheapest part of the phone with a very thin feel. The camera block is in the top-left corner of the phone’s back cover, with two differently sized circles. The r top one has a single camera lens, while the bottom has three lenses in a triangular  arrangement. 

A stripe of hashmarks descend the back cover, which is broken up by a big Axon logo – an effect that looks more at home on a VHS tape than a smartphone. There’s also a ZTE 5G logo on the bottom right of the back. 

Volume control is on the right side of the ZTE Axon 30 and, below it, there’s a lock button with texture to make it easier to find. They’re both thin buttons and not comfortable to press, but given they barely fit in the aforementioned thin plastic ridge that the sides raise up to, it makes sense they aren’t bigger. There’s a microphone on top and a USB-C port in the center of the bottom, with a SIM slot on the right and speaker on the left. 

Display

The ZTE Axon 30 packs an expansive 6.92-inch Full HD Plus (2460 x 1080) AMOLED display, which is the phone’s signature feature. It has its predecessor’s under-display camera, which means there’s no notch or punch-hole to get in the way – but ignoring that, it’s a great screen for watching media and playing games.

While the Axon 20’s selfie shooter was visible as a slightly discolored patch at the top of the display, the Axon 30’s made it nearly invisible when the screen isn’t in camera mode. While browsing the internet or watching media, you can’t point out the camera lens unless you tilt the phone to catch the light just right. Even then, you can barely see the patch.

If you've switched to the front-facing camera in the camera app, a teardrop notch will briefly appear as the phone transitions when swapping to and from the camera app, after which you won’t see the selfie camera anyway – it’s covered by a thick black bar, which has some photo options like aspect ratio and flash. 

But when the under-display camera wasn’t intentionally hidden, and the top of the display was visible in all its unblemished glory, we didn’t notice the extra space. At times, we forgot there wasn’t a notch or punch-hole there, like while gaming and our thumb blocked the left side of the screen.  The extra room is a nice-to-have addition, rather than a game-changing improvement.

It’s almost a shame that the no-notch situation is so captivating because the display is pretty stunning for watching media and playing games. That 6.92-inch size is colossal, noticeably dwarfing average-sized phones like a 6.1-inch iPhone 12 Pro. The picture is beautiful, too, showing vibrant colors with crisp detail, and the up to 120Hz refresh rate is great to have for smooth scrolling and games which support high frame rates.

Camera

The ZTE Axon 30 has a respectable array of cameras, handling casual daytime photography with ease. While it doesn’t have a zoom lens and its night mode leaves something to be desired, the Axon 30’s cameras get the job done if  there’s enough light available. 

The phone’s 64MP f/1.8 main shooter with Sony IMX682 sensor is the star of the show, taking great bright daylight shots with crisp detail. The color balance was respectable, though it tended toward less vibrant hues than photos from other phones. The portrait depth worked just fine, though nothing too exciting.

The phone’s trio of other cameras and sensors expand the range, with an 8MP ultra-wide lens with 120-degree field of view and 2MP depth sensor helping out more than the 5MP macro lens, which we couldn’t get to reliably focus on up-close subjects. (We had an easier time shooting macro shots with the phone’s pricier sibling, the ZTE Axon 30 Ultra, suggesting this could be a software issue.)

As expected with phones below flagship prices, the ZTE Axon 30 was less than impressive with night photography. Any modicum of light will help its night mode tremendously, so consider low-light environments instead of no-light if you’re shooting photos after the sun goes down. 

The 16MP front-facing under-display camera takes clear photos for a unit that is practically unseen when the phone isn’t in camera mode. While it takes photos that lack as much vibrancy as the rear shooters, and there’s a slight gauzy layer over subjects that aren’t in focus (like in the background), photos taken with the selfie lens are sharp enough to put online.

Camera samples

The ZTE Axon 30 takes great daylight photos thanks to its 64MP main camera, capturing vibrant color and nuanced shadow. While the phone doesn't have a telephoto lens, the high detail of images taken by the main camera means it crops in on images to zoom in and still manages to capture reasonably crisp shots of subjects at a distance. (Remember that the watermark is turned on by default, though, or you'll end up with 'ZTE Axon 30' at the bottom-left corner of each photo; ask me how I know.)

The ZTE Axon 30's cameras take good photos of food and drink in the daytime, too. When properly positioned, the portrait mode (seen below) adds good depth, though it requires some finessing – see the second sandwich photo below.

The Axon 30 does take very crisp wide shots in bright daylight, though those details can diminish in the distance (second photo).

And that front-facing camera under the display works well enough, though its color balance isn't quite as good as the rear cameras:

Finally, an example of night mode, which seriously benefits from ambient light:

Performance and specs

The ZTE Axon 30 has respectable specs to compete in the mid-range phone market. Fronted by a Snapdragon 870 chipset, the handset has 8GB RAM and 128GB storage, though some regions have a higher-spec configuration of 12GB RAM and 256GB storage. 

This may sound a little lackluster compared to phones powered by the Snapdragon 888 Plus and packing 12GB RAM (and even 16GB RAM in the Asus ROG 5), but the Axon 30 is still pretty powerful. In terms of benchmarks, its Geekbench 5 score of 3,148 puts it around last year’s pricey OnePlus 8 Pro, for instance, though the phone’s higher-specced sibling, the Axon 30 Ultra, scored 3,594. 

In practical terms, the ZTE Axon 30 didn’t slow down no matter what we put it through, from browsing the internet to watching shows to playing games.

The ZTE Axon 30 runs Android 11 out of the box, and uses ZTE’s MyOS11 overlay to bring its own take to the operating system. It’s pretty minimal without much bloat in terms of extra apps or interface options – unlike other Android overlays, MyOS11 keeps a lot of the settings direct instead of nesting frequently toggled things like Display and Battery options within vague umbrella subcategories. 

There are some flaws in the execution, though – we didn’t believe we only had 52 minutes left before our 72% full battery went kaput, for instance.

Battery life

The ZTE Axon 30 packs a 4,200mAh battery, which is good if not exceptional. You should be able to last a full day with casual use, and into the second before you need to recharge.

The standout feature is the 65W charger included in the box, which recharges wildly fast – from a nearly dead (1%) battery, the phone charged to 52% in 15 minutes, up to 82% in half an hour, and was fully charged in 45 minutes.

Extremely speedy recharging is much better to have than a giant battery, in our opinion, allowing you to top up in minutes when other batteries can take  more than an hour to recharge. And while you could feel some heat beneath the plastic rear cover during recharging, it was far from hot or uncomfortable to touch.

Should you buy the ZTE Axon 30?

Buy it if…

You want a phone with a no-notch, no-punch-hole display

The most obvious reason to buy a ZTE Axon 30 is to get a phone featuring a blemish-free screen with an under-display camera. It’s a great screen for watching media, too. 

You want a well-rounded mid-range phone

Even in a competitive mid-range phone market, the ZTE Axon 30 is a strong contender with few flaws at its price.

You want a phone that recharges blindingly fast

Yes, long battery life is good, but it’s rare to get recharging rates as blindingly fast as the ZTE Axon 30’s 65W charger. If you want to juice up your phone in far under an hour, pick the Axon 30. 

Don’t buy it if…

You want a zoom lens and decent night photography

The ZTE Axon 30 takes good daylight photos at close range, but if you want to take any distance photos using a zoom lens or better night photos, you might want to pay more for the ZTE Axon 30 Ultra’s telephoto zoom or pay a lot more for the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra.

You want a smaller phone

The ZTE Axon 30 and its 6.92-inch screen is, quite frankly, huge. If you’re looking for an Android phone at the same price that’s a bit more reasonably sized, go for the Google Pixel 5a. 

You want a more easily-sourced Android phone

The ZTE Axon 30 may not be sold by carriers in your country or necessarily easy to acquire, so the standard Samsung Galaxy S21 or OnePlus 9 would be good alternatives.

First reviewed: November 2021

Every year, a new iPhone is revealed and inevitably met with the same first criticism: the unsightly notch is still there. Android phones, for their part, still have punch-holes in their displays. But now that I’ve had time with the ZTE Axon 30, a phone with an under-display camera and a clean display, I can confidently say: all that notch hate is pretty overblown.

It’s certainly better to have a display without a notch or punch-hole – it’s aesthetically pleasing to have a screen unmarked by a camera-containing hole or strip. It’s easy math: more screen area means more screen to watch movies and play games. 

But you’re actually not missing much by missing out on the full-screen experience, not enough to really envy anyone. Why? Because that chunk of screen is pretty much dead real estate anyway. 

This isn’t a knock on the ZTE Axon 30, either – the under-display camera is pretty much invisible (you can barely see an off-color square above the camera if you angle the phone to catch outside light just right). 

But that small patch of screen on the far left side just isn’t used or noticeable most of the time. In fact, I’d go so far as to argue that, like me, you probably wouldn’t notice if the notch or punch-hole was gone. Not just because we’ve trained ourselves to ignore these gaps in our phone media consumption, but because modern media just isn’t made with the extreme sides in mind. 

Film class 101: keep the action in the middle

Next time you watch a movie or TV show, whether on your phone or a theater-size screen, see how often you’re paying attention to the leftmost and rightmost sides. If you’re humoring me, you’ll probably give it a strong few minutes before your attention is inadvertently drawn toward the center. 

The center has everything worth watching – filmmaking convention keeps most of the subjects and action closer to the middle of the screen. This draws from theater tradition before it, giving patrons a good angle no matter where they’re seated, and the same is roughly true of movie theaters. 

There are exceptions, of course, especially from filmmakers playing against convention by hiding elements in the corners of the frame, from William Friedkin’s The Exorcist (remember the demon face?) to Ari Aster’s Hereditary. But they’re exceptions proving a rule: keep action focused on the center. This has become convention enough that we’re now trained to pay attention to the middle of the screen, perpetuating a cycle of creation and consumption that most media doesn’t bother with the edges of the screen. 

(The same is true of video games, too, but there’s something else to consider in smartphone gaming: if you’re playing with your device rotated sideways, your thumb is probably covering up that leftmost area where a notch or punch-hole would be.)

Convention – and waiting for consumers to buy newer phones

But there’s another convention at play, too: UX design. After half a decade of the notch, which was popularized by the Essential Phone and iPhone X in 2017 (and debuted on the Sharp Aquos S2 – thanks, Phone Arena), most of the area on the top of the display is relegated to mail and message notifications, battery life, phone signal, and other indicators. 

Phone UX designers consider the notch in their designs, and cram all those icons in there instead of forcing more crucial interaction up top. It makes sense, but does mean that most interaction is designed to happen in the area below where any notch or punch-hole would be. 

That’s for phone owners lucky enough to have notches and punch-holes – because many phone owners around the world don’t have them. While a little out of date, this mid-2020 Statista report claims that global market share of iPhones with notches (aka the iPhone X, iPhone XS, iPhone XR, and iPhone 11 models) is a little over 45%. That means over half the models in use are either older (the iPhone 8 and prior) or the iPhone SE models. 

That’s just an example, and though it’s harder to track Android phones, it’s certain there are enough non-iOS phones without notches and punch-holes as well.

Don’t forget the ratios and resolution

But even with a phone packing an under-display camera and a full, unblemished screen, you still might not be able to watch your media from display edge to display edge – and it’s the same reason you’re still getting black bars around the edges of some media you watch on even the best TVs out there.

The reason I couldn’t watch media that filled the entire ZTE Axon 30’s display? Because those shows and movies weren’t shot in the 20.5:9 ratio to fit that phone’s screen. I fired up The Fellowship of the Ring on HBO and got giant vertical bars on either side, which made sense as it was shot in 2.35:1. Likewise, I fired up The Good Place (1.78:1) and saw the vertical bars.

Or you could think of it in terms of resolution: given the phone’s irregular Full HD Plus resolution (2460 x 1080) is larger than the typical Full HD resolution (1920 x 1080), those black bars are coming in to bookend a lot of media. Sure, you can expand the screen to fit the picture with some players (like YouTube and Netflix), but that cuts off some picture. No matter the reason, there’s a good chance that if you’re watching something, you probably aren’t seeing the extreme edges of the phone – so it doesn’t matter if you had a notch or not.

Overall, this isn’t something to worry about, as under-display cameras seem to be the next big development in phone design after other methods like pop-up selfie lenses have been abandoned.

• Check out everything we know about the iPhone 13

Notch haters and punch-hole loathers, rejoice: the ZTE Axon 30 is the latest phone with an under-display camera, and it's just launched in China with a global release planned later.

The standard ZTE Axon 30 is a slightly lower-spec version of the ZTE Axon 30 Ultra and ZTE Axon 30 Pro released in April. The new phone has a Snapdragon 870 chipset and either 8GB or 12GB of RAM with 128GB or 256GB of storage, compared to the latter phones’ Snapdragon 888 chipset and, in the ZTE Axon 30 Ultra’s case, up to 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. 

But the real difference is in cameras: all three phones have 16MP front-facing cameras, but only the standard ZTE Axon 30 hides its shooter under the display (the others fit their selfie camera in a punch-hole). That’s an in-screen camera under a fairly advanced 6.9-inch display, too, with 120Hz refresh rate and 360Hz touch sampling rate.

The ZTE Axon 30 has a triple rear camera array, with a 64MP f/1.8 main camera, 8MP ultrawide shooter capturing a 120-degree field of view, and 5MP macro camera as well as a 2MP depth sensor. The standard phone does miss out on the Axon 30 Ultra’s 8MP periscope lens with 5x optical and up to 60x digital zoom, though.

Unfortunately, we don't have ZTE Axon 30 price or release date info just yet, though ZTE's press release does say that a "global version is coming soon" and will be available on ZTE's website.

Analysis: are under-display cameras the future?

The ZTE Axon 30 isn’t the first phone to hide its front-facing camera beneath its front screen, but the feature is still uncommon. Its predecessor, the ZTE Axon 20, launched in 2020 as the first commercially available smartphone with an under-display camera, but given the continuing trouble of the US government’s ZTE ban, it’s unsurprising that the phone (and its innovative selfie tech) hasn’t made a big splash outside China.

That could change with the Axon 30 given the FCC’s shift toward potential leniency, but regardless, under-display cameras could be the next big advance embraced by 2021’s lineup of new Android smartphones. While rumors have disagreed on whether the next flagships will get the feature (iPhone 13 is a maybe, Samsung Galaxy S22 probably not), it’s at the top of the list for perks coming in new phones like the Xiaomi Mi Mix 4. If not this year, perhaps 2022 will be the year of the under-screen selfie camera.

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Two-minute review

The ZTE Axon 30 Ultra 5G is a quality smartphone that goes for top specs rather than novel features. While its cameras are a top feature, its software is a bit unrefined, leading the phone to feel less polished than the best phones on the market.

The Axon 30 Ultra 5G follows the ZTE Axon 20 5G, which was the first phone to pack an under-display front-facing camera. It was a large smartphone with its 6.92-inch display. 

The ZTE Axon 30 5G Ultra went back to a simple punch-hole for its selfie camera as well as a more modest (but still large) 6.67-inch screen; two choices that push the design closer to that of mainstream phones. Still, its display’s 144Hz refresh rate is the best on the market.

The ZTE Axon 30 5G Ultra may not have the novel features introduced by its predecessor, but it packs top specs and cameras that rival the best Android phones on the market. Chief of these is the leading Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chipset paired with 8GB, 12GB or 16GB of RAM, and 128GB to 1TB of storage – specs matching those in phones like the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra. 

The ZTE Axon 30 5G’s cameras are also top-notch, with a quad rear camera featuring a 64MP main shooter and 8MP periscope telephoto lens capable of 5x optical zoom and impressive 60x digital. While that maximum zoom doesn’t produce as refined photos as the 50x digital ‘Space Zoom’ in the S21 Ultra, it’s still a far superior telephoto experience than most phones have.

That makes it more disappointing that the software isn’t quite comparable to the polish of that on other Android phones. The camera app was finicky, occasionally opening to a fully black screen, while other apps occasionally crashed. Otherwise, the MyOS overlay had some appealing tweaks to Android that made controls larger and more accessible, which we preferred.

And while its design – the back and front glass both curve into a narrow metal side – looks a lot better than it feels to hold, the phone is undeniably pretty and more stylistic than its ‘black rectangle’ contemporaries. The camera block is undeniably huge, and is so noticeably thick that the phone wobbles when placed on a flat surface, but its aesthetic flourishes make it far from an eyesore.

That physical aesthetic contrasts wildly with the MyOS UI overlay, which has boxier icons and older aesthetics than Android skins on other phones, let alone stock Android 11. But it does have all the modern bells and whistles that come with the latest version of Android.

All in all, the ZTE Axon 30 5G looks and operates like a flagship, albeit one with some shortcomings in its interface. At its price point, though, it’s a solid Android phone with a lot to offer.

ZTE Axon 30 Ultra 5G price and release date

The ZTE Axon 30 Ultra 5G went on sale on June 4, 2021, in the US, with a later release planned for Canada, Europe, Japan, and other countries, though ZTE wasn’t clear when it would be available in these other regions. We don’t yet know if the phone will be available in the UK or Australia.

The ZTE Axon 30 Ultra 5G retails for $749 / £649 (around AU$965) for the 8GB RAM and 128GB storage configuration, and up to $849 USD, £739 GBP (around AU$1,095) for the 12GB RAM and 256GB configuration. That’s more than the ZTE Axon 30 Pro 5G, which reportedly retailed for €400 (around $485 / £345 / AU$630).

The ZTE Axon 30 Ultra 5G comes in traditional black and white hues, as well as a light blue and light brown.

Design

The ZTE Axon 30 Ultra 5G looks plenty sleek, despite its massive camera block. That’s its most defining feature, but the handset has more refined touches that make it look even more premium than other flagship phones. 

For instance, the Axon 30 Ultra’s front glass has waterfall curves, which isn’t too uncommon in high-end phones – but much rarer, the Axon 30 Ultra’s rear glass is curved too. 

Curved glass on front and back means the chromed metal sides between them are very thin. It looks premium but is too minimal to get a good grip on. Thus it’s awkward, and even a bit unpleasant, to hold one-handed. The buttons – a textured lock button and a volume button rocker – are necessarily thin to fit in these sides. 

Those thin sides curve seamlessly into the top and bottom, which are attractively chromed. The top has a single microphone, while the bottom has a central USB-C port, speaker on the right, and SIM slot on the left. There’s another speaker near the earpiece on the top of the display, and both combined produce a very even (and evenly-distributed) sound, which is great for watching media on the go.

The glass back of the phone has a frosted finish, but it’s the camera block that will draw eyes – a massive rectangle on the top left corner. There’s three standard circular lenses, a flash and a LiDar sensor, plus a squared periscope lens on the bottom. This gives the camera block a bit of a hodgepodge look, but the chromatic finish on the surface between the lenses contrasts nicely with the non-reflective frosted glass of the phone’s back cover.

Display

The ZTE Axon 30 Ultra 5G has a 6.67-inch AMOLED display, which is large already, but looks even bigger with the waterfall curved sides. The screen’s 20:9 ratio makes the phone feel a bit wider than other flagship phones.

The display’s picture is bright and crisp, capable of showing an alleged 1 billion colors and rendering HDR10+ content. Its Full HD Plus (2400 x 1080) resolution is pretty standard among phones, so it’s not the sharpest screen out there – the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra’s Quad HD (3200 x 1440) resolution display has it beat in terms of sheer pixel density. 

What the Axon 30 Ultra 5G does have over its contemporaries is a 144Hz refresh rate screen, which makes everything from web browsing to gaming buttery smooth.

In tests playing 4K video, the Axon 30 Ultra 5G’s display produced a picture with stunning clarity, a true testament to its screen’s rich color palette despite the Full HD resolution maximum. In side by side tests with other phones playing the same video, the Axon 30 Ultra 5G’s display tended toward a higher-saturated picture, with colors that were noticeably brighter and richer than other phones, though not too much as to feel unrealistic.

As mentioned above, the display’s waterfall sides look classy, though there are no controls or functionality using the screen’s edges – it’s just for looks. The front-facing camera is located in a punch-hole at the center of the top of the screen, unlike the under-display camera of the Axon 30 Ultra 5G’s predecessor. Curiously, the phone’s more affordable sibling, the Axon 30 Pro, retains this feature.

Cameras

The ZTE Axon 30 Ultra 5G is a step backward in terms of its front-facing camera, which is in a punch-hole instead of its predecessor’s under-screen selfie camera – not in terms of capability, but just as a display progression. However, its main suite of cameras is impressive – main, ultra wide, telephoto, and even an intermediate ‘wide’ camera with laser autofocus. As a whole, the system is pretty handy to shoot at various distances, with its 5x optical periscope lens maxing out at an impressive 60x digital zoom. 

Practically, that means I could sit in the cheap seats at a baseball stadium a few hundred feet above home plate and read the name on the back of the hitter’s jersey. At the 60x digital zoom maximum, Axon 30 Ultra 5G’s cameras might capture so much smudged color that the picture belongs in the Impressionist section of an art museum, but that meant more conservative zoom levels up to 20x caught good detail, though the clarity washed out closer to 30x.

Otherwise, the phone handled daylight and well-lit environments well, though it struggled with contrasted lighting – for instance, letting dark foregrounds drown out in deep blacks but capturing bright background areas well. That said, the 64MP main camera still captured plenty of detail in bright photos with even lighting. 

The photo software processing struggled in some areas but not others. In one instance, a portrait selfie taken by the 16MP front-facing camera rendering impressive depth but left a scattering of bright red dots – which were hats and jerseys featuring the home team’s signature red hue. 

At other times, decreasing the zoom level from 60x didn’t actually zoom out the picture until it hit between 30x and 20x, which seemed like a failure to register control inputs.

That said, the actual camera app deserves acclaim, with the most-used settings (timer, resolution ratio, composition grid) tucked away in a sensible drop-down menu. While the English localization isn’t perfect, the interface feels thought out – for example, the multi-camera mode shows small live previews of the various lenses primed to take simultaneous shots inset in the screen’s bottom-right corner, visible but not in the way. 

The camera app has the expected assortment of sub-modes for taking different shots like panorama, mono, and macro as well as rarer ones like long exposure and moon for taking shots of our favorite satellite. The camera suite’s rear video capability maxes out at 8K video at 30fps or 4K at 60fps. 

Camera samples

Zoom comparisons: from far out to all the way in (60x)

Other zoom:

And most importantly, how it shoots food.

Performance

The ZTE Axon 30 Ultra 5G packs top-level smartphone specs, starting with its Snapdragon 888 chipset. The phone starts at 8GB of RAM, up to 16GB; on paper, it’s one of the most powerful smartphones you can buy.

In practice, the phone runs smoothly, with no hang ups or slow down while performing even demanding tasks like watching media or playing intensive games. That leads to a Geekbench 5 score of 3594, a respectable result given the model we tested had the phone’s minimum configuration of 8GB of RAM and just a bit lower than the comparably-specced OnePlus 9’s score of 3654.

The Axon 30 Ultra 5G has Android 11 out of the box, giving users access to universal dark mode and other current Android features. The MyOS overlay is a bit more noticeable than other Android skins, with more pastel colors and larger, squared-off icons than other phones. 

The phone’s software isn’t as refined as that on rival flagship phones. We noticed apps delayed or failing to load every so often: the camera app, for instance, failed to fully open from the Lock Screen several times and just displayed a black screen. 

It’s a lack of polish that’s fixable with updates, of course, and blemishes the otherwise appealing software choices. The easily-accessible menu options in the aforementioned camera app is an example of intuitive interface design found elsewhere, like in the control center, which has often-used menu options (flashlight, bluetooth, WiFi) in big buttons on the top. The brightness bar is wide and easy to toggle. It might be too oversized for some users’ preferences, but I found the extra accessibility far more appealing than perhaps a more aesthetically attractive button arrangement.

Battery life

The Axon 30 Ultra 5G has a 4,600mAh battery, which is comparable to the capacity in other premium phones – like, say, the 4,800mAh battery in the Samsung Galaxy S21 Plus. There is no wireless charging, nor reverse wireless charging, but there are battery-saving modes to eke out more running time. 

All that capacity enables the Axon 30 Ultra 5G to last over a day and well into the second on a full charge. Tasks drain the battery at a rate that's in line with other flagship phones: watching a 30-minute TV episode or playing a 10-minute match of a graphically-intense game (in our case, Call of Duty: Mobile) will sap about 3% of the battery's main capacity. 

But that doesn’t matter much given how fast you can recharge the phone using the 65W charger included in the box. In one instance, we juiced up the phone from 3% up to 84% in 30 minutes. 

Should I buy it?

Buy it if…

Don’t buy it if…

First reviewed: June 2021

2021 seems to be the year for ‘Ultra’ handsets, and following on from the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra and Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra, the ZTE Axon 30 Ultra 5G has been unveiled, and it looks to live up to its name.

It has a top-end Snapdragon 888 chipset with 8GB or 12GB of RAM, up to 256GB of storage, and a 6.67-inch curved OLED screen with HDR10+ support and an adaptive refresh rate of up to 144Hz (which is even higher than its ‘Ultra’ rivals). The resolution is a less competitive 1080 x 2400, though.

It also has a quad-lens rear camera, but you probably won’t guess all the lenses. There’s the expected ones including a primary 64MP f/1.6 snapper with optical image stabilization (OIS), a 64MP ultra-wide one (with a 120-degree field of view), and an 8MP telephoto one (with 5x optical zoom), but then there’s an extra 64MP f/1.9 camera.

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This last one doesn’t seem to fill any special role, rather it appears to serve as an alternative to the main camera with a slightly different aperture and a presumably slightly different focal length, though that aspect remains unclear.

Another interesting note on the cameras is that while the ZTE Axon 20 5G has an in-screen selfie camera, for the ZTE Axon 30 Ultra 5G there’s a more conventional 16MP punch-hole one. The non-Ultra version of the handset uses in-screen tech, though.

Other specs of the phone include video recording at up to 8K at 30fps, a 4,600mAh battery, 66W charging, an in-screen fingerprint scanner, a microSD card slot, a Gorilla Glass 5 back, and the use of the Android 11 operating system.

The big remaining question is exactly when you’ll be able to buy it and how much it will cost, but the company has confirmed that the Axon 30 Ultra 5G will be coming to the US and Canada. We’d think it’s likely the phone will also come to the UK, but that hasn’t been confirmed, and Australian availability is also unclear.

Whenever and wherever it does launch it’s sure to cost a lot, but perhaps less than other ‘Ultra’ phones.

The ZTE Axon 30 Ultra 5G was also announced alongside the ZTE Axon 30 Pro, which is similar in a lot of ways but with a different camera setup and a 120Hz screen, and the ZTE Axon 30, which actually does have an in-screen selfie camera, but for now these models are only confirmed for China.

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Two-minute review

Nubia is one of the big three gaming phone makers, with its Red Magic range competing with Xiaomi’s Black Shark and Asus’ ROG Phone lines, and the Red Magic 6 is the third-gen gaming phone from the company (yep, despite that number 6 in the name).

Launched alongside a Pro model which has a few small differences (such as an internal cooling system), the Red Magic 6 is Nubia’s 2021 gaming phone, and it should be a contender for the title of best gaming phone – but it might not get there for a couple of reasons.

The Nubia Red Magic 6 ticks all the boxes you’d expect of a gaming phone: it has a powerful processor and plenty of RAM, a Game Space mode to improve processing speeds further, and an array of antennae and speakers. 

It goes above and beyond in a few ways too: its haptic triggers feel fantastic, and can genuinely give you the edge when you’re gaming. Its display refresh rate hits a high of 165Hz the highest on any smartphone as of launch, which beats the competition with their 144Hz screens. It also has a built-in fan, which helps to prevent the phone getting too hot when you’re gaming.

However, there are a few goofy software bugs that make the phone a little annoying to use. For one, the word ‘charging’ is misspelled in the notification that pops up when you plug the phone in. Audio from games can continue to play even when you’ve closed the game down, and we also found one of the games we use to test mobiles just wouldn’t open, despite us uninstalling and reinstalling it.

The internal fan is also really whiny, which can get annoying when you’re trying to listen to footsteps in online games or enjoy the ambiance of a title. You can either turn the fan off, which makes the phone heat up, or, as Nubia likely wants, buy its external fan, which keeps the handset ice cool.

Oh, and turning on the 165Hz display option is very confusing, as it’s hidden away. You don’t activate it by jumping into the Settings app, as that only offers up to 144Hz, despite this being the way you change the refresh rate on practically every other smartphone. Instead you have to go into the quick settings (swipe-down) menu, find the framerate option, select the drop-down arrow, and then click 165Hz. 

In its defense, the Nubia Red Magic 6 is pretty affordable as gaming phones go, enough so that we could overlook some of the phone’s annoyances. It undercuts the Asus ROG Phone 5 by a fair amount, and the Lenovo Legion Phone Duel, which tops our gaming phone rankings at the time of writing, by a significant chunk. It has, respectively, the same and better internals than Asus and Lenovo’s latest devices too, so it’s not like you’re missing out on much here.

This two-minute review may paint a somewhat negative picture of the phone, but as you can see by the star rating, we can hesitantly recommend it based on its mid-ranged price – just don’t expect a flawless, premium experience.

Nubia Red Magic 6 price and availability

The Nubia Red Magic 6 comes in one configuration, with 12GB RAM and 128GB storage, and costs $599 / £509 (roughly AU$850) for it – there’s also a Pro model for $699 / £599 (roughly AU$1,000) with 16GB RAM and 256GB storage.

That’s a fairly low cost for a gaming phone, when you consider the Lenovo Legion Phone Duel starts at £799 (roughly $1,060, AU$1,440), and the Asus ROG Phone 5 costs €799 (around $950 / £685 / AU$1,235). Red Magic has always been one of the most affordable lines of gaming phones around.

You can buy the gaming phone on Red Magic’s global store, which ships to many countries around the world.

Design

As with all gaming phones, the Nubia Red Magic 6 is a bit of a chunky chap - it measures 169.9 x 77.2 x 9.7mm and weighs 220g, so it’s going to be a stretch for you to use it one-handed.

On the back, the Red Magic 6 has a pattern quite similar to its predecessor, with the Red Magic logo, a patterned decal and a fairly small camera bump that doesn’t stick out far from the body. It’s a glass back, and the phone has a metal frame.

There are two LED strips on the rear, but they’re quite small compared to those on other gaming phones.

The Red Magic 6’s ports are scattered all over the edges - there’s a USB-C port on the bottom and a 3.5mm headphone jack at the top, a volume rocker and gaming mode slider on the left edge, and a power button and two haptic triggers on the right edge.

These triggers are among the best we’ve used on a gaming phone, because they feel really natural to tap, and give a small shudder to let you know the touch was registered. They’re also unintrusive, as there’s nothing physical on the phone to let you know they’re there, unlike the physical triggers some gaming phones have.

The Nubia Red Magic 6 doesn’t have an IP rating, so it’s best not to take it for a swim, though it feels pretty sturdy, so it should be able to survive knocks and small drops.

Display

The Nubia Red Magic 6 has a large 6.8-inch display, so there’s plenty of screen real estate to see your game. The front camera is housed in the top bezel, so the screen isn’t broken up by any intrusive lens placement.

It’s an AMOLED panel with a 2400 x 1080 resolution and around 387 pixels per inch. Images look pretty bold and bright, and the contrast is also great, which is important as it can help you easily distinguish different aspects of a game at a glance. 

The key feature here is that the display’s refresh rate clocks up to an all-time high of 165Hz - at the time of the Red Magic 6’s release, it’s the only phone to get that high. That means the screen refreshes the image 165 times per second, compared to the 60Hz of your ‘standard’ smartphone, 120Hz of your premium phone and 144Hz of other gaming phones.

As a result, motion feels silky-smooth when you’re scrolling through menus, and when playing games that support higher refresh rates. This high refresh drains the battery quickly, but you can downgrade it if you want, to various different lower rates.

One issue we found, though, is that the ability to activate 165Hz is well-hidden. If you jump into the Display part of the Settings menu, you can turn it up to 144Hz, but to activate 165Hz you actually have to go into the swipe-down quick settings menu, scroll over to the framerate icon, press the drop-down arrow, then select 165Hz. This is different to on all other phones, and the lack of 165Hz in the Display menu made us initially, and incorrectly, assume the phone only went to 144Hz.

Another important gaming spec is the touch input rate of 500Hz, so the screen scans for your finger 500 times per second (or 360 times per second if you’re using multiple fingers at once). This is way higher than the ‘standard’ of 120Hz, and it’s great for gaming as it means your reactions are translated to on-screen actions quicker. 

The phone has an in-display fingerprint scanner, which we found fairly snappy, though finding it intuitively took a little getting-used-to since it’s small compared to the large phone.

Cameras

While the Nubia Red Magic 6 isn’t exactly a fantastic camera phone, you’re probably not buying this to become an amateur photographer. There are three rear cameras: a 64MP f/1.8 main, an 8MP f/2.0 ultra-wide, and a 2MP f/2.4 macro camera.

The main camera is a mixed bag, but we were generally happy with its performance. Dynamic range is fair, though there were sometimes some overexposure problems with pictures. Focusing was always quick and fairly accurate, and snaps were 16MP by default, but you can turn that up to 64MP for high-res snaps.

This high-res sensor lets you zoom digitally, up to 10x, and while pics at this zoom aren’t incredible, they’re still perfectly usable.

Problems arise when you try to use the other cameras, because ‘try’ is the operative word - there isn’t an ‘ultra-wide’ option so you can easily jump to a wider field-of-view when you’re looking through the viewfinder. As we found out after ages of testing, the only way to use this lens is to jump into the Pro camera mode. Macro mode is nearly as confusing to initiate - you have to press ‘Camera-Family’ to bring up a big grid of options, then find ‘Macro’ there.

If you can get there, ultra-wide and macro pictures are fine. Wide pictures retain the same color composition of standard shots, though could be distorted around the edges. Macro pictures were a little low-res, and we didn’t end up using it much as the standard camera was just as good for the same kind of shot.

To be fair, there is a huge array of modes in this list including multi-exposure, time lapse, light drawing and more, so if you love gimmicky smartphone camera modes there’s a treasure trove here. We found that some were fun to play around with.

The front-facing camera has an 8MP resolution and an f/2.0 aperture, and that’s a relatively low resolution for such a snapper. As such pictures were fine, as they were fairly bright, but if we cropped them at all they could look a little grainy. Snaps weren’t exactly vibrant either.

The Nubia Red Magic 6 can record video at up to 8K, or up to 4K at 60fps - a surprisingly high spec which is probably thanks to the top-end chipset. Settings like HDR or stabilization aren’t available at 8K though.

Camera samples

Performance and specs

The Nubia Red Magic 6 has basically the best internals available to it: that’s the Snapdragon 888 chipset and 12GB of RAM, and together they make quite the team. There’s also 5G of course.

In the Geekbench 5 benchmark test, the multi-core score we found was 3,606, which is pretty high, losing only to the OnePlus 9 (3,654) and Asus ROG Phone 5 (3,732). Weirdly, though, when we put the phone through the same tests in its ‘Game Space’ mode which mutes notifications and focuses the processing power on the game, the score was noticeably lower at 3,196.

This lower benchmark score wasn’t reflected in our experiences using Game Space, as gaming was great. Graphics always defaulted to their highest setting, we didn’t experience lag, and titles loaded fast.

One little annoyance: when using Game Space, the phone’s internal fan turns on, resulting in an incessant whining sound which really got on our nerves. You can turn this off, but the phone heats up exceptionally quickly as a result. Your two options are to buy an external fan to clip on the back, which keeps the phone ice cold, or just plug in headphones to ignore the sound.

Two things that made gaming particularly great are ones we’ve already covered: the high screen refresh rate and touch input rate, which makes games feel super responsive, and the two haptic triggers which, as we previously stated, could be the best on a gaming phone. They’re easy to reach, give satisfying rumbles when you use them well, and have no noticeable delay between being pressed and working.

We should point out, though, that PUBG Mobile just wouldn’t load on the phone, for a reason we couldn’t fathom or fix. This put a damper on our testing processes, as it's a good tester game. 

The phone has dual front-facing speakers, and we found them fit for purpose, providing the closest thing to surround sound you can get on mobile, and adequately playing game audio.

Software

The Red Magic 6 runs Android 11, with the Redmagic 4 UI laid over the top, a skin that mainly just changes the way Android looks.

In Redmagic 4, home screen icons are big and angular, which makes the app drawer especially look rather intimidating - as that language implies, we don’t like the design of the UI, but that’s totally subjective. One positive is that the swipe-down quick settings menu has far more options than on most other phones, with options like back-lighting, fan use, screen refresh rate, and Nubia’s file refresh feature added to the usuals like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and mobile data.

If you flick the Game Space slider, you’re brought into the phone’s dedicated gaming mode which focuses processing on the game, mutes notifications (if you want it to) and lets you assign trigger controls. These modes are useful for dedicated gamers for their extra functions.

We found a broad swathe of annoying software bugs which marred our experience with the phone. Some of these actively affected functionality; when games were closed, they’d often keep playing their audio for a while, with no apparent way to stop it. Some were just silly, like the fact ‘charging’ was misspelled as ‘charing’ when a charger was plugged in.

Battery life

We were generally pleased with the Nubia Red Magic 6’s battery life, as we found it easily lasted us a day - when we were playing lots of games, it was a tighter call, but we still never found ourselves powering up the phone in the evening.

It’s a 5,050mAh battery that we have to thank for this - that’s fairly large for a smartphone, even a gaming one (as those tend to have bigger battery packs).

Charging is done at 66W - Nubia says that, at this speed, the battery will go from empty to full in 38 minutes, and from our testing we’d concur. You might have heard that the Red Magic 6 has 120W charging, which would seem to beat this, but that’s only true in China - international versions of the Pro model also top out at 66W.

There’s no wireless or reverse wireless charging here, but those two features aren’t common (or, arguably, useful) for gaming phones, as you can’t use wireless powering while gaming.

Should I buy the Nubia Red Magic 6?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

First reviewed April 2021.

Having revealed its latest series of gaming phones in China earlier in March, Nubia has announced the US and UK prices and release dates for the Red Magic 6 and Red Magic 6 Pro.

Both devices will be available to pre-order globally from April 9 before going on general sale on April 15. The Red Magic 6 is set to cost $599 / £509 (around AU$775), with the Red Magic 6 Pro priced slightly higher at $699 / £599 (around AU$900).

Interestingly, each model will only come in one color variant and with one memory option, respectively. The Red Magic 6 will ship in the Eclipse Black color and come with 12GB RAM and 128GB of storage, while the Pro will arrive in Moon Silver with 12GB RAM and 256GB. At least you won’t be spoilt for choice.

• Check out our list of the best gaming phones
• Read our review of the Nubia Red Magic 5G
• What you need to know about the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chipset   

The Nubia Red Magic 5G topped our list of the best gaming phones for quite some time, so we’re excited to see how this next-gen model ranks among the other big-hitters on the market in 2021. 

Brothers in arms

For the most part, the Nubia Red Magic 6 and Red Magic 6 Pro are similar phones.

They’re both equipped with an impressive Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chipset – the newest and most powerful Android chipset to date – as well as a 6.8-inch AMOLED screen that looks perfect for gaming. They’ll also mark the first smartphones to have 165Hz refresh rate displays, beating the 144Hz a few top gaming phones use currently, meaning gameplay will likely feel smoother than ever before on a mobile device.

The main differences lie in their aforementioned storage capacities and colors, as well as battery sizes. The Red Magic 6 will come with a 5,050mAh battery and snappy 66W charging, which Nubia says will power up the phone in an impressive 38 minutes. The Red Magic 6 Pro, though, goes one better with its faster 120W charging capabilities, despite a smaller 4,500mAh battery.

Another notable difference is a seemingly-improved cooling system in the Pro model, which will presumably better prevent overheating during long gaming sessions. That by no means indicates that the standard model will be prone to overheating, though, just that its more premium sibling will be slightly better equipped in that department.

When the Red Magic 6 and Red Magic 6 Pro were first announced, we couldn’t wait to get our hands on what look to be a mightily impressive pair of gaming smartphones. Now, with an April release date in the diary, we won’t have to wait much longer.

• Xiaomi's next gaming phone gets a launch date 

There are a few big gaming phone brands that battle it out for dominance each year, and now the 2021 race has begun - Nubia has shown off its Red Magic 6 (as well as a Red Magic 6 Pro), and has some unique specs we've never seen before on a smartphone.

The Nubia Red Magic 5G topped our list of the best gaming phones for quite some time, so we were eagerly anticipating this next-gen model. This smartphone was revealed at an event in China, but the company confirmed a global launch is coming too.

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Plus, a Nubia Red Magic Watch was unveiled too. That is a new 1.39-inch lightweight smartwatch with sleep tracking, a heart rate monitor, health rings, 5ATM waterproofing and more. 

Some features of this have already been teased, including its 16 sports modes and soccer-pitch heatmap.

Global availability of the Red Magic Watch is currently unknown, though previous Nubia wearables like the Nubia Watch have previously been launched in various countries. Its prices start at CNY 599, which roughly converts to $90 / £70 / AU$120

We'll run you through the Nubia Red Magic 6's specs below, but it looks to be an exciting device that the Asus ROG Phone 5, Xiaomi Black Shark 4 and Lenovo Legion Phone 2 will compete with closely.

A little bit of (Red) Magic (6)

The Red Magic 6 blows the competition out of the water in the display department - it's the first smartphone to have a 165Hz refresh rate display, beating the 144Hz a few phones use, meaning the display refreshes 165 times per second. 

That'll make the enemy creeping around the corner in a battle royale game appear as soon as possible. There's also a 500Hz touch input rate, another spec that beats other phones, meaning the display picks up your touch 500 times per second, so games should feel super responsive.

The actual screen is 6.8 inches too, so it's pretty big but all the better to see things with. It's said to have a new-and-improved fingerprint scanner, which is 50% faster than the Red Magic 5G's.

Looking beyond the screen, there's a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chipset here, the newest and most powerful Android chipset to date, ensuring fast speeds for games. There are also physical triggers, which a few gaming phones have, so you can replicate the feel of using a games controller.

As with most gaming phones, there's also gaming-dedicated software, so when you're gaming your phone's notifications will be muted and the device's processing power will all be focused on the game.

New software on the Red Magic 6 includes the ability to stream your game easily onto a PC screen, which should be useful for streamers.

According to pictures of the Red Magic 6, it has three rear cameras - we only heard about the main one, though, which has a resolution of 64MP. Presumably at least one of the others is an ultra-wide snapper, but we can't say for sure.

The Nubia Red Magic 6 has a big 5,050mAh battery, and snappy 66W charging, which Nubia says will power up the phone in 38 minutes. If you think that's fast, just look at the Red Magic 6 Pro - its 4,500mAh battery might seem smaller, but with 120W charging, it'll get to full in no time.

The main other difference between the Nubia Red Magic 6 and 6 Pro seems to be an improved cooling system in the latter, to better prevent overheating during long gaming sessions.

So how much does the phone cost? Unfortunately, Nubia didn't detail that at the launch - that's not too bad, though, because it would have been a Chinese Yuan price, and conversions of those rarely reflect launch prices in other countries. Let's just wait for a full roll-out to see if the price matches the specs.

The Nubia Red Magic starts at CNY 3799 for 8GB RAM and 128GB storage, and that price converts to $590, £420, AU$750 - there are also many options with more RAM and/or storage.

The Red Magic 6 Pro starts at CNY 4399 for 12GB RAM and 128GB storage, a price which converts to $680, £490, AU$870, and again there are loads of options, including an 18GB RAM beast for CNY 5299 (converts to approximately $820, £590, AU$1,050). The Chinese prices of phones tend to be lower than global costs though, so take these conversions with many pinches of salt.

• Xiaomi Black Shark 4 listing suggests the gaming phone could launch soon

When we first heard about the Nubia Red Magic Watch, we presumed it was a gaming-themed smartwatch - that would keep it in fitting with Red Magic's gaming niche. However, a new confirmed feature shows it could be great for soccer players.

Nubia president Ni Fei has been teasing the Red Magic Watch frequently on his Weibo account (a Chinese social media platform) so we know lots of details from that, but this new piece of information was reported by GizChina.

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The Red Magic Watch is apparently set to have a mode that tracks you through a match of the game, and will provide you with a heat map of your performance, including details like where you ran for the match, and the conditions of the game.

This isn't the first soccer mode we've seen as Google Fit has an option for tracking your performance for the game, but it only captures limited statistics like time and heart rate. Red Magic's mode sounds like the first really in-depth soccer-focused tracking software we've seen.

Other sports modes?

We've heard the Nubia Red Magic Watch will have a grand total of 16 sports tracking modes including soccer, basketball and cricket, as well as the standard ones you see on most smartwatches like running, swimming and cycling.

Could these other ball game modes return as detailed information as the soccer tracking? Possibly, but it hasn't been confirmed for now either way.

The watch is waterproof up to 50 meters, useful for swimmers (the swim-tracking modes would be a little useless otherwise), and has a battery life of 15 days, though we'd imagine daily soccer games could drain it a bit faster than that.

We're expecting the Nubia Red Magic Watch to formally launch on March 4, alongside the Red Magic 6 gaming smartphone, and when it does we'll bring you all the details on this curious new device.

• A cheap smartwatch could be one of three new Motorola wearables coming in 2021

ZTE used the MWC Shanghai Conference 2021 to share details on its second-generation under-display selfie camera. The company elaborated on its announcements via Weibo, a popular Chinese social media platform, and the posts have since been machine translated.

ZTE’s new under-display selfie camera technology aims to address issues found in the company’s Axon 20 5G, which was the first phone with an under-display front-facing shooter. 

Chiefly, the second-generation tech is looking to bump up pixel density to 400ppi (pixels per inch) for greater image quality, and to reduce a hazing effect that was present on the Axon 20 5G.

• ZTE Axon M review
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A new version of ZTE’s under-display selfie camera technology wasn’t the only trick the company had up its sleeve, however, as it also revealed it’s working on improving 3D facial recognition tech. 

ZTE noted in a machine-translated post that 3D face unlock technology was a more secure alternative to 2D-based solutions, and that the tech can also be used for 3D modeling and augmented reality.

Room for improvement

The common consensus on ZTE’s previous efforts with its under-display selfie camera tech, including in our own review of the Axon 20 5G smartphone, is that it might be a touch ahead of its time. 

The technology was underwhelming, producing lower quality selfies than what’s available on more reliable smartphone cameras.

ZTE’s new tech  sounds promising though. Its second-gen under-display selfie camera has potential to be a great alternative to other types of smartphone camera. ZTE’s advancements in its 3D technology could even make its future devices stand out from the crowd, with its focus on readying it for more than just facial recognition and security.

When will this technology be readily available on a phone? That’s currently unclear, but we may see this second-gen selfie shooter on the upcoming ZTE Axon 30 5G. When that phone will arrive isn’t yet clear though.

• Best iPhone: which Apple phone is best for you?

We've been able to fill in a few more details about the Nubia Red Magic 6 gaming phone thanks to announcements from Nubia itself: first and foremost that the high-powered handset is going to get its official unveiling on March 4.

The date was confirmed by a company exec on Chinese social network Weibo (via GSMArena). March 4 looks like being quite a busy date in the world of smartphones, as we're also expecting the Realme GT to break cover on that day.

The posting also mentioned 'four fastest technologies' (according to a rough English translation), with an attached promo poster showing four separate icons underneath a racing car that's either about to explode or going really fast.

• Here's our first look at the Realme GT
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Based on the icons and what we've heard so far about the Nubia Red Magic 6, it seems likely that the 'four fastest' features are the screen refresh rate, the touch response of the display, the battery charging rate, and an integrated cooling fan (enabling extended sessions of high performance from the processor without overheating).

From the gaming phones that Nubia has pushed out so far, including the recent Nubia Red Magic 5G, we're expecting the next in the series to pack in as many high-end components and features as possible – something this new poster would seem to back up.

From what Nubia has teased so far, it looks as though the 4,500 mAh battery on board the phone will come with 120W Gallium Nitride fast-charging support, although this feature is apparently going to be reserved for the Pro model of the phone (with 66W fast charging on the standard edition).

We've also heard a few whispers around a revamped cooling system for the Nubia Red Magic 5G, but details are thin on the ground here. All will be revealed on March 4, and we will of course be covering everything that's announced on TechRadar.

It looks as though 2021 is going to be another busy year for gaming phones. As well as the Nubia Red Magic 6, we're also expecting the Xiaomi Black Shark 4 to launch in the not-too-distant future, while the Asus ROG Phone 5 has been confirmed to be launching on March 10.

• Best gaming phone 2021: the top 10 mobile game performers

Two-minute review

The headline feature of the ZTE Axon 20 5G is that it’s the first commercially available smartphone with an under-screen selfie camera, therefore there’s no notch or punch-hole selfie camera.

The bad news is that this isn’t the strongest selfie camera on the market right now, but it’s still an interesting innovation that we’re sure to see a variety of manufacturers embrace in the years to come.

Is it a reason to buy the ZTE Axon 20 5G? Not really, unless you’re desperate to be one of the first to try out that innovation and you think the rest of the smartphone is designed for exactly what you need. Away from the innovative selfie camera, the ZTE Axon 20 5G is full of specs many will be looking for from a new smartphone with a mid-range price.

It’s not for everyone though - the Axon 20 5G is a remarkably large phone, with a 6.92-inch display, and as you’d expect that can make it a difficult device to use on a day-to-day basis for those who prefer smaller phones.

The screen itself provides an enjoyable experience - you won’t get a QHD resolution here, but the picture quality remains strong - and we found it worked well for watching movies and a variety of other content, unlike some smaller smartphones.

The rear camera isn’t as revolutionary as the Axon 20 5G’s front-facing selfie shooter, but it still performs well, with a sensor that can keep up with a variety of other phones around this price. Just don’t expect photos that can rival premium top-end smartphones.

The power is a little less here than some will be looking for, with ZTE opting for the weaker Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G chipset to keep this device running, and we found battery life to be middling at times as well.

Overall, the ZTE Axon 20 5G is made for a very specific type of person and we’d only recommend buying this handset after you’ve considered the negatives in our review. If you’re looking for a big phone that includes a brand new type of selfie camera though, this could well be a great choice for your next smartphone.

ZTE Axon 20 5G release date and price

The ZTE Axon 20 5G was first revealed in China in 2020, but soon after that the company revealed the phone would be coming to other markets including the US and UK. We’ve yet to hear whether the ZTE Axon 20 5G will be available in Australia, but we’ll update this review when we learn more.

The phone costs $449 / £419 (around AU$750), which puts it in a similar price bracket to the Google Pixel 4a. That’s for an 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage variant, and it doesn’t seem the company is selling other models in these regions. 

Design

The ZTE Axon 20 5G is a remarkably large smartphone, and if you’re looking for a device with a big screen you’ll be getting it with this option, as it features a 6.92-inch Full HD screen. We’ll dive into that a little more below, but the design of the handset feels premium considering the price.

It features a glass rear, which isn’t something you’ll always get even on more expensive Android phones. The rear is a bit of a fingerprint magnet itself, but it feels premium to the touch and it has metal edges to make it feel a touch more high-end as well.

You’ve got lots of options for the color of your phone; it comes in black, gold, blue, purple and yellow, although we’ve used the black version of the handset that you can see pictured in this review.

The rear of the handset features a camera module that juts out from the back, which means this won’t suitably lay down on a desk without a bit of rocking back and forth. This is a large camera housing as well, so it won’t prove comfortable for everyone.

There’s also ZTE and Axon 5G branding on the rear of the device, which doesn’t add much to the look of the phone. The right edge of the phone has the power button and volume rocker, which can sometimes be a little difficult to reach if you’re using the phone one-handed.

In fact, you’ll likely want to use this phone with two hands at most times as it can be a little unwieldy, with dimensions of 172.1 x 77.9 x 8mm. It’s not particularly heavy considering its size - it’s 198g - but it can be a little difficult to control if you’ve got smaller hands.

The speaker also sits at the bottom edge of the handset, and we found this to work okay but it doesn’t give particularly great sounding audio. If you listen to a lot of audio directly from your phone’s speaker, this may not be up to scratch for you.

Display 

 The screen on the ZTE Axon 20 5G is a larger option than many other Android phones as it almost reaches 7 inches. If you’re looking for a smartphone with a larger screen that doesn’t cost as much as a flagship, this could be a top choice.

It features a Full HD+ resolution - so that’s 1080 x 2460 - and that equals 388 pixels per inch. The phone’s screen looks crisp, and it’ll give you a resolution similar to most phones at this price point.

It’s an OLED display too, which we found to offer some strong brightness as well as an easy to view screen in direct sunlight.

ZTE has also adopted a 90Hz refresh rate, which means images refresh quicker on the display than your average smartphone giving you a smoother picture when playing games or scrolling through feeds. A lot of phones now offer a faster refresh rate, and while this isn’t the fastest on the market this is one of the cheaper phones to offer this functionality

We’ve found the ZTE Axon 20 5G to be an enjoyable experience in terms of its screen, and while the size may put some off, if you’re looking for a smartphone that can offer a fantastically large display with a smooth refresh rate this could be a top choice for you.

Camera

Unlike our other phone reviews, we’ll be focusing on the front-facing selfie camera first. That’s because there’s no cut-out here, as this handset is the first phone in the world to feature an under-screen selfie camera.

How has ZTE made that possible? It’s by using two screens simultaneously, but one of those is a small square screen on top of the selfie camera and the phone's main OLED display. You can learn more about how it works in a teardown video here.

What are the results like? They’re not fantastic, and despite its high spec of 32MP f/2.0 you’re unlikely to get better shots out of this smartphone than many others on the market.

That said, other selfie cameras aren’t hiding under the screen. Generally they’re in a cut-out which you can still see when the camera isn’t in use, and some are even a notch jutting into the screen, so the ZTE Axon 20 5G’s is at least an aesthetic upgrade.

You mostly won't notice the under display camera, but it is visible at some times when you're in certain apps. For example, when viewing webpages in Google Chrome we found the selfie camera was visible due to the light images around it.

On the rear of the phone there’s a powerful camera, especially considering the price of the ZTE Axon 20 5G, though it’s more conventional than the selfie snapper. 

There’s a 64MP f/1.8 main shooter that’s flanked by an 8MP f/2.2 ultra-wide, 2MP f/2.4 macro and 2MP f/2.4 depth sensor.

This isn’t going to give you photos that compare to the likes of the best camera phones, but we found this to be a satisfactory experience that especially excelled in strong lighting. Darker shots are where this camera will begin to struggle more than its competition.

If you’re looking to film lots of video, you’re able to record in 4K at 30 frames per second or 60 frames per second, and there are a variety of other modes as well.

Camera samples 

Specs and performance

The ZTE Axon 20 5G isn’t the most powerful smartphone on the market, but it’s capable enough with a mid-range Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G chipset powering the device and the choice of 6GB or 8GB of RAM.

This isn’t going to be as fast as flagship smartphones, but we found it capable of running top apps, playing games smoothly and taking on a variety of tasks with ease. We used the 8GB of RAM variant of the device, so we can’t comment on the 6GB model.

You’ll likely be limited to one handset with 128GB of storage with 8GB of RAM, but the company also sells a variant with that storage and 6GB of RAM as well as 256GB storage variant with 8GB of RAM. Those aren’t readily available in most markets though. There’s also microSD support if you want some extra space at a later date.

Benchmarks found the ZTE Axon 20 5G was capable with a score of 1910, and we found that to be reflected in our average usage of the phone. Don’t expect a top-end handset, and you’ll likely be happy with what the Axon 20 is capable of.

As the phone’s name suggests, it is also capable of 5G connectivity. 5G coverage isn’t commonplace for many at the moment, but it’s a useful spec for the phone to have as it will futureproof your handset even if you’re not yet able to access the feature.

Battery life

The ZTE Axon 20 5G comes with a 4,220mAh battery, and while this won’t offer the best battery life we’ve seen on a smartphone, we’ve found this handset is able to last a whole day even with lots of use of its big screen.

We were initially surprised by the fairly modest battery in the Axon 20 5G, but it lasted a full day every time we recharged the device and on some occasions with more minimal usage we found it would last even longer.

Considering it’s powering such a big screen, we found this to be a solid amount of battery life, but it isn’t going to be a handset you can use for two days straight after recharging it once. That is, unless you’re very light in your usage.

The handset features fast-charging tech which we found worked well in our testing, but there’s no wireless charging included here. There’s also a charger included in the box, which isn’t a guarantee with smartphones anymore.

Should you buy the ZTE Axon 20 5G?

Buy it if...

Don’t buy it if...

First reviewed: February 2021

Ever since the unveiling of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chipset in December last year, smartphone manufacturers have been busy trying to win a share of the attention by teasing their upcoming flagship products. Joining the fray, we have the ZTE Axon 30 Pro that is now expected to launch with a 200MP camera.

Ni Fei, ZTE's president took to Weibo (a Chinese social networking site) to talk about the upcoming ZTE Axon 30 Pro and, more specifically, its camera. He confirmed that the upcoming smartphone will be able to shoot photos with a resolution of 200MP or over 2.7 billion pixels. 

It will also be capable of capturing photos in low-light scenarios that are as dark as 0.1 lumens. It'll also feature 4K HDR video recording and 10-bit color support. 

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The post also mentions the use of the Spectra 580 image signal processor and the Snapdragon 888. This will be a significant change over the ZTE Axon 20 from last September as that phone was powered by the mid-range Snapdragon 765G.

Another leak on Weibo shed some more light on the camera sensor, but note that this information doesn't come directly from the company's president.

It is expected to implement the S5KGND image sensor from Samsung, which is yet to be announced but not unexpected as leaks have given us some information on the tech. 

It is said to have a diagonal size of 1/1.37-inches, allowing it to shoot 50MP images at 0.64μm with quad-pixel-binning and 12.5MP images at 1.28μm with 16-in-1 pixel binning. It’s unclear if it will also be capable of shooting at the full 200MP resolution, as that would mean shifting to a pixel size of just 0.16μm — the smallest on any camera phone by quite a margin, leading to lower light sensitivity. 

Just like its predecessor, the ZTE Axon 30 Pro is also likely to sport an under-display selfie camera. Now in its second iteration, it remains to be seen how much better it gets as the maiden attempt was not really great. Similarly, there will be obvious questions over the need for such a high-resolution camera when some of the best camera phones continue to use 12MP sensors. 

ZTE is yet to confirm the Axon 30 Pro launch date, but we expect it to be in the coming months itself.

• Forget 108MP camera, Samsung tipped to launch a 200MP sensor this year

Via GSMArena, GizmoChina

The ZTE Axon 20 5G is the world's first commercially available smartphone with an under-display camera, and if you live in the UK you're able to buy it from today.

The handset was revealed back in September for those in China, and now it's coming to a host of countries around the world.

There's currently no news on a US or Australian release date, and ZTE has yet to confirm whether the device will ever be made available in either of those countries. TechRadar has asked ZTE for confirmation, and we'll update this article if we hear more.

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Those in the UK are able to buy the handset now directly from the company's website where it'll cost £419 ($449, about AU$750). 

Initially you'll only be able to purchase the limited edition black version, and you'll need an invitation code to do so. To get one, ZTE says you should join the company's New Vision Club here, or you may have to wait a touch longer to order your handset.

ZTE has yet to say when the phone will be on sale without the invitation codes, but this campaign ends on December 27 so you may find you're freely able to buy the handset from then onward.

The ZTE Axon 20 5G features a 6.92-inch display with an under-display 32MP selfie camera. We've yet to test out the handset, but we hope to do so soon to give you a clear verdict on how this new technology works in practice.

• Everything you need to know about the Samsung Galaxy S21

We’ve been talking about phones with under-display cameras for years now, and one has finally arrived, namely the ZTE Axon 20 5G.

This was actually announced in China back in September, but at the time that was the only region it was available in. Now though, it’s getting a global launch, with the UK, European Union, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, United Arab Emirates, Ukraine, Saudi Arabia, and South Africa being the first places to get it.

The company claims the ZTE Axon 20 5G will be available from December 21, so presumably that’s when you’ll be able to buy it in the UK. It’s not clear if or when the US and Australia will get the phone, but they might at some point, as they do get some ZTE handsets.

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Having an under-display camera means that the Axon 20 5G can have a truly all-screen front, with no notch or punch-hole camera, though it remains to be seen how well this will work.

That camera is a 32MP one, and the other specs include a 6.92-inch 1080 x 2460 OLED screen with a 90Hz refresh rate, a Snapdragon 765G chipset, 8GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, a 4,220mAh battery, and a quad-lens rear camera, with 64MP main, 8MP ultra-wide, 2MP depth and 2MP macro sensors. So under-display camera aside this is an upper mid-range phone.

The ZTE Axon 20 5G’s price hasn’t yet been confirmed, but in China the model with this storage and RAM configuration costs 2,498 yuan. That’s around £285 / $380 / AU$515, but we’d imagine the actual price will be higher.

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The Red Magic 5G is Nubia making a statement. The Chinese company has released a few phones under the Red Magic name without leaving a lasting impression, and 2019’s Red Magic 3 was a brilliant gaming device but mediocre for day-to-day-use. Now, less than a year later, Nubia has put out a phone with a specs sheet that might make you do a double take.

The Red Magic 5G has 5G connectivity (obviously), pairs a Snapdragon 865 chipset with an Adreno 650 graphics processor (the same pairing as used in US versions of the Samsung Galaxy S20), and is the world’s first smartphone with a 144Hz refresh rate display. And all that sets you back less than $600 / £550: basically, you get flagship specs at a relatively affordable price.

Every aspect of the Red Magic 5G has been built with gaming in mind. Along with impressive specs, the handset has an internal fan with vents on either side of the display, liquid cooling, shoulder buttons that make controlling mobile games easier, loud dual stereo speakers, and RGB lighting on the back. 

All this considered, the Red Magic 5G should add up to one of the best gaming phones on the market. But does it? And how does it fare when you’re not gaming? Let's dive in.

Price and availability

• Available globally now
• Starts at $579 / £539 (around AU$910)

The Red Magic 5G was made available in April 2020, and it's available in four models: the Eclipse Black and Hot Rod Red versions (colored accordingly) have 8GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage, and cost $579 / £539 / AU$579 (around AU$910).

There's also a slightly higher-spec version of the Eclipse Black that has 12GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, which will retail for $599 / £559, and will be available globally on June 16, though North America will have to wait until June 22 to get it.

The blue and red Pulse model has 12GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage, and costs $649 / £599 / AU$649. This is the model we tested. None of the models have expandable storage.

Design

• A flashy, chunky design aimed at gamers
• Customizable RGB lights on the back

The Red Magic 5G is a chunky phone. It has a big, bright 6.65-inch AMOLED display and a deep body to accommodate all the internals, making it heavier than most handsets. It weighs 218g – as a comparison, the Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus, which has a bigger screen, weighs 186g.

But the Red Magic 5G doesn’t feel too heavy. The whole point of this phone is gaming, and when you’ve flipped it on its side to play games, you’ll want it to feel solid and substantial in the hand, which it does.

The sides of the phone are busy, with two shoulder buttons on the right-hand side alongside a power button, volume rocker, and one of the fan vents. On the left edge, you have the other fan vent, a port for a docking station, and a toggle switch for Game Space, which is Nubia’s dedicated game launcher.

On the bottom, you get one of its speakers, the SIM tray, and a USB-C charging port, while the top of the phone has a welcome headphone jack. The second speaker sits at the top of the screen.

On the back, you have a triple camera setup, with a 64MP main camera as well as an 8MP ultra-wide shooter and a 2MP macro camera, all arranged in a vertical line. There’s also a customizable RGB lighting strip and a Red Magic icon.

You can tune the strip to just light up when gaming, but you can have it light up for notifications or when the phone is charging too. The lights are bright, and you get plenty of ways to tweak them to your tastes (or you can just leave them off).

There’s nothing sleek about the way the Red Magic 5G looks, and that’s deliberate. It leans into the flashy, gamer aesthetic, and it’s definitely a phone that people will want to talk about when you pull it out of your pocket.

Even the Eclipse Black version, the most subtle of the three, is loud compared to most phones, accented by red lines and a giant X shape on its back. Whether you like the design is a matter of taste: as we said, this isn’t the phone to pick if you want an understated device, but if you want a conversation starter, look no further.

Display

• 6.65-inch 1080 x 2340 AMOLED screen
• Super high 144Hz refresh rate makes everything smooth
• Bright and vibrant

The Red Magic 5G’s most unique feature is its 144Hz refresh rate display, the first ever in a smartphone. The previous high was 120Hz, seen on phones such as the Razer Phone 2 and the OnePlus 8 Pro.

A higher refresh rate means the screen updates more often, which should lead to a smoother picture. And it works: you get wrinkle-free scrolling across the UI and silky performance in games (which we’ll cover later in this review).

It feels as zippy as any phone we’ve used, and we never noticed any hitching or juddering while browsing the web, watching videos, or navigating menus.

The 6.65-inch AMOLED display is bright and vibrant. Dark colors are properly dark – we used it in Android’s dark mode most of the time – and colors pop, especially in 'colorful' mode, which is one of three options you can choose from (the other two are the standard DCI-P3 mode and sRGB mode).

It’s not the most detailed screen, though. Don’t expect Samsung levels of crispness: it’s a Full HD+ display with a resolution of 1080 x 2340, which works out at 387.5 pixels per inch, which is less than phones like the OnePlus 7T. If you’re a stickler for the sharpest possible image, you might be disappointed, but we never felt like pictures, text or videos lacked clarity.

Battery life

• 4,500mAh battery provides impressive life
• Supports fast charging but not wireless charging
• Supplied charger was slow

There’s good news on the battery front, as the Red Magic 5G’s hefty 4,500mAh battery delivers impressive results. Even with a few hours of gaming every day, we were getting well into a second day of use before we needed to charge the phone, and sometimes we made it two full days before reaching for a charger.

That’s seriously impressive, and likely linked to the phone’s lower resolution, which draws less power to the screen than rival handsets.

When gaming, we used anywhere between 15 and 20% of charge per hour when running games on default brightness, the highest possible settings, and the highest possible screen refresh rate.

Again, that’s impressive: you’ll be able to play five or six hours straight without needing to charge, which is more than you’ll likely ever need, and you could turn down the refresh rate if you wanted to save on juice.

The phone doesn’t support wireless charging, but it is compatible with a 55W quick charger, sold separately, which Nubia claims will charge the phone from zero to full in 40 minutes.

Unfortunately, our unit didn’t charge quickly at all, probably because it shipped with a European rather than a UK plug unit. Using a plug adapter, it was taking us roughly two and a half hours to reach full charge.

Camera

• 64MP main, 8MP ultra-wide and 2MP macro cameras
• Decent but not class-leading results
• The camera software is cluttered

The triple camera setup here isn’t the best we’ve tested, but it produces consistently good shots. The main camera is the 64MP Sony IMX686, the same one found in the mid-range Poco X2, and it’s paired with a 2MP macro sensor and an 8MP ultra-wide sensor, which boasts 120-degree field-of-view.

They produce clear shots, with colors true to real life, and images with a wide dynamic range. The camera adjusts quickly to different light levels and focuses in an instant. We were particularly impressed by portrait mode, which captured subjects in plenty of detail while gently blurring the background, and the night mode, which yielded shots with plenty of color after the sun had gone down.

Video looked good too, especially at 4K and 60fps, which the camera can support (it can also produce video at 4K 30fps, 1080p at 60 or 30fps, and 720p at 30fps). Clips were smooth, detailed, and again, the sensors quickly adjusted to light, which means you can comfortably film one long video moving between different light levels.

The front camera is just so-so: an 8MP sensor that’s good for selfies, but not much else, and the phone doesn’t support face unlock. It can produce 1080p video at 30fps, which makes it good enough for vlogging or recording messages for your friends.

But we didn’t enjoy using the camera software, which is far too busy. The pro mode is welcome, giving you plenty of control over ISO, focus and more, but the 'camera family' shooting mode gives you too many options, many of which are gimmicks.

On the default point-and-shoot mode, the Red Magic 5 has an on-board AI that guesses what you’re taking a photo of and adjusts settings accordingly. Most of the time, this worked fine, but sometimes it was wildly off (it thought a chair was an animal, for example), and other times it led to oversaturated photos, turning a picture of a salmon dinner into a luminous mess.

But overall, for this price, it’s a respectable camera that will serve you well in most settings, whether you want stills or video.

Camera samples

Gaming

• 144Hz screen and shoulder buttons are both handy
• Not many games support 144Hz yet
• Dedicated 'Game Space' for launching and tweaking games

As you’d expect with its powerful hardware, the Red Magic 5G can handle any game you throw at it on the highest possible settings. We spent most of our time playing PUBG, Real Racing 3 and Fortnite with the graphics turned all the way up, and we never met any slowdown or juddering.

The 144Hz display makes a difference. It’s not life-changing, but the games that support it feel as smooth as anything you’ll experience on your mobile phone. The catch is that, at the time of writing, only four games support 144Hz: Real Racing 3, Dead Trigger 2, Full Force and Vain Glory. But that list is bound to expand over the next few years, meaning you’ll be future-proofed for the entire life of the handset.

Even for the games that don’t support 144Hz, the display – which automatically switches between 144Hz and 90Hz, or can be set to run at 60Hz to save battery – will make the most of them. It matches refresh rate to a game’s frame rate to avoid any stuttering.

The Red Magic 5G has plenty of other ways to improve your gaming hours too, starting with the shoulder buttons. When you turn your phone on its side, they sit at the top left and top right edges of the device, accessible with your index fingers.

You can map them to mimic any touch button on the screen: for example, in PUBG we mapped the right trigger over the shoot button, and the left trigger over the aim down sights button. It’s intuitive to set up, and being able to fire weapons with those triggers is so much easier than tapping your screen. It noticeably improved our in-game score.

The shoulder buttons are responsive, and you can switch between three levels of sensitivity if you’re having trouble (we found the default to be the sweet spot). The one issue we had with them was that the headphone jack gets in the way of the left trigger. When we had headphones plugged in, we had to hold the phone in a way that didn’t feel natural, which is hardly ideal for longer sessions.

The Red Magic 5G also supports '4D Shock' in PUBG, Fortnite and Call of Duty: Mobile, which basically means it will vibrate in time with in-game actions, such as firing a gun. You can turn it off if you want, but we enjoyed having that feedback, and found it helped us stay focused on the action.

You access all games on the Red Magic 5G through a launcher called Game Space, which you turn on with a physical toggle on the side of the phone.

In-game, you can swipe from the right-hand side of the screen to change all your settings, mute notifications, change the screen refresh rate, turn on 4D Shock, and switch between different CPU and GPU settings. You can force the CPU or GPU into turbo modes, but we were happy to let the phone handle it for us in the 'auto mode'.

We don’t love Game Space’s interface, which feels dated and overly flashy, but it is at least clearly laid out, and everything works. We enjoyed having all our games accessible at the flick of a switch, and the in-game swipe menu gives you plenty of options to fiddle with. It really makes it feel like this is a phone made for gaming.

Lastly, we have the fan and liquid cooling combination, designed to take heat away from your phone as quickly as possible. If you’re a heavy gamer, you might have noticed your phone gets hot when you’re gaming, to the point where it can be painful to hold it, especially on the back around the camera lens. That’s not an issue, here.

The phone still heats up, and the back gets warm, but it’s never uncomfortable. The fan is loud, but not so loud that it’s annoying, thanks in no small part to the dual stereo speakers.

They don’t produce the cleanest sound (as always, we’d recommend headphones or an external speaker for music), but they are impressively loud. At max volume, they were uncomfortably loud for in-game explosions, so we ended up playing at two-thirds volume, which was more than enough.

Overall, the Red Magic 5G feels like a top-tier gaming phone, with rapid performance matched by its world’s-first display. As more games begin to support 144Hz, the argument for buying this will grow stronger for gaming enthusiasts.

Software and OS

• Buggy software
• Lacks customization options

While the Red Magic 5G is a treat to use in games, its OS unfortunately lets it down when you’re not playing. It runs RedMagic OS 3.0, based on Android 10. It’s a relatively stock setup, and if you swipe left from the home screen you’ll reach your Google Now feed, just like with Google’s own launcher.

But it takes its minimalism a bit too far. It’s missing some basic features and settings that on their own seem minor, but add up to be disappointing.

For example, there’s currently no way to show battery percentage as a number alongside the battery icon on your notification bar, so the only way to see exactly how much juice you have left is to tap through various menus (Nubia says it plans to fix this in an upcoming update).

There’s no way to change the display refresh rate from your notification bar, either: you can only do that in Game Space. You can’t even set the notification bar to show at all times, which is how we usually set our phones up. The lack of customization can be summed up by trying to tinker with 'launcher settings', where you’ll only find two things you can change. It’s far behind phones like the OnePlus 8, which is comparable in price, in this regard.

We also found regular bugs and glitches with the software. Something as simple as adding apps to the home screen was a struggle. The phone kept insisting a shortcut already existed on our home screen when it didn’t. Restarting fixed it, but the problem returned five minutes later.

We also couldn’t add apps to folders from the app drawer, and when we tried to add apps from inside the folders themselves using the 'add application' option, only certain apps showed up. Long pressing on the home screen brings up an indecipherable 'arrange icons' menu, which gives you the instruction: “Click icon,put oneditpanel” (typos and all). It’s simply not pleasant to use.

The software version we had when first received the phone was essentially broken because we couldn’t open the Google Play Store, making downloading apps and games impossible.

This was fixed by an OS update, and some of the issues described above could also be fixed down the line. But what we’ve seen so far doesn’t inspire confidence. The software is simply not as good as the hardware it’s running on.

5G performance

• 5G is supported but not widespread

It’s well worth noting that the Red Magic 5G supports 5G networks, which will be a selling point for some, and which further future-proofs the device. Exact speeds and availability of 5G will of course vary based on your area though, so make sure you check your area's 5G coverage before committing.

Verdict

There’s no denying that the Red Magic 5G represents good value. You pay a mid-range price for high-end processing power, and the world’s first 144Hz smartphone screen to boot.

That combination leads to smooth performance both in and out of games, and you can marathon your favorite games without worrying about your phone overheating.

Those shoulder buttons give you the edge over fellow players, and Nubia’s custom gaming launcher makes starting up games easier than ever. Plus, you’ve got a solid camera, long battery life, and loud speakers on top of all that.

The big downside is the Red Magic’s interface and software. It’s full of bugs and niggles that can be frustrating. If you’re planning to use this as a phone first, gaming device second, then it’s worth holding off until Nubia tweaks its software, because at the moment it’s simply not pleasant to use.

Who's this for?

The Red Magic 5G is for people who play lots of high-end games on their phones and want a future-proof device that will be able to handle the latest releases for years to come. The display is unparalleled, and will give you smoother performance than any other handset.

It’s also a phone for anybody that wants flagship specs – as a reminder, it has the same chipset and GPU combo as the Samsung Galaxy S20 – at a mid-range price.

Should you buy it?

Yes, but wait and see how effectively Nubia fixes its software over the next few weeks or months first.

If it patches up the worst glitches, the Red Magic 5G is well worth considering if you’re looking to buy a phone in the mid-range and you value both gaming and performance. You get a lot for your money here, and an aesthetic that will turn heads.

First reviewed: April 2020

Competition

There are a number of great phones for gaming, such as the following three.

Black Shark 2

The Black Shark 2 is an affordable, powerful gaming phone with an excellent camera. Its screen isn’t the most responsive and it doesn’t have NFC, but those trade-offs are worth it for blistering performance at a mid-range price.

Read our full Black Shark 2 review

Asus ROG Phone 2

The Asus ROG Phone 2 is an excellent all-round gaming phone with a range of compatible gaming accessories, great battery life, and a 120Hz refresh rate. There's no waterproofing or wireless charging, but it’s still one of the best gaming phones around.

Read our full Asus ROG Phone 2 review

OnePlus 8

It’s not a gaming phone, but a crisp display, smooth UI, 5G support and top-end power make the OnePlus 8 the phone to beat in this price range. It’s brand new at the time of writing, but its superb performance will make it an option for years to come.

Read our full OnePlus 8 review

Two-minute review

The Nubia Z20 has a screen on the front and another, smaller one on the rear. Is this an attempt to increase screen space, like dual-display devices or foldable phones? Or a solution to the full-screen ‘problem’? (As the smaller screen is nestled under the rear camera array, so there’s no need for a snapper on the front). Perhaps it’s both.

The Nubia Z20, from tech company ZTE, is partly the successor to the Nubia Z18, as part of the brand’s confusingly-named range, but it’s similar to the Nubia X from 2018 which also had a screen on the back.

It’s easy to pigeon-hole the ZTE Nubia Z20 as ‘the phone with a screen on the back’, and it’s certainly an interesting gimmick, but to condense the handset down to this one feature is to ignore all its other strengths.

The phone has a three-camera array led by a 48MP sensor; this isn’t just an attempt for the device to look good on paper, either, as the Z20 takes good-looking pictures with that snapper as well as its ultra-wide and telephoto siblings. These snappers double as your selfie cameras too, although curiously when in selfie-mode some of the modes are absent.

The main display and chipset are good too, especially for the price tag, which is decidedly mid-range. So you’d have a good time with the Nubia Z20 whether or not you use the second screen, although whether you’ll be happy paying for this extra display is another matter entirely.

ZTE Nubia Z20 price and availability

• Nubia Z20 launched in late 2019
• Costs $549 / £499 / AU$670
• Not available from carriers

The ZTE Nubia Z20 is available to buy for $549 / £499 / AU$670, so it’s a decently-priced mid-range phone, and you can pick it up for a similar price to some of its contemporaries like the OnePlus 7T ($499 / £469, roughly AU$750).

The phone is available from Nubia’s website as well as Amazon, though we haven’t seen any carriers selling it, so you may have to pick it up SIM-free. It was made available at the end of 2019.

Design

• Two side-mounted fingerprint sensors
• USB-C port but no 3.5mm headphone jack
• Feels robust and good to hold

The Nubia Z20 has a screen on both sides of the device, but we’ll refer to the ‘front’ as the side without the camera array on it. This side has a screen taking up the majority of the space, although there’s a bit more bezel around the sides than on a more premium device. This display is also curved, lending a high-end feel to the phone.

On the back there’s the smaller screen, housed under a horizontal camera bump (although ‘bump’ might be an exaggeration, since it barely sticks out from the back of the phone). Then, in the chin under this second display, is Nubia’s logo.

An interesting design aspect of the Nubia Z20 is that there’s a side-mounted fingerprint sensor on both sides of the device. Not only does this make it easy to unlock the screen whether you’re using the front or back display, but it’s also very useful for left-handed people who want to pick up and unlock the device with their primary hand.

These side fingerprint sensors also double as the power button, so it’s incredibly easy to unlock the device, and we’re big fans of phones that use this method of opening (the Honor 20 for example also has a side-mounted scanner/power button combo).

On the right hand side of the phone (when you’re looking at the primary screen) there’s also a volume rocker, just above the fingerprint sensor.

There’s a USB-C port at the bottom of the handset, but no 3.5mm headphone jack, so if you’re a fan of wired headphones you’ll have to use the adapter in the box.

You’d expect a phone bedecked with multiple screens to feel pretty fragile, but the Nubia Z20 felt particularly robust, and in our time with the phone we never felt at risk of damaging it. It’s likely not compatible with many cases though.

Display

• 6.42-inch AMOLED screen joined by 5.1-inch second screen
• Main screen generally looks good
• Curved main screen has extra functions

The ZTE Nubia Z20’s ‘front’ display is a 6.42-inch AMOLED screen, with a 1080 x 2340 resolution and HDR10. Content viewed on this is pretty good looking, thanks to the resolution and the AMOLED screen tech, which really makes colors pop.

There’s an impressive collection accessibility features present in the device too, thanks to the display. For example, if you squeeze the phone (and therefore tap both sides of the curved display), you trigger a mappable function (which we choose to use to access the camera). This turns a common gripe with curved-screen phones into a useful function.

There are also gestures that change how you switch between the different screens, either by tilting the phone or tapping a certain button, and the option of an always-on display for either the front or back panel. However, we never managed to actually get this latter feature to work.

Then on the back there’s a 5.1-inch AMOLED screen with a 720 x 1520 resolution, and as those specs suggest this isn’t exactly the best for viewing content, compared to the front display. This was a little bit of an issue for certain functions of the second screen, but wasn’t too bad for others.

A common question we were asked when testing the ZTE Nubia Z20 was ‘why do you need two screens?’, and after using the device for a few weeks we have a few answers, although we’re not sure if any of them justify the extra cost of it.

The main use of the second screen is so you can use the rear camera array to take selfies, and while the display is a little too small and low-res to make this as convenient as using a standard front-facing selfie-cam, it still works. 

A much more practical use is the ability to send notifications to the rear screen, or open separate apps on it to the front screen. This makes it easy to deal with a message, for example, or temporarily jump to a second app without disrupting work on the first.

For example, when taking a flight we delegated our digital boarding pass to the second screen, so when we needed it we could easily turn the phone over and have the boarding pass ready, without having to worry about finding it.

Sure, these functions are quite convenient, as is viewfinder mode in the camera app, which lets the subject of pictures see what you’re snapping, and we enjoyed the ability to use them, but we’re not sure the possibility would be a big enough draw to convince someone to buy the handset.

Camera

• 48MP main, 8MP telephoto, 16MP ultra-wide camera
• These are also your selfie cameras
• Good hardware is matched by okay software

The main camera on the ZTE Nubia Z20 is a 48MP f/1.7 one,  and it’s joined by an 8MP f/2.4 telephoto shooter which supports 3x optical zoom, and a 16MP f/2.2 ultra-wide camera. 

These are, of course, also the cameras you use for selfies, although curiously most of the functions of the rear cameras aren’t available when you press that ‘switch’ button in the camera to activate the rear screen to take selfies.

You can work around this, by toggling the viewfinder function which lets you see on the rear screen what you’re about to take a picture of, then using the volume rocker as a shutter button. However this is a bit of a pain, and we wish the functions would be available even in selfie mode.

Our brief sweeping statement on the Nubia Z20’s cameras is that the hardware is pulling all the weight, while the software lets the side down a little bit. This results in pictures that are still good, which is why ‘decent camera array’ is in our list of pros, but ‘decent’ isn’t quite ‘amazing’.

Pictures taken with the ultra-wide, main and telephoto cameras are all decent, with little to no distortion on the ulta-wide (whereas some such lenses create pictures that are rippled at the sides) and good quality even when zoomed on the telephoto (another issue some phone cameras have). Colors on photos look a little pale, but nothing to turn your nose up at.

However where another smartphone camera might have software that makes decent pictures great, there isn’t too much software at work in the ZTE Nubia Z20, which means those decent pictures stay at just that.

As a result, colors don’t really pop as much as they should, and images ended up a little duller than we’d have liked.

The fact the software is the main issue is also evident when looking at different camera modes. For example, both Portrait and Night modes don’t make a huge difference to shots generally.

If you find the right subject and framing, then you can take Portrait shots that effectively blur the background but not the subject, or Night shots that are noticeably brighter, but after lots of testing we only took a few shots where these option modes made much of a difference.

Unlike hardware, software can be changed by a company over time, so it’s possible that with updates and tweaks the ZTE Nubia Z20 will take great pictures. But at the time of testing, the photos we could take were good, not great.

If you like video recording, you might be in for a shock with the Nubia Z20, because not only can you shoot in 4K 60fps (a rarity in mid-range smartphones), there’s actually an 8K shooting mode, technically making the phone beat the Samsung Galaxy S20 and Xiaomi Mi 10 to be the first with this feature, as it launched before those phones.

This 8K mode isn’t something we’d recommend though, as the frame rate was incredibly low, so videos shot are honestly pretty hard to watch. Videos shot in 4K, or even 1080p, were fine for use though, and it’s unlikely you’ll even have a screen that can display 8K content.

Camera samples

Performance and software

• Snapdragon 855 Plus chipset, 8GB RAM
• Android 9 with Nubia UI 7 laid over the top
• Second-screen button can get in the way

The ZTE Nubia Z20 comes with the Snapdragon 855 Plus chipset, which was the top Android chipset available when it was released (although in early 2020 phones started coming with its successor, the 865). This provides some pretty decent processing power, as you’d imagine. It’s paired with 8GB RAM and 128GB storage.

In a Geekbench 5 benchmarking test, the ZTE Nubia Z20 returned a multi-core score of 2,411, beating 2019 phones like the Samsung Galaxy S10 range, but not quite matching the Sony Xperia 5 or OnePlus 7T Pro, which were just ahead.

With the Nubia Z20, though, you’re not going to be pining for more processing power, because it’s just fine as is. Games ran smooth on high graphics, and we never had an issue with lagging or slow loading.

The Nubia Z20 runs Android 9, with Nubia UI 7 laid over the top, and of all the Chinese-made custom UIs that run on phones from the likes of Xiaomi, Huawei and Oppo, this is definitely one of the best – it’s free of annoying bloatware, easy to navigate, and with a settings menu that’s a lot more logically laid out than on many other handsets.

One slight issue though is the ‘second-screen button’, which is always present on the screen. You can choose what this does, depending on how you toggle the second screen: if you select the option that lets you tilt the main screen forward to open the second screen, this button locks that function so you can’t accidentally switch screens, but you can also make the button simply open the second screen if you find this an easier way of getting the second screen working.

Either way, the button is always on the screen, and while you can drag it about to move it out the way, we often found it a little annoying having to move the icon around depending on what we were doing. Perhaps a physical button to change screens would have been more convenient.

If you choose the aforementioned ‘tilt’ way of switching screens, the phone can sometimes be a little oversensitive and swap screens even when you don’t want it to, so we’d recommend staying in lock mode if you don’t want this other display turning off and on.

Battery life

• 4,000mAh battery
• Phone didn't always last a full day
• 27W fast charge took less than an hour to get to 100%

The Nubia Z20 has a 4,000mAh battery, which is a fair size for a mid-range smartphone, although we came to wish the power pack was a little bigger, as it didn’t last us as long as we’d like.

With light use, the phone could make it through a day, but if we were to play games, stream content, or spend lots of time on social media, we’d usually have to top the phone up towards the end of the day. 

This relatively short battery life is likely a result of the high screen quality, and when we used the second screen for day-to-day activities instead it did feel like the battery was lasting a little better, likely thanks to its smaller size and lower resolution.

Charging is done with 27W fast charging, which feels rather standard for a smartphone at this price point. It will get your phone fully charged in less than an hour, but since the battery life isn’t great this powering speed feels like the bare minimum.

Should I buy the ZTE Nubia Z20?

Buy it if

Don’t buy it if

The Nubia Red Magic 5G has just been announced and it could provide some serious competition to the Black Shark 3 and Black Shark 3 Pro gaming phones, as like those handsets it uses a top-end Snapdragon 865 chipset, but it has even more RAM, at up to 16GB.

Other specs include a 6.65-inch 1080 x 2340 AMOLED screen with a 144Hz refresh rate, which is more than the 90Hz of the Black Shark 3 or even the 120Hz of the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra.

There’s also up to 256GB of storage, a big 4,500mAh battery (with super speedy 55W charging), and a triple-lens camera, headlined by a 64MP main sensor. That’s then joined by an 8MP ultra-wide one and a 2MP macro one, while there’s also an 8MP selfie one in a punch-hole on the front.

• These are the best gaming phones
• Read our full Nubia Red Magic 3 review
• Check out our Razer Phone 2 review

The Red Magic 5G runs Android 10, supports 5G (obviously), has an in-screen fingerprint scanner, and has gaming-focused features, such as a built-in cooling fan. The design, like many gaming phones, is somewhat rugged and showy, especially as there’s an RGB light panel on the back. That’s sure to put as many people off as it attracts.

But the price could tempt even those put off by the design, as the Nubia Red Magic 5G starts at CNY3,799 in China, which is around $540 / £430 / AU$860. That’s for a model with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, and the price does rise to around $710 / £570 / AU$1,130 for a model with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, but that’s still substantially less than most flagships.

Of course, we wouldn’t expect an exact conversion if and when the Nubia Red Magic 5G lands in your region, but gaming phones are typically cheap for the specs that they offer, so this could still be a way to get some of 2020’s best smartphone specs on a relative budget.

As for if and when you’ll be able to buy the Red Magic 5G, a global launch is planned for some point in April, so stay tuned for updates then.

• Stock up on the best Android games

The top-end Snapdragon 865 chipset was announced a while back, but so far no phones use it. That could be about to change though, as the ZTE Axon 10S Pro has just been unveiled and it’s packing the top-end chipset.

The phone has oddly been listed on ZTE’s official Chinese website with no fanfare, which seems strange for what’s surely a major handset for the company.

There’s no release date just yet though, which means it might not be the first phone available with the Snapdragon 865 chipset – it could be in a race with the Samsung Galaxy S20 for that, as that phone is being announced on February 11 and is also expected to use the Snapdragon 865.

• Check out the best cheap phones
• Read our full ZTE Axon 7 review
• The OnePlus 8 will probably also use the Snapdragon 865

Top-end chipset aside there’s plenty more to like about the ZTE Axon 10S Pro. For example, it supports 5G, comes with 6GB or 12GB of RAM, 128GB or 256GB of storage, and has a 6.47-inch 1080 x 2340 curved AMOLED screen.

There’s also a 4,000mAh battery, an in-screen fingerprint scanner, and a triple-lens camera with a 48MP main sensor, a 20MP wide-angle camera and an 8MP telephoto one, along with a 20MP selfie snapper on the front.

There are stereo speakers too, plus fast charging and speedy LPDDR5 RAM which, as with the chipset, is something that no other phone uses at the time of writing.

So there’s an impressive assortment of specs and features, and coming from ZTE there’s a good chance the Axon 10S Pro will undercut big-name flagships, but the price is another thing that we haven’t yet heard.

We’d expect we’ll learn that soon, as well as finding out when and where the ZTE Axon 10S Pro will be available. Mobile World Congress 2020 kicks off towards the end of February, so we may well hear more about the phone there if not before. Whenever we do hear anything we’ll let you know, so stay tuned.

• Stock up on the best Android apps

The next Nubia Red Magic gaming phone has two confirmed features: 5G and a 144Hz maximum refresh rate on the handset’s display.

That’s according to an official Weibo post by Nubia’s CEO Ni Fei, which listed various screen refresh rates, from 60Hz at the bottom to 90Hz, 120Hz, and up to 144Hz. And since the executive called the device “Red Magic 5G phone” in the post, we can only assume the phone will indeed connect to the next-generation mobile network.

The latter isn’t too surprising given that Fei revealed the phonemaker’s next flagship will pack a Snapdragon 865 chipset according to GSM Arena, which has 5G support by default, we presume it’ll be paired with a 5G-connecting Snapdragon X55 modem. 

Curious timing?

While gamer phones have used displays with higher refresh rates before – the 2018 Razer Phone 2 boasted a 120Hz refresh rate – commercial phones have started to catch up, with the Google Pixel 4 as the latest to pack a 90Hz screen.

Not to be outdone, OnePlus followed up on the 90Hz screens in its 2019 phones with an announcement on Weibo that it’s working on introducing 120Hz screens in its future handsets... on the same day that Nubia stated its next Red Magic phone will aim for 144Hz. 

That high of a rate, effectively refreshing the display 144 times per second, is typical for gamer-marketed desktop computer displays. But it seemingly far exceeds the human ability to tell the difference on so small a screen. 

In gaming, of course, response time is everything – so it’s unsurprising that Nubia would appeal to gamers with this perk on its upcoming phone. 

• Adding 5G and 144Hz will probably change our best gaming phone list

In a sea of near identical phones the Nubia Z20 (made by a subsidiary of ZTE) stands out, thanks largely to having two screens – one on the front and another on the back. We already knew the phone existed, but now you can actually buy it, as it's out in the US, UK, Australia and Europe from today (October 14).

Despite having high-end specs it's not as expensive as you might think either, coming in at $549 / £499. It's available direct from Nubia.com in Twilight Blue and Diamond Black. The Nubia Z20 is also available in Australia from today, but pricing hadn't been confirmed at the time of writing.

But what exactly do you get for your money? Well, the main screen is a 6.42-inch FHD+ one, while the display on the back is a 5.1-inch HD+ one. So both screens are full size as well as being fully functional.

• The Xiaomi Mi Mix Alpha has even more screen
• Read our Nubia Red Magic 3 review
• The LG G8X ThinQ supports a dual-screen accessory

Power-packed

The Nubia Z20 also has a top-end Snapdragon 855 Plus chipset, 8GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, a 4,000mAh battery with 27W fast charging, and a triple-lens rear camera, with a 48MP main lens, a 16MP ultra-wide one, and an 8MP telephoto one, capable of 3x optical zoom.

As the Nubia Z20 has a screen on the back you can also use those cameras for selfies, meaning there’s no camera on the front. That allows for a true all-screen design with no pop-up camera mechanisms.

It sounds impressive on paper, though it remains to be seen how well the battery will hold out with two screens to power. We’ll be putting the Nubia Z20 through a full review, so should be able to answer that question soon.

• We're already starting to see some foldable phones

Gaming phones are not going anywhere. The Asus ROG Phone 2, Black Shark 2, and Razer Phone 2 have all landed, fine-tuning a formula tailored to give Android gamers a combined hardware and software experience designed for gaming.

ZTE’s sub-brand, Nubia, has released a few of its Red branded gaming phones in the UK, though none achieved the notoriety the aforementioned Asus, Black Shark, and Razer competition did. Will the Red Magic 3 turn more heads?

It has got the biggest screen on the gaming block at 6.65 inches, and the display’s refresh rate is 90Hz - the same as that of the OnePlus 7 Pro. Under the hood, there’s also up to 12GB of RAM, and a giant 5,000mAh battery too.

Combine that with a Snapdragon 855 chipset and touch-sensitive left and right triggers, and the sub-$500/£450 starting price at first glance seems too good to be true.

Nubia Red Magic 3 price and availability

• Starts at $479, £419, AU$565
• Available now
• Ships globally

The Nubia Red Magic 3 can be picked up officially from the Red Magic website for $479 (£419, AU$565) for the 128GB version with 8GB of RAM. If you’re looking to pick up the 256GB version with 12GB of RAM, that costs $599 (£529, AU$940).

The phone ships globally, though check your specific region for availability, as there is limited stock of various configurations in certain regions.

The Red Magic 3 has actually seen a replacement... Sort of. The Red Magic 3S, released several months after the base device, has exactly the same specs, except comes packed with a Snapdragon 855 Plus chipset. This chipset is designed to be great for gaming, and battery life maintenance as well.

The Red Magic 3S even costs the same as the Red Magic 3, at least on Nubia's website, although the older device may be more affordable now elsewhere. So if you're looking to buy a new gaming smartphone, the Red Magic 3S is probably a better deal, because of this one tiny tweak. You can pick it up from the Red Magic website.

Design and display

• Big but disappointing screen
• In-built cooling fan
• Big, heavy metal body

If you’re after the biggest screen you can get your mitts on to showcase your games in the most immersive way possible, you’ll be hard-pressed to do better, or at least bigger, than the Red Magic 3.

The phone’s 6.65-inch display is monstrous, and when you factor in its beefy metal body and the phone’s aggressive styling, it’s an attention grabber too. Available in black with red accents, red, or camo, and with an illuminated LED strip down the back, subtle is not the name of the game for this gaming phone, but that’s hardly surprising.

The Red Magic 3 isn’t just big for the sake of it; there’s a lot going on when you take a tour of the phone’s body. On the right are air vents, because the phone’s got a fan (yes, a fan) built-in. That’s in addition to touch-sensitive left and right triggers which can be mapped to specific games, and there are volume and power buttons too.

Front-firing speakers bookend the Red Magic 3’s Gorilla Glass screen, which has a screen-to-body ratio of 80.5%. Meanwhile, on the phone’s left there's a pogo pin connector so you can combine it with accessories, and there’s a slider too, which transports gamers into a gaming space when toggled - more on that later.

As for the back of the phone, it proudly shows off beefy bevels, red accents, a Red Magic logo, an RGB strip, and one humble camera, as well as its rear fingerprint scanner.

Those last two points are two ways it doesn’t quite compete with other flagships like the OnePlus 7 Pro and even the Black Shark 2, which have multi-camera setups at the back and under-display scanners. 

Still, the Red Magic 3 doesn’t feel cheap, even if it isn’t the epitome of tasteful luxury.

As for the phone’s screen, at 1080 x 2340 resolution with a 19.5:9 aspect ratio, clarity falls behind most other flagships, given its pixel density of 388ppi (pixels-per-inch). On the plus side, it sports AMOLED technology, which should be great right? Right, ish.

On the one hand, the screen delivers punch and saturation out of the box, so everything from the UI right through to games pack maximum impact. That’s okay for gaming, but for everything else, it’s a bit much. No problem - the display settings offer up some color adjustments! Only, the Natural Color profile, by contrast, looks flat and listless.

Ultimately, we concluded that while this is indeed a relatively affordable gaming phone with a 90Hz AMOLED display (woohoo!), it doesn’t feature an excellent AMOLED display.

Blacks are still deep and inky, colors are still vibrant and popping; it even has respectable viewing angles and brightness. It just doesn’t have the kind of color calibration and quality that phones like the Samsung Galaxy S10, Huawei P30 Pro and even gaming phones like the Asus ROG Phone deliver.

Battery life

• Huge 5,000mAh battery
• 18W quick charging
• Excellent battery life

Unsurprisingly, the Red Magic 3’s giant 5,000mAh battery keeps the phone going a day and then some. If you’re conservative with usage, you can likely get two days out of it, but regular to intense use left us with about 35% after a long day. 90 minutes of video playback at max brightness drained the phone by just 11%, which is excellent.

In the settings, you can shut down rogue processes, and there’s a battery saver feature too. ZTE has also loaded up the Red Magic 3 with 18W fast charging, though we’d still recommend charging it up overnight as a full charge takes just under two hours, unsurprisingly given the giant capacity cell under the hood.

Camera

• 48MP single camera
• Disappointing imaging experience
• Up to 8K video recording

The Red Magic 2 features a 48MP primary camera with an f/1.7 26mm wide-angle lens, as well as a 16MP selfie camera. Looking at all the gaming phones available, it’s clear that just going by the specs, that’s where the Magic 2 trails behind, and, unsurprisingly, this is reflected in the camera’s performance.

The shooting modes haven’t fared well in translation from Chinese to English, for starters. There are Photo, Video, Pro, and ‘Pretty’ modes. Additionally, there’s a ‘Camera Family’ menu, which showcases additional shooting modes which include MultiExposure, LightDraw, Electronic Aperture, Clone, and Time Lapse.

Most of these are a bit gimmicky, and the Aperture mode doesn’t even do what you expect it to (blur out the background like a portrait mode might). In fact, we’re not sure what it did. 

As for photo quality, even in good light, contrast is boosted too much, as is sharpness. The lack of optical image stabilization means hand shake comes through thick and fast irrespective of how brightly lit the conditions you’re shooting in are. 

While the Magic 3 features the same sensor found on the Asus ZenFone 6 and the Xiaomi Mi 9, it can’t hold a candle to either, so we’d recommend if imaging is a priority for you and you want a gaming phone, grab a Black Shark 2.

What’s interesting is that video and selfies outperform the rear camera’s photography capabilities. Selfies deliver a fair amount of detail, and the beauty mode is flattering.

The phone can shoot at up to 8K (yes, 8K) resolution, and while the screen isn’t HDR10 compliant, it can shoot HDR content, it just can’t play it back; this is a strange phone.

What’s also noteworthy is the image quality in video. While the stabilization doesn’t hold up particularly well, in 4K resolution at up to 60fps, the picture quality itself is good, which just begs the question: what went wrong with the stills camera?

Camera samples

Interface and reliability

• Android 9 with gaming features
• Stable performance for the most part
• Poor translation throughout the UI

Running Android 9, the Nubia Red Magic 3 is in a strong position from a future-proofing point of view, and the phone has access to the apps available in the Google Play Store.

The phone’s interface is also relatively close to stock Android, with a few breaks from tradition, which include no Google Assistant screen, and the game launcher. This launcher is one of the highlights of the Red Magic 3. A slide of the red toggle on its left side, and you’re sent through to a screen with all your games neatly laid out.

The game launcher is also where you can manage connected gaming accessories, set the fan strength, change LED effects, and lock the screen refresh rate to 90Hz.

The UI was reliably stable in our time with the phone, though compatibility with third-party devices was occasionally problematic. 

We had a couple of failed attempts getting notifications through on our Xiaomi Mi Band 4, for example, which we didn’t have on other devices. After a bit of perseverance, however, we did get it to work.

Movies, music, and gaming

• Immersive, big display
• Loud stereo speakers
• Great gaming tools and accessories

With a 6.65-inch AMOLED display with 1080 x 2340 resolution and a pixel density of 388ppi, the Red Magic 3 is an immersive phone. With its display tech, it’s best viewed in the dark, especially when watching atmospheric movies.

Audio quality from the speakers is excellent. The front-firing stereo speakers blow the house down with volume, and clarity isn’t bad either.

As for gaming, the Red Magic 3 gaming hub, accessories and that in-built cooling fan help it to stand out. Starting with the accessories, the Pro Handle is a controller accessory that attaches either side of the phone when gaming in landscape orientation. Meanwhile, the Magic Adapter has a LAN port, so supports speeds of up to 100Mbps, as well as offering kickstand functionality.

And even if you don’t buy anything extra, the left and right touch-sensitive trigger buttons work like a charm and are programmable, while the fundamental gaming performance is top-tier too.

Specs and benchmarks

• Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 chipset
• Up to 12GB of RAM
• Benchmarks like a flagship

Our review Red Magic 3 device features a Snapdragon 855 chipset, coupled with 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage. The phone benchmarks like a champ, with an AnTuTu score of 271,775, a Geekbench multi-core score of 10,611, and a 3DMark Sling Shot Extreme score of 4,832 (OpenGL) / 4,972 (Vulkan). 

In other words, there's flagship power under the hood, and this is reflected in gaming performance.

The phone also offers two-fold biometric security in the form of face unlock and a rear fingerprint scanner. We never had to fire up face unlock in our week with the Red Magic 3 as the rear scanner works reliably well, is fast, and is easy to find with a fumbling index finger.

There’s no waterproofing or wireless charging, which are forgivable, but the lack of a microSD card slot and NFC are less understandable, and more annoying, especially if you’re a fan of mobile payments.

Verdict

The Nubia Red Magic 3 represents fantastic value for gamers, and nothing’s going to take that away from it. For less money than any other Snapdragon 855 gaming phone, you get a handset built to be played on. The fan keeps it cool, the touch-sensitive triggers work brilliantly, there’s RGB lighting, the screen is enormous, and the speakers are loud. 

The reality is, however, that the Red Magic 3 isn’t built for much else. Poor translation throughout the UI, a very lacking camera experience and a mediocre display hold it back from being an everyday phone.

This means, if you’re an obsessive Android gamer on a budget who doesn’t care about much else, the Red Magic 3 is probably a four-star device. For everyone else though, thanks to shortcomings in key areas, you can knock a star off, which is exactly what we’ve done.

Who's this for?

If you’re a gaming fan, but don’t want to stump up the kind of money a flagship demands these days, and want a phone that’s been custom-built to deliver incredible battery life and gaming performance, the Red Magic 3 could be it.

Should you buy it?

As long as you’re comfortable with the fact the Nubia Red Magic 3 delivers a rather disappointing camera experience, you should consider it if you need gaming performance on a budget. It might not be perfect, but you’ll be hard-pressed to get more for less.

This isn't the only gaming phone. Check out these three alternatives:

Black Shark 2

The Black Shark 2 is similar to the Red Magic 3 in many ways, no NFC or water resistance, some translation issues, and a beefy metal frame that looks angry. What it does deliver however is a significantly better camera experience, making it a more desirable smartphone if you plan on doing more than just gaming on it. Costing only a fraction more than the Magic 3, it’s also a great value device.

Read our full Black Shark 2 review

Razer Phone 2

The Razer Phone 2 delivers style, a faster screen refresh rate and a significantly more polished experience out of the box. It also packs NFC, Wireless charging and water resistance.

While it was handicapped when it launched by a high price-tag and a lacking screen, it can now be picked up with a substantial discount, so if you can find it at the right price, it could be worth considering.

Read our full Razer Phone 2 review

Asus ROG Phone

The ROG Phone may have been superseded by the recently announced ROG Phone 2, but that doesn’t mean you should ignore the original. It packs a fantastic camera, all the bells and whistles you’d want from a gaming phone and is also a joy to use in day-to-day life.

As with the Razer Phone, it’s popping up at discounted prices more and more, so if you can handle a smaller screen, it could be a great alternative to the Red Magic 3.

Read our full Asus ROG Phone review

First reviewed: July 2019

The ZTE Nubia Red Magic 3 is coming, and it’s a marked improvement on its predecessor, the midrange Red Magic Mars. The new model is a powerful smartphone with even more features to appeal to gamers – and it’s coming to China on April 28 followed by a US, UK, EU and Canada release sometime in May.

We got our hands on the Red Magic Mars at CES 2019 and loved its high specs and gaming features, especially at less than half the retail price of costly flagships like the Razer Phone 2 and Asus ROG Phone. But it seemed a bit underpowered with last year’s Snapdragon 845 and middling 16MP rear/8MP front camera.

• What do we know about the iPhone 11?
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The Red Magic 3 is juicier in nearly every way. It packs the leading Snapdragon 855 chip, upgrades the battery to a colossal 5,000mAh (up from 3,800mAh) with up to 30W quick charging – enough to get an hour of gameplay on a 10-minute charge, per Nubia’s press release. The (still single-lens) rear camera now lets you shoot 48MP, while the front-facing shooter is 16MP.

The remaining specs are just short of standout, with several tiers of memory and storage, starting at 6GB of RAM and 128GB of space. That can be upgraded to 8GB RAM/128GB storage or 12GB/256GB, which is hefty enough for all your gaming needs.

Even better gaming features

Of course, you’re looking at the Red Magic 3 to play games. The standout features from the Red Magic Mars return – mainly the touchpad “shoulder” buttons on the phone’s side, a switch that turns on a specialized gaming mode, and RGB lighting. 

But aside from the huge battery, the Red Magic 3 has another upgrade on its predecessor: instead of a copper cooling tube to vent heat (also present in the Asus and Razer gaming phones), Nubia’s new phone has liquid cooling and an internal fan, which the company claims increases heat transfer “by 500%.” We’ll have to test that claim, but it’s still a serious commitment to keeping the gaming phone cool while you’re in an intense gaming session.

The AMOLED display’s resolution hasn’t been improved from the FHD+ of its predecessor, which is lower-rez than the Razer Phone 2’s QHD screen, but it’s now an impressive 6.5 inches (up from the Red Magic Mars’ 6-inch display). More screen real estate is good for gamers, as less will be taken up by their thumbs. Plus, the display has a 90hz refresh rate for more fluid gameplay, on par with the Asus ROG Phone but under the 120hz of the Razer Phone 2. 

That's a long way of saying that the Red Magic 3 is, on paper, a big upgrade that should make the phone competitive with leading (if not flagship) phones. Unfortunately, we still don’t know how much the phone will cost, so it’s unclear if the new phone will be as good of value as the Red Magic Mars – but either way, it’s shaping up to be a strong gaming phone for 2019.

• The Black Shark 2 has just launched – it's a gaming phone that rivals the Red Magic 3

ZTE has produced concepts for the upcoming ZTE Axon V and Axon S, and the images show both smartphones have novel camera locations that we haven’t seen before.

The images, submitted by ZTE to the IF World Design Guide awards in the Design Excellence category, show the Axon V and Axon S (as well as other ZTE handsets like the Axon M and the Blade 9) in all their glory, and we can see the bizarre camera placement in great detail. 

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The Axon S, a sliding phone ZTE has planned for later this year, is shown to slide sideways, instead of upwards like previous sliding phones. The concepts show the phone in this open state and reveals a tri-lens camera setup, which the image description states totals 48MP and supports 5x optical zoom.

The concept description also mentions that the phone will have a 95% screen-to-body ratio, with the display housing an in-screen fingerprint sensor and 3D camera. This will likely be an in-screen camera, possibly similar to what Samsung is planning in future Galaxy phones.

The Axon V also has an intriguing design – it’s not a sliding phone, and looks mostly like a standard Android handset, except for the fact that its dual selfie cameras are housed in a small wing-like appendage that protrudes from the top-right of the device, creating an asymmetrical outline. We’re not quite sure what to make of this novel arrangement, although it doesn’t look like it would be very comfortable in a pocket. 

As well as the unusual design, the Axon V has another distinguishing feature: it’ll have 21:9 aspect ratio, a screen format we’ve only seen recently in the Sony Xperia 10 and 10 Plus. The screen is an 6.8-inch OLED panel, which is bigger than either of the Sony Xperia 10 phones, and like the Axon S will house a 3D front-facing camera.

Since the concepts come from ZTE itself, rather then being leaks, they’re likely to reflect the finished phones, giving us our first real look at the two devices. Both are set to launch at some point this year, although “2019” is the only release date we have so far – we’ll keep you updated with all the latest news and rumors about the phones until then.

• The ZTE Axon M was an ahead-of-its-time foldable phone

Patents filed by Chinese phone manufacturer ZTE show the company is testing designs for a foldable phone, which it could bring to markets in the near future.

Filed on March 5 and discovered by Letsgodigital, the patents show a foldable clamshell design, in which the phone folds in half horizontally like a flip-phone, with the display inside the shell when folded. As the top and bottom part of the screen are different sizes there’s a prominent lip when folded, where part of the lower screen is still visible.

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We can make out a lot about the device from the sketches, as they all seem to be of the same device – it has a USB-C port, power button and volume rocker on the left of the device, and no side or rear-mounted fingerprint sensor – so either it has an in-screen scanner, or it doesn’t use fingerprint ID.

The camera setup suggested by the images appears confusing – when folded, the phone has a dual-lens camera on each side, but when unfolded both these setups face the same way, and there’s no indication of a front-facing selfie-cam in this state.

As these cameras would presumably be pointing at slightly different angles when the device is unfolded, we’d be surprised to see them on the final device, and it could be that ZTE is just testing where they’d fit best – images in patents tend to be very early-stage renderings, so the camera setup could change substantially before we see a working device.

This isn’t the first time ZTE has experimented with foldable phones, as the ZTE Axon M was technically two phones you could fold into a tablet, but it didn’t have a flexible screen of the kind expected on the latest foldables like the Samsung Galaxy Fold or Huawei Mate X.

The most interesting part of the patent is the use of a clamshell design – while all the foldables announced so far have opened from smartphones to tablets, clamshells fold down to roughly half their opened size. Samsung, Apple and Motorola are all reportedly working on clamshell foldables, so we’d expect to see one or more of these hit the market in the near future. 

• Here are 5 reasons you need a foldable smartphone now

Chinese manufacturer Nubia has been teasing its foldable phone announcement for MWC 2019 over the last few days, and the latest teaser has suggested it's ready to officially unveil its Nubia A smartwatch and phone hybrid.

Previously shown off in the prototype stage at IFA 2018, the Nubia A is somewhere between smartwatch and phone with a display that wraps around your entire wrist, connectivity for phone calls and internet as well as a camera.

The latest teaser sent out by the company includes the letter "A" and a curve that may represent the device.

• Next week's big phone: the Samsung Galaxy S10
• We also expect to see the Samsung foldable phone
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Below is a video of the Nubia A, and while it may change in its final form it gives you a clear picture of what the company is trying to achieve. 

The prototype looked to be quite a gargantuan device to sit on your wrist, so it may be we see some improvements on the final product.

For example, the Nubia A prototype only had a 500mAh battery so we'll expect to see a few changes here for it to be ready to sell to the public.

Nubia's invite is for an event in Barcelona on Monday February 25, so you can expect us to go and try out the hybrid device over our week long coverage of the biggest show in mobile phone announcements.

• Want to know about foldable phones? Here's every single one that's rumored

Via PocketNow

In the quest to maximize smartphone display area while keeping selfie cameras, manufacturers have introduced clever workarounds to avoid the dreaded notch. While some have used pop-up lenses (like the Oppo Find X and Vivo Nex) or hidden lenses behind a sliding front screen (Xiaomi Mi Mix 3), Nubia went in a different direction with the Nubia X: using a second screen on the phone’s rear just below its dual cameras, which leaves the front free of lenses.

The Nubia X was released in China back in October 2018, and despite showing the phone off at CES 2019, the company hasn’t announced when (or if) the phone will reach global markets. But, from the short time we’ve had with the phone, we thought it was a solid alternative for notch-haters and anyone tired of low-megapixel front-facing lenses.

The first thing to point out: the 5.1-inch HD+ (1,520 x 720) OLED rear display is  smaller and has a lower resolution than the 6.26-inch FHD+ (2,280 x 1,080) LCD front screen, but both are fully-functional touchscreens. You can switch between the two at will to navigate around – and there are good reasons to swap for certain situations.

The most obvious is to take selfies with the rear-facing 24MP f/1.7 + 16MP f/1.8 dual cameras. But the rear display also has an eyestrain-easing blue light filter, which has several settings to let you gradually step down from full color to black-and-white. Want to read ebooks on your phone at night? This setting is for you.

There are a few methods to swapping screens. You can navigate to the phone’s settings and manually switch from front to back, though that’s a bit cumbersome. You can also set the phone to automatically swap when you flip the device over. 

Finally, you can activate touch-sensitive buttons on the side of the screen: squeeze it in the middle (arrows will appear if you’ve done it right) before flipping the Nubia X and voila, you’ll swap screens. In practice, the latter isn’t the easiest thing to pull off. 

But how useful is a second screen?

If you despise bezels, the Nubia X’s design is worth the dual-screen swapping, with the company claiming a 93.6% screen-to-body ratio. (It’s worth pointing out that GSMArena and basic napkin math with the phone’s 154.1 x 73.3 x 8.4 mm dimensions put the figure at 86.6%, a notable discrepancy.) Assuming Nubia is correct, its measurements barely edges out the 93.4% ratio in the Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 and puts it just under the 93.8% of the Oppo Find X. 

Regardless, the front display does have very thin bezels. The rear is more noticeably boxed-in, but it will probably take a few years for both sides to reach parity. In any case, the rear screen just looks like a slightly-shrunken version of the front.

And yet, the front screen is a traditional display whereas the rear rests underneath the phone’s transparent casing. While that doesn’t hinder its touchscreen sensitivity, it is pretty reflective, making the rear screen a bit harder to see if there are bright lights around. Plus, that makes any fingerprints very noticeable.

This isn’t a dealbreaker per se – just don’t expect both screens to be equally easy to read in all circumstances.

There are advantages to having two screens. You can choose to have each display run separately: for instance, having one open to a document or photo and the other to email or text message if you wanted to reference something while you’re typing. 

There’s other ways you’ll supposedly be able to take advantage of a second touchscreen, like having parts of the rear display function as buttons (think triggers/bumpers on console controllers) while playing games. 

Another more subtle advantage is that you’ll have one (and only one) set of cameras, meaning they’ll be taking the same quality shots whether you’re shooting regular photos or selfies. 

Nubia also designed ambidexterity into unlocking the phone, with fingerprint scanners on both sides – so you can unlock it with the same finger or thumb no matter which side is up.

Robust specs supporting its novel design

The Nubia X packs a Snapdragon 845, which makes sense given it debuted in China last fall – well before the 855 was ready. That does make it slower on paper than phones slated to come out this year with Qualcomm’s newest chip, but the Nubia X’s selling point is novelty, not cutting-edge performance.

But if you want a beefier Nubia X, you can get it: the phone’s base model has 6GB RAM/64GB storage, but you can step it up to 8GB RAM and 126GB, 256GB or a whopping 512GB of space.

The battery is a respectable 3,800mAh, and the phone is dual SIM. It runs Android 8.1 Oreo out of the box, and it’s unclear when the phone will upgrade to Android 9 Pie. Unfortunately, we’re relying on third-party metrics, as Nubia has been tight with details.

Early verdict

The Nubia X is a valiant effort to maximize smartphone screens: the rear display is fully functional, which is certainly a feat compared to earlier efforts at adding a rear screen.

But it’s important to note that these predecessors were focused on adding supplemental functionality: the Meizu Pro 7 and Pro 7 Plus added a quadrant-size screen on the back to display essential info (time, notifications, etc), while the Yota 3’s rear screen was e-ink only. 

Just how useful is a full second screen, really? We’re eager to find out, and discover if flipping the phone is faster than, say, manually swapping apps. The rest of the phone is packed with good specs and a decent camera, so it’s clearly not just a device with a novel gimmick.

It’s unclear when we’ll find out: Nubia hasn’t disclosed when (or if) the Nubia X will roll out to US or European markets, though bringing it out to CES 2019 is a clear hint that they intend to sell elsewhere. Likewise, we don’t know how much it will cost, though GSMArena noted it’s priced at the equivalent of €450. 

Nubia debuted its Red Magic gaming phone last year in China and, at CES 2019, the company announced that an upgraded version, the Red Magic Mars, will soon come to the US. Its impressive specs and $399 (£313/AU$555) starting price could win over mobile gamers in America when it launches in Q1 2019, though it's unclear when Nubia's phone will be coming elsewhere.

Following the April 2018 launch in China, Nubia released the Red Magic phone in Europe after IFA and then in India in December 2018. Which makes sense, given how big mobile gaming is in those regions – but given how it's ramping up in the US,  the Red Magic Mars could be a frontrunner for best budget gaming handset for Americans who can’t afford the top-tier Razer Phone 2 or Asus ROG Phone. 

Affordability aside, the Red Magic Mars is still competitive with the big gaming phone boys, given its high specs for a midrange phone. For the new US version, Nubia swapped out the Snapdragon 835 for the newer 845, though that puts the phone behind every device packing the new Snapdragon 855.

Even so, the phone is a bargain – but we can’t vouch for its quality as a gaming device: Nubia hadn’t installed any games beyond PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, which the floor associates couldn’t manage to sign into (the game requires you to sign into an account). Pity.

Gamer style, but a bit grown up

The Red Mars Magic – which looks virtually unchanged from the Red Magic, aside from the new shoulder buttons (more on that later) – is unquestionably designed to appeal to gamers, with an anodized aluminum body chiseled into a slightly raised trapezoid.

In other words, it’s in line with the ‘geometric’ style seen in gamer-appealing devices. But Nubia’s phone is a bit more restrained, looking less asymmetrically jagged than the Asus ROG Phone (which our reviewer described as looking like a Decepticon) and more like a mature device that won't be as embarrassing to pull out in public.

Trade show floor models came in a dark red with black trim and black with bright red trim, though there’s also a dark gray 'urban camouflage'-looking model. The metal casing has a matte finish that offers some grip, but it’s the raised 'tent' geometry that will likely help most with holding the Red Magic Mars during intense gaming sessions. Your fingers rest comfortably on either side of the phone’s spinal ridge when holding it sideways.

That’s the way you’d be handling the phone anyway when playing games like PUBG or Fortnite, but one of the Red Magic Mars’ signature features is a physical switch at the top edge of one side that activates the phone’s gaming mode (called “Red Magic Game Space”) which automatically flips the screen to landscape and brings up a rotating carousel of installed games, while also minimizing notifications and boosting performance. 

It’s nifty, if a bit gimmicky, but the physical switch is solid (much like the toggle on the side of the OnePlus 6T) and out of the way, so you’ll never accidentally flip it on.

Switch on the gaming mode, turn the phone sideways, and you’ll find the Red Magic Mars’ other play-enabling feature: two touch-sensitive pads on the corners that act as shoulder buttons. They seem much like the shoulder buttons on the Asus ROG Phone, so we’ll have to see how they compare when we fully review the Red Magic Mars.

These are remappable to whichever in-game functions you desire, a Nubia representative told TechRadar, but since we didn’t get a chance to play any games, we can’t vouch for their responsiveness. 

In theory, these are great features that free up screen space and make action a bit more fluid: for example, by reconfiguring the buttons to ‘jump’ and ‘fire’ functions in a shooting game, you can move and attack without taking your thumbs off the directional controls. They’re spaced far enough apart that you won’t hit the volume or lock buttons in between the shoulder pads.

No gamer phone would be complete without some RGB styling, of course. Given its more restrained design, the Red Magic Mars’ light-up feature is a strip along the casing’s spine, just below the fingerprint sensor. You can pick colors and customize how they appear – flowing, flashing, colliding, and so on. 

Good specs, though not the absolute best

The Red Magic Mars comes in three tiers with escalating RAM and storage: an ‘Essential’ model with 6GB of RAM and 64GB storage (starting at $399; that's about £313/AU$555), ‘Superior’ with 8GB RAM and 128GB of space (US price undisclosed) and finally a limited-edition ‘Conquerer’ version with a whopping 10GB of RAM and 256GB of storage (coming soon, US price undisclosed). 

Given the still-speedy Snapdragon 845 processor, these specs are a real bargain, putting the Red Magic Mars in the same power-at-a-discount category as the OnePlus 6T. 

And if you needed another reason to pick Nubia’s phone over the latest OnePlus, the Red Magic Mars has its own complex cooling system. The phone has a copper cooling tube (conceptually similar to the one in the Razer Phone 2 and Asus ROG Phone) that redirects heat from the CPU and GPU, plus cooling ports, layers of graphene and the phone’s 'tent' design to improve "air convection" according to Nubia’s press release.

The rest of the specs are pretty standard for a midrange phone, which presumably haven’t changed from the Red Magic sold in China and India (aside from bumping up to the Snapdragon 845). 

The press release didn’t include exact specs, but the US version of the Red Magic will come with Android 9.1 Pie, according to Android Authority. It’s unclear if the US release will also be dual-sim and dual-standby (4G + 4G) like the Red Magic.

The display is a sharp FHD+ (2160 x 1080), while the lithium-polymer battery is a respectable 3,800mAh, though we’ll have to wait for our full review to see how quickly it drains during intense gaming sessions. The phone has a rear 16MP f/1.8 main camera and 8MP f/2.0 front lens. 

The handset packs DTS 7.1 channel sound and a dedicated DAC, along with a headphone jack awkwardly placed on the top. The Red Magic Mars also has ‘4D’ haptic vibration that can be turned off, if you wish.

Early verdict

Given that Nubia’s Red Magic debuted the better part of a year ago, the slightly-upgraded Red Magic Mars no longer qualifies as the hottest gaming device on the mobile market: in the interim, Razer and Asus both introduced powerful phones with advanced gaming performance features and accessories.

But both of those are on the premium end of the phone spectrum, and the Red Magic Mars will come in at half (or more) the price of those devices. Its own unique game-enhancing features are pretty neat, at least in theory.

It’s hard to gauge a gaming phone that we haven’t gotten to, you know, play games on. But if you were looking for a gaming smartphone and don’t have near the budget to pick up a Razer Phone 2 or Asus ROG phone, this could be your ticket to playing on the go. Just don't expect quite as top-level performance as the latter two, especially with their 120hz and 90hz refresh rates (it's unclear, but unlikely, that the Red Magic Mars refreshes as quickly).

The Nubia Red Magic Mars will start selling on Nubia's website in the US on January 31 2019, per Android Authority, and will allegedly go on sale in Europe on the same day at an undisclosed price. It's unclear when, or if, it's coming to other regions.

• Check out all of TechRadar's CES 2019 coverage. We're live in Las Vegas to bring you all the breaking tech news and launches, plus hands-on reviews of everything from 8K TVs and foldable displays to new phones, laptops and smart home gadgets.  

ZTE is getting a reprieve on its 'death sentence' today, as the US government has begun to ease the seven-year ban on American companies doing business with the Chinese company.

It's a limited repeal of April 15's Denial Order against the Shenzhen-based company , according to an authorization order put out by the US Department of Commerce.

This means ZTE will be able to fix existing networks and equipment, work to disclose cybersecurity vulnerabilities, and support phones already in the marketplace with software updates. ZTE also has the power for a limited transfer of funds.

Today's Commerce order not only limits ZTE in the scope of what it can do (it can't make and sell new smartphones, for example), but it also expires on August 1. That gives ZTE less than a month to fix and update software on existing equipment.

The end to the seven-year ban for ZTE seems to be in sight, however. US President Trump tweeted in May that he and China's President Xi were working to get ZTE 'back to business, fast'. 

Trump's series of tweets about ZTE didn't end in 'Sad', which is good news for the company and its partners, including US partners. In 2017, firms like Qualcomm, Broadcom, Intel, and SanDisk made up some of the 200 US suppliers that procured $2.3 billion (about £1.7b, AU$3b) of goods, software and technology from ZTE.

The authorization order may be the first of many stages for bringing ZTE back to life, with the final hurdle launching new smartphones, like the ZTE Axon 9. The company confirmed the ZTE Axon 7 sequel earlier this year, but now it can't make use of equipment from US companies as part of the seven-year ban. 

It's all the result of shipping devices containing US-made components to a heavily sanctioned Iran and North Korea under a prior CEO. For this, ZTE pleaded guilty and paid a fine of $1.19 billion (about £876m, AU$1.6b), but it didn't make all of the necessary personnel changes, which resulted in April's Denial Order.

• Related: Trump may give ZTE a stay of execution in its 'death sentence' – here are the real reasons why

Update: Our in-depth ZTE story has seen several updates, which we have added below, including responses to Trump from Senator Marco Rubio and the US Commerce Sectary. We've also added information about US-based Qualcomm's deal for NXP Semiconductors, which has been on-hold because of China. It may make ZTE's redemption a bargaining chip.

Chinese phone maker ZTE is seeking a much-needed stay of execution in its so-called 'death sentence', and it just may get that reprieve thanks to US President Donald Trump.

"Everything ZTE is doing right now is designed to get the denial order rescinded, modified, or suspended," said people familiar with the situation to TechRadar.

That may be working, as President Trump tweeted some good news for the company on Sunday: "President Xi of China, and I, are working together to give massive Chinese phone company, ZTE, a way to get back into business, fast."

Trump finished by saying, "Too many jobs in China lost. Commerce Department has been instructed to get it done!"

On Monday, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told reporters that his department is looking into "alternative remedies" to punish ZTE instead of upholding the seven-year ban, noting the speed at to which it will be done: "that’s the area we will be exploring very, very promptly,” 

Trump's tweet drew some rebuke, too. Florida Senator Marco Rubio tweeted that his "problem with ZTE isn’t jobs & trade, it’s national security & espionage. Any telecomm firm in China can be forced to act as tool of Chinese espionage without any court order or any other review process." 

Rubio concluded "We are crazy to allow them to operate in U.S. without tighter restrictions." He didn't offer any evidence backing this up, though UK government has raised similar warnings about ZTE for all British telecom companies.

What happened with ZTE in the first place?

ZTE, the No. 4 smartphone manufacturer in the US, was blocked from importing and licensing American technology and services by the US Department of Commerce in April. This ban stems from the fact that, in 2017, the Chinese company pleaded guilty to illegally and deceptively shipping devices, ones containing US-made components, to a sanctioned Iran and North Korea, under a prior CEO.

Under the terms of its plea deal with the US government, ZTE paid a fine of $1.19 billion (about £876m, AU$1.6b), had to fire four senior employees and was supposed to discipline or reduce bonuses to 35 other employees. It didn't do that last part completely, according to the US government, even though ZTE originally stated it had done so in a compliance letter.

The US Commerce Department saw this as another systematic cover-up by ZTE, but the people we spoke described the new denial order as "grossly disportioncate to the progress ZTE made to build out its export compliance program."

ZTE is said to have spent more than $50 million (about £37m, AU$66m) to build out its export compliance program, going as far as designing next-generation robotically automated compliance processes. None of this is mentioned in the US government's denial order, however.

ZTE's defense and why Trump may make a deal

ZTE's defense is that it has demonstrated a culture of compliance since last year's settlement with the US government, and last month's ban stems from a human resources failure at ZTE – not more orchestrated deception – with clear evidence that HR was in fact instructed to make the necessary employee bonus reductions.

Calling it a "process failure" at ZTE,  our sources indicate that it's one that was "self-identified, self-reported within days of its discovery, and self-corrected very quickly after that." A seven-year ban, essentially a corporate death sentence, seems excessive.

But an even better defense, alluded to by Trump today, is how many jobs are on the line with this ban. Trump cited jobs at risk in China, and ZTE does have over 70,000 employees worldwide. But he could just have easily talked up saving jobs in the US by overturning ZTE's 'death sentence'.

ZTE uses components and software from several US companies, and American consumers and allied governments are at risk without software updates.

"Millions of US consumers, hundreds of US suppliers, and allies around the world are affected by this," said people familiar with the impact of the commerce ban. "ZTE supports thousands of high-tech jobs around the United States."

In 2017, ZTE procured $2.3 billion (about £1.7b, AU$3b) of goods, software and technology spread out of over 200 US suppliers. Its biggest suppliers, of which ZTE spent $100 million on each in the last year, include Qualcomm, Broadcom, Intel, Texas Instruments, Xilinx, Akasha Communications and SanDisk.

Qualcomm may lose $500 million if the denial order were to stay in place, but talking to people familiar with these firms, a company like Akasha Communication is more at risk. 

"Akasha may not be as big of a name. It's actually a smaller company that's probably been hit hardest in many ways by what's happened," we were told by these people. "They only have about 350 employees, but since the denial order has come out, their stock has dropped 35% in a single day and has remained pretty depressed."

There's even more money on the line for the US if you consider reports that ZTE is being used as a bargaining chip, as laid out by Bloomberg. China could green light San Diego-based Qualcomm's deal to buy Dutch-based NXP Semiconductors. The deal was announced in October 2016 and is worth $44 billion (about £32b, AU$58b), according to Investors' Business Daily. It's cleared antitrust hurdles in every country – except the China.

US allies and you, the consumer

Saving jobs in both hemispheres may play a huge part in lifting the ban on ZTE. But the needs of individual American consumers and key US allies are also at hand. 

"ZTE is not able to obtain routine software updates, service and security patches for its devices," said a person familiar with the ban repercussions. "Google simply cannot send ZTE this, as they try to comply with the denial order."

The overall replacement cost to ZTE-device-owning consumers is enormous, as an estimated 30 million US consumers own ZTE products. The company has routinely been a part of TechRadar's best cheap phones in the US, and these budget handsets sell even better than its flagship products, like the ZTE Axon 7 and Axon M. Budget phones are how it has climbed to No. 4 among US smartphone makers.

More broadly, implications of the ZTE ban are entangling US allies, including key NATO countries, where the company has more infrastructure in place than it does in the US. ZTE has deployed over 600 communication networks to 100 countries, including about over one hundred 3G/4G wireless networks in more 50 countries.

Its biggest deployments are in India, where its networks support 100 million users and Indonesia where it supports 30 million users. Italy and Austria, two NATO allies of the United States, are supported by ZTE's cellular network infrastructure, too, with 29 million and 3.7 million users, respectively.

"It's essentially half of the population of Austria," said our sources, noting that ZTE supports almost the entire network for the country's core operator there. "If ZTE isn't able to service, repair, provide upgrades to software, and fix bugs because the software or equipment is subject to [the ban], there's a risk that the network could crash and Austria could risk losing access to their cellular network."

There's a lot at stake

ZTE has had to suspended its production lines because its devices depend so heavily on US equipment and software. Although US stores with ZTE devices have been able to continue to sell ZTE-made products in their current inventory, ZTE can't continue to manufacturer or develop additional devices.

In fact, the language of the denial order mentions that ZTE can't move, transport, or destroy the US-made components it has on hand. It technically can't even store the equipment, either, so it's become impossible to comply with.

"If ZTE doesn't have a resolution sooner than even a new administration, assuming its a one-term administration, it's unlikely that the company could continue operate that long and resemble anything like it does now."

"It would be very difficult for ZTE to operate as a company, the size that they are, if it can't get the ban lifted in the very near term."

On the flip side, ZTE's troubles could signal that operating in the US has the potential to become a minefield for Chinese companies. It may hasten the growth of sourcing chips from foreign firms like MediaTek or developing in-house chip solutions instead of from Qualcomm or Intel, and spur alternatives to Google's Android and mapping software. This is something that the Trump administration doesn't want either.

ZTE going forward

Last month, ZTE appeared to have been the first telecom casualty of the US-China trade war. It also now faces uphill battles in the UK over the sale of its networking equipment. Huawei, the other Chinese phone maker under fire in the US, is also finding little love from American carriers and stores, though it's still able to be sold elsewhere in the world. But, today, the work-in-progress relations between China's President Xi and US President Trump appears to be ZTE's best hope to stay alive.

President Xi is said to have played a key role in bringing North Korea to the table with the US and South Korea, and to give up its nuclear ambitions (North Korean leader Kim Jong Un recently made his first two trips outside of his country as a leader, and they were both to visit Xi).

So while ZTE may have been the first US-China trade war casualty last month, this month, it may be among the first beneficiaries of Washington's more harmonious relations with North Korea, care of China's influence in the region.

ZTE's 2018 plans, before last month's ban, were said to include further developing a foldable smartphone sequel and launching the ZTE Axon 9. While we can't be sure how the ban has impacted the devices, both are likely to require sourcing components from Qualcomm and other US companies that ZTE has spent $2.3 billion (about £1.7b, AU$3b) on in the last year.

Chinese phone manufacturer ZTE appears to be doubling down on the controversial notch design in an ambitious-looking smartphone concept uncovered today.

Dubbed the 'ZTE Iceberg', we're getting a glimpse at what appears to be an Android phone with not one but two notches, and glass adornment to the chassis, according to renders shared by iF Design World Guide.

This is a first. Yes, we've seen display notches showing up on smartphones first with the Essential Phone and iPhone X, and now they're popping up everywhere. 

But the ZTE 'Iceberg' design includes a top and bottom notch, and it ends up being one of the most bezel-less designs we've seen from a smartphone.

Clear corners

ZTE goes further with its 'Iceberg' design, making the phone chassis a single glass unibody. The glass corners of the phones are clear, which give the aesthetics a clean, pure-as-ice look.

Shoppers shouldn't expect to get their hands on this design too soon, though, as the release date details mention 'after 2018' with 13-24 months of development.

However, ZTE has already shown it can make a great standard phone with the Axon 7, and try out a flawed, but novel smartphone design with the dual-screen Axon M. 

If it can marry those two positives together into one next-generation phone that looks something like the ZTE Iceberg, it may have a winner.

Via: Winfuture

• Ready for the next big phone launch? LG G7 ThinQ

Smartphone manufacturer ZTE has partnered with Taboola and will be adding the latter's "news stories" to a special feed on a selection of its own handsets.

The articles will appear on a dedicated feed, accessed by swiping from the left of the main homescreen, although it's currently not clear which handsets will be given the Taboola treatment.

Taboola describes itself as a "discovery platform, serving recommendations of articles, blogs, videos, products and apps to users".

However, it is a platform famed for its sensationalized headlines - where do you think we got the inspiration for this article's headline?

Taboola is something that will be familiar to many as it's used by a huge amount of sites across the web, including TechRadar.

Good for ZTE, but is it good for the user?

The incentive for ZTE is clear. It opens up a new revenue stream for the firm, and at the end of the day business is about making money - however it's less clear to see where the real value is for users.

Taboola says that it uses "its personalization technology" and suggests articles that it feels will interest you, whether or not that is the case will be down to your penchant for clicking on headlines that are frequently sensational.

With example screenshots provided alongside the announcements it looks like Taboola will also push notifications to your lock screen - but hopefully this will be something that you'll be able to disable.

A ZTE spokesperson said "From the moment a user wakes their phone, they are looking to engage with something and we want that experience to be personalized and tailored for each user wherever they may be in their day."

We've already seen services offering a personalized experience on our phones in a panel to the side of the homescreen, including HTC's Blinkfeed and Google's Assistant feed that's built directly into Android - so ZTE isn't breaking any new ground here. 

We just hope the article recommendations are improved for this dedicated mobile experience.

• The best smartphones of 2018

Via Android Authority

Looking to get your hands on the stock Android experience without breaking the bank? The ZTE Tempo Go is making its debut in the US today with an ultra-low price of $80.

This budget phone runs Android Oreo Go Edition, meaning that the all of the security measures and features of full-fat Oreo are here, but it all runs lighter to work on phones with a lower-spec, like the ZTE Tempo Go.

Drilling into the specs, it is powered by a Snapdragon 210 chipset and 1GB of RAM, and the five-inch display pushes a 854 x 480 resolution. Yeah, it’s not impressive, but that’s not the point. The point is to bring a high-quality software experience to those who don’t prefer – or can’t afford – to spend hundreds on a phone.

Just the essentials

Even with its budget specs, you’ll find a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a microSD slot to greatly extend its paltry 8GB of built-in storage. We’re also smitten that this device appears to work on all US carriers.

We’ll be reviewing this affordable phone soon to see if Google’s Android Go promise to bring stock Android to the masses pans out, so stay tuned. 

• Via and image credit goes to Android Police

The ZTE Blade V9 Vita is the best sign that the all-screen revolution that's hitting the smartphone world is no longer limited to top-tier or even high mid-range phones.

There's a good chance that this Android phone is the cheapest way to upgrade to an 18:9 screen with very little bezel, and it'll be even less expensive than the bigger ZTE Blade V9 – that phone is priced at €269 in Europe, which works out at about £235, $330, AU$420.

That makes the V9 Vita ideal for cheap phone shoppers who want something that looks trendy, yet don't care to press their handset's performance to the max.

It checks off a lot of other once-flagship-level boxes, too. It has a nice-sized 5.5-inch screen, a rear fingerprint sensor and runs the latest Android 8.1 Oreo software.

The non-final hardware we saw showed promise, enough to become a contender for our best cheap phones list eventually. But we'll need to know the price and test it out in full to make that determination.

Design and display

The ZTE Blade V9 Vita is the cheap and light alternative to the normal-sized V9 with dimensions of 146.8 x 68.7 x 7.6mm. You'll be able to operate it with one hand.

It doesn't have the slick Aurora glass look of its bigger sibling, though. We did like the fact that there will be a variety of colors, including Black, Pink, Blue, and Dark Blue.

The 5.45-inch screen (rounded up to 5.5-inch on some specs sheets) is the right size for a lot of people. You'll find the tall 18:9 aspect ratio and minimal bezel distract from the fairly noticeable HD resolution at just 720p.

We would have also liked to seen more the ability to wake the device by tap tapping or double tapping the the screen, but you can't expect everything at a low price.

The ZTE Blade V9 Vita does include a fingerprint sensor on the back and a 3.5mm headphone jack, features you don't even get in the high-end iPhone X.

Camera, specs and performance

The ZTE Blade V9 Vita has another perk from higher-end phones: a dual-lens camera. It has a 13MP rear camera with phase detection auto focus (PDAF) right next to another 2MP camera. The combination is supposed to produce better low-light photos.

The front-facing camera is 5MP, but interpolated to become an 8MP camera. That means it uses the CPU to fill in the pixels it doesn't see, a bit like upscaling. It's not as good as a camera that can take 8MP photos straightaway.

It's designed to do the basics with its Snapdragon 435 chipset. You won't be able to run the most intense 3D games without hiccups. But it does come with either 2GB or 3GB of RAM and either 16GB or 32GB of internal storage, region dependent. These specs have historically been enough to do everything average users need to do. Nothing more, nothing less.

The Vita has a 3,200mAh capacity battery that's sizable for a 5.5-inch 720p display. This is going to give you more than all-day battery life, and we look forward to testing it out in a full review. You will have to use a microUSB cable to charge. It's not ready for the USB-C future like other phones.

Early verdict

The ZTE Blade V9 Vita is a standout budget phone thanks to its trendy 18:9 display that's become popular thanks to higher-end all-screen phones.

It's not nearly as stylish as the larger ZTE Blade V9, but it does have a nice size to it, fair performance, and what should be excellent battery life based on the specs.

The Vita won't come to every country, but it's going to be a serious competitor where cheap phones are the norm and all-screen phones are still a novelty. This will have a big impact there.

• MWC (Mobile World Congress) is the world's largest exhibition for the mobile industry, stuffed full of the newest phones, tablets, wearables and more. TechRadar is reporting live from Barcelona all week to bring you the very latest from the show floor. Head to our dedicated MWC 2018 hub to see all the new releases, along with TechRadar's world-class analysis and buying advice about your next phone.

ZTE’s Blade series has historically done well to pack in a whole lot of tech for your dollar, and this year’s effort look no different. The ZTE Blade V9 is the next step and it’s quite the evolution. 

Appearing more like a high-end flagship phone – not the mid-range phone that it is – it leaves a stunning first impression with its design and its implementation of near-stock Android Oreo 8.1. 

ZTE has announced that it plans to sell the Blade V9 for € 269 in Europe (about £236, $331, AU$422).

If things pan out for this device, we could be looking at an early contender for 2018’s best cheap phone.

Design

The ZTE Blade V9 literally shimmers in the light, thanks to its Aurora Glass, which packs several unique layers in the back to give it an undeniably cool look. That pizzazz carries over to the front, as well, with its full HD display, adapted to the modern 18:9 aspect ratio. ZTE says it achieved an 84% screen-to-body ratio, a high number for a device that will launch in the budget category.

In addition to a 3.5mm headphone jack, you’ll also find some other hardware feature favorites, like a dual rear-facing camera and a fingerprint sensor located on its back. Speaking on the camera, ZTE says it’s a 16MP+5MP setup that has f/1.8 aperture for taking low light pictures. For reference, that’s the same aperture value as the Google Pixel 2 – the best smartphone camera. The company also hinted that ARCore will make its way to the Blade V9, which would bring another layer of entertainment to the phone.

On its front, it boasts an 8MP selfie camera that ZTE says can work with the chipset to boost them up to 13MP in quality. 

When the value-minded phone launches soon, it will be available in two colors: gold, and black – both looking quite stunning.

It’s worth noting that the production sample we had our hands on was covered in micro scratches near its bottom rear. We’re unsure if this is what to expect in the final review version, but we’re dubious for now.

Performance

While we didn’t have a chance to fully put the Blade V9 through the paces during our hands-on, we’re confident that this device should suit those with basic to intermediate smartphone needs.

Packed with a Snapdragon 450, backed up with either 3GB RAM or 4GB RAM, depending on your region, this phone feels plenty snappy for getting the gamut of general tasks done to completion. Running around through ZTE’s slick, near-stock version of Android Oreo 8.1 (a fan request that’s being realized), this phone feels more premium than it has any right to be.

Some additional features that might extend your enjoyment of this phone are its built-in NFC and microSD card slot. The latter is a big deal for entertainment nuts who enjoy stocking up on Netflix shows and games on-the-go.

When it comes to battery performance, the 3,100mAh battery that ZTE has built into this phone should keep it going for quite some time. Of course, we won’t know exactly how long for certain, but we’re expecting all-day service before you need to top it up through its microUSB port.

Early verdict

Phones like the ZTE Blade V9 might make you a budget phone believer when it releases in the coming months. While it won’t fool flagship thrill-seekers, it will at least catch them doing a double-take thanks to its stellar build quality and appreciable load of features.

We expect to see many affordable phones at MWC 2018, what with the launch of the first Android Go phones, but even so, we wager this to be one of the better-looking to come out of the show.

• MWC (Mobile World Congress) is the world's largest exhibition for the mobile industry, stuffed full of the newest phones, tablets, wearables and more. TechRadar is reporting live from Barcelona all week to bring you the very latest from the show floor. Head to our dedicated MWC 2018 hub to see all the new releases, along with TechRadar's world-class analysis and buying advice about your next phone.

Update: The ZTE Axon 7 is still one of our favorite smartphones, despite the fact that it's over a year old. The good news is it's even cheaper, now runs Android 7.0 Nougat and is being tested with an Android 8.0 Oreo beta. You also have the choice of the slightly smaller ZTE Axon 7 Mini.

The ZTE Axon 7 is a new Android phone with a sleek design, powerful specs and a reasonable unlocked price, which challenges the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge and iPhone 7.

And that last fact explains the confusing name of this successor to ZTE Axon Pro (ZTE Axon Elite in the UK); ZTE has skipped right over the Axon 2 through Axon 6 between 2015 and 2016. It'll get even more confusing when the ZTE Axon 9 arrives in 2018 when there was no ZTE Axon 8.

The Chinese phone-maker is ambitiously trying to compete with the best phones made in the US and South Korea, so much so that it designed the phone outside of China – in the US.

What we end up with is an Android Nougat smartphone with a polished metal design, rich-looking Quad HD display, booming front-facing speakers, and a load of software customizations of the kind often found in a more expensive handset.

That's not all. ZTE touted the Axon 7 as the first phone compatible with Google Daydream VR, which is technically true – we just had to wait a few months for Android Nougat after it debuted on the Google Pixel and Google Pixel XL. You, the prospective new buyer, don't have to wait at all now. It's VR-ready today.

The ZTE Axon 7 doesn't outclass Samsung's top-of-the-line camera in the Samsung Galaxy S7, or the elegantly curved look of the Galaxy S7 Edge – but it does come really, really close for the price. It remains a great value.

It's not quite inexpensive enough to make it onto our best cheap phones list, but it did – for a long time – rank on TechRadar's updated best phones list. It was the first ZTE phone on this list. Let's break down why that is.

Release date and price

The ZTE Axon 7 release date was July 27, 2016 in the US, it came to the UK and the rest of Europe in September, and finally launched in Australia in late November. You just won't find it everywhere, including in US carrier stores.

You have to buy this phone unlocked on Amazon or another retailer and pay full price. It won't be sold at US carriers like AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon or Sprint and you shouldn't expect price subsidies.

While it technically has enough bands to support all US phone networks, it only officially works with AT&T and T-Mobile nanoSIM cards right now. Verizon and Sprint compatibility is possible with some limitations and workarounds, which may not be for everyone. That said, all of the antennas are inside – this isn't just a GSM phone.

The good news here is that if it works with your carrier, the ZTE Axon 7 is available at an attractive price. It launched at $399 (£359, AU$699) for the 64GB version, but it's now under $199 on eBay every so often. Better yet, you won't have to deal with a pesky two-year (or any) contract or carrier app bloatware for that price.

There's also a 128GB ZTE Axon 7, which includes the company's own take on a 3D Touch display, an always-on screen and 6GB of RAM – which makes it technically faster than the Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge.

All of this contrasted with the launch prices of the 32GB Samsung Galaxy S7 unlocked at $669 (£569, AU$1,148) and the 32GB iPhone 7 at $649 (£599, AU$1,079); note that both of these phones have smaller screens and half the internal storage space.

Design

The ZTE Axon 7 feels like the grown-up version of last year's ZTE Axon Pro thanks to its all-metal design, and it's considerably less chunky. It looks and feels ready to compete with Samsung, LG and Apple.

You can hold it in one hand, but with palm-stretching dimensions of 151.8mm x 75mm x 7.8mm and a slippery aluminum design, you'll find yourself struggling to reach for the corners without using two hands.

Handily, there's an ultra-thin silicone case included in the box, along with standard earbuds and a USB-C-to-micro USB adapter. The clear case makes the phone grippable without seriously detracting from the stylish metal design or matte gold color.

What ZTE has done nicely on the front of the Axon 7 is maximize the real estate for its 5.5-inch 2K display, with a virtually edge-to-edge screen and an overall minimalist look.

The front of the phone is also home to awesome-sounding dual front-facing speakers, a small front-facing camera, and three out-of-the-way capacitive buttons.

These always-present yet subtle buttons are an improvement over ZTE's original on-screen buttons, which vanished to enable the display to go 'full screen' in certain scenarios (usually right when you wanted to hit the back button).

The small capacitive buttons are also a better use of space than going to the other extreme; the Moto Z , for example, makes room for a larger-than-necessary chin that includes a Moto logo, a fingerprint sensor and on-screen buttons, with the result that there's too much bottom bezel and not enough screen.

Our only complaint is that we wish these tiny buttons lit up for easier night-time use – your brain will have to adjust to memorizing their location.

You won't find a fingerprint-sensing home button taking up space on the front here. Instead, the biometric sensor is elegantly embossed on the back.

It's easy to reach the fingerprint sensor on a phone of this size (easier than we found it to be on the taller Nexus 6P), and the one on the Axon 7 is just as fast and accurate as those on competing top-end handsets (ZTE uses the same Swedish sensor supplier, Fingerprint Cards, as other leading brands).

ZTE has also resisted the temptation to stamp its logo on the front of the device, favoring the back for splashing its name, which creates a cleaner look all around.

At the moment Ion Gold is the only color option for the ZTE Axon 7, and the included earbuds have a matching gold trim. The company plans to add a Quartz Silver color, too, but this isn't available at launch.

Display

The ZTE Axon 7's display is 5.5 inches, with a 2560 x 1440p quad HD resolution. It's the same resolution as last year's Axon, but the important difference here is that it's an AMOLED display instead of an LCD.

That may not seem like a big deal at first, but the colors really pop on this screen, and the Axon 7 also has improved battery life as a result of the change.

The Quad HD display shines brightly (even outdoors) once it's on, but ZTE hasn't gone as far as to include an always-on screen on the Axon 7 with 4GB of RAM, as we have seen with the Samsung Galaxy S7 and LG G5.

We've learned that ZTE is saving this display feature (along with its version of Force Touch) for the souped-up 6GB of RAM version of the phone – as mentioned, this more powerful phone hasn't show, its always-lit face just yet.

The Axon 7 screen is really being set up to not only look good on the phone, but to support VR. Really, that's the only reason to make displays of this size go from 1080p to Quad HD in our opinion – when it's that close to your face, then the higher resolution matters.

Not surprisingly there's an 'inexpensive' (though no price has been announced yet) ZTE VR headset coming. It's another Samsung Gear VR clone, like the Huawei VR headset, but it's been future-proofed for Google Daydream.

It also doesn't hurt that ZTE has put together a nice selection of wallpaper that really lets the lock screen show what the display is capable of – it's scrollable and randomized by default.

We really can't understand why phone-makers stop short of presenting a vibrant set of default wallpapers when you first boot up a handset's 2K display (read: the LG G5's sickly green gradient). ZTE sells itself better from the get-go.

A smaller, but still noteworthy display upgrade comes in the form of Gorilla Glass 4, rather than Gorilla Glass 3. It's not quite as durable as Gorilla Glass 5, or shatter-resistant like the Moto Z Force, but you'll appreciate it if (admit it: when) you drop your new phone.

The ZTE Axon 7 doesn't just resemble a Samsung or Apple handset on the outside, the inside is also able to compete with top-of-the-line Android phone internals despite its fair price.

It has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor running at 2.2GHz, and 4GB of RAM, matching chip-for-chip what we've seen in the LG G5, HTC 10, Moto Z, Moto Z Force and Samsung Galaxy S7, S7 Edge and Note 7 (well, Samsung's US version of their phones, at least). It's not the new Snapdragon 845 chip that's due for the Samsung Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus, but it's fast enough for most of today's tasks and games.

Even without the 128GB/6GB option at launch, there's still a big differences between the Axon 7 and other Android phones when it comes to storage. The default 64GB of internal storage doubles ZTE's competitors (except for the new OnePlus 3 and Note 7).

Not enough space? It has expandable storage with a microSD card slot or, if you're not using that, you can turn the empty tray into a second SIM card slot thanks to dual SIM card support. That's right, the ZTE Axon 7 remains a dual SIM phone for the US, UK and Australian models when most manufacturers rudely change the design on Western variants. Not this time.

The option is a welcomed change for travelers who want to keep their main number active for phone calls and texting while overseas, but allocate costly data to a cheaper foreign SIM or simply T-Mobile's priceless international-included plan (at slower, but acceptable 2G and 3G speeds) outside of the US.

Performance

The ZTE Axon 7 is snappy and showed no signs of significant slowdown when put through our initial tests. Best of all, at no time did the phone overheat like the ZTE Axon Pro did with the Snapdragon 810 processor.

Qualcomm did a much better job with its latest chip, and the Axon 7's Geekbench 3 benchmarks show just that. Its processor, along with an Adreno 530 graphics chip and 4GB of RAM, sped up to multi-score average of 5,393.

It edged out the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge by a small margin (5,342), at least in the US where Samsung's phone also has the Snapdragon 820 processor. Everywhere else in the world, the Galaxy 7 series uses Samsung's Exynos chip, and those phones rank way better (6,500).

Whether or not the ZTE Axon with 4GB of RAM is faster than the Samsung Galaxy S7 is a split decision, fully dependant on where you live. But, no matter what, the benchmark tests tell us that this phone performs well under pressure.

Beating the S7 US variants is a noble accolade, but the similarly priced OnePlus 3 (5,425) and its 6GB of RAM beat all US phones. Axon 7 also faces new challengers right away: the Asus Zenfone 3 Deluxe may outperform all of these phones with the new Snapdragon 821 processor in addition to its aforementioned 6GB of RAM.

The thing is, this is very much a meaningless numbers game at the moment. You won't notice a speed difference during the first year of owning this phone. Apps just don't take advantage of 6GB yet, so you're safe with the 4GB Axon 7 for now.

ZTE Axon 7 has been updated to Android 7.0 Nougat and you can now download the Android 8.0 Oreo beta, but launched with Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow out of the box. All of this is surprising because, funny story, at the phone's launch event in Beijing, everything "Google" was blocked.

As a result, we initially had trouble nailing down the Geekbench-rated performance of its System-on-a-Chip and running basic apps during our hands-on because the Google Play Store doesn't work in ZTE's home country.

Don't worry. ZTE has a good working relationship with the search engine giant, so the Android Nougat came to the phone without too much of a delay.

This allowed ZTE to upgrade the phone to work with Google's Daydream VR platform. Faster Android updates are a side benefit to VR, even if you're not one to step foot into virtual reality.

Android Nougat

What's on the phone right now is extremely close to stock Android Nougat. In fact, it's the default theme, with an optional ZTE MiFavor skin that's also close to the pure Android interface found on the Nexus 6P.

Lockscreen notifications are here, but initially hidden inside of a bell icon in the top right corner. Tapping the bell reveals all of your alerts in their usual place. You'll either love this extra privacy measure or hate the extra step. It's grown on us and lets the fantastic wallpaper to shine on the AMOLED.

Chinese phone makers are known to run amok with operating system changes, but this one keeps things tidy while still maintaining the app drawer. That's one change that irks users most when (primarily Chinese) companies make tweaks.

There are just twelve ZTE apps pre-installed and they're all relatively harmless. You won't find carrier bloatware, either. Axon 7 gets you started with the basics: Gallery, Calendar, Email and Clock, and provides its own red-flavored Mi Music and Video multimedia players. There's a File Manager to dive into the system folders, but don't look for a way to unlock the bootloader if you like tinkering with Android phones. It's not there.

The My Voice app does a solid job of complimenting Google Now and its voice commands, with extra features like voice unlock, music playback, photo capture and app launcher. You also can train it send SMS messages, make calls and perform nitty-gritty system functions down to raising the brightness.

Buried within the My Voice menu is a neat (non-voice-related) trick to automatically answer calls when the phone is put to your ear. It works so naturally and it's a shame the idea isn't in more phones already.

The No. 1 feature consumers continue demand from new phones is better battery life, and the capacity on this phone has increased beyond last year's 3,000mAh ceiling.

There's a 3,250mAh battery inside the ZTE Axon 7, and it's a tremendous improvement. We were able to finish each day with anywhere between 15% to 20% juice remaining after 18 hours of mixed use. Having a phone with day-plus battery life is what we expect from the best phones, so we're particularly impressed to see this here.

Our real-life experiences included turning on the screen regularly, snapping dozens of photos and pumping music through its dual-front-facing speakers for 20 minutes a day. Its lightweight, near-stock Android operating system overlay does well not to overly tax the battery.

TechRadar's lab tests confirmed all of this, with a respectable battery drain of 17% after we ran a 90-minute looped HD video on a fully charged ZTE Axon 7. It beat the OnePlus 3's smaller battery, but both the LG G5 and Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge lasted longer. You get phones that push beyond a day and a quarter to a solid day and a half for all of that extra money.

What's great about the ZTE Axon 7 and almost all most Android phones in 2016 is that it supports fast charging, in this case the Qualcomm's QuickCharge 3.0 technology. With a QuickCharge-compatible charging adapter and a USB-C cable (both are included), we were able to charge up a dead phone back up to 25% within 15 minutes, and 50% within 30 minutes.

The charging pace slowed down after that, with a 74% charge in 45 minutes and 91% resorted in an hour's time. But it topped 100% after just 88 minutes. That's incredibly quick for a powerful Android phone that's prepared for another day (and change) of use in a little more than an hour.

The ZTE Axon 7 camera will be able to go pixel-to-pixel with phones in its price range in most well-lit scenarios, specifically the similarly priced Huawei-made Google Nexus 6P.

It has a sharp 20MP camera, f/1.8 lens and optical image stabilization (OIS), all of which put it in a class with most 2016 Android phones that snap better quality photos than Apple's much more expensive iPhone 6S Plus.

You won't be able to tell the difference between the ZTE Axon 7 and Samsung's top phones in daylight photography without looking closely at the two resulting photos side-by-side. But, we did just that and can see differences. Axon 7 photos are almost always a bit duller in color than the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge's always-vibrant, mobile masterpieces.

Trust us, that's not really a problem when you're posting day-lit photos to your social media feeds and paying considerably less for your smartphone. But when it comes to low-light photography, that's when the ZTE Axon 7 can't match Samsung's post-processing capabilities.

Photos in dimly lit rooms or outdoors tend to be either too dark, or overcompensate for the lack of light by brightening things up way too much. It's not the noise that's an issue, but whites being too white in an effort to reduce the surrounding shadows. It turns a lot of people in ghosts, which means these photos are only appropriate for Snapchat, where they won't exist after 24 hours.

There's a fix in the form of a manual mode to properly adjust shutter speed, ISO, exposure, white balance and focus. The dual LED flash also helps. It's enough to brighten up dark subjects with some artificial white and amber light. We often see phone firmware updates fine-tune the cameras within several months of its release. LG has done that in years past to much success. If it's a software issue, this can be remedied.

In addition to manual mode, the straightforward default camera app includes Live Photos, which automatically take short videos before and after you hit the shutter button. Just like Apple's Live Photos feature, this one works on both cameras, the 20P rear and 8MP front-facing camera.

There's no manual mode for the selfie cam, however. It's replaced by a beauty slider, which you'll likely want to slide all the way down, then "accidentally" slide back up "just a notch or two" depending on your age. The good and bad news is that the front-facing camera could be better, so it's not going to pick up a whole bunch of detail anyway.

Super Night Mode seems like a solution that seemingly turns a darkened 8pm night into noon, but it requires the absolute stillness of a tripod and motionless subjects. Our reaction was to tell everyone, "This would work great if you all weren't breathing right now, okay? Thanks!"

The Axon 7 camera's more useful modes include panorama, slow motion, multi exposure, sports magic exposure and time time lapse. There's also a handy, but hidden interval mode, which snaps a photo every one to 60 seconds.

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We liked the old ZTE Axon Pro two years ago, but gave it 3.5 stars out of 5 because there was room for improvement, even with its cheaper price. ZTE listened to many of our complaints with the ZTE Axon 7. What a difference one year can make for a company few people have ever heard of outside of China.

We liked

Our first reaction was "This is a $400 (AU$699, about £300) phone?" Yes, we do talk like that here, with pricing conversions memorized on command. It pushes out the original Axon's plastic caps at the top and bottom in favor of an all-metal unibody design. Its sleek and elegant in your hand, even if it still takes two to operate the phone. We also complained last year about the lack of expandable storage. The ZTE Axon 7 not only includes a microSD card slot, it turns into a dual SIM slot if you're not using it for its primary function.

Axon 7 is a big step up for audiophiles with Hi-Fi and front-facing speakers that sound much better than the iPhone and Androids with a single speaker grill on the back or at the bottom. Sights and sounds are definitely are definitely a highlight of this phone. Its clean front design focuses on the 5.5-inch display and speakers, while the fingerprint sensor is wisely moved to the back.

We disliked

The Axon 7 isn't for everyone, specifically if it's not available on your network. Launching in the US first, it's limited to AT&T and T-Mobile, even though it has the right antennas for Verizon and Sprint. This is an expensive phone upfront, so know if it works for your carrier before paying for it through Amazon.

Finally, be aware of these two final cautions: as nice as it looks, it's slippery without using the included case, and, as great as the daytime photos look, it can't compare to the low light prowess of recent Samsung phones.

Final verdict

The ZTE Axon 7 is a beautiful phone at any price. It just happens to also be one of the most affordable top-tier mobile phones that we've ever recommended. It has a minimalist design that places emphasis on the contrast rich, 5.5-inch AMOLED screen, flanked by powerful dual front-facing speakers.

Inside, it has the specs that match almost every new Android on sale in 2016, a slightly bigger battery than the average and a generous 64GB of internal storage coupled with a microSD card.

If you don't care about the very best low light camera in the world, buy this phone, save your money and take a vacation. This one is dual SIM compatible, perfect for traveling overseas.

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, ZTE is offering something sweet for ZTE Axon 7 users. The company’s beta for Android Oreo will be opened up, allowing any owner to register for access before the final version hits later in 2018.

For those not currently enrolled, the update will bring improved battery life to the Axon 7, picture-in-picture (PiP) mode to allow for a more cozy multitasking view, notification dots, and faster booting speed, among other changes. Perhaps the biggest perk that users will notice when they install the new software? It’s near-stock Android, meaning it’s almost piece-for-piece what you’d see in, say, the Google Pixel.

Bringing Oreo to the Axon 7, as ZTE’s Jeff Yee put it, is all thanks to the customer demand as expressed on its Z-Community forum, saying “one of their requests was to get Android O on the Axon 7, and we are excited to make it happen.”

When the phone launched in 2016, it punched up at the same class as the Samsung Galaxy S7, LG V20 and others, but came in at a much lower price point. In addition, it stood out as one of the few phones to be compatible with Google Daydream.

Bringing Oreo to the phone might be a little late to the party, but it’s still ahead of some manufacturers, like LG, Sony, and Motorola.

The ZTE Axon M is a smartphone with a futuristic twist. Following the competent, flagship-for-less ZTE Axon 7, its new Axon M is the wildest of curveballs in today’s somewhat stagnant mobile market. It’s a smartphone with a second display that folds out.

At its very best, the Axon M is a phone that helps you never miss a beat.  Whether it’s fun or work you want to double, it’s the only modern phone out right now that can show two apps in native full-screen mode. Naturally, the possibilities are deep. Let’s rattle off a few.

On a drive? Leave Google Maps running on one of the screens and let the passenger be the DJ, flicking through your music library on the other screen without missing a turn. If you’re into Dungeons & Dragons, you can simultaneously host a video chat with friends on one screen and keep tabs on your character in the Roll20 app on the other. Heck, you can also just extend the experience with a tap to watch a video stretched across the Axon M’s two screens for a more tablet-like effect. And on, and on.

Novelty comes at a cost, of course, and a few Axon M’s greatest weaknesses are its somewhat high cost and carrier exclusivity with AT&T in the US. That, and compared to the similarly priced Samsung Galaxy S8 and Google Pixel 2, its software and camera are currently rough around the edges. By those low points alone, this phone is tough to recommend for its $725 asking price.

The Axon M is obviously a niche device, and to that niche it delivers something special in a surprisingly polished manner. Even when flipped shut, it feels high-end in its build quality and across the board, it’s packed with specs that help it deliver a good Android experience. But even at its best, it’s just not good enough for most people.

Design

Compared to the streamlined design found on many of today’s smartphones, even some affordable ones, the ZTE Axon M is bulky. Depending on who you ask, they’ll either hate it or be alright with it. I’m actually in the latter group, finding the sharp edges and broad strokes of the phone’s look and feel endearing in a year in which too many phones look the same.

Folded closed, the Axon M is almost as thick as a deck of cards and weighs more than the Samsung Galaxy Note 8. Oddly enough, its second screen doesn’t seem to add all that much to the weight – it’s a hearty phone even without it. But that doesn’t mean it’s all bad.

On its front, which nearly mirrors the back to the degree that it’s error-prone, ZTE employs an Gorilla Glass 5 cover over each of the 5.2-inch 1080p displays. The glass rocks a subtle 2.5D effect, making its soft curves a stark contrast to the sharp metal edges that wrap around the phone.

As far as visual indicators go, only on the front of this all-black phone will you find a camera, a flash, an ear speaker and the occasionally-blinking LED. That’s all you have to go off of. So, imagine if you’re picking up this phone in the dark, well, you have a 50/50 chance of picking up the correct side that shows you information. Those aren’t great odds, especially when you’ve paid so much on the phone, not on a gamble.

There are a few other hardware features sprinkled around the phone, like a 3.5mm headphone jack. Given the Axon M’s potential as an entertainment device, the versatility to go wired without the need for dongles is appreciated, as are the included earbuds. 

Moving on, you’ll find a satisfyingly clicky volume rocker on the phone’s left-hand side and next to it, a power button with a fingerprint sensor built-in a la the Razer Phone, and Sony Xperia smartphones (outside of the US). ZTE’s foldable phone also houses a programmable Quick Launch button. There’s an option to launch the camera by tapping it twice, and also a setting to choose what a long press does. You can choose which app to boot from the ones you have installed, which indeed is a neat feature that you won’t commonly find in a phone.

Lastly, the phone’s bottom is where you’ll find two downward-firing speaker grilles and a USB-C charging port.

Perhaps the most useful hardware feature for a two-screened phone is its hinge, and the one built into the Axon M works as intended and seems built to last (ZTE’s two-year warranty backs it up). Pulling the second display away by its slightly raised lip and blossoming the Axon M into its full form is effortless and satisfying even, thanks to the hinge’s telling click that assures you that you’re into position. In that moment, the extra screen pops on and you can select between a few different display options to extend the work or fun.

Software and reliability

When viewed in single-display mode, the ZTE Axon M operates like 99% of all other Android smartphones. Promised to receive Android Oreo in the near future, for now, it’s loaded with Android Nougat 7.1.2. As such, you’ll find stock features like split-window multitasking with ZTE’s own layer over top of it. It’s reminiscent of stock Android, but unique in a few ways.

First of all, ZTE’s software treats the app drawer in a similar manner to the Google Pixel, asking users to slide up from the bottom to access what’s hidden offscreen. Next, it wedges in an extra button to the right of the nav bar, its “M” button. This is where you can select from the different display options. You can extend the display to spill across both for a widescreen look, mirror the screens, show something different on each screen, or simply turn on the second display.  It’s a bit weird to have such a fundamental part of Android messed with, and unfortunately, only the adaptable will adapt. 

The possibilities are nearly as endless as your imagination takes the concept, though there are some unexpected limitations. Some of the apps that come preinstalled on the Axon M, of which there are many thanks to its AT&T partnership, don’t support all of the viewing modes. During our testing, we noticed that lot of modern games aren’t optimized to be stretched across two screens, but the other modes worked to the Axon M’s dual-screened benefit.

While the second screen can work well, the software lacks visual polish, and the fast, clean interface is just boring to look at. We would have also liked to have seen more customization options for the Quick Launch button. It seems like an oversight to not allow it to snap a photo, as it’s in the perfect position to act as a shutter button, much like Sony employs on all of its phones to great effect.

Music, movies and games

A device that has two screens sounds like an automatic win for multimedia use cases, but is it? In some cases, it’s better than anything out there, but while using just a single screen, it falls short of what many other flagship phones (and some cheaper ones) out there can do. 

The Axon M has a leg-up on some of the flagship competition with its support for wired audio via the 3.5mm headphone jack. But despite its two screens, there’s only one of these precious audio jacks, meaning you’ll either need a splitter to share the sound with someone watching on the other screen, or you’ll need two sets of Bluetooth headphones. Both configurations worked well enough, though mixing the two technologies together (a seemingly common scenario, given that not everyone has two sets of Bluetooth headphones) doesn’t. 

Watching movies and gaming are the big highlights here, and it’s where the Axon M really sings. Whether you’re watching alone or with a pal, it’s super handy at times to be able to either extend your content across two screens or keep your work and play seperated. I, for one, quite enjoy watching some gameplay footage while playing a game at the same time, both in Dolby Atmos. In that way, it’s like the Nintendo 3DS, but on steroids.

In case you were wondering, no, the Axon M doesn’t play the audio from both screen simultaneously. Instead, there’s a small on-screen button that you can move from screen to screen to shift the mix depending on which you want to hear.

The Axon M’s many display modes make it a versatile option for personal use, but it’s also a good social device. Popped into a tent of sorts and set to mirror the main display, ZTE’s flippable phone is probably the best device out there to entertain people who are sitting across each other. Each gets perfect viewing angles and their own set of headphones. Better yet, both can control the shared or respective app experience thanks to the touch controls on the second screen.

The same rules apply for games. Alto’s Adventure, a really fun single-player game, turned into a fresh-feeling co-op game with my buddy and me taking turns making Alto jump. By design, the Axon M can turn single-player games into collaborative multiplayer adventures.

ZTE’s phone has unique perks that others don’t, but it loses out with its LCD screen technology. Not that it’s particularly bad – the picture is clean and viewing angles are satisfactory. For most people, 1080p is more than enough. It’s a strange move, given the Axon 7 had an OLED running at 2K resolution, but putting just one of those coveted OLED displays into the Axon M, let alone two, would have sent the price up even higher, possibly into the $1,000 range.

The split between the two displays is also worth bringing up. While the two LCD panels sit almost seamlessly next to each other, there’s a gap of a few millimeters that sounds small, but is very noticeable. ZTE does a good job of minimizing the loss between the fold, but in some cases, the screen gap distorts the bigger picture. Like, looking at my wife or one of my cats with Google Photos spread across both screens makes them look nothing like they do in reality. The humor isn’t lost on me, but it’s an unfortunate side effect of the current dual screen technology that’s ahead of its time.

Specs and performance benchmark

From a technical standpoint, the ZTE Axon M is a small step up from the company’s last smartphone, the ZTE Axon 7. It has similar specs to the Google Pixel from 2016, complete with 4GB of RAM and the Snapdragon 821 powering the experience.

This is to say, it’s a bit behind with many of today’s pricier flagship Android smartphones packing in the Snapdragon 835. You’re getting less for your money here, but you’re also getting more with its two screens. We were quite surprised how admirably last year’s tech handles two displays, even when running two different applications concurrently. And the built-in 64GB of storage with support for microSD cards up to 256GB in capacity is a good measure to make sure the fun never ends.

Indeed, the Axon M is no slouch when it comes to running basically any app or game out there. We were impressed that, even when streaming 1080p YouTube videos and playing Dead Trigger 2 at the same time, there was nary a drop in frames. However, the battery goes quickly with all the cylinders firing at once. We’ll get into that in the next section.

The ZTE Axon M features a 3,180mAh non-removable battery that’s packed into the thicker side of the phone, also sharing the space with the other components.

In terms of its general performance, judging it depends completely on how many screens you plan to use. Just going to use it in single-screen mode? You’ll get a good bit more than a day of constant use – that includes gaming, social media and watching, say, a feature-length film or two. What you’re getting here is, by and large, a bit better than the results shown by many other flagship smartphones that cost above $700. Most of this is due to the fact that the Axon M powers a 1080p display, which taxes the battery less than a 2K display would. 

Flipping into dual-display mode tells a different story, as you might imagine. No matter the “M” mode you choose, it’s going to drain the battery faster. However, some modes take sips while others gulp from it. For instance, the mode that lets you run two data and battery-intensive apps zeroed out the battery from the 43% mark in about two hours. 

Watching a film in single-screen mode reduced a 100% charge by just 10%, which is among the better results we’ve seen. Flipping open the screen to play the movie on two screens yields good results, too, with the battery dipping down to 83% from a full charge after 90 minutes of continuous play.

Once the Axon M has run out of charge, it takes a bit less than 90 minutes to recharge it fully. During our testing, around 50 minutes brought it up to 80%, while just 20 minutes on the charger raised it to 30% – more than enough to start or finish your day. 

Camera

While the ZTE Axon M’s design makes for some unique, and often times fun experiences, the camera suffers majorly because of it. This phone is stocked with just one lens, not two like you are used to on just about every other phone in use today.

The 20MP lens is pleasantly capable, but only in near-perfect circumstances. Photos are filled with detail and accurate color, but only if you’re standing still. More often than not, my creations are blurry due to the lens’ slow capture speed – an unacceptable reality for today’s snap, go and share lifestyle. 

Low-light performance is so-so, but it should be so much better with the camera’s f/1.8 aperture value. There appears to be no help on the software side of things to even out the lighting and color balance, as night-time photography doesn’t look as well-lit as, say, the original Google Pixel with its lesser f/2.0 aperture lens.

Using the Axon M’s camera is about as unintuitive as they come, requiring sleight of hand, patience and again, a hearty dose of needless gambling with the chance of picking it up incorrectly being higher than it should be. Thankfully, you can assign booting up the camera to double-tapping the Quick Launch button, but most people will try to launch it from the lockscreen, where it forces you to flip the phone over to use the second display as a viewfinder. 

If you’re taking a selfie, you’ll have to go through the above steps, then tap the button to switch the camera and rotate the entire phone back around. At its worst, it’s multiple steps too many.

We’ve included some samples that show off the Axon M’s high and low points in photography.

With most phones, the line that divides what to like and dislike about a phone is usually clearly defined. But ZTE’s Axon M makes things complicated. The things done right by the company’s dual-screened phone have me over the moon and frankly, pretty excited about the future of foldable device. Consider me surprised that today’s technology, not some far-off magical engineering techniques, could whip up such a novel smartphone experience, even if it doesn’t get a lot right.

At $725, the Axon M sits in the same price bracket as many popular smartphones that offer far better raw performance, battery life and camera results. And while its two-screened gimmick will make it stick out for some looking for novelty over refinement, it’s so, so easy to find a phone for that price that doesn’t slack on power or screen quality. That, and between Android Nougat’s split-window feature and Android Oreo’s picture-in-picture mode, multitasking on single-screened Android phones isn’t all that bad anymore.

Who's this for?

The ZTE Axon M is for someone who chugs video and gaming content, which its two screens lend to perfectly. Whether if you’re watching alone or with a friend, this phone lets you do more at once, empowering you with the freedom to enjoy something together, or use two different apps at once in full-screen mode. No other phone lets you do that.

If you’re a constant traveler or are someone who’s constantly digging into documents or taking notes, two screens are far better than one for never missing a beat, and never getting bored during your travels.

Should you buy it?

The novelty is strong with the ZTE Axon M and thankfully, its hardware gimmick is executed just well enough to push it into “recommended” territory for those who need to entertain or be entertained more than one mere screen can provide. 

For everyone else, it’s hard to overlook the vast amount of single-screened smartphones that undercut it in price and practical design. Not just that, I found it oddly tough to find justifiable reasons to use a second screen in practice, given that I’m so deep into my ways of getting around with just one screen. At the end of the day, your mileage will vary with this concept. 

ZTE gets props for not releasing just another homogenous, clean-looking smartphone. And if you have the cash and are tied to AT&T, it’s the best dual-screened phone out there. But that’s not saying all that much at the moment. 

The ZTE Axon M is a revolutionary foldable smartphone with dual screens that reinvents the mobile experience by enabling true multitasking and delivering unlimited potential to consumers. Through four different screen modes, consumers can use the ZTE Axon M as a traditional smartphone or play, surf, watch, stream and more across or on both screens at the same time, without compromising anything.

What exactly is it?

The foldable ZTE Axon M is a revolutionary device that provides an innovative experience through dual screens allowing consumers unlimited potential in multitasking and more. Along with its unique capabilities, the ZTE Axon M also delivers a seamless experience for those wanting a great, everyday smartphone without sacrificing anything.

Why this device now?

Over the past 10 years smartphone innovation has stalled, while consumer habits have evolved.  Consumers now tell the difference between phones based on the logo on the back versus what it is capable of and the overall impact it will have in their life.  As the technology landscape evolves with faster networks, powerful hardware and seamless software, the smartphone must evolve to, and ZTE is leading this evolution with the Axon M. 

It's innovation at its finest

The ZTE Axon M creates an entirely new foldable smartphone category, one ZTE is dedicated in ensuring a seamless experience for both consumers and developers.  ZTE will provide regular software updates to continue to enhance the experience, which includes an update from Android Nougat to Android Oreo. 

Axon Passport M Program

The ZTE Axon M comes with the industry’s best protection plan – the Axon Passport M Program – free of charge.  This two-year premium protection program provides peace-of-mind for consumers knowing they are protected in case something happens to their Axon M.

Pricing and availability

The ZTE Axon M is available exclusively with AT&T.  Consumer can order the Axon M online right now at att.com/axonm for $24.17/month on AT&T Next for 30 months, or pick it up in all AT&T stores starting November 17th, just in time for the holidays.  

Sponsored by ZTE

The world of Android smartphones is vast and varied, and that’s not even counting the many devices that release outside of the US, UK and Australia. For every Samsung Galaxy S8 or HTC U11, many others slip under the radar. 

The Nubia Z17 is one of those phones, but we actually got our hands on it to see what we’re missing out on. And to be honest, I liked this phone far more than I expected to.

We normally run each and every phone through our in-depth review process, but as this phone isn’t built with Google services baked-in, nor is it loaded with full English regionalization, we’re just going to take a dive into what makes this phone tick. That said, if you live in India or China (where the Z17 is available), we encourage you to seek out this phone to try it yourselves.

As far as its components are concerned, the Nubia Z17 is as competent as the OnePlus 5. Commonly found online for less than $500, this phone packs in a Snapdragon 835 and 6GB of RAM that work to power what you see on its vibrant 5.5-inch 1080p display.

We stated earlier that this phone doesn’t come with Google services, but Nubia was nice enough to send along a custom ROM that essentially injects them into the company’s version of Android Nougat 7.1. With that, we were able to download any and all apps from the Google Play Store, however, the integration is buggy and many apps are prone to not working as intended. 

Moreover, installing the Google Now Launcher was met with incompatibility issues. The Z17’s many built-in widgets and apps weren’t discoverable through Google’s official launcher.

If this device was made for audiences outside of China, it’s likely that more effort would have been spent on baking in the Google-powered goods, so while it’s disappointing to not have things work correctly, it’s understandable.

What’s there to work with is pretty intimidating in the shoes of someone used to Google’s launcher. The Nubia is loaded with on-screen elements and even the camera’s many features are individually broken out into separate app icons. It’s all a bit messy and confusing.

Making your way around the phone, it’s coated in smooth aluminum and has a premium-feeling heft to it. In an industry filled with divisive design, the Nubia Z17 is a straight-shooter. As such, there’s not a whole lot going on, which actually works to satisfy me as a minimalist.

Looking at it head-on, it has bezels surrounding its screen’s top and bottom. But as the Google Pixel 2 showed us, bezels can still be rocked if done correctly (which the Z17 does). Near the bottom of the display, the Z17 features a colored home button that illuminates when pressed. As expected, it’s flanked by the usual capacitive buttons to its left and right.

Interestingly, the Nubia Z17 has ditched the 3.5mm headphone jack, which leaves just the USB-C charging port to pump out the audio, that is, if you’re not ready to cut the cord completely for Bluetooth audio.

Flipped over on its back, Nubia’s branding is nicely subtle, sitting right next to an ideally-located fingerprint sensor. Sitting close to the phone’s top is its dual-lens camera unit. These lenses sit in an enclosure that’s slightly raised from the phone.

If photography is your thing, this phone almost overwhelms with camera features. In my shoes, this is never a bad thing, but it’s far more than most consumers ever need. 

And with some surprisingly robust software combined with two rear lenses, the results aren’t too bad either.

First off, I’ll say that the photos taken with the Z17 definitely pale in comparison to the S8 and Google Pixel, with most photos lacking color depth or the sharpness that we like to see. The breadth of features almost makes up for it, many of which you can see put on display below. 

Whatever complaints we have with the camera, it boots quickly and offers a lot of interesting features to discover, like 3D Photo, which takes a series of photos of an object and later lets you scroll through them in an entertaining flipbook style.

Broken down to pieces, the Nubia Z17 is a stellar phone for its target audiences, which includes those in India and China. But considering it as a whole in the hands of someone who couldn’t otherwise purchase it, it feels incomplete. It doesn’t ship with Google services installed and the operating system isn’t fully regionalized for English.

Take that as you will, that doesn’t detract this phone’s bucketload of features, competitive price point and impressive design.

If you’re able to try out the Nubia Z17 for yourself, we encourage you to do so. But if you’re itching to import one from the likes of eBay or another destination, it might not cost you as much as your typical flagship, but keep in mind that it might not live up to your standards of a typical Android smartphone.

With that being said, Nubia, won’t you see about bringing this one to the US, UK and Australia?

Update: More evidence, including a leaked photo, has surfaced, making us increasingly confident that ZTE's soon-to-be-announce smartphone will indeed be the dual-screened Multy.

Update: While most leaks provide nothing more than a blurry shot that inspires nothing but doubt, this one is the exact opposite. The device beautifully shown off in the above photo is supposedly the dual-screened Multy as we expected, according to Android Authority. 

It's certainly difficult to tell if what we're seeing is a product render or the real thing, given that the screens aren't powered on. However, we don't have long to wait until the October 17 event.

Original article follows below.

ZTE has sent out invitations for an upcoming October 17 event in New York City at which it will unveil the next member of the Axon family of smartphones.

Branching off from the excellent ZTE Axon 7, where could the brand go next? It’s possible that it could release another value-focused, feature-packed flagship. 

As we saw last year, ZTE has gotten very good at making those. But a recent leak spotted by VentureBeat points to a much stranger and potentially more interesting announcement: a dual-screen phone supposedly called the ZTE Axon Multy.

If the leak is to be believed, the Multy will fold out into a 6.8-inch phone with its two screens aligned vertically, looking much like a small tablet device. It will reportedly run on the last-gen Snapdragon 820, pushing a modest 1080p resolution to each display. 

Other important specs to note are its rumored 4GB of RAM, 32GB of onboard storage and a 3,120mAh battery – a relatively low capacity even for powering just one screen.

Let's dissect the invite

The event invite teases a large letter 'M' that’s split into two. Each side is doing something different, perhaps to indicate that the multi-screened phone is indeed coming. 

Given that the Multy is rumored to come with Snapdragon 820, it’s also likely that it will come with last year’s Android Nougat operating system, not the latest Android Oreo. However, split-window multi-tasking was introduced with Nougat, and the Multy could take the feature to a whole new level with its two screens.

This new ZTE device is said to be launching as an AT&T exclusive in the US for $650, and while early signs don’t bode well for a global release, if it proves a hit it could get a wider rollout – and regardless, this is still a potentially significant launch given the innovative nature of the product.

• Before the event, check out our comprehensive iPhone 8 coverage