![]() ![]() Regular readers know I place a lot of emphasis on value in my reviews (I'm not going to judge a $400 phone the same way I do a $850 phone, and I think phones that cost north of $700 should be scrutinized. I don't think I'm reaching out on a limb here, but most dudes would probably like their phones black or silver.īut other than superficial aspects, I have no real complaints with this phone. ![]() I think the giant black bars between the screen and the "bezel" takes away from the immersive-ness of viewing full screen media, and the U-shaped indentation leading to the fingerprint sensor looks odd, but mostly it's probably just because my review unit is gold. I'm personally not a huge fan of the phone's looks. Here are a few more photos taken with the Axon 7. Next page: more photo samples, what I don't like about the phone, final thoughts. Keep in mind the Mate 9 Pro is a very strong camera. Huawei's shot is still a bit brighter, but the Axon 7 captured details that's about on par. Here's a shot of my neighbors from across the street. When shooting outdoors at night, the Axon manages to catch up a bit, and produce some strong details. If you look at the 100% crop of that Nina Simone illustration and map of Thailand, you can see the Axon 7 produced a better shot with more details and more accurate colors.īut in pure lowlight situation, the Mate 9 Pro blows away the Axon 7. Below are some comparison shots with the Huawei Mate 9 Pro. The phone's camera, at 20-megapixels, means it can take in some great details, especially when images are blown up to 100% and viewed on a computer monitor, but in low lights it really suffers. And the 3,250 mAh battery gets me through the day. The phone is smooth enough in real world use, though. These numbers are not bad, but can't keep up with the more recent releases like Huawei Mate 9 or Xiaomi Mi Note 2. In benchmarks, the Axon 7 scored a 1511 in single-core and 3720 in multi-core on Geekbench. Put the iPhone 7 against the Axon 7 and it'll getting its butt kicked too. The video doesn't even do it justice - the Axon wins in a landslide. If you like playing music or watch videos with the phone's speakers often, this is the phone for you (unless you have a Moto Z and plan on buying that stereo sound module).īelow is a video I made comparing the speakers on the Axon 7 and other phones. When playing through loud speakers though, it's night and day. Since I'm not an audio expert, the difference when listening on headphones is more subtle (but still noticeable). ![]() Other than the LG V20, which also has a premium audiophile quality DAC, no other phone released in 2016 (or 2017 I guess) can touch the Axon 7 in audio playback with or without plugging in headphones. But ZTE, as mentioned, put two Hi-Fi chips into the phone - a AKM AK4490EN DAC (digital-to-analog converter) and a AKM AK4961 DSP CODEC, which is used to pump out or record sound. Stereo sound coming at you will sound better than going away from you, that's just how acoustics work. The Axon 7 comes equipped with front-facing speakers, and even if the company had just stopped and used a generic DAC, it would still already sound better than most other phones, because they have one measly bottom or rear firing speaker. The 4GB of RAM is enough to keep things smooth, the camera takes good photos in the day (but struggles a bit at night), and the fingerprint sensor is fast and accurate.Īnd then there are the audio playback capabilities. ZTE's Android skin, the MiFavor UI 4.0, is almost as clean as OnePlus' OxygenOS in that it looks just like stock Android. Okay but a cheap price tag means nothing if the phone sucks, and rest assured the Axon 7 doesn't. The only other phones I've tried this past year that came with this many accessories are $750 to $850phones like the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 and Huawei Mate 9 Pro. Also included in the package is a screen protector (these are admittedly sort of worthless in China/Hong Kong because you can get them for like a buck, but in the US, UK and Japan people pay like $10 for them), a bumper case, a Micro-USB to USB-C converter (most phones don't come with one), and a tiny keychain pinhole plug (for SIM ejection). There's a pretty solid one packed with the Axon 7. Phones from Meizu, OnePlus and Xiaomi are cheap (and pretty great), but they come very bare bones without even earphones. The value of the Axon 7 is evident in the included accessories too.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |