The ZTE Axon 30 5G will launch in North America and Europe on September 9. You can get it either with 8 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage for $499, or with 12 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage for $599.

Is this the right phone for you? It depends.

What’s in the Box

The ZTE Axon 30 5G comes in a standard white cardboard box with minimal branding. Other than the phone itself, the box contains:

clear plastic case wall charger USB-C cable USB-C to audio jack adapter SIM card ejector

A set of wired earbuds, as seen in other reports, was missing from our package. Considering the lack of a 3.5 mm audio jack, the inclusion of an adapter for the USB-C port is a thoughtful compromise. If you get ZTE’s early bird offer, the phone also comes with a pair of wireless ZTE LiveBuds.

Display and Sound Quality

At 6.7 inches tall, 3.06 inches wide, and only 0.3 inches thick, the ZTE Axon 30 5G is one of the largest phones on the market. In fact, it’s bigger (yet thinner and lighter) than Samsung’s current flagship phone, the Galaxy S21 Ultra. Paired with a minimal bezel, this size gives it a fantastic amount of screen real estate. While it’s reasonably light (6.7 ounces), one-handed operation of this phone could be challenging for people with average-sized hands.

ZTE equipped the Axon 30 5G with a 6.92-inch AMOLED display. The 20.5:9 screen ratio, an FHD+ resolution of 2460x1080 pixels,10-bit color, 100% DCI-P3 color gamut, a 120 Hz refresh rate, and a 360 Hz touch sampling rate, make this phone perfect for watching videos and playing games. Not only do colors pop, but moving images are also sharp, and the screen is hihgly responsive to touch inputs.

Since watching videos and gaming is one of the Axon 30 5G’s core use cases, sound matters, too. To that end, ZTE equipped it with DTS: X Ultra technology and Hi-Fi earphone sound. While the built-in speaker sounds fine, we do recommend using headphones for your own pleasure and the peace of mind of those around you.

Camera Quality

The under-display camera (UDC) is the hallmark feature of the Axon line, but the Axon 30 5G also comes with an impressive array of rear cameras.

Under-Display Front Camera

The Axon 20 5G was the world’s first phone to feature a hidden selfie camera. In its first iteration, the UDC remained visible when the display was turned on. What’s worse, it was widely regarded as producing sub-par selfies.

With the Axon 30 5G, ZTE re-iterated the UDC. The new generation sports a pixel density of 400 PPI, which is twice as much as the last generation. While the camera remains visible when the screen is turned off, it’s now almost invisible on black and colorful backgrounds. An independent UDC chip synchronizes the camera’s brightness and chromaticity with the screen in real-time. This works for most screen activities, though the camera still stands out on white backgrounds.

To improve the selfie quality, ZTE overhauled their display design. A special OLED display covers the UDC area. The cathode and matrix layers, which sandwich the special OLED, are more transparent. And all seven screen layers of the display are more transmissive.

In our tests, we didn’t notice any glare, haze, or blown-out highlights, but our selfies looked highly processed.

We compared the ZTE Axon 30 5G’s camera (top) with an almost four-year-old OnePlus 5t (bottom). The Axon 30 5G brought out more details in the plant seen in the background, but it looks grainy. It also had less mercy with my well-lit face, making the skin look less soft.

The UDC isn’t great for selfies, but certainly good enough for video chats and occasional photos. And the rest of the time, it’s out-of-sight, which doesn’t only give the phone a much cleaner look overall, but also increases the amount of screen space.

Rear Cameras

The ZTE Axon 30 5G features a set of four cameras on the rear, including a 64 MP Sony IMX682 main lens with an f/1.8 aperture, an 8 MP 120° wide-angle lens, a 5 MP macro lens, and a 2 MP depth-of-field lens.

The rear cameras produce sharp images with bright colors. The night mode helps you shoot better quality images in low light conditions. Likewise, the ultra-wide lens performs well with good lighting. Finally, the macro lens is a nice treat and brings out impressive details.

In multi-camera mode, you can record video with up to three different zoom levels at the same time.

The ZTE Axon 30 5G certainly isn’t a contender for best camera, but for the occasional snapshot, vlog, or selfie, it does a fair job.

Performance

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 870 processor with up to 3.2 GHz, UFS 3.1 storage, and Wi-Fi 6 helps the phone never drop a beat. Wi-Fi, 4G, and 5G antennas placed along the long edges of the phone ensure that you won’t block them with your hands. Inside, a triple cooling system, consisting of a large vapor chamber, graphene copper matrix composite material, and a high-power heat-transmitting gel keep the processor cool, even under high load. Overall, the phone feels snappy and we didn’t run into any performance issues.

What’s It Like to Use the ZTE Axon 30 5G

The Axon 30 5G runs on Android 11 with ZTE’s MiFavor 11 flavor. It’s not a huge difference to stock Android, so you should feel right at home.

To unlock the phone, you can use the under-display fingerprint sensor, face verify, smart lock, pattern unlock, PIN, password, or you can remove the device protection and opt for swipe or no screen lock setting at all. Each option comes with a chain of sub-settings. When you use your fingerprint to unlock the phone, for example, you can add up to five fingers, you can change the fingerprint unlock animation style, and you can use simple touch to unlock and launch one of up to five apps at the same time.

The Axon 30 5G comes with comprehensive gesture and motion features. Settings you can enable include shake to turn on flashlight, raise to wake, or flip to mute.

Careful when you put the phone face down to mute it. While the screen won’t scratch easily, it’s extremely smooth, and you might catch your phone silently sliding off the table. Just clip on the clear case it comes with, which will make sure it can’t slide away.

Battery Life

The Axon 30 5G packs a 4,200 mAh battery that charges at 65 W with the included charger. Thankfully, it doesn’t feature wireless charging. While wireless charging might be convenient, it’s terrible for a battery’s longevity because a bunch of electricity is lost in heat energy, and this heat stress damages the battery over time. For the same reason, you shouldn’t use fast charging, either.

In a vanilla setup, with Wi-Fi and one Google account connected, the Axon 30 5G’s battery will last you over a week in standby. With the screen turned on and playing YouTube videos at 50% brightness and volume, the battery will drain to 75% after roughly four hours. Your battery mileage will drop like a rock once you add power-hungry apps like Facebook Messenger. You can track battery usage and optimize settings under Settings > Battery.

From a fully depleted state, the Axon 30 5G fully charges in about 50 minutes, and a quick 10-minute charge will give you over 20% of extra battery life. If you care for your phone’s lifespan, however, you won’t want to discharge it beyond 20% battery life.

Sustainability

We quizzed ZTE about the sustainability of its phones, particularly the Axon 30 5G. It doesn’t seem to be a topic that gets raised a lot, but they gathered information from across the company.

Use of Recycled Materials

Like many companies these days, ZTE uses recycled paper for packaging. They couldn’t give us details for the amount of recycled materials used in the production of their phones, but they have started sourcing recycled materials.

Right to Repair

If you’re in the US, you might know that this has been a hotly debated topic. The problem is that most electronic devices, particularly compact smartphones and true wireless earbuds like the AirPods, aren’t built to be repaired. The Axon 30 5G is no exception. For that reason, ZTE urges its customers to use its official warranty service center, which can replace the battery, screen, and mechanical parts.

Making use of your right to repair might void the warranty, especially if unauthorized repairs or spare parts caused further damage.

Carbon Emissions and Lifecycle Assessment

ZTE has not performed a lifecycle assessment (LCA), which is an analysis of the carbon emissions produced throughout the entire supply chain and lifespan of a product. An LCA includes the mining of the materials, all shipping and production emissions, as well as energy use while operating the product, and ends with its disposal. Only few consumer electronics companies perform LCAs, but the number is growing.

In regard to offsetting carbon emissions, ZTE shared this:

The company also highlighted that it’s offering a recycling program for their phones through its US subsidiary’s website and has contracted a local e-waste recycling agency.

Furthermore, all of ZTE’s products “are compliant with environmental requirements such as EU RoHS, WEEE, REACH, Battery Directive & Packaging Directive, California 65 Act, etc.”

Our ZTE Axon 30 5G Verdict

If you’re in the market for a phone that won’t break the bank, yet comes close to other flagship devices, the ZTE Axon 30 5G could be it. But you’ll have to make a few compromises: The selfie camera quality still isn’t great, the phone doesn’t run stock Android, it will likely only receive updates for two to three years, and you really have to love its size to fully appreciate the Axon 30 5G. If you can look past these shortcomings, however, this could be a solid choice that will last you many years.

For those seeking state-of-the-art hardware, top-notch features, and four years of security updates, you better have deep pockets since you’ll be looking at a Samsung flagship, such as the Samsung Galaxy S21 or Galaxy S21 Ultra.