To be honest, when I saw the configuration of the ZTE Axon 40 Pro, my first thought wasn't to try out its performance, but to quickly flip back to the configuration table of last year's Axon 30 Pro - that "predecessor" model was powered by the Snapdragon 888 mobile platform, and the one I have now is a Snapdragon 870 model.
Although it seems to be a "downsizing" in a sense, to evaluate whether a phone has improved, we have to look at its overall configuration and actual experience. So is the ZTE Axon 40 Pro a good enough "iterative upgrade"? Let's take a look at its actual performance.
Classic double ring design, four cameras are located in order
The ZTE Axon 40 Pro we received comes in the "Phantom Night Black" colorway, which is a glossy black design. This subdued black color is paired with the ZTE "ZTE" and 5G logos, giving it an unexpectedly clean look.
The part of the lens module is the "classic" double ring that we will talk about. Three of the four cameras fall within the two gold decorative rings, and there is also a depth-of-field camera that sits on the symmetrical axis of the two decorative rings, so even the four-camera design is well placed. Although the 100-megapixel main camera occupies a portion of the decorative ring that sticks out a bit, the overall look is still good and orderly.
As for the front, the ZTE Axon 40 Pro uses a somewhat familiar configuration of 144Hz refresh rate curved screen with FHD+ resolution. This refresh rate configuration is slightly higher than many flagships in the same price range, and will have some minor advantages in terms of smoothness for everyday use.
Familiar Snapdragon 870, familiar excellent performance
As we mentioned at the beginning, the ZTE Axon 40 Pro is equipped with the already familiar Snapdragon 870 mobile platform. The biggest advantage of this chip is that while the performance ceiling is relatively high, it can also control its heat and power consumption very well, so it will have a relatively good daily use performance and smoothness.
We have also tested its gaming performance. In "Glory of Kings", the ZTE Axon 40 Pro was able to achieve a fairly stable high frame rate performance, even without dealing with the drop in data during the middle game change, the average frame rate came to 118.49 fps, which is quite a smooth game performance.
By the way, some details of ZTE's experience in the game, the design of the function of the game space is also quite unique, after opening even if you do not start the anti-touch can not directly rely on gestures to return to the desktop, you must rely on the "desktop" key here, for friends who are often accustomed to large swipes to the wrong operation, can really avoid some mistakes.
Interesting MyOS, Interesting Rhinoceros Assistant
As for the system, ZTE Axon 40 Pro also uses ZTE's latest MyOS 12 system, which is rich in details, such as "Climber Behavior Lock Screen 2.0". When the screen is rested, it will show the current altitude and simulate the mountain to be climbed, and combine the difficulty, altitude and physical exertion value to calculate and present our daily exercise steps.
In addition to the rest screen display function will let us "climb", the lock screen interface will also show us the mountain is climbing a variety of beautiful scenery wallpaper and local customs, is really an interesting small function.
The under-screen fingerprint unlock position is on the high side, so it is relatively smooth to use.
In addition, compared to the highly "localized" design of many domestic manufacturers, ZTE MyOS12 has some unique features, such as the "rhinoceros assistant" function, in addition to the perfect functionality. Although this module is more of an integration of some of the system's underlying features, there is no denying that ZTE has done a good job on these detailed features.
Through the "5G Smart Communication" function, we can also see the current network speed, signal quality and strength information, and it also explains some network connection functions and optimization within the phone, which is also more convenient for users to understand the current state of the phone's network communication, for some friends who are struggling with the current signal status, it is still quite meaningful.
The signal coverage here is indeed a bit imperfect and the signal strength is low.
Image pile material is solid, winning in the play style
The ZTE Axon 40 Pro is also a substantial upgrade in terms of images, with the main camera stacked directly to 100 million pixels, which is a significant improvement in resolution. The image quality of the main camera is good in good daylight conditions, and the colors are a bit more plain.
The daytime sample of the wide-angle main camera
As for the ultra wide angle, it is a pity that instead of a 64 megapixel sensor, it has come to 8 megapixels this time. However, the image quality is still relatively good, and the color style is similar to that of the main camera, which can well present a different world with a wider view.
Daytime sample of ultra wide-angle lens
In the night scene, the overall color of the ZTE Axon 40 Pro is still good, but the dark parts are a bit darker, and the image quality has a more obvious decline compared to the daytime, with more smearing, but it can still reach a relatively clear level. The peculiar thing is that its night mode does not support ultra-wide angle lens, so there are no night samples of ultra-wide angle lens to show here.
▲Wide-angle main camera night scene sample photo
Although the image quality is only mid-range, the Axon 40 Pro camera is a bit of an original, and this time they offer a "camera family" that still has a lot to offer, such as Hitchcock zoom, multiple exposures, ID photos, star trails and starry skies. We also tried the star track feature, which supports both professional and second shot star track photography, the former requires tripod support, while the latter adds star tracks to the night sky through software algorithms.
The actual shooting out of the star track samples are as follows, you can see that this feature is still more on the fun side, belong to the kind of play at first glance some stunning. Considering that this is still a test prototype in our hands, after the subsequent official opening and optimization, I believe it will be much better, you can look forward to it.
▲Samples of the Star Track function
Quite excellent range performance
For the last part, let's talk about the battery life performance of the ZTE Axon 40 Pro. This time it has opted for a large 5000mAh battery, and with the excellent power consumption ratio of the Snapdragon 870 mobile platform, you can guess that it will have a good battery life just by looking at the data on paper.
The actual test results are the same. In our simulated battery life, its one-hour power consumption performance in both Weibo and Bilibili applications is excellent, especially in watching online videos, which consumes only 6% of power in 1 hour, which is amazing; in the game represented by "Glory of Kings", it can also control power consumption at a good level on the basis of continuous smoothness, and the overall performance is still very good.
In terms of fast charging, the ZTE Axon 40 Pro's performance is rather mediocre. 66W of fast charging is frankly not very fast, starting from 1%, it takes 47 minutes to fully charge this large 5000mAh battery. However, this fast charger is relatively stable, basically maintaining a 5%-6% charge every 2 minutes until 80% charge, which is still enough for those who need a "quick recharge".
Summary
To the closing part, let's review the product positioning issue we talked about at the beginning. The ZTE Axon 40 Pro with the Snapdragon 870 is still actually a configuration upgrade for the most part, especially the gaming experience, which is perfect in Glory of Kings, with a pretty good high frame rate smoothness.
As for the new classic double ring design, the addition of 100 megapixel main camera and 5000mAh battery, it can still maintain a good price/performance ratio while "moving up the cup", and cooperate with its own mega-cup Axon 40 Ultra, respectively with "true fragrance pricing The Axon 40 Ultra and the Axon 40 Ultra have entered the battlefield with "real pricing" and "high-end configuration". But on the market today there is no shortage of true fragrance positioning and the use of Snapdragon 870 mobile platform machines, whether it can break through to success, but also depends on how the market response.
