Design

Looking at the current crop of high-end and mid-range smartphones, it is immediately noticeable that design has become a very important aspect of the smartphone experience. The availability of various color options, different material choices, and the use of premium build materials from the likes of Samsung, LG, HTC, and Motorola means that ZTE had a difficult task on their hands as far as design was concerned, and fortunately, the Axon Phone delivers.

The body of the Axon Phone is made entirely of a smooth metal that gives it that high quality premium feel that we all expect from any high-end smartphone, and a tapered back with rounded corners, similar to what is seen with a device like the HTC One M9, makes the device sit very comfortably in the hand. The great feel aside, the smooth metal finish can make the phone feel a bit slippery, and not helping the handling experience is the fact that the device is quite tall due to the large bezels and front speaker grills. Reaching up to the top to access something like the notification shade does require some hand gymnastics, and makes the phone feel even less secure when you can’t maintain your grip.

The Axon Phone is clearly not in the race for being the thinnest or lightest device either, with it weighing just shy of 175 grams, and coming in at just a little over 9 mm thick. This isn’t a bad thing though, as the added heft makes the phone feel even more substantial than it already is.

To give the Axon Phone a unique design element, ZTE added a distinctive grill pattern that can be found in multiple locations, such as the earpiece, front-facing speaker, and the rear camera. This is designed to make the phone stand out and focus the attention on certain parts on the device without being too over the top, and it definitely works. The grills aesthetically flow well with the overall design of the phone, and there’s no denying that it will garner a double take when out and about.

Taking a look around the device, the buttons are in very ergonomic locations, which helps alleviate some of the concerns with regards to the handling experience. The power button is on the right side, with the volume rocker and the SIM card slot on the opposite side. Also on the right side is a dedicated camera shutter button, which is something we do appreciate but is unfortunately not often seen with Android smartphones. Up top is the headphone jack next to a microphone, and the microUSB port is at the bottom, also next to another microphone. Finally, the Axon Phone features a capacitive circle home button, with the two dots flanking it, which act as the menu and recent apps keys. A nice touch with the home button is that it also doubles as a notification light, and will pulsate any time you get a notification or to indicate that the battery is low, which certainly proves to be very useful.

Display

For ZTE to truly compete with the heavy hitters, the Axon Phone had to be packed to the gills with the latest and greatest in current smartphone tech, and once again, ZTE manages to deliver, with it all starting with the display. The Axon Phone features a 5.5-inch IPS LCD display with a Quad HD resolution, resulting in a pixel density of 534 ppi, and there’s no doubt that this is a fantastic looking screen. It is is big, bright, and beautiful, with accurate color reproduction, and great viewing angles and contrast, making for a display that is an absolute pleasure to use. The large size and high resolution make it ideal for any sort of content, and there’s a nice amount of saturation that makes the screen pop. Brightness isn’t an issue either, and outdoor visibility is comfortable, and while you may not get the deep blacks afforded by AMOLED panels, the black levels on this LCD screen are still pretty good.