【【【Preface: There are more different faces in the high-end market】】】
As we all know, in recent years, the "thousand yuan machine" is no longer the mainstream product of the mobile phone market, but has been replaced by a high-end model in the price range of two or three thousand yuan, which has gradually become the common choice of the vast majority of consumers.
The reason for this change is, on the one hand, because the popularity of short video social and high-quality mobile games has made consumers have a much higher demand for the image experience and performance level of smart phones than in the past, making the sales of high-end and even flagship products better and better, and the average sales price is also rising year by year.
Image courtesy of GFK
On the other hand, this change in consumer trends has also made mobile phone manufacturers more active in investing more new technologies and new hardware in high-end products, so that models with a price range of two or three thousand yuan and above can be rapidly improved in market competitiveness, and even the comprehensive "cost performance" is significantly higher than many entry-level products.
Having said that, but looking at the entire high-end market will find such a phenomenon, the vast majority of two or three thousand yuan level of high-end models, in the product positioning and publicity will be significantly biased towards young users, the main entertainment, beauty and other directions, while in the appearance of the design to emphasize youth, dynamic, games and other elements.
Admittedly, this also objectively reflects the main consumer group in today's mid-to-high-end market, but it also makes us wonder whether there is such a thing as a system that can provide strong performance, good image performance, and a more refined, tough design and more worry-free system experience at this price point. So that consumers with this part of the demand no longer need to buy those high-priced "business flagships", but also enjoy the "bucket machine" that meets their tastes?
On May 9, 2022, with the official release of the ZTE Axon 40 series, the market finally ushered in this batch of high-end models with a different "painting style". A few days ago, we Three Easy Life also received the Axon 40 Pro in the series, so how the actual experience of this model is, you may wish to take a look at it.
【【Appearance: High-end design rare in the same level, the details are more exquisite】】】
After getting used to seeing most of the mid-to-high-end models on the market today, seeing the Axon 40 Pro for the first time is undoubtedly quite eye-catching.
First of all, compared with the design style of most of the "youth", "roundness" and "colorful" of the same price point products, the overall color matching and contour of the Axon 40 Pro are obviously taking the "high-end business" route.
On the one hand, it can be seen that the Axon 40 Pro adopts a fuselage silhouette that is rare nowadays, with a front and rear hyperboloid body, with a square center frame. This is a very typical design design design that combines the grip and the "tough" visual style.
From the side of the fuselage, this style is even more obvious. The Axon 40 Pro apparently featured an ultra-narrow metal center frame with a large curvature front and rear glass, so much so that the center frame had to be widened in the upper middle of the fuselage to accommodate the power and volume buttons.
Obviously, compared to most of its siblings with wide mid-frames (and many aren't even made of metal), this design is more difficult and the sense of premium is indeed much stronger.
However, the "tricks" played on the metal frame of the Axon 40 Pro are more than that. For example, on the side of the middle frame, you can also see a shiny, polished curved surface.
At the top and bottom of the fuselage, the flat facet shape with a frosted finish gives the Axon 40 Pro a completely different tactile and visual experience from the side of the fuselage.
Next, move your attention to the most eye-catching part of the Axon 40 Pro's back, that is, this "round and circle combination" rear camera module. On this square metal trim panel, a golden double-ring camera decorative frame and multiple cameras are neatly arranged.
And interestingly, in the specific arrangement of the camera, the Axon 40 Pro also uses some ingenuity. It can be seen that this module is actually equipped with four cameras, but in fact only three cameras are located inside the gold ring, and these three cameras also use the arrangement from large to small, from top to bottom. At first glance, it has a bit of a "raindrop" sense of regularity.
Finally, on the screen section on the front of the fuselage, the Axon 40 Pro features a 6.67-inch curved OLED panel. And in terms of display quality, this screen also has a billion color display, 100% DCI-P3 wide color gamut, 1000nit high brightness and other mainstream features.
On top of that, the Axon 40 Pro also has a 144Hz refresh rate, a rare addition to its class, and a high touch sampling rate of 360Hz. So this means that although its shape is "very commercial", it may actually be the most "e-sports" mobile phone screen that can be bought at present.
【【Performance: Snapdragon 870 led, who said business jets can not play games】】】
As a high-end product, the Axon 40 Pro is equipped with the Snapdragon 870 master control, and is equipped with an 8GB+256GB starting point and a maximum of 12GB+512GB of storage.
Geekbench 5.4.4 CPU core run score
3DMARK wildlife graphics performance
Ann Rabbit Review
Judging from the results of our actual theoretical test results, the Axon 40 Pro has achieved the current level of mid-to-high-end models in terms of cpu core scheduling or performance release level under 3D heavy load scenarios.
As we all know, as a "god U", the reason why the Snapdragon 870 has a high popularity in 2022 is not only because it is equipped with a super tall core frequency of 3.2GHz and an Adreno650 GPU that is still very "capable", but more importantly, it has also achieved a good balance between high performance and high energy efficiency.
Perhaps aware of this advantage, on the Axon 40 Pro we found that ZTE's engineers actually adapted to many popular game features for this very business-looking model.
On the one hand, the Axon 40 Pro has built-in stereo dual speakers, adapted to DTS:X Ultra surround sound, and is equipped with an X-axis linear motor, which supports the realistic vibration of many mainstream games.
On the other hand, the Axon 40 Pro also integrates an independent game center in the system, and according to the official information, it has even adapted 90FPS, 120FPS, and even higher frame rate modes for many mainstream mobile games.
"Glory of Kings", stable 120 frames, average power consumption is only 3.7W
Ace Warrior has a stable frame rate of 60 frames (halved when dying) and an average power consumption of 3.15W
Judging from the measured results, the game performance of the Axon 40 Pro is really quite "playable". When you need a phone that looks relatively serious and can not be violated in various occasions, but at the same time want to use it to enjoy the game in your spare time, then the Axon 40 Pro may be the most suitable one.
【【【Experience:MyOS12 function is unexpectedly easy to use, and it is "clean"】】
After talking about performance, let's take a look at the system experience of the Axon 40 Pro.
First of all, from the basic system version, the Axon 40 Pro is pre-installed with MyOS12 based on Android 12.
What are the features of MyOS12? On the one hand, in terms of underlying technology, it integrates ZTE's self-developed "adaptive fluency", "intelligent power saving", and "application preservation" technology, and optimizes for a large number of application scenarios in daily use. For example, after you first open the health code, then answer a WeChat video call, and then visit Taobao or Douyin for a while, the health code of some other models may need to be reloaded, but the Axon 40 Pro can "keep it alive" to reduce a little trouble for daily use.
On the other hand, as a mid-to-high-end model in 2022, the Axon 40 Pro certainly supports full-featured NFC modules. However, compared with other similar models with this function, the NFC-related interface of myOS12 is extremely simple.
Note that "concise" here is entirely positive. Because if you have used the NFC key card and NFC payment function of other models, you will know that they will often integrate a considerable amount of financial, financial, online loan and other advertisements in the relevant interface, and the NFC swipe function that users really need is hidden in the corner of the screen. In contrast, the NFC application of MyOS 12 does not have any ads, and there are only two functional blocks of key cards and bus cards when clicked on.
It has to be said that this design with very few ads and straightforward functions is actually a major feature that runs through the MyOS 12 experience to some extent. In fact, in many of its own functional apps, it is rare to see the common advertising implants of other models. From this point of view, it undoubtedly shows a conscience design that is rare in today's industry, and it can be more confident that it can be handed over to the elders to use.
【【【Image: 100 million pixels HD quad camera, daily practicality is unexpectedly high】】
Finally, let's talk about the image design of the Axon 40 Pro and the live shooting experience.
Admittedly, as the "sub-flagship" of the ZTE Axon 40 series, the image design of the Axon 40 Pro is indeed not as extreme as the higher positioning of the Axon 40 Ultra. For example, in addition to its rear quad camera is a 1/1.52-inch outsole of the 100 million pixel scheme, the other three secondary cameras (8 million pixels ultra-wide angle, 2 million pixel macro, 2 million pixel depth of field) can only be said to be the mainstream level of the current level of the same model.
However, friends familiar with today's mobile phone imaging technology will know that for the current high-end hardware platforms with abundant computing power, in fact, the daily image experience depends largely on the adjustment level of the manufacturer, and the hardware configuration may not necessarily determine the final imaging performance.
Sample: Building ISO100 f1.89 1/528s
Sample: Building (2x zoom) ISO100 f1.89 1/484s
Sample: Building (5x Zoom) ISO100 f1.89 1/469s
Fortunately, ZTE is obviously not short of mobile phone image tuning experience and related technologies. First of all, from the most basic zoom sample, it is not difficult to find that even if there is no independent telephoto sub-camera, the Axon 40 Pro will not have any problems with the "long-sighted" needs of daily use with this 100 million pixel outsole main camera.
Sample: Building (ultra-wide angle) ISO100 f2.2 1/6242s
Secondly, although the Axon 40 Pro's 8-megapixel ultra-wide-angle secondary camera seems to be a small pixel, it is actually very good to shoot it, whether it is the restoration of color, the control of edge distortion, or the preservation of picture details.
Sample: Flower ISO170 f1.89 1/50s
Sample: Flower (macro) ISO100 f2 1/165s
Even the 2-megapixel independent macro camera, under the macro mode of ZTE's consistently reliable and peak magnification function, will make it easier to take clear focus photos than many similar models.
Sample: Portrait ISO416 f6.3 1/50s
Not only that, but we also tested the Portrait mode of the Axon 40 Pro. It can be seen that although it is not equipped with a physical sense of independent "portrait lens", but with the outsole 100 million pixel main camera shallow depth of field advantage, coupled with the depth of field secondary camera auxiliary correction, you can still get a clear portrait and a beautiful background bokeh effect.
So what does this mean? In fact, it is very simple, that is, the four rear cameras of the Axon 40 Pro, although on the surface, the hardware specifications may not be prominent, but the actual tuning effect is quite reliable and practical. At least for the vast majority of users' daily recording needs, the Axon 40 Pro is enough to provide accurate color reproduction, clear detail, and excellent stray light suppression.
Prototyping: Lamp ISO831 f1.89 1/50s
Of course, this is not to say that the Axon 40 Pro's image performance is without slots. After all, it is equipped with only a single large outsole main camera + three small bottom sub-camera design, at night, which is very dependent on cmOS specifications of the scene, after turning on the "night mode" Axon 40 Pro will become only available for the main camera. Although its 100 million pixel outsole main night scene effect is not bad, it may feel a little unsatisfactory for users who are pursuing richer playability.
【【【Summary: The sub-flagship choice that can play and is both fun and has good competitiveness】】
Overall, the ZTE Axon 40 Pro is a mid-to-high-end sub-flagship model with its own characteristics in the current market.
On the one hand, the boxy fuselage shape, the slim front and rear hyperboloid design, coupled with the rather exquisite middle frame and rear camera module shape, these make the Axon 40 Pro become the current two or three thousand yuan price segment is likely to be the most "business" and the most exquisite model.
On the other hand, the mature sub-flagship master control, excellent energy efficiency performance, coupled with the system built-in more perfect game optimization software and hardware, and a very practical rear camera system, these allow Axon 40 Pro to actually meet the needs of most users for mobile games and daily entertainment.
Not to mention that on top of that, its MyOS 12 also has a rare daily experience with very few ads and excellent fluency. All of this also makes the Axon 40 Pro actually have a fairly good market competitiveness.
In fact, whether you're a young man who already works but still wants to touch fish and play games on his phone, or an older user who is worried about too much advertising on other models and wants a mid-to-high-end model that can be used for a long time and has a reasonable price, we think the Axon 40 Pro will be a product that can satisfy you.