Gadgetory

Hey what is up guys this is Bailey Stein with Android authority and here it is the ZTE axon 7 it's a $400 unlocked dual sim smartphone that works on all major carriers in the US but should you buy it let's find out in our video review of the ZTE axon 7 the X on sevens design is largely a refinement of what we saw last year with the first axon this time around zg has used an aluminum unibody free of any edges or plastic caps it's a more traditional take yes there are many things to love about this design the build quality for one is excellent and the curved shape is both elegant and ergonomic I really like the recessed fingerprint reader on the back too isn't made actually finding the reader much easier the reader is both fast and accurate and easily beat cell phones like the Nexus 6p the camera hump is well there but it's not terrible it's not enough to make the phone wobble on a table anyway unless using excessive force ZTE tells us that this phone was designed with the help of design works which is actually a us-based BMW Group subsidiary I can definitely see this in the axon 7s design even without the small designed in the USA take on the back serving as a reminder so for the navigation keys ZTE actually ended up going with 3 non-illuminated indeterminate capacitive keys for the US release although it's at first difficult to determine which key does why I found the ability to change the layout in the settings to be invaluable personally I don't really care that the keys are not illuminated but I feel that they could be spaced out a little more one other thing this phone is really slippery and the curved side edges certainly don't help it can be challenging to grip at times and reaching for the notification panel makes me especially nervous overall though a big thumbs up for the accent sevens design moving on to the display we're looking at a 5.5 inch quad HD AMOLED panel so yeah it looks great on paper and it's even better in person with excellent sharpness punchy and saturated colors deep blacks and decent sunlight readability there's not much more we could ask for from a smartphone display and it's kind of crazy that ZTE was able to include this given the axon sevens price there's also Gorilla Glass 4 for scratch resistance and I really like how the display curves down to meet with the Schappert aluminum oh and it's being powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 which has been used in every major flagship this year it should come as no surprise that day today performance is buttery smooth I didn't notice any leg with the axon 7 and the 4 gigabytes of RAM was enough to handle heavy multitasking if you're a gamer you'll find that the Adreno 530 is more than enough for pretty much every Android game out there what sets the axon 7 apart from other Chinese smartphones is its compatibility with every major u.s. 4G LTE network and since it's unlocked and dual SIM you can use two individual lines with this single phone I was very happy to learn that ZTE decided to not only double the phone storage from last year to 64 gigabytes but also to include a microSD card expansion slot up to 256 gigabytes that's a feature that we all love to see even if it means having to give up one of the SIM card slots the axon 7 includes dual independent - audio chips for both listening and recording and yeah it admittedly can sound a bit gimmicky but the accent sevens audio output is excellent especially when streaming at higher bit rates even with an $8 pair of earbuds I found the sound to be louder and fuller than many other smartphones as far as recording is concerned well this voiceover was recorded entirely with the axon 7 and the rode smartlav microphone for conferences and other less formal recordings ZT states that the dual noise cancelling microphones are able to clearly capture voices up to 8 meters away that's great and all but the true highlight is the exon 7 dual front-facing stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos surround sound technology to put it frankly the listening experience is extraordinary sound is impressively clear loud and full I also didn't notice much Distortion even at full volume these speakers make watching movies listening to music or playing games much more immersive and give the HTC's boomsound a run for its money thankfully ZTE went with a reversible USB type-c port and also implemented quick charge 3.0 which lets you charge the phone from 0 to 50 in just 30 minutes unlike some manufacturers ZTE included a quick charge 3.0 charger in the box - so you won't be needing to go out and buy one yourself actual battery life holds up quite well - and I'd say that it's on par with the galaxy s7 maybe even just a bit better I was at first worried that the 3,250 milliamp hour battery wouldn't be enough considering the axon sevens hardware but I was consistently able to achieve upwards of 5 hours of screen on time with a full day of heavy use with moderate use that amount could be stretched to 6 hours one of the most important aspects of the modern smartphone is of course how well the camera performs the X on sevens camera looks pretty killer based on the specs - it's 20 megapixels with an F 1.8 aperture and optical image stabilization and in good lighting most images come out sharp with good contrast and accurate color reproduction with that said the camera app didn't always nail exposure and there can be a lack of vividness in certain shots but overall I'd say that the camera does very well in good lighting for video it does 4k at 30fps and even supports the newer h-back codec there's also an 8 megapixel front-facing camera which can also record video at up to 1080p at 30fps although the camera specs may make the exon 7 seem like a low-light champ low-light images came out soft with muted colors I did notice an excessive amount of noise reduction taking place in most of the images so it's possible that low-light could be improved with some image processing software improvements but for now low light performance with the axon 7 feels much like a compromise I did enjoy using the camera app however the automatic mode automatically turns things like HDR and night mode on well the manual mode is also very powerful the additional filters and modes like panorama and time-lapse are also appreciated I think that ZTE s idea of using the fingerprint reader as a shutter button is ingenious and the capture and cheese commands work surprisingly well in regards to software the exon 7 is running ZTE s me favored UI 4.0 / Android 6.0 point 1 marshmallow but actually out of the box a stock Android theme is selected by default with the stock theme UI changes are expected ly minimal there are no major changes here and the minor changes ZTE has made feel justified for the most part for example there's a clear all button in the multitasking view something which a lot of people have been asking for a while now there are a lot of functional changes - one of those is the dynamic wallpaper feature which can change the lock screen each time you unlock the axon 7 there's also some gestures like double tap to wake and Shake twice for flash lighting when we spoke with ZTE they seemed very focused on delivering a superior user experience so for example when you hold the accent 7 up to your ear it asks who do you want to call 6 1 1 as much as I think ZTE has done an excellent job on the software I feel that some areas could use some additional polish there's a lot of little things that are simply annoying like the fact that you have to tap the notification Bell every time you want to see notifications on the lock screen overall though the software is pretty good and it's easily ZTE the best attempt yet you can purchase the exon 7 in either ion gold or quartz gray for $400 from various retailers there are some special goodies included in the box including some earbuds a SIM door eject tool attachable - a keychain micro USB to USB type the adapter as well as a clear silicon case but that's only the beginning as the exon 7 includes axon Passport 2.0 a two-year premium warranty it's a pretty compelling offer especially once you consider how inexpensive the accent 7 already is it's evident that ZTE has scored a massive amount of time and effort in order to make the axon 7 the home run that it is although the exon sevens camera may not be the best the phone otherwise feels largely uncompromised and that's why I'm making the accent 7 my daily driver and I think you should too thank you for watching our video review of the ZTE axon 7 please be sure to LIKE this video if you liked it and don't forget to subscribe if you haven't already finally be sure visit the Android Authority website for additional coverage as we are your source for all things Android