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Hey what is up guys this is Bailey Stein with Android authority let's say you have four hundred dollars to spend on one of the two hottest affordable flagships so which one do you buy well let's answer that question in our video comparison between the one plus three and ZTE axon seven both phones share a number of design elements starting with the aluminum unibody x' well the one plus three is slightly thinner and lighter than the axon seven it's not really noticeable in the hand thanks to the accent seven slightly more dramatic curve which also helps reduce the size of a camera bump you can purchase one of the many style swap covers to not only eliminate the one plus is slightly larger but still minor camera bump but also to make the oneplus easier to grip while it's light edges do help with grip when using the phone without a case the result in some pretty sharp corners which iPhone to uncomfortably dig into my hands the exon 7 is much more comfortable and elegant looking because of ZG ease no edge philosophy but the trade-off is that it's even more slippery than the oneplus one of the one plus three is more unique features is its alert slider which is a handy visual indicator of your phone's ring our status in regards to the navigation keys both devices allow you to swap the back and multitasking buttons which is certainly a great option to have it's worth mentioning that the one plusses buttons are both illuminated and spread out more than the Exxon sevens keys which makes them easier to find I also wish that ZTE would have included an option to enable on-screen keys like the oneplus has both displays are 5.5 inch AMOLED panels but the axon 7 is of a higher quad HD resolution compared to the 1 plus 3 1080p resolution interestingly the exon 7 still has better battery life than the 1 plus 3 but I'll talk about that in just a moment I have to agree that you don't really need a quad HD display for daily use as the difference compared to a full HD display isn't all that noticeable if you don't plan on using a VR headset in the future the 1 plus 3s display will be absolutely fine and as a plus it is a bit brighter so sunlight readability is also slightly better one other thing though I noticed that the 1 plus 3s display tends to scratch more easily than the axe on sevens despite both being coated in Corning Gorilla Glass 4 it might just be me but do be aware that you might want to pick up a screen protector since both phones are being powered by the high end Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 with the audrina 530 GPU performance is identical I didn't notice a discernible difference when launching or using apps despite the 1 plus 3s display theoretically being less of a burden on the GPU the oneplus 3 does include a whopping 6 gigabytes of RAM compared to the accent sevens 4 gigabytes and yes I'm aware that there's also a 6 gigabyte xn7 variant but it's not available in the u.s. at least not yet and when it does launch it's very likely going to be more expensive than the 1 plus 3 anyway 6 gigabytes is definitely good for future proofing but for the time being this isn't a major advantage at least in my opinion one of the advantages that both the oneplus 3 and axon 7 offer is unlocked dual SIM support unlike the one plus 3 which is only fully compatible with AT&T and t-mobile the xn7 works on all major US carriers you can also insert a microSD card into one of the sim card slots on the xn7 to expand its 64 gigabytes of internal storage up to an additional 256 gigabytes the oneplus 3 does also include 64 gigabytes of storage but it doesn't offer any expansion options unfortunately for the fingerprint readers the oneplus threes is embedded in its home button on the front whereas the exon 7 is slightly recessed on the back below the camera both readers are very fast and accurate and although the oneplus 3 seems very slightly faster side-by-side the difference isn't really noticeable day-to-day the accent 7 also has a major advantage with its dual stereo front-facing speakers one plus three single bottom firing speaker is loud sure but it sounds distorted and is only overall of average quality the axon 7 setup is a optional with Dolby Atmos around some technology this is perhaps the best mobile audio experience I also found the exon 7 battery life to be about 15 percent better in a Geekbench battery life test and about 25 percent better in daily use likely thanks to better power management in ZTE software the sizes are three thousand two hundred fifty milliamp hours for the axon seven and three thousand milliamp hours for the one plus three you can expect about five hours of screen on time with the axon and about four with the oneplus for fast charging each company has taken a different approach the exon 7 has Qualcomm quick charge 3.0 for a 50% charge in 30 minutes while the 1 plus 3 has - charging for a 60% charge in 30 minutes which despite the difference in percentages is about the same amount of usage time I do like how - charging keeps the heat in the charger rather than the phone but I personally prefer quick charge 3.0 for tube acuity and compatibility with more than just designated oneplus cables the one plus 3 is camera is 16 megapixels with an app 2.0 aperture and the xn7 is 20 megapixels with an F 1.8 aperture both cameras have oh is and PB AF in good lighting I slightly prefer the xn sevens images more and here's why well the oneplus three offers more accurate color reproduction it seems to prefer a cooler color tone compared to the exon sevens warmer tone which is something that I personally think looks more natural despite the exon 7 sometimes unnatural looking color reproduction the colors are more saturated with the axon 7 - which can make certain parts of an image pop with that said both cameras lack vividness in some shots and I notice that the oneplus 3 like to bring up the shadows which sometimes led to flat looking images for low-light images neither did well at all unfortunately both cameras produce soft and noisy images with subpar color reproduction although I will say that the 1 plus 3 doesn't much better job at distributing light across the image allowing for oftentimes sharper and more detailed shots it doesn't go crazy with noise reduction like the son seven does either so images don't look as bad as they do with the axon seven in low-light environments both phones support 4k video recording but it's sort of a toss-up as to which image is better many of the things I noticed when looking at daytime images are also visible here if you look closely the exon 7 does appear to have more artifacts but it's less noisy than the oneplus Three's image óas seems a bit wonky on the 1 plus 3 as well and there is some minor corner warping here and there generally speaking the exon 7 seems to do better in good lighting and during video while the oneplus three offers slightly less disappointing low-light images the Exxon 7s camera app offers a bit more in pure functionality but outside of those features the experience is mostly the same each app is easy to use while still offering comprehensive manual modes for software both include android 6.0.1 marshmallow but the oneplus 3 includes oxygen OS 3.22 on top of android well the x m7 includes me favor UI 4.0 whereas oneplus conforms fairly closely the stock Android while still adding a few useful features and settings ZTE takes a more interventionist approach with a good number of UI tweaks and unique features there's nothing really wrong with that on its own but it's worth mentioning that oxygen OS does feel more polish while some of ZTE s additions are clever there are still some fairly rough edges for example you have to press the notification bell on the lockscreen every time you want to see your notifications and unlike stock Android there's no option to change this if you're interested in things like custom roms the 1+3 will likely be a better match thanks to its better developer support mostly due to its unlocked bootloader the X on sevens bootloader is locked out of the box and currently cannot be unlocked so it's difficult to say whether we'll ever see that sort of variety come to the axon 7 you can purchase either phone unlocked neither grey or gold for $400 the xn7 is available from various retailers well the oneplus 3 can be purchased from the oneplus website do keep in mind that ZTE offers much better after sale support with its premium two-year warranty exxon passport 2.0 although oneplus offers a standard one-year warranty their customer support has been notoriously lousy so you'd likely have a better experience with ZTE if you ever need help both the oneplus 3 and ZTE axon 7 deliver excellent smartphone experiences at very affordable prices to be clear you'll be very happy with either option you go with however if you'd like an alert slider 6 gigabytes of RAM better camera for low-light and a more polished software experience you should take a closer look at the oneplus 3 on the other hand if you'd rather have a higher resolution display support for all major US carriers microSD card expansion a killer audio setup better battery life and a two-year premium warranty you can't go wrong with the axon 7 thank you so much for watching this video please make sure to give it a thumbs up below if you liked it and don't forget to subscribe if you haven't already finally be sure to visit the Android Authority website for additional coverage as we are your source for all things Android