Gadgetory

i'm michael fisher with pocket now and i'm listening to old timey tunes in new york city because that's what you do when you go hands-on with the country's first - art phone join me for a quick look at the ZTE axon you heard me say it so you know it's true the mysterious axon phone comes to us from none other than ZTE but unlike the Nubia Zindzi maxes that came before at the axon has been designed from the ground up to lay a foundation for an unlocked flagship smartphone line here in the US CTE has done that by packing it with features it calls must-haves a fast hi-def camera elaborate audio enhancements a bright high-res display and a powerful set of specs the must-haves don't seem to include wireless charging microSD or optical stabilization by the way still there's some great stuff here specs include a Snapdragon 810 processor with 4 gigs of RAM and 32 gigs of storage a 3000 milliamp hour battery with quick charge 2.0 and 4G LTE plus with carrier aggregation this is a GSM phone by the way so Verizon and Sprint need not apply the screen is a quad HD TFT panel at 5.5 inches protected by Gorilla Glass 3 that looks exceptionally bright but then everything does in this demo hall so stay tuned for more on that around back there's a dual camera setup that reminds us of HTC's duo camera with a 13 megapixel Sony Exmor RS sensor backed up by a 2 megapixel focus assist module controlled by a dedicated camera button sorry though it's not dual stage the twin lens setup allows you to do things like change focus after the shot is taken again stuff we've seen before but the F 1.8 aperture should make for nice low-light shots and the 0.15 second autofocus will be handy for action shots as well for video you've got full 4k support and apparently the ability to capture clear audio from up to 20 feet away the audio enhancements include dual front firing speakers that wait no they don't only the bottom unit is actually a speakerphone the upper grille is for the earpiece only kind of lame but ZTE is hardly alone in this bit of trickery plug in some headphones like I've got on though there JBL earbuds that'll be included in the box with pre-orders of the axon and the sound gets crazy I've taken a few of the Dolby sound profiles for a test drive and even as a non audiophile I'm very impressed then they've got the brainwave scanner to prove it seriously though I compared the sound to the audio coming out of a droid turbo I had handy and while the latter was no slouch the axon really delivered like dominos with its dual dedicated audio chips and custom software there are enhancements to noise cancellation and sound reproduction on the voice calling side as well there's lots more for us to test drive including the 4G LTE plus radio stack and ZTE software skin which isn't exactly stock Android but is much thinner and lighter than other ZTE skins we've seen also the axon will come with android 5.1.1 when it begins shipping on july 27 if you want in on pre-orders there up now at places like amazon ebay new egg and of course from ZTE itself the phones available in three colors and it'll sell unlocked for just shy of $450 not exactly a budget phone but holding its own metal chassis and listening to its outstanding audio I understand why whether it's ultimately worth that price tag we'll have to wait for the full review as will our thoughts about whether this phone is good enough to serve as the base for ZTE snek stamped to capture the interest of US buyers for now I'll just say I'm excited to try it for more on this device stay tuned to pocketnow.com and follow us on social media till next time has been michael fisher from pocket now captain two phones on twitter reminding you to keep your axons firing we'll see you next time