ZTE has been going after the unlocked market in the U.S. with its Axon family of smartphones, with the most recent release being the Axon 7 in July. Now the Axon family is growing again.
The ZTE Axon 7 Mini was announced today at IFA 2016. As you might expect, the Axon 7 Mini is a smaller version of the Axon 7, but both phones offer a similar outer shell. They’ve both got the same design, they’ve both got front-facing speakers, and they’ve got both got fingerprint readers below their rear cameras. Things get a bit different when you compare spec lists, though.
The Axon 7 Mini boasts a 5.2-inch 1920×1080 AMOLED display, whereas the Axon 7’s got a 5.5-inch 2560×1440 AMOELD screen. Inside the Axon 7 Mini’s all-metal unibody shell is an octa-core Snapdragon 617 processor, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, dual SIM slots (slot two can also hold a microSD card), a 2,705mAh battery with Quick Charge support, and a USB Type-C port.
There’s a 16-megapixel camera on the back of the Axon 7 Mini that offers phase detection autofocus and a dual LED (single-tone) flash, and around on the front of the phone there’s an 8-megapixel camera for your selfie needs. The software powering the Axon 7 Mini is Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow.
Finally, the Axon 7 Mini’s wireless connectivity includes GSM 850/900/1800/1900, HSDPA 850/900/1700/1900/2100, and LTE bands 1/2/3/4/5/7/8/12/17/20/38/40/41. ZTE tells me that the Axon 7 Mini will support LTE band 12 and VoLTE on T-Mobile, but not Wi-Fi Calling.
ZTE plans to launch the Axon 7 Mini in Russia, Germany, Spain, Poland, Japan, Australia, India, and Saudi Arabia at the end of September for €299 ($333 USD). The Axon 7 Mini will be sold in the U.S., too, but ZTE hasn’t yet divulged its U.S. launch and pricing plans for the phone.
The Axon 7 Mini isn’t quite as high-end as its larger Axon 7 sibling, but it’s still got a respectable feature set with premium features like a metal unibody design and dual front-facing speakers. We’ll have to wait and see how ZTE ends up pricing the Axon 7 Mini, but if you’re in the market for an affordable Android phone, this one might be worth keeping an eye on.
