ZTE are in the difficult position of facing stiff competition in their home market of China, as Xiaomi and Huawei are the two dominant domestic smartphone manufacturers. Unperturbed by the competition, ZTE instead decided to take the fight elsewhere and are one of the more successful Chinese businesses when it comes to selling smartphones away from China, in particular the North American market. Part of the reason for this is because ZTE have a respectable portfolio of patents with which to defend their portfolio. In this respect, ZTE is a number of months, if not years ahead of Xiaomi, although Huawei have also made significant inroads in their international markets. ZTE’s strategy of selling devices into the North American and European markets means we occasionally see smartphone launches in these markets and perhaps not released in China.
To this end, last week we saw ZTE announce their latest smartphone, the ZTE Axon. The Axon offers high end, flagship-grade features for a relatively bargain price of $449. We know that the device will be released in the United States of America and we also believe it’s going to be sold into Canada too, but we are not sure about other markets around the world. However, what appears to be a variant of the ZTE Axon has appeared on Chinese Telecommunication Equipment Certification Center website under the name ZTE A2015. The device looks very similar and has a similar specification with one critical difference: there’s a fingerprint scanner built into the back of the A2015. In other respects, the device has a 5.5-inch, QHD (or 1440p, or 1,440 by 2,560 pixel resolution) display and is based around the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor, which is equipped with 4 GB of RAM for smooth multitasking. There are dual 13MP rear cameras plus a single 8MP front-facing camera for selfies and video calling. Under the skin, the device has a 3,000 mAh rechargeable battery.
At this juncture, there is no information on whether the ZTE A2015 is a Chinese-exclusive version of the Axon, an alternative model that will start off in China and be available elsewhere in the world, or perhaps some mix of the two. Likewise, there is no information on the pricing of the A2015 and of course, no information on the availability of the device, either.