It seems that the ink is barely drying on the ZTE Axon smartphone introductory card and we are already seeing rumors of a follow-up device. ZTE are alleged to have spent eighteen months working on the ZTE Axon but when it comes to the follow-up device, one of their product managers said this to TechnoBuffalo: “Assume a similar cycle you see from other manufacturers. We might try to pick up the pace just a little bit.” From this, it is implying that ZTE may have the follow up device ready sometime before July 2016, although they might be following Asus and Sony (and to a lesser extent Samsung) and be moving to a six month product cycle. Although, ZTE’s comments do imply that moving to a six monthly release cycle is unlikely.
As far as the improvements to the second generation Axon device, ZTE were not able to talk about specifics because they are waiting for customer feedback from the first generation device. This feedback will help them ascertain what parts of the original device need the most attention, both in the case of hardware specification and features to add or remove. As regards the original device, this metallic smartphone is based around a 5.5-inch, QHD resolution display – that is, 1,440 by 2,560 pixels. This is an IPS LCD panel, giving it wide viewing angles. Under the skin, the Axon is equipped with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor and 4 GB of RAM. The Axon also comes with a Hi-Fi chipset designed for excellent quality recording and listening. There’s also 32 GB of local storage but no microSD slot, a 3,000 mAh battery, an optically stabilized 13MP rear camera (complete with a 2MP depth-sensing camera) and an 8MP front facing camera.
The source website also discussed the Axon Mini, Axon Lux and Axon Watch devices. The last of these was only recently released in China. ZTE explained that we should “stay tuned” for an announcement regarding the Axon Mini but that the Axon Watch ran a Chinese operating system, which is not going to be used outside of China and as such, the wearable device won’t be leaving the country for the time being.