Having been the white box OEM of choice for multiple European wireless carriers, Chinese telecom equipment and electronics company, ZTE, launched a couple of new brands over the past year or so in an effort to better compete in the high-margin premium smartphone segment. While ‘Blade‘ continues to remain ZTE’s bread and butter sub-brand in its homeland, the company’s ambitious plans of becoming one of the three largest smartphone vendors in the US means its Nubia and Axon brands have to actually see more action when it comes to product launches. That’s exactly what seems to be happening now, with the launch of an upper mid-range phablet called the ZTE Axon Max in China. The device carries a price-tag of 2,799 Yuan ($425), and can be purchased from online retailer JD.com (also known as Jingdong Mall).
The Axon Max is a large screen phablet that clearly pays a lot of attention to aesthetics. The device is carved out of metal, and comes with an integrated fingerprint scanner on the back. The handset features a 6.0-inch Full HD 2.5D Super AMOLED display panel that’s manufactured by Samsung. It’s powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 SoC that incorporates an octa-core application processor. The phone also comes with an AK4961 audio chip, which suggests that ZTE wants to emphasize on the acoustic superiority of the Axon Max over its nearest competitors in the market. The smartphone also comes with 3 GB of RAM and 32 GB of built-in storage that can be further expanded with the help of a microSD card.
Taking a quick look at the cameras that come with the latest phablet from Axon, the device rocks a 16-megapixel primary camera on the rear, while a 13-megapixel front-facing shooter takes care of selfies and video calls. The smartphone carries a 4,140 mAh battery, and the inclusion of a new-gen chipset means that the phone is also Quick Charge 3.0 compliant, allowing the device to get 60 percent charged in just about one half hour. There’s no word on when the ZTE Axon Max might launch in international markets, but seeing as it has already made its debut in China, it shouldn’t be long before interested buyers worldwide can get their hands on the device.