Traditionally Samsung has always been the first company to announce a flagship phone of the year, setting the benchmark for all phones moving forward. Many Chinese brands have been trying to be first, and Xiaomi claimed to be the first with a 5G device last year with the Mix 3 5G.
ZTE has finally pipped Samsung to the post with the announcement of the Axon 10s Pro featuring the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865.
As far as phone launches go, it is a little boring, being very similar to the Axon 10 Pro 5G that precedes it. It comes with the same large 6.47-inch AMOLED display featuring a 2340×1080 resolution, a 19.5:9 aspect ratio, and curved edges.
The AMOLED display will also feature an under-display fingerprint scanner.
Memory, storage and launch software is also all the same MiFavor 10 (Android 10)
The stand out feature is the Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 865 SoC which has a CPU with 4x Arm Cortex-A77 and 4x Arm Cortex-A55 core then an Adreno 650 GPU and a Hexagon 698 DSP/NPU.
With this using the SD865 the phone is 5G equipped and it also has the new ultra-fast Wi-Fi 6
This is then paired with 6 GB or 12 GB of LPDDR5 as well as 128 GB or 256 GB of UFS 3.0 NAND flash storage.
The camera is well specced, but will likely lag behind most 2020 flagships with it using the same specification as the last model. There is a triple-module rear camera system containing a 48 MP main module with OIS, an 8 MP telephoto camera, and an ultrawide 20 MP module. In addition, the phone has a teardrop 20 MP selfie camera.
The phone has a 4,000 mAh battery that can be charged using a wired or wireless charger supporting Quick Charge 4+.
The ZTE Axon 10s Pro will be available in the near future at prices starting at CNY 3,200 in China (£354.50).
There is no word on UK or any international release and pricing. It looks like the ZTE Axon 10 Pro was only ever available through grey imports, so I wouldn’t get your hopes up.