The ZTE Axon 7 Mini's premium feel starts with its luxurious packaging.
The premium smartphone market is an interesting place to play. While Apple set the bar and Samsung soon followed, it’s no longer a two-player market as new entrants from both Korea and China are making it clear that they have no interest in ceding a lucrative space with affluent, savvy users.
ZTE’s flagship Axon 7 is arguably the most accessible and well-reviewed premium smartphone to come out of China. While other brands like Huawei and Xiaomi have created interesting options on both the low and high end of the spectrum, respectively, their offering have often felt like rough imitations. The Axon 7, with its comfortable metal finish and minimalist design cues, has more in common with more refined offerings from companies such as HTC.
For those who have eyed the Axon 7 but have found it more phone than they can handle, ZTE has launched the Axon 7 Mini, a phone that carries many of the same design cues and features, in a more pocketable size. ZTE acknowledges that with the plethora of Android phones on the market, finding a decent case can be a challenge, and as such, included a simple yet attractive slim-profile clear shell case for the Mini, which preserves the phone's clean lines and pocketability.
The ZTE Axon 7 Mini leads with unassuming elegance, dual front-facing speakers, and solid hand-feel.
We had a chance to go hands-on with the Axon 7 Mini, and found that there’s a lot to like: it has incredible sound for videos and games (thanks to its built-in front-facing stereo speakers Dolby Atmos audio), and an excellent camera that can compete with some of the best Android offerings on the market. The video recorder, in particular, yielded a much more stable image than some comparable handsets from Samsung. We did find that it has some challenges in lower light with the camera: the flash, while decent, still can’t compete with the TrueTone flash on the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus. That said, daylight images we captured with it featured robust colours and sharp details.
Battery life was good, but pales when compared to its larger brother; bigger batteries equaling longer runtimes shouldn’t shock anyone. The battery does charge rapidly though (using its included Quick Charge power brick), so if you do have some downtime during the day, battery life won’t be an issue.
The unlocked version ZTE Axon 7 Mini ships with a clutter-free version of Android Marshmallow.
Our one frustration with the Axon 7 Mini is that it continues to run Android Marshmallow, even though a newer version, Nougat, is already available out in the market. The 3GB of RAM means that slowdowns and interface hiccups are kept to a minimum, but already being one operating system version behind is a challenge that Android phones in general and the Axon 7 Mini in particular need to shake. (We're looking at you, wireless telcos.) Its 32GB of onboard storage might be a bit snug for avid app downloaders, photographers and videographers, but its microSD card slot and increasingly affordable microSD cards would address this issue satisfactorily for most.
To offer a general conclusion on the Axon 7 Mini it would be this: it's an excellent contender in the premium phone space, giving the Korean and other Chinese offerings some serious competition. It’s worth considering if you’re in the market for a better quality Android smartphone.