I’m not sure how I feel about the ZTE Axon V, but it sure is inventive as hell. For starters, it’s managed to crack the notch and camera punch hole problem and delivers on a complete bezel-less screen experience without moving parts… but its lack of a notch has led the front-facing camera to manifest somewhere else. This is the ZTE Axon V, and it’s the world’s first smartphone… with a TAB.
Reminiscent of folders that have tabs in the side (to let you open to a particular category), or for the more paperless generation, the tab from your favorite web browser, the Axon V comes with a protrusion on the side which houses the front-facing cameras… two of them. The protrusion would, technically, count as a bezel, but somehow it doesn’t, because it doesn’t conflict with the full-video content you’re watching, whereas notches, chins, and hole-punches do. The Axon V has a complete 6.8-inch edge-to-edge screen otherwise. The tab on the side is the part I’m sort of confused about. My immediate sense of aesthetics tells me it’s wrong. There’s no app to fix this tumor on the side of my phone, which sort of plays a crucial element, given it’s also responsible for facial-recognition unlocking.
But then again, we’ve lived in a world with phones that have had antennas and phones that were awkwardly shaped to begin with, like Nokia’s N.Gage (an icon in mobile gaming, no doubt). The ZTE Axon V may not have a desirable aesthetic in today’s smartphone line-up, but it isn’t the weirdest phone ever made (that title would probably go to the Nokia 7600). We’ve put weirder looking smartphones in our pockets, and pockets, for centuries, haven’t changed much… so the Axon V should fit into them jeans just fine.
Designer: ZTE Axon V
The US government is about to help rural carriers give Chinese telecom equipment the boot. President Trump has signed the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act (the Secure and Trusted Telecommunications Networks Act in the Senate), mandatin...
In 2018 the US government banned government personnel from using Huawei and ZTE devices, and a few months later, Huawei sued on the basis that such restrictions were unconstitutional. Since then, Huawei's situation and ability to do business in the U...
The FCC is acting on its vow to keep Chinese technology out of American wireless networks. Commissioners have unanimously approved an order barring any carrier receiving Universal Service Fund subsidizes from using that money to buy equipment from co...
The US government might not be content with blacklisting Huawei and otherwise making it clear that Chinese wireless companies are personas non grata. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has put forward a proposal that would forbid Universal Service Fund recipient...
ZTE is making its way back to the US smartphone market with a flagship model, which could rival other relatively affordable premium devices like the OnePlus 7 Pro. The Chinese manufacturer has released the Axon 10 Pro in the country today -- its firs...
The US government now has some pretext for outright bans on doing business with Chinese telecom firms like Huawei and ZTE. President Trump has signed an executive order declaring a national emergency banning sales and use of telecom equipment that po...
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is putting its funding and research ties with Huawei and ZTE on hold due to US investigations against the Chinese companies. The university will also add extra layers of scrutiny to projects and funding linke...
The quest to create all-screen phones has led to some unusual camera designs, but ZTE's ideas might just take the cake. Notebook Italia appears to have leaked details of two phones, the Axon S and Axon V, that would go to great lengths to avoid notch...
Last year, the US Senate abandoned its attempts to block the President's deal with ZTE that effectively ended trade sanctions against the Chinese firm. That doesn't mean American lawmakers stopped keeping a close eye on the company, though. A group o...