ZTE Axon 40: Everything you need to know

ZTE has launched its latest flagship phones, the ZTE Axon 40 Pro and ZTE Axon 40 Ultra – though surprisingly, no regular Axon 40 was announced.

The two handsets look quite similar to each other with huge curved displays, but it’s the Ultra that is most remarkable thanks to triple cameras and a fully hidden under-display selfie camera on the front for a screen with no notch.

The Ultra has ZTE’s third generation of this under-display technology, and how it works appears to be far more advanced than the awfully primitive effort on Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 3.

We’ve just reviewed the Ultra, awarding it 3.5 stars out of 5. Why not higher? Click here to read the review and find out.

In the meantime, here’s everything you need to know about the ZTE Axon 40 Pro and Axon 40 Ultra.

When did the ZTE Axon 40 Pro and Ultra release? 

The Axon 40 Pro and Axon 40 Ultra went on sale in China on 13 May.

The Ultra was given a global release a little later, on 21 June, and the Pro hit the international market a few weeks further on, on 11 July.

Unusually, the global release does include the US and Canada, though you’ll have to buy the handsets SIM-free, rather than through a carrier.

How much does the ZTE Axon 40 Pro and Ultra cost?

With two phones, there are two sets of prices to know about. First up, here’s how much the Pro costs:

• 8GB+128GB: $499/£439/€499
• 12GB+256GB: $599/£529/€599 

And here’s the global pricing for the Ultra model:

• 8GB+128GB: $799/£709/€829 
• 12GB+256GB: $899/£809/€949

You can buy both direct from ZTE.

For reference, here’s how the previous Axon generation was priced at launch:

• ZTE Axon 30 5G (8GB+128GB) – £429/$499
• ZTE Axon 30 5G (12GB+256GB) – £519/$599
• ZTE Axon 30 Ultra (8GB+128GB) – £649/$749
• ZTE Axon 30 Ultra (12GB+256GB) – £739/$849

What about the ZTE Axon 40 Pro and Ultra specs and features?

With no regular model, the Axon 40 series goes straight in at ‘Pro’. The Axon 40 Pro is no slouch, with a quad-camera array featuring a 108Mp main sensor. Its punch hole selfie camera is positioned in the centre.

It’s powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 870 chipset, with a 6.7in AMOLED 1080p screen, up to 144Hz refresh rate and a zippy 360Hz touch sampling rate.

But ZTE has reserved the best specs for the Axon 40 Ultra, which has that nifty under-display selfie camera.

The phone is rocking the top-of-the-line Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, a 6.8in AMOLED with 1116p resolution and 120Hz refresh rate. It’s kept going with a large 5,000mAh battery and 65W wired fast charging.  

On the back it’s got triple 64Mp cameras, the main and ultrawide both using the Sony IMX787 lenses, while the third is a periscope telephoto with optical image stabilisation (OIS).

Both phones run MyOS 12, ZTE’s flavour of Android 12.

The Axon 40 range will also support the new Snapdragon Sound technology that we’ve seen on Redmi K50, Xiaomi 12, and Vivo iQOO 9 Pro Legend. Joining this will be dtsX Ultra audio, so the speakers should produce decent audio.