ZTE has just announced the Axon 7 for the Malaysian market this morning, with the handset being added into the list of budget smartphones such as the Xiaomi Mi 5 and the OnePlus 3. The Chinese manufacturer has also been busy at IFA 2016, though the Berlin tech showcase event only begins officially tomorrow. Now that ZTE has captured some attention with the Axon 7, the company has unveiled a Mini variant of the handset, with toned down specs.
The more compact version of the Axon 7, the ZTE Axon 7 Mini looks almost exactly like its older brother, only smaller. If you’ve seen the Axon 7, the Axon 7 Mini won’t look stranger to you at all. On the front, the display is reduced to 5.2-inches and its resolution to 1080p, which is nothing to be fussy about since Full HD is pretty much sufficient for a display of that size. Like its older sibling, the Axon 7 Mini’s display is being flanked by two front facing speaker, which should provide some immersive audio goodness for media consumption. Probably the only difference on the front, is the Axon 7 Mini has on-screen buttons instead of the non-lighted capacitive ones on the Axon 7.
Under the hood, you shouldn’t be expecting the exact same flagship specs like on the Axon 7. Aimed to sit within the mid range spectrum, the Axon 7 Mini features an octa-core Snapdragon 617 processor and an Adreno 405 GPU. We’re also looking at 3GB RAM instead of 4GB of RAM and half the internal storage at 32GB, which is nevertheless expandable via the hybrid SIM/micro SD slot. Though the ZTE Axon 7 Mini sports the same 8MP selfie camera as its flagship counterpart, the former has its rear camera at 16MP without OIS instead of the 20MP one on the latter.
The Axon 7 Mini features a USB Type-C port, a step ahead from micro USB ports, and packs a smaller 2,705mAh battery. A slight drawback is that the phone is only capable of Quick Charge 2.0 instead of 3.0, but then again it is a mid range device for a reason. The ZTE Axon Mini carries a price tag of €299 (RM1,368.36), which is nearly a third less than the Malaysian pricing of the ZTE Axon 7 (RM 1,999). What do you think?