The ZTE Axon 30 Ultra Review - Something Surprisingly Different
by Andrei Frumusanu on July 30, 2021 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Mobile
- Smartphones
- ZTE
- Axon 30 Ultra
Battery Life
In terms of battery life, the Axon 30 Ultra features a 4600mAh battery. Combined with the lower resolution 1080p screen, in theory we should be seeing quite good results out of the phone, but there’s also the fact that it has a more power hungry Snapdragon 888 powering it, so results could end up anywhere.
In the 60Hz web browsing results, the Axon 30 Ultra ends up in a very disappointing spot at 11.76 hours. I say it’s disappointing because of the juxtaposition to the Mi 11 which has the exact same battery capacity, the same SoC, but features a 1440p 120Hz display. At 60Hz, in theory the Axon 30 Ultra should have been able to outlast the Mi 11, but yet it only does so by a few minutes which is far below expectations.
One of the biggest mysteries in this year’s flagship devices continues to be abnormally high baseline power consumption characteristics of almost all non-Samsung non-Apple phones, and the Axon 30 Ultra also suffers from such, dragging down its overall device efficiency.
I had looking into the base power consumption of the 144Hz mode, and the mode had a large delta compared to the 120Hz mode. ZTE even goes so far to say in the display settings that the 144Hz mode drains battery significantly faster. Given the negatives and very little positives to use the mode over the 120Hz mode, I see no reason for people to ever chose it.
At 120Hz, the Axon 30 Ultra naturally incurs an efficiency hit, and again here the most interesting comparison is against the Mi 11 – which this time actually lasts longer than the Axon, which is sad given that the phone is driving a higher resolution display.
In PCMark, the Axon 30 Ultra does averagely good. Oddly enough here it manages to beat the Mi 11 more consistently as it becomes less display power bound in the test.
Generally speaking, the Axon 30 Ultra should have average to good battery life. The phone does not have the latest generation components such as a power efficient display to compete against more expensive competitor devices, but it’s also not outright bad and generally in line with what we’ve seen with gen-1 or gen-2 phones.
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warisz00r - Friday, July 30, 2021 - link
"somewhat particular device"coburn_c - Saturday, July 31, 2021 - link
From across the specific ocean.dotjaz - Friday, July 30, 2021 - link
"Surprisingly Different"And unsurprisingly lacking on software support.
Seriously, it probably cost an extra $100000 to offer one more update and one extra year of security. That's maybe $1 per phone. Just charge the extra dollar or five.
sabot00 - Friday, July 30, 2021 - link
No way. An extra year of support is easily 5-10 million USD. Even if dev work was free, the cost of carrier certification is huge.linuxgeex - Friday, July 30, 2021 - link
Except that with project treble all the components which are involved in carrier certification do not change with security updates. Carrier re-certification revolves around the baseband, which rarely changed even before project treble.jvl - Saturday, July 31, 2021 - link
So charge 5 USD more. Or 10 USD more. Which is exactly what OP proposed.. (Nonwithstanding below's comment)Samus - Sunday, August 1, 2021 - link
Agreed. If PR honestly pitched these things with guaranteed software support for 3-4 years I don't think an extra $5-$10 would phase anybody, especially since nobody (other than Apple I suppose) does that.Silver5urfer - Friday, July 30, 2021 - link
Why should anyone buy this device which has literally same lack of feature set from HW perspective = no 3.5mm jack, no SD card slot, questionable servicing support and OS support. For that cash I'd get a Sony Xperia 5 Mark III. Which has everything this phone lacks and even better Front display due to no hole or such.neothe0ne - Friday, July 30, 2021 - link
Agreed. Xperia 5 III is also likely to end up being supported on AT&T's network from February 2022 onward. I don't see any ZTE Axon on the list so far.https://www.att.com/idpassets/images/support/wirel...
drajitshnew - Friday, July 30, 2021 - link
@silversurfer I absolutely agree about microSD cards and 3.5mm Jack. I bought my currently phone because it had a flagship-eque chipset and 3.5mm Jack support.I thought that 256GB flash would alleviate the need for micro SD. As I described above though it required a factor reset and 2 (two) complete re-imaging. And I think it be would have been a LOT less painful if it had a microSD. At the same time I guess we as consumers have to accept