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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ottonis - Sunday, August 1, 2021 - link
The rules of market are fairly agnostic with regards to what customers "accept" and what they don't.As long as a company can sell good amounts of phones and even increase their margins, they will cut literally everything from the phone.
The point is: what will the consumer purchase? The mere fact that Apple Google etc are cutting away SD slots and abalogie audio ports means that a sufficient number of customers purchase these products, even at a premium price.
So, best thing to do is simply to ignore such devices and focus on comanies/brands/device models that still incorporate these components into devices.
The Sony Xperia 1/5/10 Mark III come to mind as great alternatives, although in my opinion they are quite overpriced for what they offer especially in the camera department.
The Xiaomi Pico X3 pro has a 3.5mm jack, an SD card slot, a fairly ok-ish main rear camera, is available on Amazon even in the US and costs only 280 bucks.
I am seriously considering on giving up on so called "flagships" and instead run a cheap bread and butter smartphone that does everything I need and want, and if I plan on shooting some good photos just carry around an ultra pocketable mini camera such as Canon Gx7iii or one of the Sony Rx100 models, all if which easily fit into a jeans pocket.
drajitshnew - Friday, July 30, 2021 - link
Consumers have to accept that micro SD cards are dying out. The newer micro SD express standard has been out for some time, has connectors available from at least amphenol, and has support from WD. But not even Sony Xperia supports it. There is nothing we can do about it.As for the 3.5 mm Jack, it actually provides SUPERIOR audio quality than USB -C Analog audio (the dongle type) because the Analog signal is transmitted by pins in close proximity to those carrying high frequency and high power signals. And if the signal is being output like that it is actually misleading to call it a 32 bit 192KHz audio, or something similar.
But as I said I seriously am starting to think that I made a mistake in buying a fringe model with a 3.5mm audio but botched call management.
drajitshnew - Friday, July 30, 2021 - link
The hyped audio advantages of USB-C only come into play if you output digital audio to an external high quality DAC. But that adds bulk and COST disadvantages. Also, most midrange phones have USB 2.0flyingpants265 - Friday, July 30, 2021 - link
Hard to beat the Poco X3 Pro for the price...BillyBeane - Friday, July 30, 2021 - link
Will be compatible with any US carriers after the 2g/3g shutdown? Does it do VoLTE? What Frequency bands is it compatible with?docola - Friday, July 30, 2021 - link
It's a deal killer for ANY phone that is chinese for me.Xiaomi etc has confirmed our suspicions when all kinds of data
was found to be sent to odd russian and chinese servers.
Too bad because they make great phones (xiaomi) at cheap prices.
Its selling your soul to the spy devils. No thank you.
flyingpants265 - Saturday, July 31, 2021 - link
Xiaomis are basically sold at cost. For $270 USD or whatever for the pro model, you can't really go wrong! That's cheaper than the old Nexus 4, Nexus 5, OnePlus One. Half the price of a Samsung Galaxy S3 on release.I'm flashing AOSP on mine. But of course that wouldn't change anything that might be contained inside the chips.
drajitshnew - Friday, July 30, 2021 - link
Kudos to @Andrei for b introducing browser based web benchmarks. The blacklisting and whitelisting shenanigans are seriously impairing the utility of PC mark.@dotjaz recently got a fresh perspective on the utility of software updates. Realme x7max [? Realme GT 5G] got bricked twice, before they figured that it was being caused by a software update. I was also advised and did a factory reset [unsuccessful] because my calls don't appear on the screen -- seriously.
As a reference Microsoft has done an absolutely amazing job with the technology and support in Windows 10. But it has got more brickbats for BSODs and bricking from them same updates.
flyingpants265 - Saturday, July 31, 2021 - link
What on earth? Windows 10 is one of the worst pieces of software ever made.nicolaim - Friday, July 30, 2021 - link
No good software update policy?No wireless charging?
LOL