ZTE Axon 7 mini hands-on: meeting the affordable flagship's little brother
![ZTE Axon 7 mini hands-on: meeting the affordable flagship's little brother](https://m-cdn.phonearena.com/images/articles/253788-image/mini-header.jpg)
ZTE's Axon 7 launched earlier this year as the company's new Android flagship, with a high-res 5.5-inch 1440 x 2560 AMOLED display, top-shelf Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor, 64GB storage standard, and 4GB of RAM. With extras like promised support for Google's upcoming Daydream VR platform, the Axon 7 would have been an attractive phone even if priced up around the level of the Galaxy S7 or HTC 10 – but instead ZTE was practically giving the Axon 7 away with a killer $400 price tag.
![The ZTE Axon 7 and new Axon 7 mini - ZTE Axon 7 mini hands-on: meeting the affordable flagship's little brother](https://m-cdn.phonearena.com/images/articles/253787-image/compare.jpg)
The ZTE Axon 7 and new Axon 7 mini
The new handset isn't exactly a super-petite mid-4-inch model or anything, but a toned-down, 5.2-inch alternative to the full-sized Axon 7 mini. It keeps an AMOLED screen but moves to a full-HD 1080 x 1920 resolution, runs a Snapdragon 617, and drops storage and memory to 32GB and 3GB, respectively.
A smaller phone also means compromises, though, and as the Axon 7 mini dials down its dimensions compared to the Axon 7 (147.5 x 71 x 7.8mm vs. 151.7 x 75 x 7.9mm), we also see its battery shrink – from 3,250mAh to 2,705mAh on the mini. Luckily, fast charging is still supported (albeit Quick Charge 2.0 instead of 3.0).
Fans of the Axon 7's high-quality audio will be pleased to know that the same DAC/ADC pair is back for the Axon 7 mini, but with a newer version of the chip that combines multiple components into a single package.
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Things that are NOT allowed: