ZTE Axon 10 Pro comes to the US with a OnePlus 7 Pro-killing price
Before Huawei's relationship with Google and key US parts suppliers was jeopardized by Trump in an attempt to negotiate a better trade deal with China, ZTE almost went out of business due to a similar ban that was actually enforced for several months last year. Since then, the company has been struggling to recover from a financial standpoint, the latest move in that direction being today's US release of a new flagship smartphone.
This is technically not the first ZTE-made device to see daylight stateside after the aforementioned import ban and subsequent deal with the Department of Commerce, but you'd definitely be excused for ignoring the low-end Blade Max 2s, Blade Max View, and Visible R2. Unveiled in China a few months ago, the Axon 10 Pro follows in the footsteps of an Axon 9 Pro that never made it to the US, an Axon 8 that was skipped for some reason, and an Axon 7 that actually made waves (both stateside and "internationally") way back in 2016.
Don't worry, the ZTE Axon 10 Pro is all caught up to the latest industry trends, sporting a large and curvy 6.47-inch AMOLED screen with a tiny notch and razor-thin chin while packing a state-of-the-art Snapdragon 855 processor. Said SoC is paired with your choice of 8 or 12 gigs of memory, as well as a whopping 256 gigs of internal storage space. Despite all that local digital hoarding room, the powerhouse also comes with a microSD card slot for up to 2TB expansion, unlike you know what overpriced new flagship.
Speaking of, speed-addicted bargain hunters will be ecstatic to find out this bad boy starts at $549 in a GSM unlocked variant available through ZTE's official US e-store, as well as major third-party retailers like Newegg and B&H Photo Video. The 12GB RAM configuration costs just 50 extra bucks, going straight for the jugular of a similarly-specced OnePlus 7 Pro model fetching a significantly higher $749.
Granted, the Axon 10 Pro doesn't feature one of those fancy pop-up selfie cameras, but its "conventional" 20MP front-facing shooter and 48 + 20 + 8MP triple rear imaging system look pretty darn hot on paper. The same goes for a 4,000mAh battery that should help the phone keep going beyond the requirements of your typical day's work while maintaining a relatively slim 7.9mm profile.
Pre-loaded with Android 9.0 Pie on the software side of things, the ZTE Axon 10 Pro will be updated to the "next major" OS build "before the end of the calendar year", while also featuring all kinds of other premium stuff, like in-display fingerprint recognition, DTS:X Ultra 3D sound enhancements, and a combination of "high strength" aluminum alloy and 3D curved glass materials.
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