ZTE Launches The Axon 7 Mini; Budget-Friendly Phone Comes With 5.2-Inch Screen, Snapdragon 617 And 3GB RAM

Chinese phone maker ZTE may have already been successful with the 5.5-inch Axon 7, and now the company is capitalizing on its popularity. The company has announced the ZTE Axon 7 Mini, a smaller and more affordable version of the original Axon 7.

The ZTE Axon 7 Mini comes with a 5.2-inch AMOLED display with a full HD 1080p screen resolution. Underneath, the handset is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 617 processor, an Adreno 405 GPU, 3GB of RAM and 32GB of onboard storage. Storage is also expandable up to 128GB through the handset’s hybrid SIM 2 card slot.

The Mini has a 2,705 mAh battery, which is also smaller than the 3,250 mAh battery found in the Axon 7. The device also comes with Quick Charge 2.0 support, instead of Quick Charge 3.0, according to 9To5Google.

In addition, the Axon 7 Mini comes with a pretty decent 16-megapixel rear-facing camera that’s equipped with an f/1.9 aperture lens, phase detection autofocus and a dual-LED single tone flash. The front-facing camera, on the other hand, has the same 8-megapixel sensor that’s found on the original Axon 7.

Although ZTE may have cut down on some of the premium specs, the Axon 7 Mini still comes with a USB Type-C 2.0 port, a fingerprint scanner, Dolby Atmos audio and HiFi sound recording and playback. The device also runs Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow out of the box.

When comparing it to the original Axon 7, ZTE simply made the Axon 7 Mini smaller and less powerful. The company is probably hoping to cater to consumers who may prefer a smaller phone by cutting down some of the bigger handset’s specs.

The Axon 7 Mini is cheaper at only €299 (or around US$335), which should help it gain some attention among the budget-conscious crowd. The handset will be available in the United States this September, but ZTE hasn’t announced a release date and official pricing just yet, according to Android Authority.