ZTE Axon 20 5G's woeful under-display camera hits almost rock bottom in DXOMARK's selfie rankings

ZTE might have gained a small feather in its cap by producing the world’s first commercially available full-screen smartphone with under-display front camera, but it seems that hidden selfie shooter in the Axon 20 5G isn’t really very good. DXOMARK has finished testing the new ZTE smartphone’s front-facing camera and could only manage to come up with “stills exposure generally stable” and “focus is stable” as pros, which almost sounds like saying “yes, it does actually take photos”. Unfortunately for the ZTE Axon 20 the list of cons was much longer and quite damning.

It’s clear to see in DXOMARK’s report just how pitifully the ZTE Axon 20 5G’s under-display camera performs. Images are affected by high noise, poor color reproduction, depth-of-field issues, fuzziness, and low detail level. The Axon 20’s selfie camera is so woeful that it only received 26 points, leaving it second from the bottom of the ranking, with only the Intex Aqua Selfie on 22 points saving the ZTE smartphone from complete selfie shame. The ZTE Axon 20 5G costs US$449 for a variant with a 6.92-inch OLED, Snapdragon 765G, 8 GB + 128 GB configuration, and 64 MP main camera lens.

Many OEMs seem to be targeting punch-hole reduction or complete removal as the way forward for smartphone selfie camera technology in 2021. There’s no denying a smartphone free of screen blemishes of any sort leaves the user with all the display they need for viewing content, and there would be plenty who would rather have that kind of display than a first-class selfie camera. ZTE is obviously targeting the group who would rather show off the full screen of the Axon 20 5G than the products of its substandard 32 MP selfie shooter.

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