ZTE Axon 40 Pro launches globally with enticing specs at a reasonable price

Last month, ZTE released the Axon 40 Ultra outside China, its latest flagship smartphone and one with an under-panel camera (UPC). Resembling a Galaxy S22 Ultra, the Axon 40 Ultra also features a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset, a 5,000 mAh battery and a 120 Hz display. Now, ZTE has introduced the Axon 40 Pro to global audiences, which it unveiled in May for its home market.

To recap, the Axon 40 Pro has a 6.67-inch AMOLED display that operates at 144 Hz with 1,000 nits of peak brightness, a 360 Hz touch sampling rate and full DCI-P3 colour space coverage. For reference, the Axon 40 Pro borrows its display from the Axon 30 Ultra, which ZTE announced in April 2021. The utilisation of older hardware does not stop there either, with the Axon 40 Pro also relying on the Snapdragon 870, a re-badged Snapdragon 865 Plus.

For some reason, ZTE has opted against selling the Axon 40 Pro's top memory configuration, which featured 12 GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage. Instead, the Axon 40 Pro is available with up to 12 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage, or 8 GB of RAM if you only need 128 GB of storage. According to ZTE's website, both memory configurations are available in black and blue colour options, although the latter is sold out in multiple markets at the time of writing. At launch, the Axon 40 Pro costs $499/€499/£439 for the lower memory configuration and $599/€599/£529 for the 12 GB version. Please see our launch article for more information about the Axon 40 Pro.

Purchase the ZTE Axon 30 on Amazon