Update | The much-expected ZTE Axon 9 devices could be on their way soon

Update: ZTE has teased the Axon Pro by sharing renders of the device. Going by the image, the device will sport a sizeable rectangular notch, and an obvious chin. At the rear resides a vertically-aligned dual camera setup. All three design features have been popular this year in what may have been a race to make the best iPhone X clone. As such, it's a bit disappointing to see the Axon 9 Pro do the exact same thing.

The Axon 9 Pro is expected to be released on August 30.

You can find the teaser image at the bottom of the page.

Original Article

ZTE released the Axon 7 lineup of devices back in Q2 2016. The devices, the Axon 7 in particular, went on to be hailed as some of the best bang-for-buck offerings on the market at the time, posing no small threat to similarly priced devices like the OnePlus 3 and Mi 5. 

Much earlier in the year, the company declared its intention to bring a successor to the Axon 7, in the form of the Axon 9, but its recent battles made that seem like nothing but a pipe dream. Thankfully, those rainy days are over for the Chinese company—following the payment of a hefty US$1.4 billion fine to the US government last month—and we could now be set to finally get the Axon 9 devices.

The devices made an appearance on ZTE’s RMA website with the code numbers A2019 and A2019 Pro, which fits in with the code numbers assigned to previous devices in the series. The Axon 7, for example, came with the tag of A2017—which isn’t particularly brilliant, of course, considering the fact that the device was released in 2016, but that’s beside the point.

There’s not much known about the Axon 9 or Axon 9 Pro but we can expect them to feature top of the line SoCs, possibly a Snapdragon 710 and Snapdragon 845 on the two respectively. They’ll also almost definitely sport front-facing stereo speakers, as this was one of the Axon 7’s biggest selling points, and plays into the Axon line’s niche as media-centric devices. There's a chance the devices will be launched in a few weeks' time, at IFA, but we'll have to wait and see.