ZTE Axon 40 Ultra: Flagship smartphone arrives with 3rd generation under-panel camera, a boxy design and triple 64 MP camera set up

The ZTE Axon 40 Ultra has arrived, albeit only in China for the time being. As ZTE teased beforehand, the Axon 40 Ultra has an under-display camera and a design that resembles Samsung's Galaxy S22 Ultra. Unsurprisingly, the Axon 40 Ultra also features the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, the flagship smartphone chipset of choice, until the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Plus arrives.

Moreover, ZTE equips the Axon 40 Ultra with a 5,000 mAh battery that supports 80 W fast charging, LPDDR5 RAM and UFS 3.1 storage. Incidentally, ZTE equips the Axon 40 Ultra with the following rear-facing cameras, all 64 MP sensors:

• Primary: Sony IMX787 (OIS, 35 mm, f/1.6)
• Ultra-wide: Sony IMX787 (16 mm, f/2.35)
• Periscope: Omnivision OV64B (OIS, 91 mm, f/3.5, 5x optical zoom)

Arguably, the highlight of the Axon 40 Ultra is its third-generation under-panel camera (UPC), which sits beneath a 6.8-inch FHD+ display. According to ZTE, the OLED panel comes from BOE and offers a 120 Hz refresh rate, 1,500 nits of peak brightness and 10-bit colour support. While ZTE has not provided any camera samples from the 16 MP UPC, @UniverseIce has showcased its capabilities. Seemingly, the camera captures more details than previous UPCs, although we would recommend waiting for in-depth reviews before passing judgement on its image quality.

ZTE will begin selling the Axon 40 Ultra from May 13 in China; a global release remains unknown at this stage. At launch, the Axon 40 Ultra will start at CNY 4,988 with 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage. Additionally, ZTE will offer the Axon 40 Ultra in the following memory configurations:

• 8 GB of RAM/256 GB of storage - CNY 4,988 (~US$748)
• 12 GB of RAM/256 GB of storage - CNY 5,298 (~US$795)
• 12 GB of RAM/512 GB of storage - CNY 5,798 (~US$870)
• 16 GB of RAM/1 TB of storage - CNY 7,298 (~US$1,095)

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