Today we're going to be getting an underside look at the underscreen camera on the Axon
30. And it'll be interesting to compare it side by side with the Samsung Fold 3, which
also has an underscreen camera. We have to wait till I get my hands on that one. But
we should still see some pretty cool hardware when this is opened up. And speaking of cool
hardware, huge thanks to Mech Arena for sponsoring this video. Mech Arena is a brand new tactile
team based mobile game that allows you to build and fight customizable Mechs, with upgradeable
weapons. It's totally free to play. There are capture the base style rounds, or last
man standing rounds. You can play by yourself, or with friends. There are dozens of Mechs
and plenty of weapons to build up and collect. Plus, it's one of those games that you can
just pick up and play for a couple minutes, or sit for hours if you really want to upgrade
your tech. With the recent global launch, there are plenty of events and giveaways happening
this week in the game. It's totally free on Android and iPhones, but if you own a Blackberry
or Windows Phone you're kind of on your own. And if you use the link down in the description,
you get an additional Steel Reaper Skin, as well as 500 A-coins, and 70,000 credits, so
you can start customizing your own Mechs. My username in the game is JerryRig, so if
you see me running around play nice and keep in mind that I was the one that left the link
in the description for your free upgrades and coin. Now it's time to check out some
real world hardware that can see through your screen. Let's get started.
[Intro]
Underscreen cameras are kind of fascinating, like the high tech version of a 2-way mirror
which means they are equally creepy. I'm curious though what would happen if we took the underscreen
camera and brought it out from underneath the screen. Would it still work? Right now
it's peering through 7 layers of transparent screen material. I want to see the camera
quality when it's not buried. Maybe some of these halos would go away. Hopefully it'll
all still work when the phone is taken apart.
Heat is, once again, our friend, as well as a plastic back. Plastic is a lot more forgiving
than a glass back panel, cuz as we know, glass is glass and glass breaks – plastic, not
so much. With a few slices and dices from my razor blade, the plastic is cut loose from
the softened adhesive and we're clear to start removing the screws holding down that plastic
to the frame. There are 18 screws total and it looks like the battery is once again warning
us not to dissemble. Maybe we should listen this time. Just kidding. With the screws removed
we can start peeling off the back plastics. The seam runs along the side of the frame.
I'll remove that SIM card tray and of course, there's one extra screw next to the orange
ribbon that I missed. I'll pop that out and remove the NFC pad. I've actually never used
NFC before and it looks like this phone never will either.
For some reason the back plastics are still very difficult to remove and that might be
because one, there's a sneaky little screw hidden under the metal and glass camera lens.
And there's another screw right above that. I think I'm so used to working with massive
Humvee parts that I forgot how tiny these little guys are. Finally though, the back
plastics are off and the phone looks super clean inside. Dark circuit boards give it
that matte black everything vibe. We want to leave everything plugged in and connected
so we can run that camera once we pull it out from underneath the screen. I unscrewed
the two silver screws holding down the motherboard before I realized that I could just peel back
the front facing camera like a high tech banana and run the unit just like that.
The screen of the Axon 30 is actually not totally clear. It is see-through for sure,
but the 400 pixels per inch in front of the camera unit provides a murky greenish pond
water aesthetic for the camera to be looking through. It'll be interesting to see how it
compensates. I'll turn the phone on and then we can get our first look at the underscreen
camera out from underneath the screen. And it looks surprisingly normal. Hardly any visible
color correction. It looks like the front facing camera from any other $500 smartphone.
And only when I put it back under the screen do those halos around the light show back
up. Very interesting. Give me a thumbs up if you want to see me try this on the Fold
3. With how much I enjoy seeing things work from the inside, it's probably good I didn't
go into the medical industry. Props to those guys for everything they do though...especially
lately.
Let's go a bit deeper and see what cracks during the durability test. With the Axon
30 turned off again, I'll unplug the two battery ribbons just like little Legos, along with
the other ribbons running along that bottom side of the motherboard. The front facing
camera is also connected with another Lego-style connector. It's a cute little guy. With all
the ribbons and wires disconnected, the motherboard can pull free, revealing a large copper vapor
chamber, as well as some blue thermal paste. The paste helps transfer heat from the processor
to that vapor chamber and then gets rid of it.
The two little cameras, the 5 megapixel macro camera and two megapixel depth camera do not
have OIS. The large rear facing 64 megapixel camera and the 8 megapixel ultra wide also
do not have any optical image stabilization. Coming down to the bottom of the phone, we
find our other underscreen camera for the fingerprint reader. I've found that the scanners
with the lens tend to work better than the flat sensors embedding under the screen so
that's good. The loudspeaker's next and in what looks like a world first, ZTE has put
thermal paste underneath their loudspeaker. Either the Axon 30's sound system is so bump
and it needs cooling, or it could just be that the paste is used to dampen vibrations.
Probably option two, but still pretty interesting.
The charging port board is pretty simple. It just has the USB-C port, a SIM card tray,
and that lower microphone. The battery inside of the Axon 30 does not have any visible pull
tabs, so I'll drip some isopropyl alcohol below that battery to help dissolve any adhesive.
It's not my favorite way of doing things, but it is safer than brute force. The battery
is 4,200 milliamp hours and can charge at 55 watts thanks to the dual charging plugs
up top. Finally, if you remember during the bend test there was a large cracking noise
that happened while the phone was flexing. It obviously still survived that crack, but
it looks like that noise emanated from the portion of the frame between the power button
and the volume buttons. Not catastrophic to the functionality of the phone, but it was
still definitely pretty close to being catastrophic and still something to watch out for.
As far as the water resistance goes, it does have the normal rubber around the charging
port and SIM card tray, but no official IP rating. The water damage indicator stickers
are here next to the little circular vibrator and over here on the motherboard as well.
They turn pink when they get wet. Personally, I like ZTE's ambition, trying out new things
before everyone else. These guys also made that dual screen phone with the display on
both the front and the back. That one was pretty cool. I'm glad that in a world of regular
rectangles, ZTE is keeping things interesting. With all the screws back in place, even the
hidden ones, we can turn the phone back on, plug it in, and ZTE has that 50 watts of power
coming in up to the decimal place which is pretty cool to watch it charge. We can position
the back plastics, and with that huge apple on the back, it's kind of hard to tell this
is an Android phone. Luckily everything still works.
Underscreen cameras just keep getting better and better so keep that in mind. Huge thanks
to Mech Arena for sponsoring this video. Their link is down in the description. And come
hang out with me on Instagram and Twitter. Thanks a ton for watching. I'll see you around.