Today we're going to take a look, quite literally, at the 3rd Generation under
display camera on the Axon 40 Ultra. We'll see how this 3rd Generation holds up and if
anything has improved from last year. For reference, here's a clip from last year's Axon
30 with its 2nd Generation under display camera. You'll have to let me know down in the comments
which one you think is better, or if anything improved. While you're analyzing the quality,
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Now it's time to take a slightly more aggressive look
at this under display camera. Let's get started.
[Intro]
ZTE has been hiding under screen cameras in their phones for about 3 years now,
each version getting slightly better than the previous version...kinda.
Inside the box we do get a full suite of accessories,
a clear protective case, USB-C cable, and a 65 watt fast charging brick,
along with a set of headphones that happen to have a headphone jack for a phone with no headphone
jack. Some companies include less adapters in the box, but ZTE is here throwing them all in. As far
as the front camera goes, there is no hole punch and no notch. There's also no secondary patch
of screen that used to be there camouflaging the previous generations. This time around it appears
to be one panel of densely packed pixels, and very much invisible. When held at the very perfect
angle with perfect lighting, I can make out a small circle under the pixels, which is similar
to what an optical underscreen fingerprint scanner would look like. If you take a look at the Axon 20
from 2 years ago you can see how much improvement has been made with this concealment. We're moving
along pretty well, but what about image quality when compared to a regular selfie camera? Since
the camera under the glass is looking through the equivalent of a very dirty window even when
the pixels above it are turned off. The Axon 40 has to use some algorithms to clear up the image.
This leaves us with a very soft, almost beauty filter looking picture. Especially when we compare
it to my nearly 3 year old Note 10 Plus that's still my daily driver. I look like myself on
my own phone, but with the other camera I kind of look like that one girl we all know on Instagram.
ZTE has the hiding part of the underscreen camera nailed to perfection.
It's the camera part of the camera that still needs some tweaking. I wonder if we put a higher
megapixel camera underneath the screen if it would give more detail for the algorithm to work with.
Or maybe if we add two cameras with dissimilar pixel patterns over the top
so a single good image can be obtained after both images are combined. Or, you know, since I'm on a
roll here, ZTE could include a single camera with OIS that can optically shift slightly,
taking two pictures between pixels to get even more information for a single good image.
All suggestions from a guy with no experience in taking pictures under a display.
Either way though, I am impressed with the invisibility. It also scratches at level 6,
with deeper grooves at a level 7. It's kind of mind blowing. I'm zoomed in about 200%
resolution with a 4K studio camera, and there's still no indications of any 16 megapixel cameras
underneath the earpiece slit. Realistically, to the naked eye it is invisible. Nice work, ZTE.
The sides of the Axon 40 are made from metal.
Rather, thin slices of metal, with how much glass is waterfalling around both sides.
The power button and volume rocker are also both made from metal.
Up at the top of the phone we have more metal and what looks like an IR blaster.
Kind of cool. On the right side we have a whole lot more metal and a few antenna lines. On the
bottom we have our 65 watt USB-C port that keeps our 5,000 milliamp hour all juiced up,
along with a dual SIM card tray, but no expandable storage. ZTE did put the microphone hole down here
next to the SIM card hole, which will probably sketch out a few people who accidentally put
it in the wrong hole. No worries though, I did make a whole video about the holes
and why it's not an issue. I'll link that down in the description.
The back of the phone is pretty interesting. The Axon 40 Ultra
is taking the soft touched etched glass to another level,
going past soft straight into more of a textured glass with some major glitter.
Getting all up close and personal you can see the texture with your own eyes.
I'm definitely not complaining, I think it's actually pretty cool. Personally, I always have
a case on my phone so it wouldn't matter much to me either way. But I am down with the uniqueness.
We have 3 massive cameras on the back, all of which are 64 megapixels. The wide angle up top,
the main camera in the center, and a telephoto camera down at the bottom,
all tucked inside the pretty large rectangular glass camera bump.
The Axon 40 Ultra is ZTE's flagship at the moment, sitting right around $800. And yeah,
while it's under display camera might get the phone noticed, the display on top of the camera
can also hold its own. Pretty large at 6.8 inches. It's got a 120 hertz refresh rate,
1500 nits of brightness, and a 10 bit color depth with 1 billion different color combinations. And,
of course, since you're curious, it lasted for about 23 seconds on the burn test
before going white. The pixels do mostly recover though.
The selfie camera isn't the only thing hiding under the glass.
The optical fingerprint scanner is also under the slab and underneath the pixels. After setting my
fingerprint and adding level 7 deeper grooves, more than it would ever realistically see in life,
it's still able to read my fingerprint every time. Thumbs up for that. Finally though, we come to the
bend test. It's the final trial of durability that most phones do survive. I think the only phone to
break in half this year so far is the OnePlus 10 Pro, but I'm always down to add another to
the list. Lucky for this Axon though, when bent from the back it did feel a little squishy for a
split second but then locked out. When bent from the front there was a little pop but nothing out
of the ordinary and nothing catastrophic. The Axon 40 Ultra is another solid phone from ZTE.
I think the under display selfie thing is kind of cool. Personally I'm looking forward to seeing
how the Axon lineup can clean things up a bit more for next year. I'm curious though, does the
image softness bother you at all? Do you think this front facing camera is currently usable?
Let me know down in the comments. Hit that subscribe button if you haven't already. Come
hang out with me on Instagram and Twitter. And thanks a ton for watching. I'll see you around.