ZTE Axon 11 5G review - More than just affordable 5G - Android

The ZTE Axon 11 5G is part of a new wave of affordable 5G-ready smartphones sweeping through the Android landscape. The aim of the game is to offer a comprehensive hardware package for day-to-day use while undercutting increasingly obscene $1,000+ flagship price tags. Does the ZTE Axon 11 5G have enough of a unique selling point to stand out in this increasingly competitive market segment?

What’s the ZTE Axon 11 5G all about?

The ZTE Axon 11 5G is the successor to 2019’s ZTE Axon 10 Pro, but the phone is more of a sideways step than a direct high-end replacement. If you’re after the latter, you’ll want to check out the upcoming ZTE Axon 20. Instead, the Axon 11 strives to introduce 5G to the Axon series without the usual premium-tier price tag.

While the Axon 10 Pro featured a high-end Snapdragon 855 processor, the Axon 11 5G opts for a mid-range Snapdragon 765G. That said, day-to-day performance is as responsive as ever and the phone is also well suited to some light gaming sessions. Just don’t expect to max out any graphics settings.

Read more: Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G vs Snapdragon 865

However, the Axon 11 5G loses out on the 10 Pro’s Qi wireless charging. Moreover, it drops the telephoto camera sensor for macro and depth sensors, which, frankly, are nowhere near as useful. Sadly there’s no headphone jack, which remains a reasonably common feature on more affordable devices. The speakers, while passable, lack bass too, but there’s an excellent assortment of Bluetooth codec support for wireless playback. An IP dust and water resistance rating doesn’t make an appearance either, but that’s to be expected at this price.

Overall, the ZTE Axon 11 5G is a markedly mid-range package, with some familiar pros and cons that you tend to find at this price bracket.

What it’s like to use the ZTE Axon 11 5G?

The Axon 11 5G is a quintessential 2020 smartphone. Competent for everything you’ll do on the daily, but it doesn’t offer anything to stand above the crowd. 5G is certainly nice to have, but it’s not a killer feature given that it’s quickly becoming standard and network availability remains hit and miss around the world.

That said, the hardware package is comprehensive enough. The FHD+ AMOLED display doesn’t suffer from any major issues, but it’s not the most accurate we’ve tested either. There’s no fancy high 90Hz or 120Hz refresh rate that you’ll find on some of its rivals. The handset is nice to hold at 7.9mm thick and just 168g, making it pretty lightweight for a 6.47-inch device. The overall design is decent, with a subtle curve to the display edges. The plastic feels a little cheap, however, and the rear camera housing is a bit ugly, and the notch looks too 2018. The red power button and volume rockers are easy to reach on the upper right side though, and both feel solid enough.

Overall, the phone is more functional than stylish. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

The phone retains a reasonably snappy, if not the most secure, optical in-display fingerprint scanner. 18W fast charging with Quick Charge 4+ support has you back up to 45% juice in half an hour. Although the phone takes nearly two hours to fully charge, which is rather slow. Fortunately, the large 4,000mAh battery easily lasts through a full day of moderate use. Although gaming is a bit more of a battery drain.

The ZTE Axon 11 caters to your essential smartphone experience, with a drop of 5G for good measure

Circling back to the camera, this is the phone’s biggest irritant. Four cameras sound great on paper, but it’s a below-par package. The Axon 11 5G is a textbook example where two or even one good rear camera would be preferable. The main camera is by far the best but is a tad aggressive with post-processing, making the digital-only zoom rather unpleasant to use. It can produce some nice-looking pictures with good colors and white balance. But the HDR implementation is poor, detail is so-so, and low-light pictures aren’t great. I wouldn’t bother with the 64MP shooting mode, as you don’t end up with anywhere near enough detail for the huge file size trade-off.