Under-display cameras fall under a niche section of the smartphone market and only appear on expensive or highly region-limited devices. Xiaomi Mix 4, Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3/4, and ZTE Axon 40 Ultra are some of the phones that have an under-display camera, but these are either expensive, limited to China, or both.
However, ZTE’s new Axon 30s aims to make the technology a lot cheaper, though it is still limited to China for now.
The ZTE Axon 30s has a clean edge-to-edge display thanks to its under-screen camera. This is a huge 6.92-inch OLED screen with 1080p resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate. It has support for 1 billion colors and HDR10. The fingerprint sensor resides underneath the display and ZTE has perfected the under-display camera technology to the point it is virtually invisible.
Even though it’s a budget phone, it is equipped with the high-end Snapdragon 870, which beats most modern upper mid-range chipsets. It will be available in two different memory configurations including 8 GB/128GB and 12 GB/256 GB and it even has a memory card slot.
For software, it brings Android 12 OS with MyOS 12 on top.
The main camera on the back is a 64MP sensor sized at 1/1.73″ and it’s paired with an 8MP ultrawide camera, a 5MP macro sensor, and a 2MP depth lens. It is one of those rare mid-range phones that is capable of 4K 60 FPS video recording with 10-bit colors and HDR.
The under-display selfie camera is a 16MP shooter, though it is worth mentioning that UD cameras generally lack image quality.
Battery capacity is 4,200 mAh with support for 55W fast charging, and a compatible charger is included in the box.
ZTE Axon 30s has a starting price of only $238 in China. It will be available in Black and Blue color options.