Mobile World Congress 2019 is finally here, and it has been the home of a number of awesome new phones across a range of prices. ZTE isn’t skipping the show this year, and has taken the opportunity to reveal its first 5G smartphone — called the ZTE Axon 10 Pro 5G — alongside the decidedly midrange Blade V10.
Both of the new phones feature contemporary designs and decent specs, though the Axon 10 Pro is easily the more interesting of the two. Here’s everything you need to know about the the ZTE Axon 10 Pro 5G and the ZTE Blade V10.
ZTE Axon 10 Pro 5G
As the name suggests, the ZTE Axon 10 Pro 5G features 5G connectivity, and it’s the first phone from ZTE to do so. What does that mean? When 5G networks go live, you’ll be able to connect to the fifth-generation mobile network, which will deliver faster speeds. The 5G rollout will take some time, though, so don’t think you need to buy a 5G phone this year.
It looks modern too — the Axon 10 Pro has an edge-to-edge screen with a small teardrop-shaped notch for the front-facing camera. On the back of the phone is a triple-sensor camera, but that’s about it — the fingerprint sensor has been moved to under the display, similar to the Galaxy S10 and the OnePlus 6T, but we’re not sure what technology it’s using just yet.
It’s perhaps what’s under the hood that’s really important here. The Axon 10 Pro is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 processor with the X50 modem, which is what enables the 5G connectivity. The 855 processor is what almost all flagship Android phones are using this year, so expect powerful performance.
According to ZTE, the Axon 10 Pro 5G also features an artificial intelligence performance engine that adjusts CPU, GPU, RAM, and ROM assignment using A.I. algorithms. What that means exactly remains to be seen. That engine is also used for things like motion camera, scene recognition, and more.
Unfortunately, that’s about all we know about the phone right now. ZTE only gave us a few details about the Axon 10 Pro 5G — but if we had to speculate, we would assume the phone has 6GB or more of RAM and at least 64GB of storage, though 128GB is probably more likely. We do know that it’ll be available in the “first half” of 2019, and will be coming to Europe and China.
ZTE Blade V10
Details about the ZTE Blade V10 are a little more concrete. The phone also features a modern design, with a similar-size notch for the front-facing camera. What is different is that it has a larger chin bezel, and does away with the triple-lens camera in favor of a dual-lens sensor instead. On top of that, there is a fingerprint sensor on the back of the phone — there isn’t one under the display. The screen comes in at 6.3 inches with a Full HD resolution. On the bottom of the phone, you’ll get a USB-C port.
When it comes to specs, the Blade V10 features an oct-core 2.1GHz processor, along with either 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage, or 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. As mentioned, the camera is dual-lens, with one 16-megapixel sensor and one 5-megapixel sensor for depth-sensing. The front-facing camera, interestingly, is a whopping 32 megapixels, and it features what ZTE calls “smart selfie” technology, though we don’t know much else yet. The battery powering everything has a 3,100mAh capacity.
The ZTE Blade V10 will be available in Black, Blue, or Green, and it’ll be available in China, Europe, and Latin America sometime in March.
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