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Take a closer look at the ZTE Axon (pictures)

The ZTE Axon is pretty much identical to the ZTE Axon Pro, but it sacrifices a bit of performance to come in at a lower price.

Nate Ralph
Associate Editor Nate Ralph is an aspiring wordsmith, covering mobile software and hardware for CNET Reviews. His hobbies include dismantling gadgets, waxing poetic about obscure ASCII games, and wandering through airports.
Nate Ralph
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ZTE Axon

Meet the ZTE Axon. It's identical to the ZTE Axon Pro, ZTE's flagship smartphone. But the processor and display have been dialed down in favor of hitting a slightly lower price.

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That's the ZTE Axon in the middle, but one of these phones is an Axon Pro. You'd be hard pressed to tell the difference without running tests: the phones share much of the same hardware. The phone's 5.5-inch display is coated in Corning Gorilla Glass 3, and has a 1080p display.

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The solid metal body feels nice and sturdy, and it's available in three colors: silver (shown here), gold and dark blue. And see those cameras? One is a 13-megapixel shooter, the other is a complementary 2-megapixel camera that helps the phone capture a wider depth of field.

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Shoot in the phone's Bokeh mode and that second lens will help capture a range of apertures, so you can shift the focus of your shot later on.

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Here's the front speaker grille.

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The phone measures 6.06 by 2.9 by 0.37 inches.

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There's a dedicated camera button on the right edge.

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The headphone jack sits up top. The phone has a pair of audio chips that work together to pump out high-quality hi-fi audio. You'll only hear the souped-up audio if you're playing music through headphones, but it sounds rather nice in our tests.

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And here's the MicroUSB port -- you'll charge the phone here.

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Here's another ZTE Axon, this time in blue.

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