ZTE Axon 40 SE Smartphone Review – The ZTE Axon 40 lineup has already introduced smartphones like ZTE Axon 40 Pro and ZTE Axon 40 Ultra. Both of them are quite exciting and appealing since they provide immersive features. Recently, the company launched the ZTE Axon 40 SE smartphone in October 2022. Unlike its siblings, this phone is designed to target the mid-range smartphone market and it also provides decent specs to attract interested buyers.
There’s no denying that the Axon 40 SE smartphone brings the same design layout as its siblings ZTE Axon 40 Pro and ZTE Axon 40 Ultra which makes this phone appears more premium than a regular smartphone. Besides this, you are getting lots of different things under the hood. The first impression with this phone does feel satisfying to some extent as you will obtain a decent display, good processing power, long-lasting battery life, beautiful camera results, and many more things. Let’s head toward the ZTE Axon 40 SE review to find out more details about this phone.
Table of Contents
ZTE Axon 40 SE Smartphone Review
Highlights
- The device offers a 6.67-inches AMOLED panel with a dot-notch 8MP selfie lens.
- As for the primary camera setup, you will receive a triple camera setup led by a 50MP lens.
- In terms of software layering, the company is providing the latest Android 12 based on the MyOS 12 customization.
- In terms of hardware support, the Unisoc T618 chipset handles the processing speed and offers decent GPU configuration.
- A Li-Ion 4500 mAh battery capacity arrives on the ZTE Axon 40 SE, which can be refueled through 22.5W fast charging.
Design and Display
The ZTE Axon 40 SE smartphone got a dual texture design layout that gives that phone a mesmerizing and fancy appearance. It looks pretty premium when you notice this phone from close, while there is two circular punch-hole camera module that further enhances the appearance. With that camera setup, it looks pretty similar to the Axon-40 series phones.
The built quality of the Axon 40 SE is looking sturdy even with a plastic body. Besides this, the phone manages the 182 grams weight properly so that you can get a lightweight smartphone experience. It will also offer two impressive shade options that include the Black and Blue shade variants. Both of them look classic and attractive, you can choose anyone that fits according to your taste.
On the other hand, the Axon 40 SE arrives with a 6.67-inches AMOLED panel that grants decent colors, saturation, and contrast. It will also provide a superb viewing experience even if you are getting a 60Hz refresh rate. But the significant issue with this phone is that it will render average brightness support. Though you can use the phone outdoors, most of the time, you will struggle to see screen content.
Memory and Internal
Undoubtedly, the hardware section is the weakest option of the ZTE Axon 40 SE. First of all, the company is use the Unisoc UMS512T T618 chipset that provides average processing power. It will render up to 2×2.0 GHz cloaking speed, which is more than enough to run your day-to-day tasks. But at the same time, it’s not ideal processing power for advanced games like Call of Duty, Apex legend, and many more. Fortunately, it’s possible to play casual games like Clash of Clans, Candy Crush, etc., without any problem.
The gaming experience does improve a bit with Mali-G52 MP2 GPU. But it won’t be able to handle heavy usage due to CPU limitations. Anyway, the software end is stable since the phone will provide Android 12 based on MyOS 12. With this combination, you will obtain decent customization perks, but you will see bloatware apps inside the interface. However, the ZTE Axon 40 SE smartphone does bring cool features that will help you in daily usage.
On the other hand, the phone comes with a dedicated secondary storage option so that you can expand your multimedia files directory even more. But at the same time, the 128GB internal storage is sufficient enough to store as much as data you want. Furthermore, the 4GB RAM support will handle the performance behind the scenes. Although, the smartphone doesn’t offer any other storage or RAM variant for the users to choose from.
Camera
The camera quality is mediocre compared to the competition, and the major drawback with the Axon 40 SE smartphone would be the lowlight photos. Image processing does improve quite a lot compared to the few years. But still, you will notice noise and oversaturation in the dark, while at the same time, the camera app struggles with exposure and dynamic range. But still, the daylight photos with the 50MP primary camera lens are good.
The colors are well-refined and the skin tone looks natural with precise contrast and fine details. It will handle most of the daylight satiation properly with HDR features, and grant impressive close-up shots with a 5MP macro lens. Although the portrait images look average because of the 2MP depth lens, the color saturation seems pretty accurate. The AI beauty features give additional features to change the facial features of the users and offer Instagram or Snapchat-ready photos.
Aside from this, the Axon 40 SE offers a standard 8MP selfie lens that brings decent colors and proper contrast in the daylight. But, the lowlight photo is the same as the primary setup. In terms of video recording, you are getting 1080p resolution videos with different modes. But you won’t expect proper video stabilization would be useless.
Battery and Others
The battery department brings a Li-Ion 4500 mAh battery that can easily provide roughly 6+ hours of screen time for anything you want to do with the ZTE Axon 40 SE smartphone. In terms of gaming, you can effortlessly play casual games for a few hours and even though, and the software optimized the battery life so that you don’t have to worry about charging this phone again and again. As for the charging speed, you will find a 22.5W fast charger inside the box.
With that, the phone only requires an hour and around 15-minutes to fuel the battery from flat to 100%. It will work pretty decent with the original charger. Though the sound output is great it’s not that loud and clear. Hopefully, you are getting a 3.5 mm jack port at the bottom section. At last, let’s talk about the price point. The ZTE Axon 40 SE smartphone’s starting price is around $294 (Rs. 24,290 in India) approx, on conversation, it becomes MNX 5,950, which is a slightly overpriced deal as a budget phone.
ZTE Axon 40 SE Specifications Detail
Down below you can see the full specifications of the ZTE Axon 40 SE smartphone.
| Specifications | ZTE Axon 40 SE |
| Network | 2G, 3G, 4G |
| Announced | October 2022 |
| SIM | Dual SIM |
| Dimensions | 6.44 x 2.98 x 0.30 inches |
| Weight | 182 g |
| Size | 6.67 inches |
| Display | AMOLED 20:9 ratio ~395 PPI density |
| Protection | No |
| Resolution | 1080 x 2400 pixels |
| OS | Android 12, MyOS 12 |
| Chipset | 12nm – Unisoc UMS512T T618 |
| CPU | Octa-core 2×2.0 GHz Cortex-A75 6×2.0 GHz Cortex-A55 |
| GPU | Mali-G52 MP2 |
| Card slot | microSDXC (dedicated slot) |
| RAM | 4GB |
| Internal | 128GB |
| Camera | 50 MP (wide), PDAF 5 MP (macro) 2 MP (depth) LED flash, HDR, panorama Max – 1080p@30fps |
| Selfie | 8 MP (wide) Max – 1080p@30fps |
| Loudspeaker | Yes |
| 3.5mm jack | Yes |
| WLAN | Yes |
| Bluetooth | 5.0, A2DP, LE |
| GPS | Yes, with A-GPS |
| NFC | Yes |
| Infrared port | No |
| Radio | Unspecified |
| USB | USB Type-C 2.0, USB On-The-Go |
| Sensors | Side-mounted fingerprint, accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass |
| Battery | Li-Ion 4500 mAh Fast charging 22.5W |
| Colors | Blue, Black |
| Expected Price | $294 (Rs 24,290 in India) approx. |
Conclusion
The ZTE Axon 40 SE smartphone cannot justify the price point, the reason for that is it offers a standard Unisoc processor, offering 4GB RAM, and a few other downsides that make this phone an overpriced deal in the budget smartphone range. There’s no doubt if the company release this phone with some discount, it could become an amazing deal for the users.
For now, we won’t suggest this phone to our users. But if you are getting additional discount offers, you can go with this phone. Aside from this, the phone is released in the Mexican smartphone market. But still, there are alternative options that fit a great deal such as Honor X40 GT which offers good specs and camera quality at an affordable price. In case you are looking for an all-rounder smartphone then we recommend to you check Xiaomi Redmi Note 12 Explorer smartphone.
