The ZTE Axon 7 hit the U.S. shelves in July after being introduced in May. The smartphone boasts top-notch specs and at $400 does not burn a hole in your wallet either.
The affordable pricing aside, the ZTE Axon 7 is a tough cookie and can withstand a slew of stress tests.
YouTuber Zack Nelson, who goes by the handle JerryRigEverything — well-known for putting popular smartphones under the scanner and subjecting them to tests that determine the handset's robustness — put the latest ZTE smartphone to test. In a series of durability challenges, Nelson tested how the Axon 7 performs when scratched, burnt and bent.
He has selected the Axon 7 because it is currently the most popular handset from the Chinese OEM and has been garnering a lot of attention thanks to its pricing and top-end specs.
So, how did the Axon 7 fare?
Scratch Test
For the scratch test, Nelson used four picks with different tips on both the ends. As the glass had been scratched, it would reveal how hard or scratch-resistant the Axon 7's 5.5-inch QHD AMOLED display was.
Normal smartphones usually get scratched at level 6, but if a company were to deploy a cheaper screen, then the handset would scratch at level 4. A plastic screen — like that on the Galaxy S7 Active — would scratch at level 3.
The ZTE smartphone scratched at level 6, keeping it at par with most flagships in the market. Nelson also performed the scratch test on the device's front-facing 8-megapixel and rear-facing 20-megapixel cameras. However, the cameras did not get scratched at all because they are made of glass.
Both the bottom and top speaker grills are made of plastic and not metal and, therefore, got scratched easily. The dual LED flash on the rear of the handset is also not scratch-resistant. While the fingerprint scanner is not scratch-resistant, it could still be used seamlessly post the test.
Burn Test
For the burn test Nelson used a lighter on the Axon 7's screen with astounding results — the Android smartphone was unscathed! It was only 22 seconds, compared to 15 seconds for the Galaxy S7, after the heat was applied on the screen that the YouTuber could espy the appearance of faint white burn mark. This mark, however, faded away once the Axon 7 had cooled down.
Bend Test
The Axon 7 also passed with flying colors in the bend test. The only thing that happened when pressure was applied was that its screen lifted up slightly. The phone's body did not flex much either when pressure was applied from either end.
The torture tests clearly show that ZTE is on to a winner (in more ways than one) with the Axon 7. Check out the video of the torture tests below.
