ZTE Axon 30 arrives in Malaysia with under-display camera, priced at RM2,599

ZTE has slowly but surely been reintroducing itself as a flagship brand towards Malaysians. Previously, we saw them drop the ZTE Axon 30 Ultra here, the first ZTE flagship we’ve had officially in quite a while. Now, ZTE have also launched the base model ZTE Axon 30, which may have a lesser processor but is still fairly interesting in terms of specs and features.

Pricing and availability

The ZTE Axon 30 is now available for purchase in Malaysia. You can get it from either their official store on Shopee or Lazada, and is priced at RM2,599 for its sole configuration with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage.

ZTE are also bundling a set of Beyerdynamic DTX 350m wired headphones that are worth RM239 if you get the ZTE Axon 30 from now till the 4th of January next year. You should note though that these headphones use the 3.5mm jack which this phone does not have. The device also comes with 18 months of local warranty.

ZTE Axon 30 specs and features

Right off the bat, you’ll notice the very large 6.92-inch, FHD+ AMOLED display. Capable of a 120Hz refresh rate, it’s a full screen in every sense of the word, as it has no punch hole cut out or notch. The ZTE Axon 30 also doesn’t have a pop-up camera either; instead, the selfie camera is hidden away underneath the display itself, just like the selfie camera on the inner display of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3. However, many others have found that ZTE have tucked it away much better than Samsung have, meaning it’s much less noticeable than the one of the Galaxy Z Fold 3.

Camera-wise, you’re getting a quad-camera setup on the rear in an almost-dual ring like camera island similar to that of the Honor 50 or Huawei P50. It has a 64MP, f/1.8 main camera using the Sony IMX682 sensor that’s flanked by 8MP, f/2.2 ultrawide lens and a 5MP, f/2.4 macro shooter as well as a 2MP, f/2.4 depth sensor. The selfie camera that’s tucked away under the display meanwhile is a 16MP, f2.5 shooter.

Under the hood, the hardware is near flagship specs, but not exactly either. It’s powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 870 system-on-chip, and is paired to 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 256GB of UFS3.1 storage. You’ll also find the Android 11-based MyOS11 skin out of the box. Keeping the lights on is a somewhat measly 4,200mAh battery, but it does come with 65W charging via USB-C. The ZTE Axon 30 weighs about 189g and the rear is actually made of a composite polymer, rather than glass.

Other features of note include an under display fingerprint scanner as well as 5G, WiFi 6, NFC and Bluetooth 5.1 support. It doesn’t have a 3.5mm headphone jack and disappointing doesn’t seem to have stereo speakers either. You’ll be able to get the ZTE Axon 30 in two colourways, Black and Aqua. The Axon 30 is certainly still a very interesting device though, and those who are tired of notches and punch hole cutouts should definitely take a look at this smartphone.