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ZTE AXON mini officially announced, pressure sensitive screen, octa-core chip and eye scanner in tow

ZTE AXON and AXON mini

ZTE is continuing its push in to the market of competitively priced premium smartphones with today’s official announcement of the ZTE AXON mini. The phone was initially unveiled back in July, but today it gets official pricing and release details for the first time…

Like the Huawei Mate S and iPhone 6s, the ZTE AXON mini has a pressure-sensitive touchscreen to add a level of enhanced functions to the user interface, including interactive gaming. Inside, there’s a Snapdragon 616 octa-core processor paired with 3GB RAM and an Adreno 405 GPU. There’s also a 5.2-inch 1080p resolution Super AMOLED display panel packed in to a body that’s only 70mm wide. That means the bezels are only 0.85mm thin. On the back, there’s a 13MP camera with phase detection autofocus, on the front is an 8MP snapper.

Other specs include an impressive 2800mAh battery, 32GB internal storage and up to 128GB expandable storage via MicroSD card. All of this is built in to a handset made primarily from Boeing 787 aircraft-grade aluminum-titanium alloy. To add an element of class, the front glass covering the display is slightly curved towards the edges. If all that tech isn’t enough, you’ll be glad to know it also has both a fingerprint scanner and an eye scanner. What’s more, customers will have a choice of three metallic finishes – Ion Gold, Chromium Silver and Rose Gold.

ZTE plans to launch the AXON mini in China through its MyZTE store and JD.com initially, with rollout expanding to Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, Russia, Japan, India, Australia, France, Germany, Turkey, Spain and Italy in the coming months. In China, it’ll cost CN¥2299 ($364) for the Ion Gold and Silver models, while the Rose Gold phone will be CN¥2399 ($379). In Europe pricing will be €329 and €349 for the same color options, while in Asia-Pacific it’ll be $379 USD and $399 USD. There’s also going to be a ‘Premium Edition’ which costs CN¥2699 ($430), but details on what make this the ‘premium’ version are scarce. We’d presume — like many other smartphone ranges — it means having 4GB RAM and 64GB storage.

If those specs aren’t quite premium enough for you, the ZTE AXON pro is available for just over $100 more and comes with a 5.5-inch QHD resolution display, 4GB RAM, Snapdragon 810 processor and a 3,000mAh battery which is compatible with Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 2.0 tech. Or, if you have a taste for high-end devices without the high-end prices, and want some more options to choose from, check out our list of discounted flagship devices and our roundup of the most disruptive phones on the market now.

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