ZTE's upcoming smartphone looks like a true Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra rival

Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra
Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra (Image credit: Samsung)

You can rely on Chinese smartphone makers to put out interesting rivals to popular Android phones, and the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra is a particular target with lots of challengers to its phone throne. It seems like ZTE has a big one on the way.

We've been hearing about ZTE's upcoming Axon 30 series for a while now, and we know it's set to launch on April 15. The company has just teased the top-end entry in the line, the Axon 30 Ultra, and it's got us seriously impressed.

If you don't know about ZTE, we've got a phone brand guide on the company you can read here. It's a long-lasting company that's never made it big in the West, but puts out interesting phones - the Axon 30 Ultra is proof of this.

Something to stare at

On Chinese social media site Weibo, ZTE shared a video showing off its new ultra-phone, giving us a nice big look at the design. We also know a bit from the video caption, but most of the information is also shown in the video.

The phone has a giant camera bump - hence our Galaxy S21 Ultra comparison - which shows four cameras, including a big periscope one (for far-reaching optical zoom). We know the standard Axon 30 has three 64MP cameras, and it seems the Ultra has one extra lens.

The phone's screen is big, with a punch-hole cut-out in the top-center of the panel, and it curves quite dramatically at the sides. This should make it comfortable in the hand, though some people prefer flat-edge displays.

That's all we know about the phone so far, though if ZTE has gone all-out in the cameras, it likely has in the specs and display departments too. We don't know if the handset will get a global launch, as this seems to be a China-only tease, but previous Axon phones have.

As we said, there's a launch event on April 15, and hopefully we'll hear more about this Ultra phone then, so we can see if it rivals the Galaxy S21 Ultra in more ways.

Tom Bedford
Contributor

Tom Bedford was deputy phones editor on TechRadar until late 2022, having worked his way up from staff writer. Though he specialized in phones and tablets, he also took on other tech like electric scooters, smartwatches, fitness, mobile gaming and more. He is based in London, UK and now works for the entertainment site What To Watch.


He graduated in American Literature and Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia. Prior to working on TechRadar, he freelanced in tech, gaming and entertainment, and also spent many years working as a mixologist. He also currently works in film as a screenwriter, director and producer.