I bought a ZTE AxonPad 5G.
Rare 5G-enabled high-performance tablet
The ZTE AxonPad 5G is a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1-powered Android tablet that supports 5G and 4G data communication.
It is a rare high-performance tablet with 8+ Gen 1, but it also supports GPS location acquisition for a perfect indoor grab.
It also supports Snapdragon Sound with aptX Lossless, which is rare for a tablet, allowing you to enjoy high-quality Bluetooth music playback.
The biggest drawback is… “it’s for corporate use, so normal people can’t buy it”.
This review is done on the 8GB+256GB version and MyOS 13.0.15MR_PA01.
- High performance Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1
- 5G data communication support
- 12.1″ 120Hz display
- USB 3.2 Gen 1 port for video output
- Fast GPS location acquisition
- Snapdragon Sound with aptX Lossless support
- Almost no purchase route
- Priority is given to everyday use, no game-oriented settings
- No phone calls support
- No fingerprint sensor or microSD card support
| ZTE AxonPad 5G (PA01・P898P01) | |
|---|---|
| OS | Android 13 |
| RAM | 8GB / 12GB LPDDR5 |
| Storage | 256GB / 512GB UFS 3.1 |
| SoC | Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 |
| Display | 12.1inch 2560 x 1600 Aspect ratio 16:10 120Hz LCD |
| Size | 279 × 181 × 6.5mm |
| Weight | 605g |
| SIM | nano SIM |
| Rear Camera | 13MP (Hynix hi1336) |
| Front Camera | 16MP (Hynix hi1634) |
| Battery | 10,000mAh |
| USB Port | USB Type-C (USB 3.2 Gen1) |
| Bands | 5G：n1/n5/n8/n28/n41/n78 4G：B1/B3/B4/B5/B7/B8/B12/B17/B20/B34/B38/B39/B40/B41 |
Index
- 1 Rare 5G-enabled high-performance tablet
- 2 Display: Beautiful 12.1-inch large screen
- 3 Back: Metallic, fingerprint resistant
- 4 Camera: easy to use for memo use
- 5 Speakers: Relatively strong bass
- 6 Ports: 5G data communication and video output also supported
- 7 Performance: very narrowly focused with priority given to everyday use.
- 8 OS: ADB setting required for non-English languages
- 9 Conclusion
Instructions, charging cable, and charger are included.
No protective film is attached.
The ZTE Employee Special Edition (中兴员工特别版) comes with a separate protective glass and protective case.
The charger is limited to a fast charge of up to 45W in 100V regions.
Display: Beautiful 12.1-inch large screen
The ZTE AxonPad 5G has a 12.1″ 2560 x 1600 resolution display.
The bezels are left in place to prevent accidental operation when held in the hand.
LCD, but there seems to be some areas that have been rounded off in places.
It does not seem to affect the appearance in particular, and the color tone and viewing angles are good.
When brightness was measured with the LX-1336B during all-white display with automatic brightness adjustment on, it reached a maximum of 503 nits.
This is sufficient for indoor use.
Refresh rate is 120 Hz.
The touch latency measured by the WALT Latency Timer was 24.4 ms, and the screen rendering latency was 32.3 ms, for a total of 56.7 ms.
The latency is a little high.
Widevine L1 allows streaming in HD quality on Amazon Prime Video (beta) and others.
Unfortunately, it only supports face unlocking and does not have a fingerprint sensor.
Back: Metallic, fingerprint resistant
The back design is metallic and does not suffer from fingerprint smudges.
A stylus pen can be attached to the back if purchased separately.
It weighs 619.5 g.
Camera: easy to use for memo use
The ZTE AxonPad 5G has a 13MP (Hynix hi1336) camera.
It is a pea-sized sensor for its exaggerated design.
The minimum focus distance is quite short, and it is easy to focus on close objects, making it easy to use for memo purposes.
Speakers: Relatively strong bass
The ZTE AxonPad 5G is equipped with quad speakers.
The bass is relatively strong, and the back of the device starts to vibrate when the volume is turned up, although it is easy to hear even small bass notes.
The treble is a bit subdued and sometimes seems to be overpowered by other sounds.
It is equipped with Awinic aw882xx SmartPA.
The audio output delay was 33.1 ms when measured with the WALT Latency Timer.
Bluetooth supports AAC / aptX / aptX HD / aptX Adaptive / aptX TWS+ as well as LDAC.
It supports Snapdragon Sound with aptX Lossless.
It is a type of aptX codec that can be configured in detail, and you can enable the 96KHz sampling rate mode of aptX Adaptive, or choose between high quality mode or gaming mode for each apps.
It supports DTS:X Ultra too.
Ports: 5G data communication and video output also supported
The ZTE AxonPad 5G is equipped with a USB 3.2 Gen 1 port.
It also supports video and audio output in DisplayPort Alt Mode.
Only one nano SIM card can be inserted.
You can also purchase a data plan from 7.9 CNY and up from the settings, although you can only pay with WeChat Pay or AliPay…
5G data communication is available.
Although VoLTE is supported, calling function is disabled so calls cannot be made.
GPS, MICHIBIKI, and other location data acquisition is available, and A-GPS compatibility enables quick positioning even indoors.
The power and volume buttons are located in the upper left corner, and the power button is jagged to make it difficult to press the wrong button.
There are pins and magnets on the bottom for attaching the keyboard case.
Performance: very narrowly focused with priority given to everyday use.
The ZTE AxonPad 5G is equipped with Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, but since it is a corporate model originally designed for office use, it does not offer gaming-related features and its usual performance is quite limited.
In Geekbench 6, the package name-disguised version (i.e., not affected by the manufacturer’s illegal boost) had a single-core of 814 and a multi-core of 2549, while the standard version had a single-core of 1741 and a multi-core of 4567.
Since the differences are quite large, it seems that the performance is controlled by the package name determination.
Even the normal version score is lower than other 8+ Gen 1 phones, and power consumption is reduced by keeping performance to a minimum.
AI performance measured in Geekbench ML with TensorFlow Lite/NNAPI was a score of 314.
The Wild Life Extreme Stress Test in 3DMark with disguised package name showed a score of 2777 to 1944, with a temperature increase from 33°C to 42°C (9°C increase) and a battery consumption of 7%.
While the performance is modest compared to the Xiaomi Pad 6 Pro, it generates less heat and consumes less battery power.
PCMark Work 3.0 (package name disguised), which measures performance in everyday use such as document manipulation, scored 10553.
It has UFS 3.1 storage and LPDDR5 memory.
The speed is there. Again, it may have been held back to reduce power consumption.
Playing Genshin at the highest quality, 60FPS setting, and Sumeru, and measuring with WeTest PerfDog, the average power consumption was 51.7 FPS at 155.86 mW per FPS.
The battery temperature rose to a maximum of about 42°C.
With power-saving tuning and no performance mode, gaming performance is a bit low for an 8+ Gen 1 tablet.
OS: ADB setting required for non-English languages
Although ZTE AxonPad 5G allows only English and Chinese as language options, you can enable USB debugging in the developer options and reboot after running e.g. settings put system system_locales ja-JP (ja-JP means Japanese. Use ISO language code and replace it) in the adb shell to enable languages other than English.
The ZTE Employee Special Edition is not customized, and there are only a few preinstalled applications.
The ability to set the language for each application, which is often suppressed in the case of manufacturer customization, is available in MyOS.
You can use gesture operations such as double-tap to turn the screen on/off or split the screen with three fingers.
The sidebar feature called Z-SmartSidebar allows you to quickly display a floating window by registering your favorite applications.
In this way, it is easy to use the browser during a game to open and examine the game.
An emergency mode function is provided to allow minimum communication even if some hardware fails by skipping that part.
I was expecting to see a advertised dual OS, but I couldn’t find anything like that in the settings or setup guide.
There was a private data storage and app duplication feature that could be locked by gesture, so maybe “dual OS” is just a marketing word.
Conclusion
- High performance Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1
- 5G data communication support
- 12.1″ 120Hz display
- USB 3.2 Gen 1 port for video output
- Fast GPS location acquisition
- Snapdragon Sound with aptX Lossless support
- Almost no purchase route
- Priority is given to everyday use, no game-oriented settings
- No phone calls support
- No fingerprint sensor or microSD card support
The ZTE AxonPad 5G is a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 that delivers performance unmatched by budget tablets, but is tuned to save power on a regular basis and has good battery life.
It also has features not found in other tablets, such as 5G and A-GPS support for fast location acquisition and aptX Lossless support, and it is a shame that it is not sold to individuals.
The ZTE AxonPad 5G can be purchased from 3499CNY for Chinese corporations.