ZTE beats Samsung to announcing the first Snapdragon 865 phone

Just days before Samsung is set to announce the Galaxy S20 series of phones, ZTE has jumped out ahead of the company and formally unveiled the Axon 10S Pro. Like Samsung’s upcoming devices, ZTE’s latest includes Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 865 chipset. But there’s no indication that ZTE will actually ship the Axon 10S Pro before the S20 lineup hits shelves, so which company really deserves the useless designation of “first” is really up to you.

The new Axon looks very similar to ZTE’s last flagship. Specs include a curved 6.47-inch FHD+ OLED screen (with a minimal notch at top center), 256GB of UFS 3.0 flash storage, and up to 12GB of RAM. Android Central says ZTE’s phone is the first with LPDDR5 RAM.

Not only does the 10S have Qualcomm’s latest and fastest processor (up to 25 percent faster than the Snapdragon 855), but ZTE says its AI-powered optimizations should consistently keep the phone running at its best. It’s also got a 4,000mAh battery inside.

ZTE has outfitted the Axon 10S Pro with a triple-camera system. The primary camera has a 48-megapixel sensor, which is complemented by 20MP ultrawide and 8MP telephoto cameras. The Axon 10S Pro is 5G-ready and also supports Wi-Fi 6. It’ll ship running Android 10 out of the box, but we don’t know exactly when that will be — or how much the phone will cost.