ZTE's Axon M not a foldable display; it's a phone with two displays

The trend for revolutionising the display of the smartphone has been the top priority for manufacturers since the last few years. Samsung has been experimenting with curved displays with its Galaxy S lineup whereas Xiaomi initiated the trend for displays with minimal bezels with its Mi MIX. The next in line are foldable displays and while Samsung is hard at it, trying to make it fit in a crowd of conventional smartphones, ZTE has unveiled a foldable smartphone. However, it’s rather a very simple idea that could have been implemented ages ago on a smartphone.

The ZTE Axon M is a foldable smartphone that uses two displays that measure 5.2-inches each. However, they are joined by a hinge, just like a laptop, which means that you can unfold the Axon M into a smartphone with a massive tablet-esque display. The smartphone comes with four display modes — Dual mode allows users to use two different apps on separate screens; Extended mode can stream email or allows users play games on a full 6.75-inch full-HD display; Mirror mode allows users to mirror the same content on both the screen when folded with both screens in different directions, and Traditional mode allows users to use the device as a conventional smartphone.

However, the ZTE Axon M is more of a foldable smartphone rather than a smartphone with foldable display. There are two displays that are joined together by a hinge.

The smartphone is built around a Snapdragon 821 chipset accompanied by 4GB RAM and 64GB storage. Both the displays are protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5. There’s a 20MP rear camera with f/1.8 aperture that also doubles up as a selfie camera. The smartphone runs on Android 7.1.2 Nougat and is fuelled by a 3180mAh battery aided by Quick charge 3.0 fast charging technology. Although ZTE hasn’t announced the price for one of these, it will be interesting to see whether this concept takes the smartphone in a different direction or not.