Yesterday, a bunch of tech journalists got invited to the launch of the "Axon Phone," a mysterious new Android-powered smartphone from a mysterious company that nobody seemed to have ever heard of.
Today I can confirm that the Axon Phone comes from ZTE, the fourth-largest mobile phone seller in the U.S. Along with details from my own industry sources, there is significant evidence in Axon's own website.
- The Axon Phone site has "/zte/" all over its source code.
- The company's address is 2425 North Central Expressway in Richardson, TX, a ZTE office.
- Axonphone.com belonged to ZTE from 2012-2015, but was handed over in March to a domain obfuscator.
- The axonphone.com website refers to the company having been started in 2012, when ZTE reserved the domain.
The Axon Phone is a slab-style, Android-powered smartphone that comes in blue, gold, and silver, according to the phone maker's website. It has a dual-lens camera that allows you to refocus pictures after you take them, hi-fi audio, 4GB of RAM and a customized, "super-simplified Android interface." The Axon's interface borrows something from ZTE's Nubia UI—for instance, some of the icons in the camera mode are the same as on the Z9 Max phablet—but it is not running the Nubia UI as a whole.
The Axon Phone appears to be a mainstream ZTE product, not from a spin-off company like the relationship between Chinese phone maker Oppo and upstart device maker OnePlus. It's "designed in the U.S.," according to the Axon site, which differs from Asia and Europe-focused prestige brands like Huawei's Honor and ZTE's Nubia lines. It's unclear whether the phone will be sold exclusively unlocked and direct, or whether ZTE will have U.S. carrier partners.
If ZTE intends to sell the Axon Phone unlocked and direct in the U.S., it's a change in strategy for the company, which previously said it's focusing on sales through wireless carriers. While ZTE has experimented with selling devices such as the Nubia 5S Mini LTE direct to consumers, it hasn't embarked on a full-scale unlocked device strategy here before now.
The Axon Phone is worth $450, according to a rules page for a giveaway contest on the phone's website, but it may sell for more or less than that amount. We'll find out more at the device's New York launch event on July 14; you can also check out axonphone.com.