

The Axon 7 was a hit here in Australia, selling well for a reason — it was high end hardware in a well crafted package at a great price. It also received very timely updates and as such it’s successor has been much sought after.

The Axon 8 was rumoured at one stage but then was apparently canned but now ZTE’s CEO, Cheng Lixin, has lifted the lid on ZTE’s flagship plans for this year. At the launch of the Axon M (the foldable phone) in China last week he gave in interview with Chinese tech site, Phoenix Tech.

He stated to them that he thought that the performance of ZTE in the Chinese market did not match ZTE’s strengths and has plans to remedy that in the coming years. They plan to release three categories of devices, A, B and C with A representing the flagship devices, class B the low end phones and class C a “vehicle mounted IoT product”.

He went on to say that the Axon 9 will be arriving this year (he did not state what part of the year though) but little is known of it at this stage. Considering it’s predecessor, it is expected to pack all the best hardware available at the time and while some believe that this time the price is expected to be more than the Axon 7 was we don’t think that will be the case — a price too high will push high end buyers towards other more well known brands such as Samsung and Google.

The “vehicle mounted IoT product” is an interesting one and while we are unlikely to see it land here it may well be an innovative product that gives the automotive tech market the push it needs. ZTE have shown with the Axon M that they are most certainly willing to bring new innovative products to market.

After reviewing the Axon 7 twice this year (once with Marshmallow and once with Nougat) and finding it to be a great phone BOTH times to say we are looking forward to getting our hands on the successor to it is an understatement.

We will keep you posted on anything we main hear on the Axon 9 and its local availability in the coming months.