For small businesses looking to get more done outside of the office, the new ZTE Axon M could be a critical innovation. It comes with two 5.2 inch displays. When fully open, the device actually turns into a small tablet. This phone can remove the strain of working on a small screen by taking advantage of both displays.
When it is folded, the Axon M looks like a standard smartphone and it pretty much has the same features. The transformation takes place when you unfold the back and it lights up to reveal a second screen of the same size.
With more people using their smartphone as their primary computing device, providing more screen real estate means being able to do more. And Axon M has many Android/Google driven apps that take advantage of both screens to run multiple apps separately on each screen or a single app on both.
Smartphones have personal and business use and they have to evolve to keep up with how the technology is being used. Lixin Cheng, CEO of ZTE Mobile Devices (SHE:000063), touched on this point in a press release announcing the new device. He said, “The mobile technology ecosystem and consumer habits have evolved over the past several years, but the smartphone experience has only slightly varied throughout that time until today, with the introduction of the Axon M,” Cheng said.
Dan Seiffert of the Verge gives a first look in this video.
Small Business Deals
ZTE Axon M Dual Screen Smartphone Specs
The Axon M comes with two 5.2-inch screens at 1,920×1,080 pixels each and a 2.15 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 processor. You get 64GB of storage expandable to 256GB, and 4GB of RAM powered by a 3,180mAh battery.
A single 20M camera is used to capture selfies, regular photographs and 4K video.
Optimized Apps by ZTE
Besides the obvious entertainment value of the Axon M, ZTE wants the phone to improve productivity apps. The company has optimized Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Photos, Chrome, Maps, Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, Firefox and others along with a total of 80 of the 100 most commonly used apps.
These optimized apps work seamlessly to display the content by taking into account the gap that exists between the screens. So when you are running a spreadsheet or presentation, you won’t lose any of the data.
The company has created Dual, Extended, Mirror and Traditional modes to make use of both displays so they can work in tandem or individually.
Pricing and Availability
According to ZTE, the Axon M is going to be available in the US exclusively through AT&T in the next month. Although the price hasn’t been announced, the press release says you can get one for $24.17 per month for 30 months, which comes out to $725.
The Axon M has great potential, and for small businesses that spend most of their time outside of the office, the secondary screen and the functionality it provides could be the deciding factor to making the purchase.
Images: ZTE
I have been to 2 ATT stores, just to see if they have a demo of the phone so that I can see if I want to order it online. So far, no one at either store has even heard of the phone. LOL, so obviously this is a secret from the employees. I guess I will wait until it comes into stores to see how it feels.