Chinese ZTE today held a conference for its AXON flagship device series, during which the company talked about its flagship device strategy for the first time. At the same event, ZTE confirmed the global availability of the AXON mini, including the pressure-sensitive touch and NBA versions, and the AXON Watch for China. "Devices in our ZTE AXON product lines are designed entirely with consumers in mind and to be the nerve center of everything they do," said Adam Zeng, CEO, ZTE Mobile Devices. "Our high-end flagship strategy is now in full swing and we believe we have all of the ingredients to become a leading consumer electronics brand globally."

ZTE discussed its AXON flagship device product line-up, which consists of: AXON, AXON mini, AXON MAX, and the AXON Watch.

In addition to availability announcements for the AXON mini versions and the AXON Watch, ZTE also unveiled the AXON MAX – a larger-screen smartphone device with a bigger battery.

First unveiled in July 2015, ZTE’s AXON mini became the first smartphone to come with a pressure-sensitive touch screen that recognizes different levels of touch pressure - a feature also adopted by Apple in its latest iPhone 6s and 6S Plus devices.

ZTE’s AXON mini boasts a Qualcomm Snapdragon 616 octa-core processor and Adreno 405 GPU, a 2800mAh battery, 3GB RAM, 32GB ROM, and support for up to 128GB SD card expansion. AXON mini sports a 13 megapixel camera at the back with phase detection autofocus (PDAF) that offers a focus time of just 0.1 seconds. At the front, AXON mini features an 8 megapixel camera with a 5P aspherical lens. AXON mini’s dual microphones are supported by an AKM4961 Hi-Fi audio chipset, delivering 32 bit high-fidelity (Hi-Fi) audio playback, as well as high quality sound recording.

With a body made from Boeing 787 aircraft-grade aluminum-titanium alloy, the AXON mini has both a premium look and feel and is just 3.5mm thin. At just 70mm wide, the AXON mini’s 0.85mm thin bezels allow the device to feature a 5.2-inch Super AMOLED FHD 2.5D curved-edge screen.

AXON mini’s voice search function can be activated within 1.2 seconds. It also comes with voice translation support for English, Chinese, Japanese and Korean, offering real-time voice translation. In addition, the AXON mini supports voice messaging and chat functions.

AXON mini supports three different biometric authentication options: fingerprint, voice control and eye-scan.

The ZTE AXON mini NBA version comes in a number of design options, featuring NBA images, and are loaded with a number of NBA services.

All versions of the ZTE AXON mini will be available to purchase in China online from ZTE’s own MyZTE store and JD.com, as well as offline from major retail outlets. In the coming months, the ZTE AXON mini will also be made available in Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, Russia, Japan, India, Australia, France, Germany, Turkey, Spain and Italy.

AXON mini will be available in three color options: Ion Gold, Chromium Silver and Rose Gold.

AXON mini (Premium Edition)

• China: 2699 CNY
• Asia-Pacific: 439 USD
• Europe: 389 EUR

AXON mini

• China: 2299 CNY (Ion Gold and Chromium Silver); 2399 CNY (Rose Gold)
• Asia-Pacific: 379 USD (Ion Gold and Chromium Silver); 399 USD (Rose Gold)
• Europe: 329 EUR (Ion Gold and Chromium Silver); 349 EUR (Rose Gold)

ZTE AXON Watch

Unveiled in July 2015, the ZTE AXON Watch features a 1.4-inch Gorilla Glass screen with sapphire coating and is IP67 certified (circular AMOLED, 400x400 pixels). It comes with a 300 mAh battery, a Qualcomm Snandragon 400 APQ8026 SoC, 512 MB of RAM, 4 GB storage and Bluetooth 4.1. Developed by ZTE and Tencent, the smart watch runs on Tencent OS and supports both voice and gesture control.

The ZTE AXON Watch can be used for both fitness and health monitoring, and supports a range of other applications, from phone calls to messaging, including the popular instant messaging and social media platforms WeChat and QQ.

The ZTE AXON Watch will be available for purchase in China via ZTE’s own MyZTE store from 27 October.