ZTE Unveils Wild Axon M Android Smartphone With Dual 5.2-inch 1080p Displays

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Given how cutthroat the smartphone market is these days, manufactures are looking for new ways to get an edge on the competition. Xiaomi was one of the first to start the bezel-free display trend with the original Mi MIX, and now ZTE is looking to turn heads with the Axon M.

The centerpiece of the Axon M are its dual 5.2-inch displays, which both feature a resolution of 1920x1080. Now, this isn't something that you see every day in the smartphone world, so the first question on your mind is probably how is this beneficial in real life usage scenarios? For starters, ZTE says that with Dual Mode, you can run two apps at a time, with one screen dedicated to each. This brings an immediate boost to productivity, says ZTE.

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So, in theory, you should be able to have one screen dedicated to a watching House of Cards on Netflix, while the other screen leaves you free to surf the web via the Google Chrome web browser. The possibilities are endless, and go far beyond the picture-in-picture functionality available in recent versions of Android.

There's also a Mirror Mode, which would allow both screens to display the same content. This could be useful when the smartphone is in "tent" mode, with viewers on either side of the device being able to watch a movie or play a game, for example.

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Extended Mode merges the two displays into a single, continuous 6.75-inch display (if you ignore the hinge in-between the two screens). There's also Traditional Mode, which allows you to fold in one of the displays, giving you a more "normal" smartphone to use in daily use, one-handed.

“The ZTE Axon M is the beginning of a significant movement of smartphone capabilities, and ZTE is leading the way,” said Lixin Cheng, CEO of ZTE Mobile Devices. “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.”

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While the dual displays will no doubt get all the attention, the rest of the Axon M's specs are actually quite decent. You'll find last year's flagship Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 SoC, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of internal storage with microSD expansion, a 20MP camera, and a large 3180 mAh battery.

The ZTE Axon M will launch on AT&T's network next month, priced at $24.17 per month on a NEXT 30 plan. That works out a retail price of roughly $725.