Foldable ZTE Axon M is official; dual touchscreens for better multitasking

Two is the new one. ZTE has come out with the ZTE Axon M. It may be a flip phone. It may be a foldable phone. What we have here is a smartphone with two screens separated by a hinge in the middle. The two full-sized displays fold into one. The major selling point of the smartphone is the two 5.2-inch 1080p LCD screens. The two displays can either be folded like a traditional smartphone or opened up side-by-side to appear like a tablet.

Several smartphone vendors have been working on foldable smartphones (Samsung is apparently at the forefront), however, ZTE has beaten them to the punch. ZTE is marketing the Axon M as a multimedia device and one that can fit into a pocket very easily when folded.

There are four different ways you can make use of this unique setup:

• Dual mode: One app per screen
• Extended Mode: Using that 6.75" dual-screen landscape as one
• Mirror Mode: Showing the same content on both the screens
• Traditional Mode: As the name suggests, this lets you use just one screen

You may think that this kind of smartphone would need the latest and greatest specifications to power that screen but it doesn't. It is powered by last year's Snapdragon 821 processor, 4GB RAM, 64 GB of storage and just a single 20-megapixel camera setup. It comes with dual speakers and a 3.5mm headset jack. There is a 3,180 mAh battery under the hood and the phone runs Android 7.1.2 Nougat.

"The Axon M creates an entirely new foldable smartphone category, one that ZTE is committed to investing and lead the way in," Lixin Cheng, CEO of ZTE Mobile Devices said.

The smartphone will be available next month in the USA at a price of $725 (Rs 47,125 approximately). The device will also be launching in China, Europe and Japan, though no date has been announced yet.