2018 was the year when smartphone manufacturers tried weird ways to maximize their phone's screen-to-body ratio. From sliding mechanisms to hole-punch displays, we have everything in the market now. However, ZTE has decided to go for a different approach.

ZTE's new smartphones, the Axon V and Axon S, were spotted online by Notebook Italia (https://notebookitalia.it/zte-axon-s-smartphone-monolitico-slider-laterale-28088), giving us a look at the design. Instead of, say, a notch or a punch-hole display, the new phones have a drastically different design.

© Notebook Italia

The Axon V, as you can see, has a notch that protrudes out of the body from the side, hosting what appears to be a selfie camera and a 3D sensor. Of course, the phone now has a full-screen display on the front, but the design looks downright ugly.

This weird design, which I am just going to call the 'bottle opener notch', also raise concerns about the phone's durability, and prone to fall damage, etc. It's even hard to tell if this phone will get protective cases or not.

© Notebook Italia

The Axon S, on the other hand, is a bit of a relief as it sports a slider design. It's a horizontal slider as opposed to the vertical sliding mechanism seen on phones like the Mi Mix 3, but I'll take it over the Axon V. ZTE has decided to throw in all the cameras i.e. both two front-facing and three rear-facing cameras on the slider, so the device has a clean black.

© Notebook Italia

The front of the slider also appears to have a touch-sensitive area, which I believe, can be used for zoom control. The phone is said to have a 48-megapixel main camera along with a 19-megapixel secondary shooter. Additionally, the device also offers an in-display fingerprint scanner, 5G support, and more.

© Notebook Italia

It is, however, worth pointing out that there's no official word on the phones from ZTE just yet. ZTE may end up scraping the design for all we know. So for now, we suggest you take this with a pinch of salt. But nonetheless, the renders do give us an idea of what these OEMs are cooking for us.