Chinese smartphone manufacturer ZTE is known for its Axon series of flagships that offer top-of-the-line specifications at a very competitive price. However, despite offering some compelling products in the past, the company's flagships haven't received the same reception as some other affordable flagships from manufacturers like Xiaomi and OnePlus. For this reason, ZTE transitioned its Axon lineup to mid-range devices earlier this year with the launch of the new ZTE Axon 11 5G. Instead of Qualcomm's flagship Snapdragon 865 chip, the Axon 11 packed in the mid-range Snapdragon 765G along with a few premium features. In keeping with this new trend, ZTE announced the Axon 11 SE in China yesterday featuring MediaTek's Dimensity 800 SoC.

Priced starting at CNY 1998 (~$ 280), the new ZTE Axon 11 SE packs in a 6.53-inch FHD+ hole-punch display with a 60Hz refresh rate, a quad-camera setup with a 48MP primary sensor, and a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner. In terms of design, the Axon 11 SE is almost identical to the Axon 11, but the aforementioned specifications make it slightly less premium compared to the older device. While ZTE hasn't revealed any information about an international release for either device, there's evidence the "international" version of the device may have already launched with an older MediaTek processor.

Slovenian telecom operator A1 recently launched the A1 Alpha 20+ in the country, which is one "international" variant of the ZTE Axon 11 SE. While most of the device's specifications remain the same, the device is based on the MT6771T (MediaTek Helio P70) mobile platform instead of the much higher-end MediaTek Dimensity 800.

Furthermore, the ZTE Axon 11 SE was also spotted on Chinese certification authority TENAA's website with the model number ZTE 9000N. The device was also certified by the Wi-Fi Alliance several months ago and the Firmware Version in the certification (TELMXZTE_9000V1.0) had confirmed it to be the A1 Alpha 20+. Additionally, XDA Recognized Developer deadman96385 has also shared the attached screenshot (see above), which reveal that the A1 Alpha 20+ goes by the model number P671F60, which is the same as the model number for the ZTE Blade V2020 which quietly launched in Germany some time ago.

Thus, we can conclude that the ZTE Axon 11 SE (China) is the same device as the A1 Alpha 20+(Austria and Slovenia) and ZTE Blade V 2020 4G in other European markets. This information can also be confirmed by the press renders of the A1 Alpha 20+ on A1's website, that show a design identical to that of the recently launched ZTE Axon 11 SE.

This article was updated at 9:49 PM EST on 6/2/2020 to reflect that the ZTE Blade V2020 4G has already launched in Germany.