Many in India may have not heard about ZUK. A Chinese Internet company, ZUK is similar to LeEco, and now even Xiaomi, which was founded in April 2015. From the little that we do know about the company, we also know that it is into mobile Internet and Internet of Things ( IOT) and has a talent pool of more than 400 competitive innovators from other famous Internet companies.
Still then, even with an introduction like the one given above, it is still hard to associate or compare ZUK to any other brand. Now add the fact that Lenovo has backed the company, and things get a lot more interesting. This is more so as ZUK can function independently of Lenovo and need not follow the Lenovo strategy like design guidelines, software restrictions, etc.
With that said, the company’s latest venture is the ZUK Z1 smartphone or as it has been tagged for in India, the Lenovo ZUK Z1. At first glance it indeed seemed like another Chinese smartphone that packs in an older Qualcomm chipset combined with updated Cyanogen OS software bits, which is expected to make for an interesting buy. The smartphone was launched in September of 2015, but plenty has changed since then in terms of newer budget and mid-range chipsets from Qualcomm. But as we used the smartphone for a week, we discovered that the Lenovo Zuk Z1 does have a lot going for it even with that older processor.
Build and Design: 8/10
?
While most buyers these days, do prefer a smartphone with an all-metal construction. It is indeed a bit expensive to build one given the need to bring down prices. In ZUK’s case the price needs to compete with other Chinese smartphone offerings as well, so it is indeed a bit of tough call. To make things simpler, ZUK went in for a metal frame that is sandwiched with a Corning Gorilla Glass screen on the front and a non-removable plastic cover on the back.
?
With that out of the way, we can easily say that the build quality is top notch. There are no creaking sounds whatsoever and the anodised finish on the metal frame perfectly matches the look and feel of the plastic back. The plastic back also means that there is little interference for the smartphone’s radios so the only breaks in the metal frame are the two tiny slits at the top and bottom of the handset.
?
We really liked the seamless placement of the fingerprint reader something that we have never seen on an Android-powered smartphone in the past.
?
The volume rocker and power/unlock button sit on the right side while the SIM tray is available on the left.
Another benefit of going with the plastic back is that the weight of this smartphone is in check. For a smartphone with a 5.5-inch display that offers a 4100mAh non-removable battery, the handset does not look chubby and weighs in at a comfortable 175 grams.
The overall design language presents a clean and polished look that felt comfortable to hold and offered a certain amount of grip as well.
Features: 7/10
With an older Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 chipset inside, it initially seemed that there is nothing to brag about. Turns out, this handset does pack in some goodies. There is a 5.5-inch Full HD IPS LTPS display on the front with Corning’s Gorilla Glass screen protecting it. Inside, there is a tried and tested Qualcomm MSM8974PRO-AC clocked at 2.5GHz, which is the last version of the chipset produced by Qualcomm and according to ZUK, also the most stable one in the 801 lineup. There’s 3GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage that cannot be expanded.
?
Coming to the cameras, we get a 13MP Sony-made IMX214 unit that features a 5P Largan lens setup and OIS, while the front-facing unit packs in an 8MP unit with an f/2.2 lens.
Connectivity options include, Dual SIM 4G LTE ( nano+ nano) , Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n/ac, Wi-Fi Direct, Bluetooth v4.1 and USB 3.0 with a Type-C port for 5Gbps data transfer speeds.
The handset runs Cyanogen OS 12 and Android 5.1.1 Lollipop underneath. A 4100mAh non-removable battery completes the package and can be charged using a quick-charger provided in the box.
Display: 7.5/10
?
The Lenovo ZUK Z1 sports a Full HD ( 1920×1080 pixels) IPS LCD display. We really liked the colours that it produced, which were pretty accurate and not as saturated as the ones on AMOLED displays these days. With a pixel density of 401PPI, text looked crisp no matter how much we tweaked the smartphone’s built-in DPI scaling feature, in order to display more lines of text on the same display area.
?
Images looked sharp as well. And we really appreciated Cyanogen’s LiveDisplay setting that allows a user to tweak not just a preset display colour profile, but also the colour temperature, manually. Heading into Advanced mode even lets users calibrate the on-screen colours ( more on this in Software) .
Sunlight legibility was a bit of problem as we found that display was not bright enough to tackle the bright summer sun out here in Mumbai. Otherwise we have no complaints.
Software: 8.5/10
Cyanogen OS was once exclusive to Micromax’s YU handsets in India. So when we initially got hold of the handset for review, we kept forgetting that we were holding a Lenovo device ( ZUK) . However, this is possibly the best software that we have seen on a smartphone coming from Lenovo so far. It runs smooth, does not get in your way and you can customise it exactly the way you want, even down to the boot animations!
?
Everything on this smartphone that runs Cyanogen OS 12 with Android 5.1 Lollipop as the base is customisable. You can change the font, the icons in the notifications shade ( status icons) , the toggle buttons and more.
?
The ability to adjust the LCD density works wonders and will let you see more lines of text in same space. Show above is the density set to 320 DPI, 400DPI and 480DPI ( default) .
Even more impressive, and something which was also available on the YU-branded handsets by Micromax, is the ability to enable Advanced mode in Settings. This gives users the ability to open up a deeper level of customisation that lets users do even more. Advanced mode gives users access to more options in the Settings menu that are normally hidden from view. This would include the ability to calibrate the display’s colour, enable per-app performance profiles, change the LCD density of the display ( that lets you see more content in the same space) and more. Indeed, this is something that we wished was available in most Lenovo smartphones to begin with.
There is very little or no bloat packed in apart from the email client and calendar combination that comes from Boxer, which was good at what it did.