Last year a Lenovo-backed company released a ZUK Z2 – a phone that had a great design and killers specs. Right now you can get this phone for just about $180 and it seems to be one of the best phones for the price since it has a Snapdragon 820 chip, 4GB of RAM and a lot more! Learn more in our ZUK Z2 review after 1 year.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0KVJ_ogfEs[/embedyt]

Check out Lenovo’s deal page

ZUK Z2 Review: UNBOXING

The phone ships with all the usual stuff that includes the USB C cable, a fast charger, SIM ejector pin and some paperwork.

ZUK Z2 Review: SPECS

ZUK Z2 Review: DESIGN and DISPLAY

As far as design goes, it has changed quite a bit if we compare it to the ZUK Z1.

Now we have a rather compact phone, which uses a very high quality and sturdy metal frame around the device. I love the fact that all the buttons and a dual SIM card tray are on the right and all other stuff is on the bottom. Thus, other sides of the phone look clean.

The sound quality from the loudspeaker is pretty good but nothing we haven’t heard from similarly priced phones.

Also, we have Gorilla Glass 4 on the front and rear. A great thing is that the phone has some sort of anti-fingerprint coating and it does its job very well.

We have a 5” 1080p display, which is nice and sharp but it could be slightly brighter for a better sunlight legibility.

An 8MP shooter is here for selfies along with a notification LED light on the top.

On the bottom, we have just one physical home button but it has tons of features. First of all, you can physically press it and it takes you home. Also, you can tap it and it acts as a back button or swipe it from left to right if you e.g. want to access your recent apps. Also, the button is highly customizable and you can assign different tasks. I have to say that this is one of the best home button implementations I’ve ever seen.

Last but not least we have a fingerprint scanner, which is accurate and it reads a fingerprint straight from the standby mode.

On the back, we have a 13MP shooter with f/2.2 aperture and a single LED flash.

Overall, the phone is well-built, it feels nice in the hand and it sports some flagship-worthy materials in the construction.

ZUK Z2 Review: HARDWARE and PERFORMANCE

ZUK Z2 still sports some flagship-grade specs. It has a Snapdragon 820 chip, 4GB of RAM and 64GB of on-board storage without the microSD card slot.

As you may have guessed, the phone can handle anything you throw at it without a sweat. All the games ran almost perfectly on the highest graphics. However, the phone does quite warm on the top portion of the device but there are no overheating warnings or anything that could impair the performance.

ZUK Z2 Review: USER INTERFACE

When it comes to the user interface, there are two different versions. The one I reviewed like 8 months ago shipped with the Chinese ROM that had quite a bit of bloatware and no Google services. The one I have ships with the fully de-bloated ZUI rom, that is built on top of Android 6.0.

First of all, I love that the UI looks clean and it is fast and fluid. Also, there are some extra features and customization options. Besides the ability to do a lot of stuff just by swiping on the home button, you can swipe from the bottom to open up quick settings toggles, which are highly customizable too.

It would be great to have the Android 7 on this ROM but honestly, I really love it and so far it looks a lot better than the Chinese ROM.

ZUK Z2 Review: CAMERA

When it comes to the camera, we have a few shooting modes but there is no manual mode to take a full control of the images you take. Also, there are some basic settings to play with. In addition, the phone can take pictures very fast, which is probably the most important aspect for most users. Finally, the device triggers HDR mode automatically.

ZUK Z2 Review: IMAGE QUALITY

ZUK Z2 can take some nice looking daylight images with a good amount of detail, accurate looking colors and sharpness.

The camera starts struggling in lower-lit situations as the images have quite a lot of noise and less detail. Still, you can get some usable images out of this phone.

The 4k video looks really good for a $180 phone. However, the footage could have less noise and compression, and the green color of the grass looks oversaturated. See a video review for a video sample.

An 8MP selfie snapper can take some decent looking selfies for social media needs.

Overall, ZUK Z2 does not have a perfect camera but it is definitely one of the better cameras in a $300 phone.

ZUK Z2 Review: CONNECTIVITY

I didn’t have any connectivity issues with the phone as the signal reception was good and the call quality was decent. Also, the Wifi worked fine and the GPS was accurate.

ZUK Z2 Review: BATTERY LIFE

The ZUK Z2 ships with 3500mAh built-in battery and it performs great.

I could constantly get over 5 hours of screen-on time on a mixed use, which involved using the camera, browsing the web, a bit of gaming and so on.

The phone ships with a fast charger and I was able to fully charge the phone in 1 hour and 30 mins.

ZUK Z2 Review: CONCLUSIONS

So, there you have it, ZUK Z2 after the buzz. With the recent price drops, I honestly believe that this is one of the best phones you can buy. Sure, it has a few shortcomings to consider but given the fact that it has really powerful internals, great and compact design, the ZUK Z2 is a fantastic offering for about $180.

The post ZUK Z2 Review after 1 year – The Best Budget Smartphone for $180? appeared first on Gizmochina.

AnTuTu has released its top 10 most value for money smartphones which topped the chart in the month of March 2017. The list is only a little different from that of February, with a few new entrants to the chart. The chart is made mostly of flagships that have been in the market for a while.

The top 3 spot is still inhabited by the same models from last month, that is the Lenovo ZUK Z2, The LeEco Le Max 2 and Le 2 in the same order. It is really no surprise that the Lenovo ZUK Z2 still tops the chart as it still offers flagship specs at a budget price tag. The ZUK Z2 (3GB + 32GB) which is equipped with Snapdragon 820 processor is currently priced at 1199 Yuan. This price tag makes it the cheapest flagship and arguably offers the best value for your money. The ZUK Z2 is closely followed by the LeEco Le Max 2 (4GB + 32GB) which is priced at 1399 Yuan. The third position is occupied by the LeEco Le 2 (3GB + 32GB) whose price has further dropped to 899 Yuan.

The LeEco Le S3 is a new entrant, pushing the Le Pro 3 out of the fourth spot to the fifth. The Le Pro 3 may have dropped to the fifth position because of the 100 Yuan increase in its price tag which now sits at 1899 Yuan. With a Snapdragon 821 processor + 4GB RAM, the price is still a bargain.

The rest of the list is made up of the Xiaomi Mi 5 at the sixth spot while the Snapdragon 821-powered Smartisan M1 is at number 7. LeEco and Coolpad’s collaborative work, Cool1 Dual occupies the number 8 position. At number 9 is the Smartisan M1L packing a Snapdragon 821 chip and finally, the Xiaomi Mi Note 4 completes the top 10 chart.

Read Also: Xiaomi Mi 6 Specs Confirmed on AnTuTu, Scores 170k

While the list might look like it is packed with smartphones that are unavailable outside of China, a good number of these cheap flagships can actually be purchased by intending buyers from different countries around the world. They can then be shipped to your location and sometimes the shipping is free of charge. One amazing online shop in China that stocks most of these veteran flagships is GIZTOP. You can give it a try and be rest assured of the safety of your order.

The post AnTuTu Most Value For Money Smartphones in March appeared first on Gizmochina.

Lenovo‘s elite brand ZUK is set to push update ushering in Android 7.0 Nougat to two of its smartphones which are the ZUK Z2 and Z2 Pro. According to a Weibo post by Lenovo’s VP, both the ZUK Z2 and ZUK Z2 Pro will receive update to ZUI 2.5, which will be based on Android 7.0 Nougat.

The Lenovo ZUK Z2 was announced around May last year and it came running ZUI 2.0 based on Android 6.0 Marshmallow. The ZUK Z2 Pro was announced earlier on in March 2016 but packs similar UI and operating system. The ZUI 2.5 is perhaps a new upgrade of the ZUI 2.0 which was available earlier on.

Related: The Most Powerful Phone for the Price? Get the ZUK Z2 for $185.89!

The update is billed to bring in lots of cool features like an optimized system stability, security patch, optimization of split screen experience, and so on.

(source | via)

The post Lenovo ZUK Brand Will Release Android 7.0 Nougat Update Next Week appeared first on Gizmochina.

Last year ZUK, which is a Lenovo-backed company, released a rather compelling Z2 model, which had some pretty powerful internals and a nice design. Right now the prices have dropped significantly and you can get it for just  $185.89 from lightinthebox.com, which sound like a pretty good deal.

ZUK Z2: SPECS

ZUK Z2 is a rather compact phone, which uses a very high quality and sturdy metal frame around the device. I love the fact that all the buttons and a dual SIM card tray are on the right and all other stuff is on the bottom. Thus, other sides of the phone look clean.

Also, we have Gorilla Glass 4 on the front and rear. A great thing is that the phone has some sort of anti-fingerprint coating and it does its job very well.

The ZUK Z2 is one of the rare phones that has just a 5″ display (1080p resolution). It’s worth mentioning that it is covered with the Gorilla Glass 3 for scratch resistance.

ZUK Z2 sports some powerful internals that includes a Snapdragon 820 chip, 4GB of RAM and 64GB of on-board storage without the microSD card slot. Sure, there are some slightly more powerful smartphones out there but this combo of specs can handle anything you throw at this phone, whether it would graphically demanding 3D games or just scrolling through the user interface.

You can now get the ZUK Z2 for just  $185.89 from lightinthebox.com, which sound like a pretty good deal, considering the overall package it offers. In fact, the ZUK Z2 is definitely one of the most powerful phones you can get at this price point.

The post The Most Powerful Phone for the Price? Get the ZUK Z2 for $185.89! appeared first on Gizmochina.

November 11th is called a Singles’ Day in China and a lot of online retailers have quite a few discounts on numerous products. Although it is just a one day holiday in the far east, most of the shops tend to “celebrate” this day for a longer time and offer some generous discounts. There are quite a lot deals at Gearbest and we wanted to share with you some of them we think are worth your attention.

Lenovo ZUK Z2

We have reviewed the ZUK Z2 5 months ago but it is still quite a compelling offering. In fact, it is one of the cheapest Snapdragon 820-powered smartphones you can get at the moment. In addition to the powerful processor, the phone sports 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage that are packed in a beautiful and compact body. Learn more about the ZUK Z2 in our full review.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 4

Some of us may have already lost the number of phones Xiaomi released this year but the Redmi Note 4 is the latest model in their budget Note lineup. It sports a premium all-metal build, great specs, feature-rich user interface and as we said in our in-depth review, if you are in the market of solid budget-friendly phones, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 should be definitely on your list as it is an easy buying recommendation.

Xiaomi Smart LED Desk Lamp

Another great product that we have already reviewed is the Xiaomi smart LED desk lamp. At the time of our review, we said that it was the most beautiful desk LED lamp. It sports a very nice-looking minimalistic design, it has tons of features and it can be controlled via Wifi using your phone.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 Pro

Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 may have been released quite a while ago but we still believe it is a great smartphone for the price. The Note 3 Pro is actually a more powerful model that sports a Snapdragon 650 chip, 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. All of these specs are packed into a beautiful metal shell and the phone is powered by a beefy 4000mAh battery.

Yotaphone 2

The last device in our list is the Yotaphone 2. Obviously, it is not the newest phone on the market but even in 2016, it still looks very innovative since it has 2 displays. One display sports a conventional 1080p LCD panel and the other has the e-ink panel that is not only power-efficient (reading time up to 100 hours) but also easy on your eyes. Finally, the phone sports some decent specs for such a low price: Snapdragon 800 chip, 2GB of RAM and 32GB of storage.

The post Top deals at GearBest 11.11 Sales Storm! [COUPONS INSIDE] appeared first on Gizmochina.

The Lenovo ZUK Z2 was launched about five months back with a price tag that made the phone to become reputed as one of the cheapest Snapdragon 820-powered device, going for as low as 1799 Yuan for the 4GB RAM version. Recently, a white-only 3GB RAM version of the ZUK Z2 was released, dubbed ZUK Z2 Rio Edition apparently because of the Rio 2016 Olympic themed wallpapers inside. The 3GB RAM version started at 1599 Yuan ($240) and was even touted as the cheapest Snapdragon 820 smartphone ever. The price was later reduced to 1299 Yuan ($191).

That acclaimed cheap price has even gone further lower, as the Lenovo ZUK Z2 has now seen another price slash. Right now, the 3GB + 32GB version is now offered on Lenovo’s official website for 1149 Yuan ($169) with coupon. That is a huge 450 Yuan drop for a flagship device. This new price tag is even lower than the price tag of its predecessor, the ZUK Z1 which is being offered recently on Everbuying for $173.99.

The price reduction was also noticed to have been effected on popular online mall Jingdong (JD.com) where the 3GB RAM version of the ZUK Z2 is now being offered for 1199 Yuan($177). As a reminder, here are the specifications of the ZUK Z2 version in question.

Read More: ZUI 2.0 brings One Click Overclocking to Lenovo ZUK Z2

ZUK Z2 3GB +32GB Version specifications

• 5-inch (1920 x 1080 pixels) Full HD LTPS 2.5D curved glass display
• 2.15GHz Quad-Core Snapdragon 820 processor with Adreno 530 GPU
• 3GB RAM with 32GB internal storage
• Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) with ZUI 2.0
• 13MP rear camera with LED Flash, f/ 2.2, 5P lens, ISOCELL sensor, PDAF, CAF dual-mode focus, EIS
• 8MP front-facing camera with 1.4μm pixel size, f/2.0 aperture, 78.9-degree wide viewing angle
• Dual (nano) SIMs
• Fingerprint scanner
• Dimensions: 141.65×68.88×8.45mm; Weight: 149g
• 4G LTE with VoLTE, WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4/5 GHz), Bluetooth 4.1, GPS, USB 2.0 Type-C
• 3500mAh battery with Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0

The post Lenovo ZUK Z2 Now Up For 1,149 Yuan ($169)- Cheapest SD 820 Phone? appeared first on Gizmochina.

Last year ZUK, which is a Lenovo-backed company, released a rather compelling Z1 model. This year, we have the Z2, a phone, which costs just above $300 but it has some killer specs. Learn more in our full review.

Thanks to Oppomart for sending ZUK Z2 for a review

Get $30 OFF with a COUPON CODE: ZUKZ230

ZUK Z2 Review: VIDEO

ZUK Z2 Review: UNBOXING

The phone ships with all the usual stuff that includes the USB C cable, a fast charger, SIM ejector pin and some paperwork.

ZUK Z2 Review: SPECS

ZUK Z2 Review: DESIGN and DISPLAY

As far as design goes, it has changed quite a bit if we compare it to the ZUK Z1.

Now we have a rather compact phone, which uses a very high quality and sturdy metal frame around the device. I love  the fact that all the buttons and a dual SIM card tray are on the right and all other stuff is on the bottom. Thus, other sides of the phone look clean.

The sound quality from the loudspeaker is pretty good but nothing we haven’t heard from similarly priced phones.

Also, we have Gorilla Glass 4 on the front and rear. A great thing is that the phone has some sort of anti-fingerprint coating and it does its job very well.

We have a 5” 1080p display, which is nice and sharp but it could be slightly brighter for a better sunlight legibility.

An 8MP shooter is here for selfies along with a notification LED light on the top.

On the bottom, we have just one physical home button but it has tons of features. First of all, you can physically press it and it takes you home. Also, you can tap it and it acts as a back button or swipe it from left to right if you e.g. want to access your recent apps. Also, the button is highly customizable and you can assign different tasks. I have to say that this is one of the best home button implementations I’ve ever seen.

Last but not least we have a fingerprint scanner, which is accurate and it reads a fingerprint straight from the standby mode.

On the back, we have a 13MP shooter with f/2.2 aperture and a single LED flash.

Overall, the phone is well-built, it feels nice in the hand and it sports some flagship-worthy materials in the construction.

ZUK Z2 Review: HARDWARE, PERFORMANCE, BENCHMARKS

ZUK Z2 sports some flagship-grade specs. It has a Snapdragon 820 chip, 4GB of RAM and 64GB of on-board storage without the microSD card slot.

As you may have guessed, the phone can handle anything you throw at it without a sweat. All the games ran almost perfectly on the highest graphics. However, the phone does quite warm on the top portion of the device but there are no overheating warnings or anything that could impair the performance.

ZUK Z2 Review: USER INTERFACE

As for UI, our Chinese review unit ships with a highly customized ZUI, which is built on top of Android 6.0. As it has become usual to the Chinese implementations of Android, there is no app tray, the icons are redesigned and there are tons of features, tweaks and customization options.

Just to name a few, you can swipe from the bottom to open up quick settings toggles, which are highly customizable. Also, you can select from a variety of fonts, skins or use the integrated fitness tracking app, which I found to be pretty accurate at least when it comes to counting steps.

Most importantly, the user interface runs fast and fluid and the only shortcoming is that the phone ships without Google services pre-installed but it took me just a few minutes to install it manually. Keep in mind that resellers usually install Google services and multi-languages for you, so you don’t need to deal with that yourself.

ZUK Z2 Review: CAMERA

When it comes to the camera, we have a few shooting modes but there is no manual mode to take a full control of the images you take. Also, there are some basic settings to play with. In addition, the phone can take pictures very fast, which is probably the most important aspect for most users. Finally, the device triggers HDR mode automatically.

ZUK Z2 Review: IMAGE QUALITY

ZUK Z2 can take some nice looking daylight images with a good amount of detail, accurate looking colors and sharpness.

The camera starts struggling in lower-lit situations as the images have quite a lot of noise and less detail. Still, you can get some usable images out of this phone.

The 4k video looks really good for a $300 phone. However, the footage could have less noise and compression, and the green color of the grass looks oversaturated. See a video review for a video sample.

An 8MP selfie snapper can take some decent looking selfies for social media needs.

Overall, ZUK Z2 does not have a perfect camera but it is definitely one of the better cameras in a $300 phone.

ZUK Z2 Review: CONNECTIVITY

I didn’t have any connectivity issues with the phone as the signal reception was good and the call quality was decent. Also, the Wifi worked fine and the GPS was accurate.

ZUK Z2 Review: BATTERY LIFE

The ZUK Z2 ships with 3500mAh built-in battery and it performs great.

I could constantly get over 5 hours of screen-on time on a mixed use, which involved using camera, browsing the web, a bit of gaming and so on.

The phone ships with a fast charger and I was able to fully charge the phone in 1 hour and 30 mins.

ZUK Z2 Review: CONCLUSIONS

So, there you have it, ZUK Z2. The device costs just over $300 and this is actually one of the best deals at the moment.

The phone sports a familiar but nice looking design with excellent build quality and the device is very compact due to its 5” display.

Also, this phone is very powerful and it can easily handle all the latest games. In addition, the UI runs fast, the phone has 64GB of storage as standard and the camera is pretty good.

However, the display brightness could be higher to assure a better sunlight legibility. Also, the low-light camera performance could be better.

All in all, ZUK Z2 is a great phone. In fact, it is definitely one of the best offerings for the price and it does not have any major shortcomings that could be a deal-breaker.

The post ZUK Z2 Review – Beautiful and Fast appeared first on Gizmochina.