ZUK announced its second flagship smartphone this year, namely the ZUK Z2. This will be a slightly toned down version of the Z2 Pro model, but still it packs enough punch to take on mighty rivals such as the Xiaomi Mi5. In fact, ZUK Z2 is priced cheaper that the Mi5 and at just 1799 Yuan $273, it is also faster than the base version of the Xiaomi Mi5 which comes with just 3GB of RAM. Looks like Lenovo’s ZUK is all set to take on the upper mid-range market with its new device. Read on for more details about the phone.

The company is marketing the ZUK Z2 as a small screen flagship since it comes with a 5-inch display. This is smaller than most other flagships in the market and would definitely get the attention of compact smartphone lovers. As for the design, the Z2 comes with an aluminum alloy body frame with high strength glass to improve the looks as well as body strength. It will be resistant to stains as well as abrasion. Further, the body is just 68.88mm wide which the company says is ideal for handling the phone with one hand.

Under the hood, the ZUK Z2 comes with the powerful Snapdragon 820 chipset clocked at 2.15GHz. But the phone supports overclocking of the chip up to 2.3GHz. The company reveals that the Z2 managed to get a score of over 145K on AnTuTu, which is really high. But expect the real life scores to be lower than this figure. Now, if you are worried about over heating, the company says that the alloy frame manages to dissipate heat just fine making sure that the phone’s temperature is under control. There will be 4GB of RAM on board and 64GB of internal storage as standard.

At the back, the ZUK Z2 comes with a 13MP ISOCELL sensor with 0.1s fast focus (PDAF + CAF), EIS, f/2.2 aperture and 1.32um pixel size. The phone supports slow motion recording as well. Up front, you have an 8MP shooter with beauty mode. As for the battery, you get a 3500mAh capacity one inside, which is pretty large as compared to other 5-inch competitors. With 1080p resolution and small screen size, this battery should provide at least a day of usage on the device. Further, you can charge it from 0 to 80 percent in around 100 minutes, which is pretty good.

As for the software, the ZUK Z2 comes with ZUI 2.0. The company has promised Android N update for the device and you can even flash different ROMs such as CyanogenMod, ColorOS etc on the device.

You can make reservations for the phone from today on various retailers like Zuk’s own website, Suning and Lynx. The phone will go on sale from June 7 at 10:00AM in China.

For $273, the ZUK Z2 is really a beast! It looks like Xiaomi definitely has something to worry about.

What do you think?

The post ZUK Z2 Announced With Snapdragon 820 & 4GB RAM, Priced Cheaper Than Mi5 appeared first on Gizmochina.

UPDATE: ZUK Z2 Announced! Cheaper Than Expected!

This afternoon, ZUK will officially take the wraps off its second smartphone in the past couple of months, called simply as the ZUK Z2. But before the release, a few posters of the smartphone have been leaked revealing most of the details of the device, including the specs and the design.

Looks wise, like we reported earlier, there will only be a few handful of changes between the ZUK Z2 model and the Z2 Pro that was announced last month. The camera will lie on the top left corner, instead of the center and there will be a few camera-centric features missing from this particular model. The Z2 will also be smaller, featuring a 5-inch display instead of 5.2-inch as found on the Z2 Pro. Also, it seems that the phone will initially come in two colors, black and white.

As for the specs, the ZUK Z2 will continue using Snapdragon 820 quad-core chipset as its elder sibling. Which means this model will be quite powerful as well. To support this powerful processor, the phone will come with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage.m The 5-inch display up front features 1080p resolution. At the back, you get a 13MP Samsung ISOCELL sensor with PDAF and Contrast Autofocus. The battery is quite decent as well, and with a capacity of 3500mAh, it’s larger than most other 5-inch flagships in the market right now.

As for the fingerprint sensor, the ZUK Z2 will come with UTouch 2.0, which is probably the same sensor as the Z2 Pro. This should mean that that the sensor will work even with wet hands. The new model is said to come with six special sensors. It should also support full netcom 3.0 standard. Pricing is expected to be around 1999 Yuan ($308), which, if true, will give tough competition to the Xiaomi Mi 5 flagship which starts at the same price tag.

Since the event is almost underway, we will get more details about the new ZUK Z2 phone in a couple of hours. So, stay tuned!

The post ZUK Z2 Details Leaked Before Launch, A True Xiaomi Mi 5 Competitor appeared first on Gizmochina.

ZUK CEO Chang Chen had revealed a few days back that the company was going to release a new flagship in the month of May, which would be called as the ZUK Z2. A surprise feature of the new ZUK handset was expected to be the Samsung Exynos 8890 chipset inside. However, after seeing the first teaser for the upcoming handset, we were all disappointed. The teaser showed that the phone was going to come with a Snapdragon chip inside. Then, we speculated that there could be a version which runs on Exynos 8890. But that’s probably not going to happen, given that ZUK Z2 has just passed through the TENAA certification website and it basically confirms the presence of Snapdragon 820 on board.

Before we move on to the specs, let’s take a look at the design of the handset. Not much will be different than the ZUK Z2 Pro version, except for the screen size, which is now reduced to 5-inches, instead of 5.2-inch on the Pro and the camera placement at the back, which is now on the top left corner instead of the center.

As for the specs, the ZUK Z2 model will feature the Snapdragon 820 chip clocked at 2.15GHz with two memory variants, 3GB + 32GB and 4GB + 64GB. The display will be of 5-inches with 1080p resolution. At the back, the phone will have a 13MP sensor while up front, you will find an 8MP shooter. The battery is decent, with a capacity of 3500mAh. The phone seems to be running on Android 6.0.1 version out of the box and comes with 4G LTE and dual-SIM dual standby support.

There is no mention of Exynos 8890 anywhere on TENAA, and we wonder why CEO mentioned this chip while talking about this new device. Another important question will be, how many of the unique features of the ZUK Z2 Pro will be retained by this model, which is expected to be cheaper. It is said that the phone will start at 1799 Yuan ($274).

ZUK Z2 will be officially unveiled on May 31. Stay tuned for details.

The post ZUK Z2 Passes TENAA, Features SD820 & 5-inch Display appeared first on Gizmochina.

It looks like the next few weeks are going to be pretty amazing for smartphone fans all around the world. We have already seen the innovative LG G5, Samsung Galaxy S7 and the Huawei Matebook 2-in-1 and there are a lot more announcements coming our way at MWC 2016. Further, the world’s first 6GB smartphone, Vivo XPlay 5 is all set to debut in March as well as this ZUK Z2 flagship, possibly with a rotating camera.

RELATED: ZUK Z1 REVIEW

Unfortunately, we haven’t received much news about the ZUK Z2 yet, but we can expect pretty powerful specs on the device. ZUK revealed via its official weibo page that the phone will come with innovative technology. It could be hinting at the rumored rotating camera or some other new tech. We will have to wait and see what this relatively new brand has in store for us.

Also, we hope that the ZUK Z2 is as affordable as the Z1. Since, its almost confirmed that the Z2 will launch in March, expect a lot more details about this upcoming flagship in the coming days.

The post ZUK Z2 Coming This March, Expect New Features appeared first on Gizmochina.