Lenovo’s sub-brand ZUK was established last year to attract the younger generation crowd who would like to have the best specs at the best price. ZUK Z1 managed to capture all of our attention and with the ZUK Z2 Pro and ZUK Z2 models, the company has pretty much established that it is here to take on the market. The ZUK Z2 in particular, is an important flagship for the company as it takes on Xiaomi’s mighty Mi5. What makes ZUK Z2 interesting is that it’s cheaper than the Mi 5, yet comes with a faster clocked Snapdragon 820 processor @ 2.15GHz as well as 4GB of RAM on board. This gave the Z2 an edge over the few months old Mi5. Check out our full comparison with Xiaomi Mi5 from here.

The ZUK Z2 is quite popular in China at the moment, and within three days the company managed to get over 6 million registrations for the first flash sale that is going to be held tomorrow morning. Given that this is a major flagship, we managed to get an early sample of the ZUK Z2. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the time for a full-fledged unboxing or review of the device, but those videos should come up soon.

What we do bring today is a preview video of the ZUK Z2 in action. In case, you were wondering how the ZUK Z2 looked in real life, and performed, this video should give you a basic idea about the phone. Check out this 5-incher from down below.  Also, you can currently pre-order the ZUK Z2 from OPPOMART for $329. TThe phone starts shipping from June 20 and will come with google play services pre-installed on the device.

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Smartphones are a big deal in China, with almost everyone looking to get hold of the latest flagship in the market. We have seen Xiaomi phones getting millions of registrations for the flash sales of their flagship models, and looks like ZUK is joining the party as well. ZUK has just revealed that it has received over 6 million registrations for the first sale of ZUK Z2 smartphone in China. This is actually not that surprising given that the device is priced at 1799 Yuan ($273) and it is one of the cheapest Snapdragon 820 powered smartphones that you can buy right now! What’s even more impressive is that the company got so many registrations in just three days, and there are still three days left for the first sale.

ZUK Z2 will officially go on sale in the country on June 7 at 10:00 AM. I sure hope ZUK has prepared enough units to fulfill the immense demand for the new handset.

Looks wise, the ZUK Z2 is similar to the Z2 Pro, coming with a metal frame and glass body. The company says the 68.88mm width of the device is ideal for one hand operation. Specs-wise, the phone is really impressive, coming with Snapdragon 820, 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage as standard. The ZUI 2.0 comes with a special overclocking feature which increases the clock speed of the chipset from 2.15GHz up to 2.3GHz. At the back, there will be a 13MP rear camera with LED flash, PDAF and CAF, while up front, you get an 8MP shooter. The battery is pretty large as well, measuring 3500mAh in capacity and with Quick Charge 3.0, filling it up will be a piece of cake. You can read more about the specs of the device from here.

We will have to wait and see how many more registrations the phone gets before its first flash sale. We should get this news in the next few days.

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While we personally haven’t got hold of the new ZUK Z2, Chinese media website CNMO has a unit with them and they recently posted a basic review of the new handset. We all are interested to see the camera performance of the Z2, and some of the pictures shared in the review give us a good idea about the quality of images taken from the device.

The ZUK Z2 comes with a 13MP ISOCELL camera sensor with PDAF + CAF that focuses in 0.1s. The phone comes with a ZUI 2.0 camera interface that supports HDR, Panorama, slow motion shooting, and fast shooting.

Now that we know the basic camera setup of the ZUK Z2, let’s look at some of the images captured from the phone’s camera.

The reviewer said that the color reproduction in the images taken from the Z2 was impressive. The blue sky you see in the picture is near to the color you see with your real eyes.

The macro performance of the device was also pretty impressive. After zooming 100% into the macro image, we can see that the basic outline is still clear, but it is not very sharp.

The overall camera performance seems to be quite good. The night time photography was significantly improved in HDR mode, but it is said that there is still room for improvement.

So, what do you think about the phone’s rear 13MP ISOCELL sensor?

We hope we can review the phone in details once we get our hands on the device.

Meanwhile, check out the AnTuTu performance of the new handset from here.

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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?

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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.

Chinese companies seem to be impatient when it comes to launching new smartphones. Traditionally, companies used to wait for a few months at least to launch a new model, but now, every month we are seeing new product launches from the same manufacturer. Meizu unveiled three new phones in a single month, Huawei released two flagship series models in consecutive months and now Lenovo backed ZUK is all set to release their second smartphone this year, called simply as the ZUK Z2. The previous model which was released late April was called as the ZUK Z2 Pro, so considering the name, this should be a slightly toned down version of the flagship model. The 6GB  + 128GB ROM variant of the Z2 Pro is available for sale, but there’s still no word on the 4GB + 64GB version. In fact, the company didn’t reveal any details about the pricing or availability of the second version at the time of the launch. Could ZUK rebrand this 4GB RAM model as the Z2? We aren’t sure, but read on for more details.

Design wise, there aren’t many changes. The new render reveals that the position of the camera module will be different than on the Z2 Pro. Instead of placing everything in the center, the company has positioned the camera sensor on the top left corner. Laser Autofocus seems to be absent on this device. Rest of the design, including the physical rectangular home button, speaker grill and USB port at the bottom and the buttons on the right seem to be exactly as the ZUK Z2 Pro model. In addition to this render, we also got reports that the phone will feature a 2.5D double glass design and will come with the company’s U-Touch fingerprint ID.

RELATED: 6 Unique Features of the ZUK Z2 Pro

This ZUK Z2 model will be announced this month, confirmed the company CEO. While we are unsure of the specs of the device, expect them to be upper mid-range. This should also drive down its cost as compared to the Z2 Pro model which means consumers will have another great mid-range alternative at an affordable price point.

Meanwhile, check out ZUK Z2 Pro vs Le Max 2 vs Xiaomi Mi 5 in this comparison.

The post CEO Reveals ZUK Z2 Render, New Model Coming This Month 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.

Since the ZUK Z1 flagship turned out to be so popular, everyone is left wondering whether we will be seeing a second generation version of the device, ZUK Z2 anytime soon. Another common question in the minds of existing ZUK users is when will the Android 6.0 update be available for them. A few hours earlier, ZUK CEO answered both of these questions.

First of all, CEO confirmed that the ZUK Z2 flagship will be meeting us only by next year. So, anyone who wished to see the rumored Snapdragon 820 powered Z2 before 2015 would be disappointed to hear this. But it does not come as a surprise given that if ZUK Z2 indeed featured Snapdragon 820, then it could only be available by next year. Unfortunately, the CEO failed to give out an exact time frame for the launch in 2016. But we are expecting it to be sometime in the first quarter.

Secondly, ZUK CEO also revealed a few details about the new ZUI version based on Android 6.0. According to him, the work on the new OS is going well and it will soon enter the closed beta stage. Releasing a new version of the OS involves a lot of aspects like modifying source code, adding manufacture specific features as well as compatibility testing. But, if everything goes well, users could get the new ZUI based Android 6.0 update for the ZUK Z1 (beta version) as soon as December end.

ZUK co-founder ChenYu had a more conservative estimate, saying that the final Android 6.0 will release by March 2016. As for the international version, the ZUK Z1 running on CyanogenMod will also be upgraded to Android 6.0, but only by early 2016.

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