Lenovo ZUK Z1 Review: Specifications, Price, Pros and Cons

Lenovo has released a beast into the Indian market for ₹13,499 ($319.99 USD). The ZUK Z1 looks neat, is well built and has very good hardware specifications. It is definitely a threat to the position of budget beast Redmi Note 3 in the market except the ₹1,500 extra price.

Let’s take a look into the full technical specifications, pros and cons of the Lenovo ZUK Z1 and see if it truly a competition for Xiaomi Redmi Note 3.

Design

The design of Lenovo ZUK Z1 is interesting with a metallic bezel around the device and a cloud grey plastic back. It is also available in ceramic white with glossy white back panel. The white version looks a bit like Samsung Galaxy phone from the front side.

It has power button and volume rockers on the right side crafted comfortable for right hand use. On the left it has that SIM tray, on the top, the 3.5mm headphone jack and on the bottom it has the microphone, type-c USB port and loud speaker.

It weighs 175gms and has 155.7x77.3x8.9mm dimensions with slightly curved back summing up the width to the 8.9mm from the middle of the phone.

Impressions: Very good and clean design.

Display

ZUK Z1 comes with a 5.5 inch full HD display of 1080p resolution with the pixel density of 401 and 1500:1 contrast ratio. It is a non-air-gap screen that is used on ZUK Z1 with fingerprint-proof coating and display polarizer coating.

Impressions: Good for gaming and running multimedia content.

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Performance

The Lenovo ZUK Z1 is packed with the Snapdragon 801 processor the one OnePlus One had. It is coupled with the 3GB LPDDR3 RAM and Adreno 330 3D GPU that runs at 578MHz.



The processor and RAM is a very good combo but it has complaints of over-heating. Even though the GPU is not a big one, ZUK Z1 exhibits excellent gaming performance with no lags even while playing heavy games.

The chipset is sparked with the Android 5.1.1 based Cyanogen mod 12.1 operating system.

Impressions: The temperature of the device touches 41+ degrees with 5-7 minute gaming. It is better than other devices that heat up like crazy nuts.

You would also like to know about Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 in terms of performance. Don’t miss!

Storage

ZUK Z1 comes with 64GB (eMMC 5.0) internal memory. You cannot expand the memory anymore. The 64GB is good enough for a phone of its price range.

Impressions: Z1 has a very good amount of internal memory. You don’t have to worry about running out of memory unless you have huge memory needs.

Camera

Lenovo ZUK Z1 is equipped with 13MP rear Auto Focus (AF) camera with Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) at a pixel size of 1.12 microns. It is accompanied by the Sony Exmor RS Stack sensor and dual LED flash.



The front camera is an 8MP one with the same 1.12 microns and OmniBSI-2 technology. Both the cameras have Qualcomm’s dual-core ISP image processing solutions, MORPHO optimization algorithms, and image optimization algorithms.

Impressions: Both the cameras are very good in terms of photography.

Connectivity

Lenovo ZUK Z1 is a dual SIM phone with Nano slots. It doesn't have external SD card support as we have seen in the storage section. It supports the WCDMA/GSM/4G LTE networks with the following bands:

• TDD-LTE Band 38, 39, 40, 41
• FDD-LTE Band  1, 3, 7
• TD-SCDMA Band  34, 39
• WCDMA 850/900/1900/2100 MHz
• GSM/EDGE  850/900/1800/1900 MHz

It has Type-C USB connectivity, supports OTG, has Bluetooth 4.1 and 5G Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n/ac with Wi-Fi Direct.

Impressions: The connectivity features are impressive with Typc-C and double LTE Nano slots.

Battery

ZUK Z1 comes with 4100mAh powerful Li-Ion non-removable battery that can last long more than a day and a half once fully charged. It supports quick charging on the top which is necessary for a big battery.

Impressions: Wonderful battery with so much juice to have the freedom of usage.

Pros

+ Very good design
+ Powerful processing capability
+ Lag-free gaming
+ Good cameras
+ Great internal memory
+ Typc-C connectivity
+ OTG Support
+ Huge battery
+ Fingerprint scanner

Cons

- Over-heating issues with the processor
- The camera performs weakly in low light conditions
- No external memory card slot
- No proper information on service centers

Final Verdict

Lenovo and ZUK were built a great association in bringing up the Z1 as a powerful competitor for the market rulers like Xiaomi Redmi Note 3. Except the issues with the processor and camera, the smartphone is quite a grabbing material.

Moreover, ZukMobile has no proper information about the service centers all over the world for the questions asked by the users. It is what that tickles the users while buying. As it is introduced by Lenovo, ZUK Z1 smartphones might be repaired in the Lenovo stores if encountered any problems.

Lenovo ZUK Z1 is now available on Amazon in a flash sale. You may register for the next sale from this link.