Lenovo Zuk Z1 Review

HIGHLIGHTS

• The Lenovo Zuk Z1 is priced at Rs. 13,499. 
• The phone runs Cyanogen OS 12.1, based on Android 5.1.1. 
• It's powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 SoC with 3GB of RAM. 

The Lenovo Group as of now has two strong and immediately unmistakable brand names in its stable: Lenovo itself, and Motorola. Subsequently, the organization has an assortment of strong items that offer in colossal numbers the world over. In any case, similar to others have done some time recently, Lenovo has chosen to showcase a piece of its item run as online-as it were. These items go under the new Zuk sub-brand. 

Today, we're surveying the Lenovo Zuk Z1. In spite of the fact that advertised comprehensively as the Zuk Z1, Lenovo has held its guardian name in brand-cognizant India keeping in mind the end goal to make it promptly clear what the legacy of the gadget is. Be that as it may, it's likewise essential to recall that the Zuk Z1 was initially dispatched all around in September a year ago, so what we're auditing today is somewhat dated as of now. How about we delve into the subtle elements in our survey. 

Look and Feel 

Just a couple of years back, telephones with 5.5-inch screens were viewed as larger than average, and it was frequently a subject of exchange in the event that you had a substantial telephone. Today, this size has turned into the standard on account of expanded media utilization on cell phones. The Lenovo Zuk Z1 runs with this attempted and tried size, in spite of the fact that the telephone does feel somewhat massive. 

The purposes behind the mass are a metal casing and a 4100mAh battery, which add to the telephone's 175g weight. In spite of the fact that it doesn't have a unibody packaging and the back is plastic, the battery is not client open. The double SIM plate is on the left side, inside the casing. The telephone does not bolster expandable capacity, so there is no space for a microSD card. 

There are two shading choices for the Lenovo Zuk Z1 in India; white and space dim. Our survey unit was dark, which we entirely favored over the white choice. The back has a dull, metallic completion, as does the edge. The telephone is uncovered of any Lenovo marking, with only a Zuk logo at the back and that's it. The camera and glimmer are situated at the focal point of the back close to the top, and all in all we entirely like the moderate styling of this telephone.

The base has the mouthpiece, speaker, and USB Type-C port for charging and information exchanges. Likewise incorporated into the case are a 13W force connector and a USB 3.0 link with a Type-A fitting toward one side and Type-C at the other. The right half of the telephone has the force and volume catches, while the top has the 3.5mm attachment. The screen involves almost 70 percent of the front of the telephone, while the camera, earpiece and closeness sensor sit above it. At the base is the physical home catch with its incorporated unique mark sensor, and capacitive Android route keys. 

We have seen a lot of good usage of home catches with a unique finger impression sensors worked in, including the Samsung Galaxy A8 (Review) and HTC One A9 (Review). Large portions of them permit you to open the telephone by just touching the sensor even while in standby mode, yet the Zuk Z1 does not. You need to wake the telephone by squeezing the home catch down and after that keeping up contact till your unique mark is perceived, or hitting the force catch first.

This isn't itself an issue, however the catch is marginally recessed and somewhat firm, requiring some push to push down. The sensor itself is snappy and precise in opening the telephone, yet the procedure isn't exactly as simple as it is with different gadgets. The sensor beforehand acted as a capacitive back catch also, yet this has now been debilitated by a product overhaul. 

The screen of the Lenovo Zuk Z1 sports a determination of 1080x1920, with a thickness of 401ppi. It's a good screen, and is sufficiently sharp to serve the vast majority of your necessities. Brilliance isn't exactly as incredible as we'd have anticipated from an IPS-LCD screen, and even at its brightest it doesn't exactly appear as splendid as it ought to be. Be that as it may, a polarizing covering on the screen helps with readability under brilliant daylight, so it doesn't should be too splendid. It is best to control brilliance physically, as the versatile shine mode for the most part makes it excessively dull. Dark levels are better than average also, just like the complexity proportion which guarantees a genuinely exact representation of hues through the range. 

Furthermore, there is likewise LiveDisplay, a setting that permits you to improve the shading tone of the screen taking into account the season of day. You can pick how cool or warm you need the hues to get in light of the season of day, or set the shading temperatures physically. This gives you a chance to set up the IPS-LCD screen precisely as you need it. The temperature switches had a recognizable effect to review solace, and the capacity to conform this whenever is an incredible expansion to the telephone.

Specifications 

During an era when new cell phones evaluated at under Rs. 15,000 are running the most recent MediaTek Helio or Snapdragon 600 arrangement SoCs, the Lenovo Zuk Z1 packs in the higher-end however more seasoned 32-bit quad-center Qualcomm Snapdragon 801, timed at 2.5GHz. It's been around two years since the principal Snapdragon 801 cell phones hit the business sector, so Lenovo's decision of SoC will raise a couple of eyebrows, especially in light of the fact that it's a 32-bit SoC when for all intents and purposes all equipment is currently designed for more up to date 64-bit processors. 

Aside from the way that the telephone was initially propelled the better part of a year back, a clarification offered by Lenovo for this is the Cyanogen group knows the Snapdragon 801 truly well, and utilizing an alternate SoC now would send all its product streamlining endeavors for a hurl. Be that as it may, despite everything you're purchasing a telephone with an old SoC, and this is reason for worry about the life span of the Zuk Z1. So, the telephone runs the most recent and most stable variation of the Snapdragon 801, the MSM8974AC, and has the fantastic Adreno 330 GPU. It's a to a great degree competent SoC even today, keeping on performing with the same consistency and quality as when it was new. 

The Zuk Z1 likewise has 3GB of RAM, 4G network on its two SIM spaces (Indian groups bolstered), Wi-Fi air conditioning availability, and a 4,100mAh battery. The telephone has a huge inner stockpiling limit of 64GB also, yet there's no backing for expandable stockpiling so you're constrained to that much.

Software 

The telephone keeps running on Cyanogen OS 12.1, which depends on Android 5.1.1. In spite of the fact that there has been discussion of an arranged move up to Cyanogen OS 13 taking into account Android 6.0, this overhaul isn't accessible through the telephone's OTA programming upgrade framework yet. While Cyanogen OS isn't exactly as tweakable as the nerd roused CyanogenMod, it offers a better than average mix of customisability and dependability. 

In many ways, Cyanogen OS works simply like stock Android, and you can even change the topic to have it resemble that. The framework's trademark is its high level of customisability, and we see a considerable measure of this in Lenovo Zuk Z1. The home screens and application drawer can be changed to various designs, the framework sizes, scroll impacts and symbol marks can be changed and flipped, and there's a great deal more to play with. You get a decent lot of control over how the client interface takes a gander at its most fundamental level.

Going further in, the Settings application additionally has a couple of various alternatives that give you a more prominent feeling of control over the gadget than most standard maker UIs offer. This incorporates having the capacity to control whether the screen ought to illuminate when you connect to a charger, the shade of the notice light for battery alarms, custom activities for the home and late catches, the position of different components on the status bar and notice drawer, and considerably more. Cyanogen OS is the perfect working framework for cutting edge clients who need control over more parts of their telephones, and one we adore utilizing as a result of its general solidness, light impression and convenience. Furthermore, it's free of any bloatware and has a decent arrangement of framework applications that are all around composed and light on telephone assets.

Camera 

The Lenovo Zuk Z1 has a 13-megapixel essential camera based on Sony's IMX 214 sensor, furthermore includes optical picture adjustment and a double LED streak. The front camera brandishes a 8-megapixel sensor, and both cameras can record video at up to 1080p, with the back camera likewise including 60fps video recording. 

The camera application is Cyanogen's own particular Camera Next, which is a genuinely nice alternative regarding convenience and usefulness. Most helpful switches are effectively available from the viewfinder screen itself, including glimmer, camera and clock settings. Video recording is a one-stage technique, and scene mode can likewise be immediately flipped along these lines. Furthermore, determination settings, manual controls and codec choice should be possible through the settings menu, which gives you an atypically vast measure of control over your photos and recordings.

The camera itself is genuinely proficient, taking pictures that are sharp and itemized, and figure out how to catch shading tones adequately and precisely. In sufficiently bright pictures, the treatment of light and dim territories is especially great, while low-light pictures succeed in catching a decent lot of subtle element with an acceptably low measure of clamor and grain. Indoor shots aren't exactly in the same class as sufficiently bright open air shots, however are up to a satisfactory standard to the extent detail and hues go. 

Recordings are genuinely great in conventional light, yet endure a bit in low-light conditions. Be that as it may, the capacity of the camera to concentrate rapidly and rearrange to lighting conditions is praiseworthy, and obviously better than different gadgets we've found in this value range. Fast and moderate movement modes produce fun results with a spotless feeling of movement and smoothness.

Performance

In spite of its two-year-old SoC, the Lenovo Zuk Z1 is an able entertainer that exceeds a considerable measure of more up to date choices from both Qualcomm and MediaTek. In any case, you are prone to improve execution from the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 650 and 652 SoCs which are found on some comparatively estimated gadgets. It's additionally essential to recall that the Adreno 330 GPU is excessively old, making it impossible to bolster OpenGL ES 3.1 and 3.2, so this may influence the telephone's capacity to play some more current, more design concentrated amusements. 

General execution on the telephone, and in addition with the recreations we attempted (Marvel: Contest of Champions, Trials: Frontier and Uncharted: Fortune Hunter) was magnificent, with no huge warming issues and truly no slack or falter. This can likewise be credited to Cyanogen OS, which guarantees that the Zuk Z1 dependably runs easily because of its low effect and ideal usage of the gadget's assets.

Our suite of benchmark tests verified every one of this, with noteworthy scores through the tests, especially with the design benchmarks. AnTuTu and Quadrant delivered scores of 57,835 and 24,885 individually, while GFXBench and 3D Mark Ice Storm Unlimited returned scores of 28fps and 19,550. These are brilliant, especially when you consider the age of the Snapdragon 801 SoC, and are an indication of exactly how skilled and comparatively radical the SoC return in 2014. 

The Zuk Z1 kept running for 13 hours, 40 minutes in our video circle test, which is a great figure. In conventional everyday utilize, the telephone would last us well over a day on a full charge, notwithstanding constant 4G availability, a touch of gaming and the screen brilliance set at the most elevated amount all through. Wi-Fi, cell network and call quality are brilliant also, and the main downside is the to some degree feeble speaker that sounds poor. Notwithstanding, with earphones, the sound quality is sufficiently fair to utilize the telephone as your essential music player and for viewing the periodic video.

Verdict 

Lenovo has a phenomenal gadget staring its in the face with the Zuk Z1. The telephone is well constructed, runs brilliant programming, has a decent show, accompanies a lot of capacity, and has fabulous availability and great battery life too. There's additionally an incredible screen which is sharp and can be changed and altered to your inclinations. Most importantly, the organization has accomplished every one of this at an incredible value that will entice a considerable measure of purchasers, especially propelled clients who know a thing or two about the upsides of Cyanogen OS over other maker created client interfaces. 

Shockingly, there are some paramount downsides too. Despite the fact that we confronted no execution or similarity issues amid our time with the telephone, it runs an old 32-bit SoC with a GPU that may experience difficulty with new recreations and applications going ahead. There's likewise the past form of Cyanogen OS and Android out-of-the-container, with no timetable on a redesign to the most up to date programming. In spite of the fact that a moderately minor protestation given the sufficient 64GB of on-board stockpiling, the telephone does not bolster expandable capacity. Lastly, purchasing the Z1 won't be simple in light of the irritating glimmer deal model. 

In any case, the Lenovo Zuk Z1 is an extraordinary choice in any case, especially considering its cost and the components on offer. In the event that you don't expect the age of the equipment to be an issue for you throughout the following couple of years or plan to utilize this as an auxiliary cell phone, the Zuk Z1 may well be worth considering over a portion of alternate choices in this value range.

Pros and Cons

Good

• Looks good, well built
• Good screen customisation features
• Great software
• Decent camera
• Good battery life

Bad

• Unlocking the phone isn't as easy as it could be
• Dated SoC
• No expandable storage
• Only available through flash sales

Rating

• Design                          ---            8
• Display                         ---            8
• Software                       ---            8
• Performance                 ---            8
• Battery life                   ---            9
• Camera                         ---            8
• Value for money           ---            8

Over All Rating For Lenevo ZUK Z1 :      8