ZUK Z1 specifications revealed, 4100mAh battery ,Snapdragon 801, $284

Over in China the ZUK Z1 launch is going to start in just 30 minutes, but already the final specifications and pricing details have leaked on to Weibo. Here is what we know.

ZUK is Lenovo’s internet sub-brand. The company has been set up to be Lenovo’s OnePlus and will exclusively sell it’s flagship ZUK Z1 online in China with plans to release the phone to the international market too.

Today is the day of the Chinese launch that will officially begin in 30 minutes, but someone at ZUK has already let the official specs, press images and even pricing leak on to Weibo a little too early!

What we know from the (very detailed leaks) is the ZUK Z1 will be powered by a Snspadrgon 801 processor! This is music to my ears, yet it might be last years processor, but it is also an SoC developers are familiar with and are able to get to run smoothly and steadily.

The official specs go on to reveal that the SoC inside the ZUK Z1 will run at 2.5Ghz with the aid of 3GB RAM. and up to 64GB internal storage.

As promised the Z1 has a larger than 4000mAh battery, which has been reported as being 4100mAh. That’s a large battery and ZUK claim that it is good for 120hours of standby time, or 48 hours of 4G LTE usage. Charging is via a USB Type C 2.0 plug.

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Also at the bottom end of the phone is the uTouch fingerprint scanner and home button which looks a lot like the same sort of fingerprint scanner as found on the OnePlus 2, but with the added benefit of gesture based navigation thrown in.

The display on the ZUK Z1 is a FHD 1920 x 1080 5.5-inch panel that takes up the rest of the front of the phone. Construction of the flagship handset appears to be similar to the Vivo X5 Pro with glass front and rear and an alloy chassis giving the phone strength and keeping it lightweight. The chassis also contains a SIM tray for dual SIM cards, but it does not look like we are getting an SD card reader on the phone.

Moving on to the cameras, ZUK have gone for a Sony IMX214 13 mega-pixel rear camera with OIS, while the front is a 8 mega-pixel. The rear camera is an F2.2 5 lens set up which isn’t quite as good as what the OP2 packs, at least on paper.

There were rumours that the ZUK Z1 would run CyanogenMod out of the box, there is still a chance that this will be true with the international model, but the Chinese version of the phone runs ZUI.

As for pricing well how does 1799 Yuan sound for this 64GB flagship? We hope to have some real photos of the phone soon , and plan to attend the international launch later this month.

[ Weibo ]

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About the author
Andi

pa5t1s
August 11, 2015
Price is (almost) same as OnePlus One’s , last year (for SD801).
PS: today is *the* day: everybody wants to release its phone… lmao
Clippoz
August 11, 2015
i’m watching the Keynote right now…a bit disappointed by the SD801..i was hoping for an Helio at least…i’m learning to love the Mediatek SoC..is very realiable..but the 801 is still in my heart.. 🙂
- SnowyCat
  August 14, 2015
  well the 801 still got the better gpu and cpu power in single core
- SnowyCat
  August 14, 2015

Faux-News
August 11, 2015
Burs
August 11, 2015
Despite retarded intro commercial, Z1 is tempting. Let’s see final specs, and price for international customers. Camera could be a bit better though.
realjjj
August 11, 2015
Home button just shows incompetence and it better have a microSD , don’t want to think of Lenovo that kind of motherless company.
Beyond that ,they failed to make it stand out, outside of the ugly design and unremarkable overall package.
- Clippoz
  August 11, 2015
  the home button is the fingerprint scanner…and i like it more on the front than in the back
  - realjjj
    August 11, 2015
    Just because you like it it doesn’t mean it’s not something anyone should ever do.
    - Clippoz
      August 11, 2015
      Maybe that came out wrong…what i mean is “is not that bad”
      the fact that the design is a bit anonymus..that can be a “bad-ish” point..
      Plus, i like button on the front, because they help me use the phone even if is sitting on my desk, without picking it up!

freshup
August 11, 2015
- givingup
  August 11, 2015
  Yeah, but where to buy?!
- ljan ryan
  August 11, 2015
Kigsihq
August 11, 2015
- - Flaat
    August 11, 2015
    Anyone who thinks the 801 is a bad choice is retarded. It is the best and most consistent performing cpu from qualcom. The 805/808/810 will throttle within 5 minites to performance levels below the 801. This has been proven many times.
    See: http://Www.arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/04/in-depth-with-the-snapdragon-810s-heat-problems/
    Helio x10 is also a hot chip, is a new chip and will therefore have much more bugs in the os and no custom rom base and mutch less community tools.
    No the 801 is a very smart choice, combined with the 4100mah battery and cyanogen os it will have a massive battery life and good performance.
    - Clippoz
      August 11, 2015
      Basically i think the choice of the SoC is 95% not based on what ZUK wanted..but i think is Cyano fault..ahaha
      Anyway, i would have loved the Helio on this (as said before) but 801 is still one of the best SoC on the field, reliable and well known in the community..probably after a couple of months this phone will start to get tons of roms and this is always good.
      What i didn’t get in the past days is:
      This phone has NFC?
      If the answer is no, i will cry and i will move to the next one..NFC for me is vital….and phone companies in this moment seems to think NFC is nothing useful ahahah
    - Kigsuha
      August 11, 2015
      I m saying this because the s801 on my LG G3 D855 32GB gets 57degree celcius web browsing on wifi and playing music..
      - Flaat
        August 11, 2015
- Airyl
  August 11, 2015
lordsbm
August 11, 2015
Yesterday IUNI U3 dropped to 1199 RMB (<US$200) seems like a better buy compared to this. IUNI U2 (3G) 16GB/32GB are just 699/799RMB (<US$120/130).
- Stiven
  August 11, 2015
- JayK69
  August 12, 2015
  Is any one here with any experiences with Iuni U3 ?? i really like to buy it for the specifications but really set back due to the lack of software development.. Still kitkat :3
  Help ASAP
Gyuri
August 11, 2015
- Clippoz
  August 11, 2015
  During the keynote they showed headphone with Type C instead of the usual 3.5mm jack (don’t really know if optional or standard)
  Also will support FLAC format.

Gyuri
August 11, 2015
- Clippoz
  August 11, 2015
  type C port, USB 3.0 standard…data transfer will be faster…also if you have a 3.0 port on your pc you will be able to draw 1A from that, instead of the usual 500mA
Vlada
August 11, 2015
So it is basically an OPO copy, just probably with terrible SW support, based on experiences with Lenovo.
I lost my interest, too big and no SD slot.
- eliHd
  August 11, 2015
  - iKosh
    August 11, 2015
- Dis
  August 11, 2015
  Maybe it has NFC and it has 64GB base ROM? and it’s half the price?
  - Vlada
    August 11, 2015
    The OPO has NFC and costs $299 for the 64GB version. This phone has a slightly bigger battery and OIS. But because of the lack of SW support I can imagine I would still prefer the OPO.
    You can not compare it to OP2, which has much better specifications then this phone. But has some faults like missing NFC, of course.
    - Dis
      August 11, 2015
      Sorry, assumed you meant OP2. What is SW support? I imagine with a Snapdragon 801 it won’t be hard to get custom OS for it including Cyanogenmod.
      - Vlada
        August 12, 2015
        Dis
        August 12, 2015
        Yeah, what is SW? I am talking about CM.
        Vlada
        August 13, 2015
        Look at CMs page how many phones they support. It is not more then 1/10 of phones with Qualcomm chipset. The vast majority of phones even with Qualcomm chipset doesn’t have any CM ROM.

Raj Bangalore
August 11, 2015
Why at this time? when we all ready have one+1 and mi4 for much less price.
Fly agaric
August 11, 2015
Excellent idea of coming back to Snap801 SoC, but if camera underperforms compared to current competitors like Le1, or MX5, then it’s just not worth that money – as the international buyers price will be way higher.

Dante
August 11, 2015
The only current Gen Soc from qq that doesnt throttle is the sd808 – pretty dissapointed lol
But the Tenaa shows sd808 so its strange … Maybe the international version will have it
mf1gt3r
August 11, 2015
I think its still a decent phone for the price. Uhmmm the camera shouldn’t disappoint cause that’s where my interest is.

Thomas
August 11, 2015
Without cyanogenmod the phone is useless.
- Faux-News
  August 11, 2015
  There is probably one or two phone models per year that comes with CM as stock. That makes 99.999999999999999999999% of phones useless.
quodvadis
August 11, 2015
How could they make a phone that look so boring, in 2015? I guess it fits with their choice of CPU though lol.
Faux-News
August 11, 2015
Never liked the Lenovo UI, but this new ZUI looks hopeful.
pa5t1s
August 11, 2015
Price is (almost) same as OnePlus One’s , last year (for SD801).
PS: today is *the* day: everybody wants to release its phone… lmao

Clippoz
August 11, 2015
i’m watching the Keynote right now…a bit disappointed by the SD801..i was hoping for an Helio at least…i’m learning to love the Mediatek SoC..is very realiable..but the 801 is still in my heart.. 🙂
- SnowyCat
  August 14, 2015
Faux-News
August 11, 2015
- 801 is a good chip that plays nice and doesn’t overheat .
- Andi Sykes
  August 11, 2015
  5.5-inch sorry missed that
Burs
August 11, 2015
Despite retarded intro commercial, Z1 is tempting. Let’s see final specs, and price for international customers. Camera could be a bit better though.

realjjj
August 11, 2015
Home button just shows incompetence and it better have a microSD , don’t want to think of Lenovo that kind of motherless company.
Beyond that ,they failed to make it stand out, outside of the ugly design and unremarkable overall package.
- Clippoz
  August 11, 2015
  the home button is the fingerprint scanner…and i like it more on the front than in the back
- realjjj
  August 11, 2015
  Just because you like it it doesn’t mean it’s not something anyone should ever do.
- Clippoz
  August 11, 2015
  Maybe that came out wrong…what i mean is “is not that bad”
  the fact that the design is a bit anonymus..that can be a “bad-ish” point..
  Plus, i like button on the front, because they help me use the phone even if is sitting on my desk, without picking it up!

Guaire
August 11, 2015
I can’t see a flagship. Fail with its outdated chip, back camera aperture. It’s thick, tall and too wide.
Though the SD801 seems OK for now, a few months later when the SD820 and Helio X20 released it won’t be that nice.
OIS is good, but both sensor and aperture is small.
Battery is good, but it could be slimmer considering other examples like Mi4i and its height and width.
USB 3.0 is good, but eMMC 5.0 isn’t fast enough.
64GB storage is good, but that goodness ruined by its fails.
Dissapointing.
- Guest
  August 11, 2015

Guest
August 11, 2015
- Andi Sykes
  August 11, 2015
  What’s wrong with the 801?
- Flaat
  August 11, 2015
  Anyone who thinks the 801 is a bad choice is retarded. It is the best and most consistent performing cpu from qualcom. The 805/808/810 will throttle within 5 minites to performance levels below the 801. This has been proven many times.
  See: http://Www.arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/04/in-depth-with-the-snapdragon-810s-heat-problems/
  Helio x10 is also a hot chip, is a new chip and will therefore have much more bugs in the os and no custom rom base and mutch less community tools.
  No the 801 is a very smart choice, combined with the 4100mah battery and cyanogen os it will have a massive battery life and good performance.
- Airyl
  August 11, 2015
  It’s still better than the 810.
- Clippoz
  August 11, 2015
  Basically i think the choice of the SoC is 95% not based on what ZUK wanted..but i think is Cyano fault..ahaha
  Anyway, i would have loved the Helio on this (as said before) but 801 is still one of the best SoC on the field, reliable and well known in the community..probably after a couple of months this phone will start to get tons of roms and this is always good.
  What i didn’t get in the past days is:
  This phone has NFC?
  If the answer is no, i will cry and i will move to the next one..NFC for me is vital….and phone companies in this moment seems to think NFC is nothing useful ahahah
- Guest
  August 11, 2015
  I m saying this because the s801 on my LG G3 D855 32GB gets 57degree celcius web browsing on wifi and playing music..
- Flaat
  August 11, 2015
  Something is wrong with your phone then. My g3 does not do that

Guest
August 11, 2015
Yesterday IUNI U3 dropped to 1199 RMB (<US$200) seems like a better buy compared to this. IUNI U2 (3G) 16GB/32GB are just 699/799RMB (<US$120/130).
- Stiven
  August 11, 2015
- Clippoz
  August 11, 2015
  During the keynote they showed headphone with Type C instead of the usual 3.5mm jack (don’t really know if optional or standard)
  Also will support FLAC format.
Gyuri
August 11, 2015
- Clippoz
  August 11, 2015
  type C port, USB 3.0 standard…data transfer will be faster…also if you have a 3.0 port on your pc you will be able to draw 1A from that, instead of the usual 500mA

Vlada
August 11, 2015
So it is basically an OPO copy, just probably with terrible SW support, based on experiences with Lenovo.
I lost my interest, too big and no SD slot.
- eliHd
  August 11, 2015
  same here. Its opo with OIS camera
- Dis
  August 11, 2015
  Maybe it has NFC and it has 64GB base ROM? and it’s half the price?
- Vlada
  August 11, 2015
  The OPO has NFC and costs $299 for the 64GB version. This phone has a slightly bigger battery and OIS. But because of the lack of SW support I can imagine I would still prefer the OPO.
  You can not compare it to OP2, which has much better specifications then this phone. But has some faults like missing NFC, of course.
- Dis
  August 11, 2015
  Sorry, assumed you meant OP2. What is SW support? I imagine with a Snapdragon 801 it won’t be hard to get custom OS for it including Cyanogenmod.
- iKosh
  August 11, 2015
- There is a lot of phones with Snapdragon chipset and no SW support.
- Dis
  August 12, 2015
  Yeah, what is SW? I am talking about CM.
- Vlada
  August 13, 2015
  Look at CMs page how many phones they support. It is not more then 1/10 of phones with Qualcomm chipset. The vast majority of phones even with Qualcomm chipset doesn’t have any CM ROM.
Raj Bangalore
August 11, 2015
Why at this time? when we all ready have one+1 and mi4 for much less price.

Fly agaric
August 11, 2015
Excellent idea of coming back to Snap801 SoC, but if camera underperforms compared to current competitors like Le1, or MX5, then it’s just not worth that money – as the international buyers price will be way higher.
Dante
August 11, 2015
The only current Gen Soc from qq that doesnt throttle is the sd808 – pretty dissapointed lol
But the Tenaa shows sd808 so its strange … Maybe the international version will have it

mf1gt3r
August 11, 2015
I think its still a decent phone for the price. Uhmmm the camera shouldn’t disappoint cause that’s where my interest is.
Thomas
August 11, 2015
Without cyanogenmod the phone is useless.
- Faux-News
  August 11, 2015
  There is probably one or two phone models per year that comes with CM as stock. That makes 99.999999999999999999999% of phones useless.
quodvadis
August 11, 2015
How could they make a phone that look so boring, in 2015? I guess it fits with their choice of CPU though lol.

Faux-News
August 11, 2015
Never liked the Lenovo UI, but this new ZUI looks hopeful.

Guaire
August 11, 2015
I can’t see a flagship. Fail with its outdated chip, back camera aperture. It’s thick, tall and too wide.
Though the SD801 seems OK for now, a few months later when the SD820 and Helio X20 released it won’t be that nice.
OIS is good, but both sensor and aperture is small.
Battery is good, but it could be slimmer considering other examples like Mi4i and its height and width.
USB 3.0 is good, but eMMC 5.0 isn’t fast enough.
64GB storage is good, but that goodness ruined by its fails.
Dissapointing.
32 bit … nuff said …
thats some failed crap RIGHT THERE !
Guest
August 11, 2015
Lenovo ZUK Z1 vs Lenovo K3 Note
Rohit kumar
August 12, 2015
very smooth features

JayK69
August 12, 2015
Okay compared to ZUK Z1, i really like IUNI U3, do any one here have any experiences with the U3 ?? The only set back is lack of software development :3
Iuni U3 has a 2k display and looks wayy better than this…
Any one ????
Von Box
August 12, 2015
284$$?? i would preffer to buy another good phone, and have money for a hole month

Jayana Kalansuriya
August 12, 2015
Okay compared to ZUK Z1, i really like IUNI U3, do any one here have any experiences with the U3 ?? The only set back is lack of software development :3
Iuni U3 has a 2k display and looks wayy better than this…
Any one ????
Jhonny
August 12, 2015
284$$?? i would preffer to buy another good phone, and have money for a hole month

August 13, 2015
Some more juicy specs for y’all:
– It has USB Type-C 3.0, not 2.0 (the first phone with Type-C 3.0); this gives you up to 500 MB/s bandwidth, or about 10x faster than USB 2.0
– ZUK USB earphones with active noise cancellation will be available (or may be included?), so you’ll be able to share audio with a friend without using a splitter (USB + headphone jack)
– Front camera has large 1.4µm pixels
– Back camera has 0.5s ready-to-shoot time and 0.3s focus time
– Fingerprint sensor has 508 DPI with 0.31s identification speed
– Battery is lithium-polymer type
– Recharging the phone for 5 minutes gives you 120 minutes of talk time
– There’s a smart charging system where when the battery reaches 100%, the current will go towards powering the phone directly instead of trickle charging the battery; this is supposed to prolong the battery life by 20%
– SIM tray has two nano-SIM slots
– Back cover is plastic, not glass, and is meant to be replaceable like on the OPO/OP2; you can see different options in their slides, including bamboo (or some other wood?) and leather
– ZUI is based on Lollipop 5.1.1 with Android M update coming later
– ZUI lockscreen theme color adapts to photo, similar to Sailfish OS “ambiance” feature
– ZUI has more than 1500 redesigned icons to better fit within the Material design
– ZUI has a security suite, and if it’s anything like the Lenovo Vibe phones, it should also come with the killer feature: an ad blocker that is better than any free app you can download from the Play Store
Here’s the official PR:
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/chinese-startup-zuk-launches-the-z1-a-new-generation-smartphone-300126847.html
MexiDroid
August 13, 2015
there is BEAUTIFUL smartphones everywhere, WHY some chinese make Iphone clones?

10basetom
August 13, 2015
Some more juicy specs for y’all:
– It has USB Type-C 3.0, not 2.0 (the first phone with Type-C 3.0); this gives you up to 500 MB/s bandwidth, or about 10x faster than USB 2.0
– ZUK USB earphones with active noise cancellation will be available (or may be included?), so you’ll be able to share audio with a friend without using a splitter (USB + headphone jack)
– Front camera has large 1.4µm pixels
– Back camera has 0.5s ready-to-shoot time and 0.3s focus time
– Fingerprint sensor has 508 DPI with 0.31s identification speed
– Battery is lithium-polymer type
– Recharging the phone for 5 minutes gives you 120 minutes of talk time
– There’s a smart charging system where when the battery reaches 100%, the current will go towards powering the phone directly instead of trickle charging the battery; this is supposed to prolong the battery life by 20%
– SIM tray has two nano-SIM slots
– Back cover is plastic, not glass, and is meant to be replaceable like on the OPO/OP2; you can see different options in their slides, including bamboo (or some other wood?) and leather
– ZUI is based on Lollipop 5.1.1 with Android M update coming later
– ZUI lockscreen theme color adapts to photo, similar to Sailfish OS “ambiance” feature
– ZUI has more than 1500 redesigned icons to better fit within the Material design
– ZUI has a security suite, and if it’s anything like the Lenovo Vibe phones, it should also come with the killer feature: an ad blocker that is better than any free app you can download from the Play Store
Here’s the official PR:
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/chinese-startup-zuk-launches-the-z1-a-new-generation-smartphone-300126847.html
MexiDroid
August 13, 2015

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Andi

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