Confirmed: ZUK Z2 Pro will launch April 21st

A couple or so days back we reported about how ZUK were planning to launch their second phone very soon. Allegedly known as the ZUK Z2 Pro, the phone will have a Snapdragon 820 beating beneath its hood.

It has now been learnt that the Z2 Pro will indeed launch very soon… in fact, on the 21st of April. Nubia have a couple of launches scheduled this month too, so theres going to be quite a bit to look forward to.

Coming back to the Z2 Pro, the Snapdragon 820 part is almost confirm. You can take a look at other leaked specifications of the phone here.

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The 21st April launch date was confirmed by some teasers (in Chinese) sent out by ZUK.

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What remains to be seen is the pricing. ZUK drew a bit of flak when they launched the Z1 for over $300 last year. Lenovo, the parent company of ZUK, have been around for a while to realise that the market doesn’t give second chances… so they are expected to get the pricing right for this one.

The Z1 was a full-blown geek’s phone with a not-so-flagship-yet-very-efficient processor, massive battery, and fairly decent looks. Let’s see how ZUK portray the Z2 Pro this time around!

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Yash Garg
Yash is a blogger by profession, builder of things by passion and foodie by birth. You'll usually find him talking about technology, music, travel and the game of cricket on the streets of Pune when not busy writing or speeding his way through the country! Read more on retro handheld gaming on RETRO91
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Rob
April 15, 2016
If zuk is already aiming to target ‘geek’ target, I would hope it keeps or increases its battery size, and not worry about it being as thin as possible.
I’d buy a sd820 +5000/6000mAh battery phone.
- balcobomber25
  April 15, 2016
  They actually could make it smaller than the Z1 and add a bigger battery. Gionee (the kings of thin) have the Marathon M5 which is 8.6mm and has a 6020. The Z1 was 8.9mm.

MattD
April 15, 2016
If it will come out at the right price… Yet keep its predecessor’s big battery (or even improve it)… I could very easily consider it…
Otherwise, I could consider the z1 after a big price cut when z2 come out ?
- Yep
  April 15, 2016
  - MattD
    April 15, 2016
    Yep, I was thinking something like that… However, it comes down to what it offers: it’s not just ram/rom combo, it’s also about all of the other features it could pack along!
    To be more clear: since we know nothing exact about the phone, my previous comment wasn’t about “the right price for the market”, it was “the right price FOR ME”… And it could easily change because of a lot of different factors!
    - Yep
      April 15, 2016
      Well at $400 it would be the best phone available at $400 wouldn’t it? Until perhaps the Oneplus 3 or something else tries to beat it or undercut it. Maybe the Zenfone 3 will be $299 again.
      - MattD
        April 15, 2016
        It would be the best phone… But only if you’re aiming for what if offers! xD
        If you want a thin phone, it’s not a good choice.
        If you want a smaller sceen, it’s not a good choice either.
        And so on… There are many factors to make this not-the-perfect-phone for everyone!
        Yep
        April 16, 2016
korpuskel
April 15, 2016
- balcobomber25
  April 15, 2016
  There is a chance a lot of phones are finally starting to include more and more LTE bands.
  - Simon
    April 15, 2016
    - balcobomber25
      April 15, 2016
      Yes. My Mx5 screen is cracked (100% my fault lol) and it is getting worse everyday. A new display is around $100-150 (I can install it myself)but if I am gonna spend that I will just get a new phone. Right now my watch list is in the order of my interest:
      1A. Gionee S8
      1B. Meizu Pro 6
      These two are neck and neck.
      2. Zuk Z2
      3. Nubia Z11
      4. One Plus 3
      5. Xiaomi Max
      - Simon
        April 15, 2016
        Interesting if the Xiaomi Max comes out at greater than 6″ would you still go for it ?
        balcobomber25
        April 15, 2016
        If it can improve on the Mi5’s shortcomings, yes. 6.5 is probably the absolute max I could do for a phone. Anything bigger than that and it’s approaching tablet territory.
        
        Simon
        April 15, 2016
        Umm interesting. Well lets play it phone by phone and see what Zuk come up with next week.
        Although if the Xiaomi Max turns out to be mindblowing in every way, I may go for it (with your advice of course).
        balcobomber25
        April 15, 2016
        I actually did order a phone today. A THL T7. They were one of my favorite brands back in the day and they all but disappeared until a few months ago. There is really nothing special about it, typical budget phone (MT6753, 3GB) but I am just curious how the brand still is.
        
        Simon
        April 15, 2016
        Thats right. I remember them – Technology Happy Life. They were supposed to be a good brand.
        Whatever happened to Coolpad, they were also reputable too ?
        balcobomber25
        April 15, 2016
        Coolpad is still around. They just released some phones this month.
        
        Simon
        April 15, 2016
        Oh right. Will we hear anything about them ?
        If I recall correctly the F1 & F2 were very good smartphones.
        (I think they have something in common with Yu Yureka too, if i’m not mistaken).
        balcobomber25
        April 15, 2016
        Yu is owned by Micromax, it is their subrand like ZTE has Nubia. The first Yu phone was a rebranded Coolpad F2.
        Simon
        April 16, 2016
- David
  April 15, 2016
  I have z1 and Cyanogen is **horrible** on it. It is just filthy marketing abuse of naive buyers. Full of bugs that never got fixed and now they release Z2. I hope they bankrupt.
  - Simon
    April 15, 2016
Simon
April 15, 2016
It looks like Xiaomi, Huawei & Meizu may well be trembling once this is released.
quodvadis
April 15, 2016
- balcobomber25
  April 15, 2016
  - quodvadis
    April 15, 2016
    lol if you say so. *look at samsung whose phone sales skyrocketed after going back to their old ways and myriad other manufacturers who have begun to add the ‘feature’ to their totl phones*.
    I mean I guess there’s no rule that disallow joes to call themselves ‘geek’ lol.
    - balcobomber25
      April 15, 2016
      Samsung sales being better this time around have to do with a whole lot more than SD cards lol.
      - quodvadis
        April 15, 2016
        sure sure, everything you say is always the truth. just like how you said manufacturers would stop adding card slot back then.
        LOL
        balcobomber25
        April 15, 2016
        And most of them did after I said that and are just now starting to add it back. A lot still don’t offer it in their flagships like Xiaomi, Apple and Meizu.
        quodvadis
        April 15, 2016
        Sure sure hahahaha hahaha
Moose
April 15, 2016
I tried the Zuk Z1 for a couple of months. Overall, I liked it, especially the fantastic battery life. It felt like a good mid-range phone in the hand although the home button had a budget feel to it. I also felt it could have been a bit more compact and lighter than it was. I was pleased with the SD801 – don’t need any more power than that. I wouldn’t buy the Z2 if it was the same body with just an upgrade to SD820 – zero value for money just to get a faster processor that I will never make full use of.

HBK
April 15, 2016
If it has the same battery as Z1, all i want is an OIS and SD card slot. But i can survive without both on 64gb version.
Hope they dont go for thin and keep the big battery 4000mah +. Would be an excellent battery performer with 14nm SD820.
Omer
April 15, 2016
5.5″ according to gsmarena. Nice. Now let’s see if weight and dimensions are gonna be okay, and looks are gonna be better than Z1 (Z1 home button/bottom bezel: yuk).

realjjj
April 15, 2016
I don’t get why so many want big batteries. As long as it’s enough for one day, is having 1.5 or 2 days better? It’s easier to charge it every day than to remember to do it every other day.Going from 1 day to a week would be something but from 1 day to 2, might be a negative.
Fast charging and wireless charging do make things even easier. You can also get battery packs that charge fast, like Meizu’s pack that can push up to 18W.
Sure bigger is better and maybe a slightly bigger device is not a big deal but why care so much? As long as it gets you though the day, why bother worrying.
- The Calm Critic
  April 16, 2016
  “As long as it’s enough for one day, is having 1.5 or 2 days better?”
  uhh..o.O? Because 2 days are a day more than 1 hello? Look it’s a matter of perspective and adapting. I’m using a Redmi 3 now. 5″ 720p screen paired to not the fastest of the lot SD616 and 4000mAh batt. I’ve decommisioned my old Galaxy S3 GT-I9300 so it’s something to think about when a $150 phone are barely millimeters thicker than that and could still fit a big batt.
  I get what you’re saying; on the convenience aspect it’s better to just plug it in when you go to sleep daily rather than noticing the next day that you’re 70% short and scramble to juice up at work. It’s not like that. On this phone I don’t lose the last 30-40% at 1% every 10mins because of the capacity and for certain offsite work situations a 4000mAh batt phone is a godsend for Waze/Google Maps. And I definitely don’t lose 30% overnight at all.
  Got fast charging too and imo facilitates charging every 2 days just nicely that way.
  - realjjj
    April 17, 2016
    High end and mid range are very different when it comes to battery life vs battery size.
    In high end, optimizing for screen to body ratio matters,and thin sells.
    In high end,power consumption is higher, The big cores are a lot less efficient than small cores and in GPU it’s much worse.Then you got almost every component using more power than in mid range and more components overall that take more space.
    In mid range the size is far less restrictive and there is a lot more freedom in choices.
    Take the Meizu M3 Note with the Helio P10 dialed down to 1.8GHz and 4100mAh and in GFXBench T-Rex battery test you get 500 minutes. The Zuk Z1 with just 1080p and SD801 and 4100mAh gets you half that and to get there the Zuk Z1 is extra bulky at 155.7 x 77.3 x 8.9 mm and 175 grams- slightly curved back but bellow 70% screen to body ratio.
    A big battery in high end is quite a bit of a sacrifice , design wise, and doesn’t extent battery life by much.
    In mid range you can double the battery by going with 4000mAh instead of 2000mAh and get 2-3 days battery life without compromising design since the rules are more relaxed in the segment. In high end you go from 3000mAh to 4000mAh, the gain is small at 33% while the design (aesthetics and functional) are ruined. It’s better to aim just right since every mm3 matters. Ofc one could argue that he/she games a lot and that’s why he/she needs a big battery That would be a valid reason but even then it would be much better to have a removable battery since ,in high end, battery life in gaming is very poor and a big battery is not even close to enough.
    PS: Your device gets close to the M3 Note in that GFXBench battery test, it is smaller and lower res but less efficient SoC. The mid range SoCs are getting very efficient so if you need long battery life,keep an eye on P10 devices and in a few months SD625, and P20.
Sere83
April 18, 2016
Only thing putting me off is it will ship with cyaongen no doubt who aren’t very good at optimising cameras at all. Also find the style of the UI and icons a bit bland

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