Today we, Lenvo zook z 1 Will review Although Globally this phone has been introduced as Zook Z1, Lenovo launched it in India under the name Lenovo Zook Z1 with the intention of maintaining its parent name. It is worth noting that Zook Z1 was first launched in China in September last year. Therefore, reviewing this phone today is a little outdated. Today we will know in our investigation, Lenovo Zook Z1 features and shortcomings.
Look and design
It was a few years ago, when a phone with a 5.5 -inch screen was considered oversize. With this, the discussion started on seeing a big phone in your hand. But today, the size is an essential condition due to more media consumption in the smartphone. Lenovo Zook Z1 comes with this size, although it definitely feels a bit heavy.
There are two main reasons for this smartphone being heavy, metal frame and 4100 mAh battery, which leads to 175 grams weight of the phone. However, the phone does not have a unibody case and the rear panel is of plastic. Users cannot access the battery. Along with the frame, there is a dual sim tray on the left side. The phone does not support expandable storage, so microSD card slot has not been given.
In India, Lenovo Zook Z1 is available in white and space gray color variants. Our review unit was gray which we felt a little better than white. The rear dull of the phone is of metallic finish. The phone does not have any kind of Lenovo branding but the rear has only zook logo at the bottom. The camera and flash have been given on the rear upwards. Overall, we liked the phone’s look, design and styling.
The Lenovo Zook Z1 has a microphone, speaker and USB Type-C port for charging and data transfer at the bottom. The user will get a 13 watt power adapter in the box with the phone and a USB 3.0 cable (one side Type-A plug and Type-C on the other side). The phone has a power and volume button on the right side while the upward 3.5mm headphone shock. About 70 percent of the phone is occupied by the screen, while it has a camera, earpiece and proximity sensor above it. At the bottom is the physical home button in which the fingerprint sensor is integrated. Below the display is the capacitive Android navigation button.
We have seen many such smartphones in which fingerprint sensor is built in the home button itself. Samsung Galaxy A8 And HTC One A9 (Review) The phone is unlocked only by touching many phones (even in standby mode) but it does not happen in Zook Z1. This phone has to be activated by pressing the home button and the button has to be pressed till the fingerprint is identified.
This is not only a problem in itself, but one has to try a little more to press the button. The sensor works quite quickly and properly to unlock the phone. But like this other device, this process is not as easy. Earlier the sensor used to act like a capacitive back button but now it has been disabled through a software update.
The Lenovo Zook Z1 has a screen of 1080×1920 pixels resolution with a Dancer 401 PPI. The screen is fantastic and meets almost all the needs. The IPS-LCD screen given in the phone is not as shiny as we expected and it does not give as much glow even when we have the most bright level. However, the polerized coating on the screen helps to use the phone easily in sunlight, so the phone does not require much brightness.
In addition, the phone also has a livedisplay, with the help of this setting, the color tone of the screen can be optimized according to the day.
Specification
Today, when smartphones priced at Rs 15,000 run on the latest MediaTek Helio or Snapdragon 600 Series processor, Lenovo Zook Z1 has a premium but an old 2.5 GHz 32-bit quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor. Snapdragon 801 smartphones were introduced for the first time in the market about two years ago, so choosing Lenovo’s processor is under question. Especially 32-bit processor while practically all hardware has come on 63-bit processor.
The Zook Z1 has 3 GB RAM and the phone supports both SIM 4G connectivity (with Indian band support), Wi-Fi AC connectivity. A 4100 mAh battery has been given to make the smartphone strong. The phone has 64 GB of inbuilt storage but the phone does not support expandable storage, so you have to work with a limited storage.
Software
The Lenovo Zook Z1 smartphone runs on Cyanogen OS 12.1 based on Android 5.1.1. Although the phone is being talked about upgrading on the cynogen OS 13 based on Android 6.0, but this update is not available in the OTA software update system of the Philhat phone. Cyanogen gives OS phone the option to customize the phone at its convenience.
In many ways, the cyanogen OS stock works like Android and you can also change the theme that looks like stock Android. The identity of the system is to be customized in every way and we saw it in Lenovo Zook Z1. Home screen and app drawer can be converted into different layouts. Apart from this, grid size, scroll effect and icon label can also be changed and togle. There is much more to do in the phone. Apart from this, you can also control the user interface at a large extent at the basic level.
Apart from this, there are many different options when going to the setting app, so that you can control the device in a better way. Many options are also available on charging the phone on or off the light, the color of the notification light for battery alert, custom action for home and recent button, status bar and separate elements for notification drawers. Cyanogen OS is the best system for those advanced users who want more control over their phones. We liked using this phone.
Camera
Lenovo Zook Z1 has a 13 -megapixel rear camera that runs on Sony’s IMX 214 sensor. The camera has optical image stabilization and dual-LED flash. The phone has an 8 megapixel front camera. Videos of up to 1080 pixels can be recorded from both cameras. Apart from this, there is also 60 FPS video recording from the rear camera.
Camera app Sineogen has its own camera Next, which comes with a very good option in using and working. The togle used to be used can be easily accessed from the viewfinder screen which includes flash, camera and timer settings. Sirp can be recorded with a touch as well as a video. Panorama mode can also be easily togarted. Additionally, resolution settings, manual control and codec selection can be done by going to the setting menu. These options also provide the option to make pictures and videos better.
The camera of the phone is very good and it brings photos with sharp and details. The color tone also comes in the pictures. The pictures are good in good light, while even in low light, we managed to take good pictures with a little nois and scatter. Pictures in the indoor are not as good as compared to natural light, but they can be called right according to details and color.
In good light, the video is made of much better quality, but the quality deteriorates in low light.
Performance
Despite the two -year Puna processor, the performance of Lenovo Zukak Z1 is quite good. However, you will get better performance in the new Qualcomm 650 and 652 processors, which is getting in another device with this price. Apart from this, it is also to be remembered that the Adreno 330 GPU is also quite old and it does not support OpenGL ES 3.1 and 3.2, so that some new grfix intensive games cannot be played in the phone.
The normal performance of the phone was very good. Along with this, we did not even see any heating, shutter trouble in the phone. The credit of this certainly goes to the Cyanogen OS which decides that the Zook Z1 is easily run without any trouble.
We found great figures in the phone’s benchmarking test, especially in the graphics benchmark.
In the video loop test of Zook Z1, its battery supported us up to 13 hours 40 minutes, which is a big specialty of the phone. At the same time, once charged during common use, we could run Zook Z1 for more than a day. Y-pie, cellular connectivity and call quality are also very good. But the phone’s speaker (which gives extremely bad sound) disappoints. However, the headphones provide a good sound to watch music players and videos.
Our decision
Lenovo has introduced a great device as Zook Z1. The design of the phone is fantastic, the software works well, the display is good and the storage is also Barpur. Connectivity and battery life is also fantastic. Apart from this, the screen is also sharp and the phone can be customized according to its own. Above all, the company has kept the price of the phone such that it will definitely be attracted to this phone. Especially those advanced users who know a little bit about Cyanogen OS.
However, the phone also has some attention drawing drawbacks. However, we did not see any decrease in its performance at the time of using the phone. The phone runs on the old 32-bit processor and GPU which can cause problems in some new games and apps. Apart from this, Cyanogen is an old version of OS and Android and no information has been received about the new software update. Apart from this, it will not be easy to buy Z1 as this phone will be sold through flash cell.
Given the price of Lenovo Zook Z1, this is a great option that comes with the best feature. If the old hardware is not an issue for you, then you want to use it as a secondary phone, then the Zook Z1 is sure better than the other smartphone coming in this price.