What made Xiaomi’s Mi Mix exciting was its high screen-to-body ratio which, when combined with its ceramic back, gave the phone a sleek and futuristic aesthetic. Lenovo hopes to introduce that same level of excitement with the Zuk Edge, which looks to have a leg up over the Mi Mix in more ways than just its pricing.
Beginning our tour with the design, the star of the show is the Zuk Edge’s extremely slim front bezels, which enable 86.4 percent of the front to be covered with screen. Even with such a high screen-to-body ratio, the Zuk Edge retains the traditional smartphone design, with an earpiece and 8-megapixel selfie camera above and a fingerprint sensor that doubles as a home button below the 5.5-inch, 1,920 x 1,080 resolution display.
Unlike other fingerprint sensors, which carve out their own spaces either on the front or rear panel, the Zuk Edge’s reader sits below the glass. Such a design is rumored to make an appearance on the Galaxy S8, though it seems as if Lenovo beat Samsung to the punch.
Under the hood, Qualcomm’s 2.35GHz quad-core Snapdragon 821 and either 4GB or 6GB RAM power the Zuk Edge. The 64GB might be spacious enough for most, but if you need more, you should know that there is no MicroSD card slot for expansion. There is a 3,100mAh power pack that should see you through the day and not much after that, though the option for fast-charge through the USB Type-C port is always welcome. In terms of software, the phone runs Lenovo’s Android skin above 7.0 Nougat.
Overall, the Zuk Edge looks to usher in a design language that focuses on minimizing as much bezel as possible while retaining the traditional smartphone aesthetics. Thankfully, the phone will do so without breaking the bank: it will sell for $330 with 4GB RAM and $360 with 6GB RAM. The Zuk Edge will ship starting January 1 in China, with no news regarding international availability.
