Remember smartphone brand Zuk? It’s the online smartphone brand backed by Lenovo, which launched the Z1 last year. Now, it has returned with a sequel, the Zuk Z2 Pro, and it has an enviable spec sheet. How does a Snapdragon 820 with 6GB of RAM sound? That’s enough power to take on the main players in 2016, and here’s everything you need to know about the device.
The Snapdragon 820 processor runs at 2.1GHz inside the Zuk Z2 Pro, and is the same as that found inside the Galaxy S7, the LG G5, and the Xiaomi Mi 5 Pro; but not with 6GB of RAM. That’s a huge number, exceeding the 3GB or 4GB we’re seeing in this year’s flagship phones, and equal to the rumored amount inside the future Galaxy Note 6, and in LeEco’s newly announced Le Max 2. The model with 6GB of RAM comes with 128GB of storage, while a Z2 Pro with 4GB of RAM will also be sold, and that version has 64GB.
All that power isn’t going to waste. Zuk has apparently added ten different (but mostly unidentified) sensors to the Z2 Pro, ready to track just about any health and fitness metric you can imagine. These include the obligatory step counter, plus a heart rate sensor, and even one for the sun’s ultraviolet rays. There also appears to be a comprehensive fitness tracking app suite installed.
3D glass and metal body
Like the Z1, the Z2 Pro has a versatile fingerprint sensor where you’d normally find the home button. There are further gesture controls possible with the sensor on the new phone, plus it scans at a higher resolution, and gets smarter the more you use it, potentially increasing accuracy and speed over time.
The phone has a 5.2-inch 1080p screen, fitted to what Zuk calls a 3D glass body, which has a curved glass rear panel to march the 2.5D screen, with a 0.5mm bezel. The chassis is made from metal, but there’s no word on weight or dimensions yet. The design looks refined and attractive in the early pictures. On the back is a 13-megapixel camera with optical image stabilization, an f/1.8 aperture, and laser autofocus.
One of the features that made the Zuk Z1 so interesting was that it was sold internationally with the Cyanogen operating system, a spin-off of Google’s Android that comes without certain apps, but still uses the Google Play Store. At the moment, there’s no word on an international version with Cyanogen for the Zuk Z2 Pro, but the Chinese version will run Zuk’s own version of Android.
Local reports price the 128GB version of the Zuk Z2 at about $415, which is considerably less than other flagship smartphones with the same level of power. We’ll keep you updated on any international launch news right here.
