Published on April 29th, 2018 | by Guest

Lenovo Zuk Z2 Plus: A Long Term Review

Phones are getting cheaper day after day since the last decade. I remember my first mobile phone. Almost everyone back in 2006 had a Nokia 1100 but I didn’t. Instead, I owned a Sony Ericsson. I forgot the exact model name as I had to return it back in 1 week due to poor battery life. After that, I have used many phones from brands like Motorola, Nokia, etc.

In 2010, I possessed the Nokia C5.00. By then, Nokia was the king in the market and Symbian was the most popular and most powerful operating system. I still use my C5 for receiving calls, sending messages using a T9 keyboard and playing music through the wired headset. The battery life after all these years is still good. Old things like these always have a special place in our hearts.

By today, I have been on all major mobile OSes like iOS, Android, Windows Phone, BlackBerry OS and even Firefox OS. Daily advancements in cellular technology have made us regularly switch to new mobile phones over time. For the last few months, I decided to stay on one mid-range phone for at least 8 months.

Back in August 2017, I purchased a phone named Zuk Z2 Plus. The phone is extremely popular in the Asian market. This phone, belonging to a Lenovo sub-brand, is a mid-range priced but powerful device powered by Snapdragon 820 chipset. This two-year-old chipset still made more sense than buying a MediaTek device. It is a flagship chipset that was featured on high-end phones like OnePlus 3 and LG G5.

Display

This phone has a 5-inch full HD display which is covered by Corning Gorilla Glass 3 so a screen protector was not required. Colours, contrast and viewing angles are great too. If I have to give it a number then I will rate it 8 out of 10. I have deducted 2 points because of the panel’s poor visibility in daylight.

Storage & chipset

I have already mentioned that this device is equipped with a Snapdragon 820 chipset. This is chipset is known as an entry-level flagship CPU. Two variants are available: 3GB RAM + 32GB storage and 4GB RAM + 64GB storage. I preferred the upper variant because this phone doesn’t support external memory expansion.

Camera

You will be a little bit disappointed by the camera. Yes, you can call it average. The rear camera comes with a 13MP f/2.2 aperture which is quite capable of taking photos in daylight. But in low or artificial lighting, its produces grainy or noisy photos. It is the same story with the front facing camera too. The front facing camera comes with an 8MP f/2.0 aperture but I am satisfied with this because I think the front camera takes better photos than the rear one in low light. I’m attaching some shots taken by me so you can compare the quality side by side. As for the video, all videos in MoboMotion were shot by this camera as its can record in 4K resolution and slow motion in 960fps.

Battery & sensors

The battery is a massive 3500 mAh and is enough to last a whole day with heavy usage. My usage is pretty heavy. I listen to songs by streaming them directly from the Internet. I use my phone as a WiFi hotspot. On top of that, I game a lot but it still lasts a whole day. If you still run out of power, then you can plug in your USB-Type C and with the support of Snapdragon Quick Charge 2.0 your battery will be refilled within few minutes. Unfortunately, the stock power adapter that comes with this phone is not a quick charger so you need to buy a quick charger separately.

All major sensors like a fast fingerprint fingerprint scanner, compass, gyroscope and GPS are present. However, I really miss the OIS/EIS on camera.

Out of the box, you will get Android Marshmallow 6.0, but you’ll receive an OTA upgrade to Android Nougat 7.0.1. Lenovo is very irresponsible when it comes to regular updates, so you should forget about the monthly security updates.

There is no particular price of this phone, so do a comparison before buying.

Using a budget phone with powerful hardware feels really good. As a tech guy I always have to be online to check emails and other social networks. Sometimes, I even have to write an article on phone.

If you want a phone with a powerful chipset and battery then you should buy this.

Thank you for reading my article.

Here are some sample images shot from my Zuk Z2 Plus.

About the author:

I’m Biplab Das, a technical writer, tech YouTuber, blogger, ICT tutor and a part time website developer. People say smartphones are boring these days, but I think everyone is beginning to take this wonderful technology marvel for granted. Please don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel MoboMotion.

Tags: Lenovo, long term, Z2 Plus, Zuk