One of the newest smartphone brands to arrive here in the Philippines is Zuk and they’re bringing their first and flagship smartphone to the country, the Zuk Z1. The Zuk Z1 has been available for a while now and I was really impressed due to its affordable price for its specifications. Do you want to know more about this smartphone? Check out my review below.

Design and Hardware

There are many things to love about this smartphone and one of them is the build quality. The Zuk Z1 has a metal frame with chamfered edges and despite having curved edges, the smartphone is really comfortable to hold thanks to its rounded back. At the back, you’ll see the non-removable back with a glossy back cover for the white while a matte back cover for the gray variant of the smartphone.

Unfortunately, you can not remove the battery of the smartphone but don’t worry because the Zuk Z1 have a 4100mAh of battery which is pretty big for the smartphone, however, I’m surprised that the smartphone was still able to sport a lightweight and handy design.

Another feature that you might not like about this smartphone is you cannot expand its storage and you’re stuck with its internal storage for your apps and media but worry no more because this smartphone has a pretty decent storage capacity which is at 64GB. However, if you’re planning on using flash drive via OTG on this smartphone, unfortunately, you need to have a Type C USB OTG and no, you cannot use your Micro USB cables and accessories on this smartphone.

On the brighter side, this smartphone might have a Type C USB but you can have a faster data transfer when you connected this smartphone to your computer and this smartphone supports fast charging and you can charge this smartphone from 0 to 100 in an hour and a half despite having a monstrous battery. And if you ask me regarding the battery life, I’m very happy to tell you guys that this smartphone was able to last up to two days of average use and a whole day of heavy use. It’s a really good smartphone especially if love to play games or love to use the smartphone the whole day.

One of its notable features is the fingerprint sensor and I was surprised because out of all the smartphones with a fingerprint sensor that I’ve tried, the Zuk Z1 was the fastest to recognize my fingerprint. It’s really fast and I’m pretty sure that you’ll be surprised too especially if you had a smartphone that has fingerprint sensor too.

Display

Zuk Z1 doesn’t have a 2k display but c’mon, you don’t need those displays for a smartphone. A Full HD resolution on a 5.5-inch display is already enough for gaming or for viewing media files. There’s an IPS display on the Zuk Z1 and I was impressed with its display not only because it is responsive but also because the smartphone has a bright display with the right colors and contrast.

Software
Zuk Z1 doesn’t have a pure Android treatment just like the Nexus, but this one has Cyanogen OS 12.1 and Android 5.1. It might not be the latest but most smartphones are not yet on Android 6.0 yet so don’t worry. It’s my first time to use Cyanogen OS 12.1 and I was quite impressed with its performance and looks. It’s fast as a Nexus device and there’s only one time that this smartphone slowed down. It’s pretty amazing.

This might have a near-Nexus speed and goodness, but this one has a different launcher. It’s a vertical launcher and the apps are in alphabetical. Actually, the launcher is the only place where I experienced a lag but that only happens whenever I just booted my phone.

This smartphone might have a near-Nexus speeds and a fluid experience, but that doesn’t mean that the smartphone lacks some built-in features. The smartphone actually packs a lot of cool features like the caller ID in where you can discover the name who’s calling you as long as their numbers and names are saved online.

The processor isn’t new and this has been used in many smartphones before such as the Samsung Galaxy S5 and LG G3. It’s a year old processor, but this processor can’t still do its job and can match up with Zenfone 2’s Intel Atom Z3580 processor, however, the Snapdragon 801 is more stable and compatible with more apps. There’s no overheating issue too on this smartphone.

When it comes to games and applications, there’s no problem on space with its 64GB storage however the Snapdragon 801 might be good and powerful, there are already some games that can’t be maxed out on this one like NBA 2k16. But don’t worry, that game is very playable at medium settings, which is still not bad.

Overall, the Zuk Z1 might not be the most powerful but the Snapdragon 801 is very stable and I didn’t have any problems with its temperature and performance.

Camera

The Zuk Z1 got a 13 Megapixel rear camera and unfortunately, this is the smartphone’s weakest link. The images that I took weren’t that good and most of the shots are oversaturated and overexposed. The camera isn’t hard to use and there are different modes that you can use for different locations and environments.

However, despite the availability of different settings for different environments, I still find the camera lackluster. At HDR mode, most photos tend to improve but still, the colors are oversaturated and it is overexposed than expected. Check out some photos that I took below:

Verdict

The brand is new to our ears but Zuk got a strong backing from one of the world’s biggest mobile company and as a first-gen smartphone of the brand, they did pretty solid job. Zuk Z1 isn’t the best performer compared to other flagship smartphones but as a mid-ranger, I highly recommend this one over the others. The build quality is solid, the performance of the smartphone Is good, and the cyanogen software was really enjoyable.

Zuk Z1 is now available at different stores nationwide for P15,299.