14 DAY TRIAL // ZUK is a Chinese company backed by Lenovo, which is supposed to be “independent from Lenovo's previous subsidiary brands.” We're not sure if that's good or bad, but ZUK only launched a single smartphone last year, and it's expected to release at least one more this year.
The company's current flagship smartphone, ZUK Z1 does not look like a flagship at all. It's got the high-end specs of a handset launched a few years ago, but it's been advertised as a next-generation product.
The Z1 is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor, coupled with 3GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. It also comes with a 5.5-inch FHD (1080p) display and 13-megapixel rear-facing camera. ZUK Z1 drains energy from a generous 4,100 mAh battery and packs both USB Type-C port and fingerprint scanner.
The Chinese company announced it has already started working on a new flagship smartphone, the ZUK Z2 which will be released in 2016.
However, the folks over at GizChina have learned that ZUK might launch a mini version of the Z1 model in the next couple of months. The name of the smartphone is unknown at the moment, but we have some details on its specs.
Smaller screen but fingerprint scanner makes a comeback
Apparently, the ZUK Z1 mini will sport a 4.7-inch HD (720p) display, and it will be powered by a MediaTek Helio P10 processor.
There will be two variants launched on the market with different amount of memory: 2GB RAM and 16GB storage, as well as 3GB RAM and 32GB storage.
The smaller version of ZUK Z1 will have its fingerprint scanner placed under the Home physical button. It will also come preloaded with a multi-lingual version of ZUI.
No word on release date and pricing yet. We also don't know whether or not the smartphone will run the latest version of CyanogenMod or ZUK will opt to put Android on it.