Lenovo ZUK Z2 - user opinions and reviews
- ZUK Supremacy
- t5U
My Lenovo ZUK Z2 Plus is still alive, still working fine.
- aces9
- t7v
hi everyone. hope there is someone out there who is able to help. what ever apps that i have installed (whatsapp, x, and so on) doesnt display or beep any notifications. i have done a factory reset and reinstalled the apps but its still the same. hope that somebody is able to help. tq
- SRKar
- 84x
P650SE, 02 Feb 2023I'm back to using this phone in 2023, running LineageOS 18.1, everything is fine, a littl... moreHello friend. I read your comment that you're using Lineage 18.1 on your Lenovo z2 plus. I recently came across this phone myself and loved the smaller size and would love to use it. But I can't find the files necessary to install lineage 18.1. Could you please send me all the files necessary via google drive maybe. I would be eternally grateful to you. Please help me if you could. Awaiting your reply.
- P650SE
- nFe
Woohoo, 25 Mar 2023Oh forgot to add to my previous comment that Asus also didn't launch the ZF9 in India.
N... moreOh, in reply to your second comment, I see now you are located in India so maybe the battery I mentioned before is not available for you, sorry!
I agree with all the points you made about those other phones! It's so difficult to find a device that doesn't have some kind of flaws. Many are too expensive and half of them don't even include a 3.5mm headphone jack anymore. It is inconvenient to have to use a dongle adapter instead!
I was considering buying a Sony Xperia XZ2 Compact. It is kind of old now, but it is still an upgrade over Z2 Plus with Snapdragon 845 and UFS storage. It has good support for custom ROMs with latest security patches. But no 3.5mm and the screen size is smaller (despite being 5.0") due to narrower 18:9 aspect ratio.
- P650SE
- nFe
Woohoo, 25 Mar 2023Wow, Kudos man!! 👏🏻
Which region are you in if I may ask?
I still it badly some times! 🥹😭
... moreHey, friend! Oh, thank you! I like your comment! I'm located in England in the UK. For a replacement battery I would really recommend the "LeHeHe" one from AliExpress, assuming you're able to get it shipped to your location. Some countries like India they don't post to.
I tested the health of this battery with the AccuBattery app after I fitted it, it showed 101% health in comparison to the original capacity. So it had slightly more than 3,500mAh when it was new. After about 6 months or so, the capacity started dropping noticeably, but it is still doing good, I get about 6 hours SoT with Wi-Fi enabled.
Yes, I agree the Zenfone 8/9 is probably the closest thing to the Z2 Plus nowadays. I heard rumours that the Zenfone 10 will use a bigger sized display, but I don't know whether that is true. Unfortunately, the Zenfone isn't that suitable for me because I have sensitivity to flickering from AMOLED displays which causes me headaches and eyestrain. Hence why I am still using Z2 Plus after all this time :)
- Woohoo
- U@K
P650SE, 02 Feb 2023I'm back to using this phone in 2023, running LineageOS 18.1, everything is fine, a littl... moreOh forgot to add to my previous comment that Asus also didn't launch the ZF9 in India.
Not to mention the other compact-ish phones have some cons as well (including the much higher price to begin with).
Xiaomi 12X - great screen, sleek design, good battery, good cameras, but no 3.5mm jack & N.A. here!
Xiaomi 13 - N.A. here, and no jack & expensive!
Xperia 10 - N.A. here plus stupid SoC (695) choice for the price!
Xperia 5 - N.A. here, really expensive, marred by inadequate cooling (thanks QC 🔥), weird regressions (worse telephoto camera in the IV), but has good screen (finally good brightness), good cameras (it's not defined by shooting everything in Auto), 3.5mm HP jack 😍, tool-less mSD slot, physical 2-stage shutter key (takes me back to the Lumia days, miss those! 😭) and good design!
Pixel 6a/7/7a - really good vfm but still marred by QC issues & s/w bugs, not to mention almost non-existent service network here and also slightly expensive (the vanilla not the 'a'), no 3.5mm jack & a bit too plain/bland & no customisation compared to other UI/ROMs.
- Woohoo
- U@K
P650SE, 02 Feb 2023I'm back to using this phone in 2023, running LineageOS 18.1, everything is fine, a littl... moreWow, Kudos man!! 👏🏻
Which region are you in if I may ask?
I still it badly some times! 🥹😭
I can get some of the parts like the FPS & front+back glass from a website dealing in such parts here, but the biggest problem is finding a good battery that'll last and not sell up to 3x it's size!! (My xp with a battery from Amazon wasn't great)
The closest thing to the Z2 Plus now is the Asus Zenfone 8/9 & in a few months hopefully the ZF10 as well but those still cost a bit much, especially compared to the Z2+
That's why I've been hoping, wishing, begging (whatever you wanna call it) for Asus to ALSO release a Lite version with a non-flagship Dimensity chip (1300/8100/8200, no need of the 9000/+/9200).
I waited hoping that they would but finally ended up buying the X7 Max w/ D1200!
- P650SE
- nI6
I'm back to using this phone in 2023, running LineageOS 18.1, everything is fine, a little slower compared to modern devices but still acceptable. I replaced battery a few years ago, getting over 6 hours of screen-on time with general usage. I wish there were still manufacturers that made compact phones.
- Jhaplu
- YQE
Guys my lenovo zuk z2 plus battery got swelled up 3 times, the shopkeeper said maybe the motherboard has died etc,should I try once more and root it this time around
- Anonymous
- nWJ
rko, 24 Jul 2021Bro how did you unlock it?unlocking is really easy now: there is an option to unlock the bootloader in the settings when you use the latest ZUI version. maybe under the developer options (which you can activate by tapping the info about the build-number multiple times quickly).
Unfortunately I can't say exactly where in the settings, as I had give up never being able to unlock the phone again after having having recovered from a hard brick by re-installing native ZUI OS. So I flicked the switch, restarted, and was surprised it had worked, not being able (and wanting to) get back to the native ZUI OS.
I could then install lineage OS, therefore now running android 11. See information here: https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/z2_plus/install
The steps for unlocking referred to there are outdated, don't work anymore.
good luck
- rko
- tet
DollAb, 22 Mar 2021Zuk z2 is one of the best phone I've ever used.. But need to unlock bootloader, then it ... moreBro how did you unlock it?
- Woohoo
- 7kk
P650SE, 04 Apr 2021Still no suitable replacement for this phone as of April 2021. I bought 3 newer phones with th... moreI'm also in a similar state brother!!
It's the best affordable performance oriented small phones I've ever seen. I bought my Z2 Plus (4/64,black) in 2017 for around Rs.13-14k~$250 (then) after using my dad's SG SII for a couple of years & a nokia feature phone after the SII broke.
Still haven't found any small phone as good as an overall package for such a price point.
Now I'm looking forward to the GT Neo, but that's also too big for a comfortable one hand use, at least it has flagship chipset and good display & HP Jack for cheap but then again no OIS, nor mSD card support, but 2 more useless cameras. Then there are compact phones like the S10e/Xperia 5 III/Zenfone 8, but they are a bit too expensive. I fell in love w/ the og Find X as well, and would still want to buy it if I could find it for around $500 but the idiots in my country haven't reduced it's price one bit, it still sells for it's launch price of Rs.60k ($818 now, >$900 at launch) after nearly 3 years. I'd have even bought the Lumia 950XL for it's camera were it not for the demise of WP & end of support for whtsp.
The state of mobiles is pretty bad these days imo. 99% phones in the sub-$400 range don't have OIS, but instead put on 3 crappy extra cameras. At least Sammy puts somewhat decent 12mp UW + 5mp macro, which is still usable even if they don't provide OIS on the main camera on any other phone than the A52. It's the reason I suggested the Nokia 8.1 in 2019 for my dad in the beautiful Iron colour, bcoz of stock OS, no bloatware/ads, good build with metal frame, smooth performance & OIS.
Then comes the plastic build. I don't mind it per se when it's done well-like the Nokia Lumias or the S20FE/S21/Note 20/Realme 7 Pro, etc but many phones don't do it well.
The Z2 Plus is such a good feeling in the hand with it's glass sandwich & unique matte textured fibre-glass frame, Stock Android but w/ long screenshots & in-built screen recording in Nougat, HP jack on the bottom left where I prefer it since I'm right-handed, a notification light (RGB one like in Samsung would've been awesome), double-press power button to quick launch camera, front mounted FPS in the home button w/ tons of gestures and customisations I've yet to see again; unfortunately my sensor stopped working last year, both the front/back glass have been replaced & are again cracked, the battery is basically useless (it's always on charging) & ofc it heats up pretty badly when pushed, even while browsing, I tried using an Aluminium foil stuck w/ thermal paste over the SoC part after removing the glass back, but it didn't help either.
The camera was better than average for that time & price point imo, especially when using manual mode & using a tripod (I've taken hundreds of manual shots capturing the stars (16s@ISO400) as well as lightning (4s@ISO200) & the results still impressed me and some of my friends last year). The Auto results were bad in indoor/low light but manual mode fixed that (just wish Flash was present in Manual mode like in the Lumias & OIS was present so I could do it handheld then instead of relying on some stable thing to rest my hand on). Panoramas were also great in 46mpx. The video quality was also good (4k at that time for that price was mostly impossible due to underpowered 400/600-series chipsets) in daylight as well as in 4k time-lapse, but fell apart badly in artificial/low light. I think only the Moto G4 Plus had a better camera at that time.
Been on the lookout for a replacement for over a year, but due to chinese human malware we all have been at home so the biggest concern-battery was no longer a concern, so stuck with this phone. Still looking for a good cheap-ish small-ish phone and the closest thing I like is the GT Neo (I was interested in the RealmeX2 Pro but I wasn't ready to fork out that much a few years ago; X7 Pro but I skipped it due to lack of 3.5mm Jack & it's bigger)
Even my elder brother has been telling me that I can't stick with this phone any longer-0 battery life, broken glass, FPS not working. He also says that I need to compromise on some aspect & not have such a strict set of conditions-small, OIS, flagship SoC
- Minu
- ter
P650SE, 04 Apr 2021Still no suitable replacement for this phone as of April 2021. I bought 3 newer phones with th... moreHi again! The 64GB Nokia 8 has more free storage compared to other phones with the same amount and much faster than any other phone with 4GB RAM I've checked. It has an SD slot as well so it's a huge plus
- P650SE
- mqt
Still no suitable replacement for this phone as of April 2021. I bought 3 newer phones with the hope of upgrading but I hated them all and switched back to ZUK each time.
Smartphone market these days is embarrassing, everything comes with a totally oversized 6.5" display with notches and punchholes. Impossible to support and use a phone of that size with one hand. Most devices don't even provide a 3.5mm headphone jack. And all manufacturers switched to inferior quality displays with PWM flickering, causing headaches and eyestrain when using the phone indoors.
I will continue using ZUK until a worthwhile replacement comes along. Closest thing I found to anything decent was the Nokia 8 - but I am having a hard time finding a 128GB one on the second-hand market here in the UK.
The main problem for me with ZUK is storage, eMMC is unbearably slow at file transfers especially with full-disk encryption (does not support file-based encryption introduced with Android 7) and 64GB is not enough for all of my files.
- DollAb
- tZ0
Zuk z2 is one of the best phone I've ever used..
But need to unlock bootloader, then it become smooth than any other new models... When u flash magis6and install gcam, I'm sure that you'll be satisfy like me.
- Anonymous
- g3b
Still using this on 2021. first one broke by the act of god. so bought it again on 2019. in my opinion, Pixel Experience 11 is the best custom rom so far with latest android 11 support. no bugs i have faced. ui looks exactly stock. only drawback i faced is over heating. may be quad core cant handle latest android 11. but, it heats only when you are running some heavy apps. else, in general it runs cool. looks like android is trying to push the hardware limitations to its extreme. also, gpu kinda dont work in this custom rom. but cpu easily handles everything. played CODM with high graphics and frame rate. runs ok almost. overall, i miss the unique single button operation of the original stock so got back to the stock rom. you should try pixel experience. you may like it. i do like it. but has to make some sacrifices for custom rom. i loved the single button operation of this phone, which is one of its kind. hope my post is helpful. thanks!
- anonymous
- 35n
Kinash, 10 Jan 2021Hey I can i root my phoneYes, with Magisk Manager, but unlocked bootloader is needed, and, because of that some application will not work or will not work as they should (on the other hand with unlocked bootloader easier to get access to your phone).
- Kinash
- tet
MiziTami, 09 Sep 2020Hey! How did you change the battery? At a Lenovo Service Center?Hey I can i root my phone
- Nadim
- KGa
My Lenovo Zuk Z2 display is not working. What Can I do?? I am not getting the display anywhere in BD
- nestoras86
- iAE
MiziTami, 09 Sep 2020Hey!
How did you change the battery? At a Lenovo Service Center?No i did it by myself. The back glass is attached on the phone with glued stripes. Use a hot blower to liquify the glue and remove the back glass. Then you have access to the battery (you just need a small screwdrive) to replace it. Ive also removed and reinstalled the front camera and now it works fine.
After 4 years the phone is going to continue till its end of life on my mothers hands.
Just bought a tcl 10l for 110euros.
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