Lenovo Launch Cheapest Phone Running Snapdragon 820 in India

Lenovo has been launching some very aggressively priced phones lately in India, but the Z2 Plus starting at Rs. 17,999 just steals the show. In a land where Xiaomi and OnePlus have regularly under-cutting the flagship devices from seasoned players, Lenovo seems to have gone about its business almost in the shadows.

Naming Confusion?

There’s been a bit of a confusion with the naming of the phones launched under the ZUK sub-brand, so let’s get it straight first. In China, these phones are launched as ZUK Z1, Z2 etc. But in India, they are launched as Lenovo Z1 – Powered by ZUK. It’s the same with the Z2 Plus, too.

To clarify further, the Z2 Plus is simply a different name for the same phone, i.e. the ZUK Z2 which was launched in China a while back. Though the Z1 was launched with Cyanogenmod 13, the Z2 Plus will run on nearly stock Android OS with the Google Now Launcher.

Cheap is Bad?

Now, we’re not going to run ahead of ourselves and solely rely on the spec-sheet here. We’ve already spoken about how specs don’t mean everything. There’s a lot more that goes into making a phone, including the materials used and how they all are brought together.

So, of course, there is some cost-cutting involved. But that is largely to please the populous and get them using a phone which has better hardware. At least on paper.

Specs are Impressive

Not only is the Z2 Plus powered by the powerful Snapdragon 820 SoC, but it also features a fingerprint sensor, a 3,500 mAh battery with Fast Charging and a type-C USB port. The camera on the rear has a 13 MP sensor with Electronic Image Stabilization (EIS) and Phase Detection Auto Focus (PDAF) too.

The Z2 Plus has specs rivaling Xiaomi’s Mi5 and OnePlus 3, both.

On paper, these specs match the OnePlus 3 in many departments. And that phone costs Rs. 27,999 on Amazon.in. The Xiaomi Mi5 also has a Snapdragon 820 SoC but was launched at Rs. 25k. Recent cuts have seen it retailing for about Rs. 23k. So, how has Lenovo managed to undercut a Chinese competitor by nearly Rs. 10,000? Well, we’ll leave that argument to a day when we can possibly get a review unit.

Summary of Specs:

• 5.0-inch Full HD display with 2.5D Glass
• Snapdragon 820 SoC 2.15GHz, 3 GB/4 GB RAM variants
• 32 GB/64 GB variants, microSD card via Hybrid SIM slot
• 13 MP primary with EIS and PDAF 4K video recording, 8-Megapixel secondary sensor
• Android OS 6.0 (Marshmallow)
• 3,500mAh battery with Fast Charging
• Fingerprint Sensor with a customisable shortcut key, U-Health app
• 4G LTE, Bluetooth v4.1, Hybrid SIM slot and Type-C port.

Definitely Buying?

We’d like to know if these specs and Lenovo’s brand has enough of your approval to warrant a purchase. The sale of the Z2 Plus is exclusive to Amazon India and we’ll wait and see how many seconds it might take for the device to be ‘Sold Out’.