USE CODE: "BGESZUK2"
Great phone and amazing specs for the price. Lowest ever (and no it isn't the latest Samsung)
Referee gets $2 in coupons. Referrer gets 10% off (if referee spends over US$10)
The specs are nearly identical, brand wise i would prefer Lenovo over Xiaomi
I'd prefer the Xiaomi however as it's a 100 bucks less and I'm an Ozbargainer (tight) I own the Zuk. It's a great phone.
Good it's back on special but it's not the cheapest ever for this model.
Pay for express shipping or expect to wait over a month to get it.
What about camera? It is known that Xiaomi mi5 is below s6 due to image stabilizer. What about zuk?
xiaomi's legit as hell tho
Got a link for the Mi 5 under $200?
I think he's saying the Mi 5 is approx. $300.
Yeah the interpretation lol.
Xiaomi has better screen and better camera, along with better software and better community for rooted tweaking. I've been told that Xiaomi has better sound quality through headset, but I never got the chance to test. Besides Viper4Android can fix any audio problems if you're willing to go through a few extra steps.
So yes, this is also a great phone at a great price.
I'm looking for a cheap budget flahship or 1 tier below phone to buy my dad that "just works" and is simple to use, it'll be his first smartphone. I was going to go Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 pro INTL or Mi5, because I think Xiaomi OS is the simplest to use. How does this rom go for simplicity and uptime without needing to bugfix or troubleshoot? I won't be near to help. How easy is it to completely De-China-Fy the rom? Are there scheduled auto updates of the english rom?
Get the Xiaomi - the Zuk has one button down the bottom that you have use, double taps etc, to get home and back and stuff. The capacitive buttons on the Redmi or Mi5 will be easier to use.
Thank you! I was leaning this way myself, but this second opinion helps, and I didn't know about the capacative button and required double taps etc, physical button on Xiaomi much better for dad.
Ordered one from this mob over a month ago, still waiting…
So S L O W from these suppliers, whats the score?
Some combination of most identical chinese shops being a bit dodgy, postage from china being a bit dodgy, and even without dodginess they might be pre-selling them in order to do a bulk order without telling buyers that.
From what I told, shops like these use your money as their cash flows rotations, i.e, money they received from orders this week are use to pay for order made by other customers last months. Some use customers money to earn interest - money taken and order fulfilment next month, some use the money to funds their other businesses, and so on. They do sometimes ship your order right away, but mostly for promotion items, or new customers. Remember, they operate worldwide, we are talking about hundreds of thousands up to millions of dollars worths of sales each month.
I'm of the opinion that their business model relies on ripping off a small but noticeable percentage of buyers.
There are so many horror stories of them stringing along buyers beyond the paypal protection times and endless promises.
Me, I've been given fake tracking numbers (thanks but I don't live in Greece) and repeatedly lied to saying it was sent 'today' then the next week, also 'today'.
They have no shame.
i would have ordered the same time as you in the last deal. i have had the phone for a week. they dont update the shipping.
Ordered 4 things. 2 months later still nothing. Resent and got all 4 except they succeeded buggering that too. Of 4 ordered they got 3 right and 1 not. So after 3 and a half months got 3 things and a refund for the fourth.
Never ever order more than one item from chinese shops. They don't have any of stock on hand, it just give them reason to delay shipment of your order because "waiting for one item to be re-stock", personal experience.
At the time it was all in stock and marked as sent when paid for. But yeah, with China you need to be careful.
same here. Really hoping it'll arrive today
Upgradable to 7?
Android 7? If you flash the Chinese ROM it now has Android 7. I'm on the Indian ROM that is still waiting for that update but I'm not complaining as it's been rock solid.
My one from Banggood had a Modded ROM that had Play Store. It's clean, just dont expect any updates without flashing the Chinese, Indian or another Custom ROM.
can you give me link to that rom. Is it on xda? Also does it have any functionalities that uses the zuk home button?
I found it on zukfans.eu
https://zukfans.eu/community/threads/z2plus-zui-2-0-093_st_1…
It's the official Indian ZUI ROM so U-Touch is still able to be modified.
Had one since Jan 2017. Great phone, would immediately buy again
so did u?
Upgradable to 7? Please tell me …!!!
Looks great, except no NFC and no band 28 (both of which are pretty typical for low cost devices).
What does band 28 do?
Telstra and Optus deliver LTE using that band.
It's one of the bands, all carriers also use 1800mhz. Band 28 is what the carriers are putting their development efforts into eg channel aggregation and new towers band 28 when aggregating is FAST ……Used it for a week at a training course when the in-house house wifi sucked. Now that Optus has Netflix data exlussion also great for watching netflix an train or insude buildings eg when stuck in hospital.
what's this data exclusion? I saw the BYO sim plans had free spotify streaming, is it the mobile phone + sim plans that give free streaming of netflix? If so that's heaps! And very tempting! Or can you get free netflix with SIM only BYO plans??
I am with amaysim and have a sony xperia z3 but struggle with reception in my suburban house - is it the colorbond roof (which someone told me reflects/dashes signals) - surely this is common throughout aus, or is it my lack of band 28 hence why im struggling? As I am pretty sure the z3 comes with band 28? If so then changing phones probably won't help?
band 28 refers to the 700Mhz frequency for LTE/4G. In Australia, This was basically the wavelength that analogue free to air TV used and is expected to be heavily invested into going forward. It is supposed to have the widest coverage and best indoor penetration (I believe this is because of its low frequency). However if you don't really care for the speed or range of 4G on your device (or if you use vodafone) it doesn't matter.
At least until they get 5G sorted.
if you want 4g don't go with vodafone, at least if you own a galaxy Note, my Note5 has been on HSPA since last month i switched to them, my brother Note4 also couldn't get 4g, and this's in Melbourne metropolitan
Hi mate
I have a note 4 and have been using the vodaphone network, it's always using 4g in frankghanistan , occasionally it will drop back but not often.
I think we should put blaming this or that Telco to rest. Vodafone has come a long way since early days and is comparable to other telcos nowadays. I had Telstra, Optus, Vodafone, Vaya, Aldi… and they all performed well at home.
But you need to keep in mind, none of them are foolproof. You are guaranteed to get an odd black spot regardless of with who you are and some phones are also to blame for the reception. Some People have reported to have better reception with other telcos than Telstra which is supposed to have the best of the best reception.
You just need to find the one that works best for you, or move house :)
@bargainparker: meh, Vodafone still craps. Most of the time its performance is sluggish, its full bar reception means nothing compared to optus in terms of speed when most of the time optus's sit on 2 bars.
And last time when I was at Hanging rocks (3 weeks ago) I could not get any reception at all while I remember didn't have this issue last year with optus and Telstra. And this is a popular weekend spots only an hour away from the cbd we're talking about. Upon getting home I check their network coverage and voila it even shows full 4g coverage all over the surrounding jungle the region.
For what it is worth I get full reception for both of them. If I listened other people I would have no mobile phone because everyone has complained about every Telco at one time or another, including Telstra.
Long time ago when I was looking for broadband plan everyone was slapping Exetel. I researched a bit more and most of the time people complained about lack of customer support as well as if you have technical issues you are left in the air. Since I had technical knowledge that didn't bother me and decided to give them a go. Needless to say it has been rock solid since then. So if I listened to other people and went for someone else, it might have happened I got a lemon. Once upon a time people were looking at cows and horses deciding if it was good for the price and you would get a mate saying, nah. Now in digital age we still have that, except we replaced it with technology.
My advice is, research before you buy and you can still return it if your reception is not good, as well as buy a cheap sim card to test the network. If you have ever read the Bible in a long forgotten time when God was with Israelites and he gave them everything they wished for, what do you think happened? They still complained. So even if it was all perfect, people would find that 1 thing to complain about.
PS: of course other people will have different opinion.
lol every time
There isn't much reason for them to use B28 in the countries which they market this phone in.
I have a Samsung s4 and it doesn't have Band 28 so I won't miss it. If your current phone doesn't have Band 28 then stop sooking about it, it's only if you are in (profanity) nowhere and need data.
Speak for yourself. Many Australian mobile phone users would argue otherwise with the need for Telstra/Optus B28 and Vodafone B5.
If you and many others don't want/need them, good. Really depends where you want to use phone/wifi modem and at what speeds.
Is this dual 3g/4g sim? Or will it stop working when they turn the 2g networks off?
Sim Slot 1 is 4G
Sim Slot 2 is 3G
If you kindly direct your attention to the "Band" section of the specifications, you will notice that the number 28 has been deliberately left out.
Please queue your neg to the right in an orderly fashion, ladies and gentlemen.
If you kindly direct your attention to the above comment, you will notice that any useful contribution has been deliberately left out.
Please ignore the above comment in an orderly fashion, ladies and gentlemen.
Seriously though, what do you expect for a phone that wasn't designed for our market, and is a budget phone? Might as well complain that it doesn't have the latest 18.5:9 ratio display, or dual cameras
If only screen was 5.5 or 5.7.
If only Screen was 7"
6" is enough though…… right?
I prefer 5 inch, reason being, use it 1 handed, important for me
There's a joke somewhere in there but I'll let it pass through to the keeper.
All I will say is that I also like 5 inches…for my phone. #exitstageright
Unlucky 13 cm is average though….right?
What the Zuk!
I can't say I'd ever touch Lenovo phones again after the A916 I suffered through for 6 months before throwing in the bin, but perhaps they are better since then.
(and yes it was a 'cheapy', but not much cheaper than this one)
After my K3 Note duds, never Lenovo anything ever again…
There just isn't much point taking the risk when a Xiaomi can be had for cheaper than this locally on ebay..
Wish they had the black one in stock.
What's the camera like?
In good light it's not bad at all as I've taken some nice shots with it. Can record video up to 4K and it's also pretty solid. At low light however it does struggle a bit.
We are talking about a $215 phone and with the overall specs of a nice 1080p screen, 4GB of RAM and a speedy processor I suppose they had to skimp a little somewhere.
Probably about the time our dollar was a bit stronger than it is today
Ordered! Thanks for the code. Was about to buy this phone this morning. Good things come to those who wait.
Cheers.
How much did you get? It gave me $236.9, but not $215.
Apply the given code at checkout you will see $21 discount applied
Yep. Applied the code and it took $21.33 off the price. I payed for express shipping so with the extra $15.49 it came to $231.15 delivered.
@simplytuff Thanks! After using it a couple of weeks, I'm confident to get one more for my son.
I boughy this smartphone couple of months ago, very happy,i strongly reccomend it.When you buy it be sure to buy a back cover as well from the same site because it s almost impossible found any accessories for this one in Australia,so if you order it later would be from a chinese seller and you have to wait one month or longer.
The only cons i ve found so far are:
- camera,not very good really,but someone said would be better on Nougat
-home button, very usufull but doesn t look can operate longer.
-backside,it would get scratches very easily.
Anyway you can not found something better at this price.The black version is the best.
The default camera app sucks for some reason.
I downloaded SNAPit (Also called Lenovo Super Camera) and for some reason my photos are turning out with more clarity than the stock app.
Have a look at the below link as I've experienced a definite improvement along the lines of what this YouTuber has uploaded.
is this good for VR?
Not really
For mobile VR you want a higher resolution screen than 1080p. VR is also the only real reason anyone needs over 1080p on a mobile phone
Chinese Rom.
I wont go to banggood again ordered a phone which never came i kept following and finally they sent refund after 1.5 month
Beware if you travel in China. This phone does not support 4G/3G network of China mobile.
Bugger I just ordered a Xiaomi redmi note 4 for $211 and this is much better CPU ram ROM but smaller screen.
Anyone know if this comes with the Global or Chinese ROM?
It comes with a custom global ROM. No OTA updates.
I suggest to anyone buying this phone to flash the official Indian ROM as it's stable/safe/English.
white only ??
Nah anyone can buy it.
and no it isn't the latest Samsung
TBH no one is going to mistake it for that.
Make sure you get the extra shipping - or it will take forever to get to you. Worth the extra 15 bucks.
Beware of a few issues if you flash to a chinese ROM. The network seems to be configured to work on chinese networks so
-I cannot send or receive mms
-cannot send or call using the standard 04 mobile prefix; you have to use the 64 prefix to make a call.
-a couple of other caveats, and basically the phone seems to think you are located in China and using an australian sim card as roaming.
Or maybe Im doing something wrong but its been frustrating. Im gonna downgrade back to the international version when I can be bothered
-cannot send or call using the standard 04 mobile prefix; you have to use the 64 prefix to make a call.
Do you mean +614 ?
yup the international prefix
have you tried the indian rom? i flashed it the day i got it about a week ago. its solid.
@imtahir7: Might give that a go but I read that the international version is due for a Nougat upgrade sometime in May..Not sure if that will eventuate though
Just logged in to give everybody some advice about this phone.
Most online sellers of this phone will take a month to ship to you, if not longer. I recommend express shipping, unless you're not in a rush.
Buy a good case. The phone is tough (have dropped several times without a case) but the rear glass will break, I'm 99% sure about this (Does not affect functioning of the phone itself).
It will probably come with a thin matte screen protector already applied (I actually like matte surfaces for screens due to their functional visual properties). I would say it'd be better to get a thicker screen protector, whether glass or otherwise.
Chances are it will come with an unbloated Chinese ROM or Indian ROM. Perfectly reasonable ime.
You won't miss 4G if you are ever out of town or in a rural area, as 3G fallback is more than adequate ime. Never had a problem with YouTube viewing in a 3G signal area during my time. The chances of it losing a 4G signal is slim.
There is an option for HD phone calls via 4G signal only. I can confirm that it works and I definitely prefer it.
Now here's the big one…
You can fix the camera to be a great performer by using the Open Camera app!
Select continous auto focus mode and ISO HJR mode. You can pretty well leave everything else on auto, but I also put jpeg quality to 100% and use DRO (dynamic range optimisation). I would use DRO over HDR until the Nougat update brings the 2.0 Camera API (hopefully).
These few changes alone have me pretty well convinced this is the bargain phone of all the phones available in this price range.
YMMV, though I highly recommend.
I think this phone should be the official phone of Ozbargain until another one manages to dethrone it.
Are there any good heavy duty cases for this though? I can only find the two basic ones.
There are more cases of different types and materials than one can count.
I also would like to correct the spelling for 'continuous' for my previous post. ^ That's the correct spelling.
but the rear glass will break, I'm 99% sure about this
Glass is fragile, will probably break if not careful, got it!
I'll be first:
How does this compare to the Mi5 for nearly $100 less?