Here’s something to wrap your head around. Elephone is partnering with ZUK to promote their first device, the ZUK Z1, Internationally. It’s strange, and the reason for that is that it’s a Lenovo brand. And thus Elephone is a competitor. A little strange to have your competitor helping to promote a device, right? ZUK has already announced the Z1, actually. Earlier this month in Beijing they announced the Chinese version of the phone, while the international version will be announced this week. I am actually heading out tomorrow to go to Shenzhen and attend this event, and get some hands on with the ZUK Z1, and speak with the brand new company and see why they are doing another brand when they already have Motorola in their pocket.
The only real difference between the China-only ZUK Z1 and the international version is the fact that the international version is going to be running on Cyanogen OS. It’s almost like Deja-Vu for Cyanogen OS, back to when they were working with OnePlus. While OnePlus is actually its own company, they are actually owned by OPPO. Similar to ZUK and Lenovo. Elephone will be working on the international side of ZUK, with Lenovo doing the Chinese stuff. As they confirmed on Facebook yesterday.
While the ZUK Z1 has already been announced, it’s still a pretty exciting smartphone. With its 5.5-inch 1080p display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 801, 3GB of RAM, 64GB of storage and a 4100mAh battery inside. It easily bests the competition here in the US. And not to mention it comes in cheaper than the OnePlus at just $280. It’s unlikely that the ZUK Z1 will be coming to the US. But they could do something similar to what OnePlus did and make it available here. Which I’m sure many people would love to pick up this smartphone.
On Friday, August 21st, the company will be making the international version official. We will be there in person. So if you’re interested in the ZUK Z1, be sure to keep it locked to Android Headlines. The event kicks off at 2pm local time. For those of us here in the US. That’s 2am EDT, or 11pm PDT.