The Lenovo Moto Z2 Play has hit ground in China, and a screenshot posted to Weibo by an owner of the new device confirms earlier leaks that indicated that it would ship with the ZUI interface that was previously seen on Lenovo’s luxury-budget ZUK lineup. Specifically, the screenshot shows ZUI version 3.0.71-36 on top of Android version 7.1.1 (Nougat). The version of the phone in the screenshot is the top-end variant, sporting 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage. Thus far, nobody has posted similar evidence of ZUI’s presence on the lower-end version with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage, but it’s fairly unlikely to see two different software versions in the same region. On the opposite note, no other countries have thus far reported seeing their own Moto Z2 Play variants with ZUI on board; everywhere else that it’s been unveiled so far, the Moto Z2 Play sports a mostly stock Android in the same vein as its predecessor.
A rumor from earlier this year stated that Lenovo was testing ZUK’s ZUI on current Moto Z devices for possible use in future Moto devices, and this Moto Z2 Play is the first device to actually get the skin. Since only the Chinese version features ZUI and ZUK phones have only been officially sold in China, there is no evidence that the software will be leaving its homeland. For the time being, neither Lenovo nor Moto has made any announcement regarding the possibility of ZUI coming to other Moto devices. Moto recently sent out invites for a mystery event that is supposed to be happening on June 30th, so there may be more information at that time.
Given Google’s standing in China, the status of the company’s services, and the prevalence of UI skins on Android phones in the country, it’s not surprising to see ZUI coming to the Moto Z2 Play in the region. It will be interesting to see whether ZUI ends up on other devices, and whether it ever makes it onto Moto devices outside of China. In a large number of key markets, including the United States, one of Moto’s biggest selling points as a brand is an experience that’s very close to stock Android. While the Moto Z2 Play’s Qualcomm Snapdragon 626 processor is certainly up to the task of pushing a heavy skin, many users prefer stock or near-stock Android for aesthetic reasons.