It was earlier rumored that Lenovo will shut down ZUK and the Z3 won't arrive this year.
Back in April, it was reported that Lenovo would be shutting down its sub-brand ZUK Mobile. It was then speculated that Lenovo would combine ZUK and Moto to create a new brand. However, the latest statement made by the CEO of ZUK Mobile, Chang Cheng, suggests otherwise. Cheng clarifies saying that the ZUK Z3 will be launching this year and that the company will host three events between July and September.
According to a report by GizmoChina, Cheng on his official Weibo page mentions about the three events ZUK will be hosting between July and September. Many Weibo users commented on the post asking if the ZUK Z3 is arriving or not, to which Cheng responds positively. There has been no official statement from Lenovo about the shutting down of ZUK and re-branding with Motorola, but this post could hint on a possibility of the brand surviving. The rumors sprung up from a Weibo post stating that the ZUK Z3 won’t be launched and that the brand will be absorbed in the company’s one-brand strategy.
The report further states that the rumors heated up after Lenovo’s official China website started to redirect users to Motorola‘s. Furthermore, the ZUK website is also redirected to Motorola’s website. This led to the speculation that Lenovo could indeed bring its smartphone portfolio under one brand of Motorola. It’s worth mentioning that Lenovo had made some changes in India by announcing the discontinuation of its Vibe smartphone series. Lenovo will instead focus on the Motorola brand but did assure that it will launch smartphones under the ZUK brand. Lenovo’s decisions could very well differ varying on markets and with no official confirmation as yet, it’s best to keep things as speculations only. ALSO READ: Lenovo officially discontinues Vibe lineup, says Hello Moto
As for the ZUK Z3, the smartphone was recently leaked on Weibo. As per the leak, the smartphone’s name is ZUK Z3 Max and it comes with almost no bezels. The ZUK Z3 is expected to be powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 836 SoC paired with 8GB of RAM and 256GB internal storage. The smartphone will most likely run on Android 7.1 Nougat out-of-the-box. ALSO READ: Lenovo ZUK Z3 Max leak hints at 8GB RAM, Snapdragon 836 SoC