Lenovo Z6 Pro review

ZUI 11 and Android 9

The Lenovo Z6 Pro boots ZUI 11 based on Android 9 Pie. ZUI is the proprietary Lenovo launcher for where Lenovo phones are available (i.e. China) and looks and feels like a vanilla Android for the most part.

There are the Pie homescreen and Google feed pane, the regular app drawer, and all default Google apps are present. There are four major differences - the notification shade, the task switcher, the settings menu, and the camera app.

The notification shade has been redesigned to include more notifications and toggles. It is semi-transparent and feels a bit slower than the vanilla's implementation.

The Task Switcher has been tweaked to pack more app tiles, though its modus operandi is still the same, including the multi-window capabilities.

The ZUI11 launcher

The Lenovo Z6 Pro relies on the default Android navigation from simpler times - the usual three navigation virtual keys. But Lenovo is offering the so-called 4D Touch as a replacement if you are keen on getting the full-screen experience with gesture navigation.

The 4D Touch seems really nice - there are no keys or markings anywhere on the screen. For 'Back' you swipe from the bottom of the screen, for 'Recents' - from the edges of the screen, and for Home - again from the bottom but you also hold for a bit. There were a couple of times when the launcher did no register correctly the swipe and hold from the bottom, but that's our only complaint.

Settings • Multi-tasking • Multi-tasking • 4D Touch

You can unlock the phone via the optical under-display fingerprint scanner. The reader is quick to set up and works snappily after that. The accuracy is very good, too, and overall, it's great for your daily unlocking.

Unlocking options • Fingerprints • Google's Trusted Face

You can also set up face unlock in addition to it (Google's Trusted Face) - it's equally fast as the Z6 Pro wakes up the moment you pick it up, but it's not as secure.

Music, Movies, Files, Drive - everything is handled by Google's default apps. A simpler ZUI Gallery is available, too. There is also FM radio support and app on the Z6 Pro.

Gallery • Files • FM radio • FM radio

We are a bit baffled why Lenovo insisted on making their own ZUI if they wanted to keep the vanilla looks. The differences are indeed only in the look of the notification shade and the task switcher, but Lenovo has to make it one layer heavier on both the CPU and GPU, for some reason.

And while we are at it, there are some noticeably bad translations from Chinese to English throughout the UI that needs fixing from Lenovo.

Performance and benchmarks

The Lenovo Z6 Pro is powered by the Snapdragon 855 chip, the most current Qualcomm chip, though it's not the overclocked Plus revision. It has an octa-core processor with 1+3+4 configuration - there is a single Kryo 485 Gold core (a Cortex-A76 derivative) clocked at 2.84GHz; three more Kryo 485 Gold cores clocked at 2.42GHz and a cluster of four Kryo 485 Silver cores (Cortex-A55 derivative) ticking at 1.78GHz.

The GPU is Adreno 640 and it's Qualcomm's top-of-the-line graphics processor that can handle pretty much everything you throw at it. And we expect it to ace everything on the Z6's 1080p screen.

The Lenovo Z6 Pro comes with 6, 8, or 12 gigs of RAM depending on the storage option you get - 128GB, 256GB, or 512GB.

The Z6 Pro has a bit more advanced chip cooling - a copper pipe with a vapor chamber. It should allow for a balanced and sustained performance when the phone uses the maximum power of the Snapdragon 855 SoC.

The Geekbench CPU test shows that the Snapdragon 855's processor is still the Android champ when it comes to multi-core tasks. As far as single-core performance is concerned, the latest custom core by Samsung does much better.

GeekBench 4.1 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Black Shark 2
  11192
• Xiaomi Mi 9
  11181
• Lenovo Z6 Pro
  11155
• OnePlus 7
  11075
• Xiaomi Redmi K20 Pro
  10883
• Huawei P30 (perf. mode)
  10114
• Samsung Galaxy S10e
  10081
• Xiaomi Mi 9T
  6863
• Xiaomi Mi 9 SE
  6017

GeekBench 4.1 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S10e
  4518
• Black Shark 2
  3515
• Xiaomi Mi 9
  3503
• Xiaomi Redmi K20 Pro
  3492
• Lenovo Z6 Pro
  3479
• OnePlus 7
  3461
• Huawei P30 (perf. mode)
  3351
• Xiaomi Mi 9T
  2537
• Xiaomi Mi 9 SE
  1905

The GPU torture revealed no surprises. The Adreno 640 is a very powerful GPU and matched with the 1080p resolution it delivers impressive framerates even when put under pressure.

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Lenovo Z6 Pro
  71
• Black Shark 2
  71
• OnePlus 7
  71
• Xiaomi Mi 9
  70
• Samsung Galaxy S10e
  67
• Xiaomi Redmi K20 Pro
  67
• Huawei P30 (perf. mode)
  56
• Xiaomi Mi 9T
  27
• Xiaomi Mi 9 SE
  26

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Lenovo Z6 Pro
  57
• Black Shark 2
  57
• Samsung Galaxy S10e
  57
• Xiaomi Redmi K20 Pro
  57
• OnePlus 7
  57
• Xiaomi Mi 9
  56
• Huawei P30 (perf. mode)
  48
• Xiaomi Mi 9T
  24
• Xiaomi Mi 9 SE
  24

GFX 3.1 Car scene (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Lenovo Z6 Pro
  42
• Black Shark 2
  42
• Xiaomi Mi 9
  42
• Samsung Galaxy S10e
  42
• Xiaomi Redmi K20 Pro
  42
• OnePlus 7
  42
• Huawei P30 (perf. mode)
  33
• Xiaomi Mi 9T
  16
• Xiaomi Mi 9 SE
  15

GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S10e
  40
• Lenovo Z6 Pro
  36
• Black Shark 2
  36
• Xiaomi Redmi K20 Pro
  36
• OnePlus 7
  36
• Xiaomi Mi 9
  35
• Huawei P30 (perf. mode)
  28
• Xiaomi Mi 9 SE
  14
• Xiaomi Mi 9T
  13

3DMark SSE 3.1 Unlimited

Higher is better

• OnePlus 7
  6388
• Lenovo Z6 Pro
  6351
• Black Shark 2
  6330
• Xiaomi Mi 9
  5816
• Xiaomi Redmi K20 Pro
  5023
• Samsung Galaxy S10e
  4545
• Huawei P30 (perf. mode)
  4329
• Xiaomi Mi 9T
  2329
• Xiaomi Mi 9 SE
  2218

Finally, the Z6 Pro did great in the compound AnTuTu test. It matched its Snapdragon 855 peers - exactly what we expected it to do.

AnTuTu 7

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 9
  372006
• Xiaomi Redmi K20 Pro
  369082
• OnePlus 7
  367812
• Lenovo Z6 Pro
  357672
• Black Shark 2
  343460
• Samsung Galaxy S10e
  325192
• Huawei P30 (perf. mode)
  314595
• Xiaomi Mi 9T
  211915
• Xiaomi Mi 9 SE
  180057

The Lenovo Z6 Pro is on par with some of the most powerful smartphones right now. What's even better is that the Lenovo Z6 Pro costs as much as a mid-range phone, so we'd say it's quite the powerhouse and will be one very tempting offer where available for sure.