Lenovo Z2 Plus Official Nougat Update

Lenovo mobile consumers has always been complaining about the late or no software updates for their mobile handsets, which is true to some extend. But the situation is changing. Lenovo, in January, 2017, announced and launched nougat update for some of its mobile devices in China, leaving all other Lenovo smartphone users craving and waiting for the update all around the globe, Especially India, where Lenovo has a quite big market.

Update 2 & 3 (available for all) Information Available below.

The updated Upgrade matrix from Lenovo landed on their official website last moth giving a wide description of Nougat and Marshmallow update for smartphones and tablet. Check here yourself Lenovo Upgrade Matrix.

The flag ship 2016 flagship killer smartphone, the Lenovo Z2 Plus, is also mentioned in the update. The time-period for starting of roll-out of update is stated as May-2017, but there is twist with this update. Lenovo offered a trial recruitment of the Nougat update to the existing Lenovo Z2 Plus user of India only. Tech enthusiasts took a forward step and got the update starting on 28 March, 2017. This update gives new exciting features to the powerful smartphone. Anybody who is interested can take part in the recruitment program at their own risk. The recruitment program is available on Lenovo website.

The latest update changes the ZUI version from 2.0.133 ST to 2.5.075 ST. ZUI 2.5 brings split-screen or multi-window feature, professional camera mode, screen recording option, and more. You can also check the full review of the device on our website at Lenovo Z2 plus: A Flagship Level phone in Below Mid-Range price.

Camera

The update brings the manual or the professional camera mode which lets you adjust ISO up to 3200, Shutter speed up-to 32 seconds, adjust white balance, focus and more for capturing better images on the camera. There is also a new gestures to launch the camera just by flipping the device twice to quickly open camera and capture images even when the phone is locked. There is significant improvement in low lighting imaging and over all camera performance.

 

Lab Features

The update brings two lab features, namely the split screen and the screen recording features, which are fundamental part of android Nougat. Both options are accessible in the quick panel as well as in settings app.

 

The split screen feature can also be activated through the app switch menu. But sadly, for now, all apps do not support the feature.

The update also bring improvement to the device quick panel option. Its really easy now to bring up the quick notification panel even in the landscape mode, earlier which the device required a number of swipe to guess the demand of user. Also, now we can also easily pick the default app for every action.

What's not good?

Update bring a lot of good changes to the device, but few things are still left untouched.

• Still you cannot disable the unwanted google apps like Play movies, Play Games, etc., in addition Lenovo has also incorporated the Google Duo app, which acquires the precious storage on device.
• The wallpaper option from the setting app is removed, though is was almost useless, as there are other options to choose the wallpaper, but still.
• No themes option was added, though the Chinese version of the ROM has the option to change the themes as well as the wallpaper layout in the lock-screen allowing full screen wallpaper.
• Double notification for apps like Gmail, Whatsapp etc.
• And the last, sadly, on screen Navigation buttons are gone.

UPDATE 2

Lenovo pushed its second update as on today i.e. 10-04-2017, changing the ZUI No. from 2.5.075 to 2.5.083, and the changes are mind blowing, in fact the update, in my view, is more of a device blower. The the download size of the Update is 346 MB, and will hardly take 10-12 mins to download. The change-log of the update says,

• Removed many bugs, including the black screen during un-installing apps.
• General improvement to the Ui, More stable.
• Better user experience...and all other useless things
• Bla Bla Bla

In my experince, the update was a total shit which ended in my ****ing up my phone. As soon as, I selected to install the update, the phone started to reboot and then it got stuck up in boot loop, where the ligths turns on, on a black screen which remains black, till the battery dies. After completing the update process you will have a dead phone in your hand which is quite frustrating as nothing but the official update did this to your phone.
Solution: Since you are trying to get the official update, it is obvious that you have not rooted on unlocked the boot loader of your device, so technically you cannot do anything but to take your phone to your nearest service center, which will ask you to deposit your device for at least 7 working days and for more inconvience, there are 3 holidays in this week.

Update 3

Now Lenovo has started to push the ZUI 2.5 update aka the Nougat update to all Lenovo Z2 Plus devices irrespective whether enrolled in beta program or not. A small changelog and an update size of about 1 Gb, pushes the ZUI version from 2.0.133 ST to 2.5.104 ST.

Well I think, there is no difference in the features which the beta program gave except the dedicated changelog for the equalizer, which in fact, still does not work or does not give any sound effect. No big change.

There are a few things that I would like to mention specially is that the phone does not get overheated, but the temperatures are always up even if u r using the phone normally. Battery backup has gone slightly down, probably due to the heating issue. But, everything is not that bad, the update provides lot of convenience, like while choosing an app to open something, it is now only one click away, previously which was frustrating selection menu. Camera launch and capture gestures, manual mode and improved VoLTE. Plus, you get updated security patches and lauch specific apps with different fingerprints.