Lenovo’s ZUK Z1 is one of the best budget phones currently available in India. The handset offers great hardware for the price, which includes a 5.5-inch Full HD screen, Snapdragon 801, 64GB storage, 3GB of RAM, and a 4100mAh battery that lasts at least a day and a half. That said, things aren’t as rosy on the software side of things, as the phone is yet to pick up the Marshmallow update, currently running Cyanogen OS 12.1.
However, a stable CM 13.0 ROM — based on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow — is available to flash should you desire to do so. Want to know how you can get Marshmallow on you Z1? Read on to find out.
The prerequisites
- A Lenovo ZUK Z1.
- CyanogenMod 13 snapshot build for the phone and TWRP.
- The Google apps package.
- ADB and fastboot drivers — I use Minimal ADB and Fastboot as it gives you both utilities without having to install the Android SDK.
- Enable developer options: Go to Settings > About phone, and tap on the Build number field seven times to enable developer options.
How to flash CyanogenMod 13.0 on the Lenovo ZUK Z1
- Go to Settings > Developer options. Slide the toggle for Android debugging to On. Also set the toggle for OEM unlocking to On.
- Connect the Z1 to your computer.
- Navigate to the folder where Minimal ADB and Fastboot is installed, and launch a Command Prompt window. Right click anywhere within the folder while holding down the Shift key, and select “Open command window here” from the context menu.
- From the Command Prompt window, use the following command to boot the phone into fastboot: adb reboot bootloader
- The Z1 will reboot and you’ll see a message on-screen that says that the phone is now in fastboot mode. To verify the connection, enter the following command: fastboot -i 0x2b4c devices
- You should be able to see the serial number of the Z1 listed. All good? Now type the following command: fastboot -i 0x2b4c oem unlock-go
- The Z1 is now unlocked and we can proceed with flashing the CyanogenMod 13.0 build. Once the phone reboots, head back into Settings > Developer options and re-enable Android debugging.
- Install a custom recovery like TWRP by downloading a recovery image for the Z1. Rename it to twrp.img, and transfer it to the Minimal ADB and Fastboot folder.
- Use fastboot to install TWRP with the following command: fastboot flash twrp.img
- Download the CyanogenMod 13.0 package, rename it to cm.zip, and transfer the file into the Minimal ADB and Fastboot folder.
- Download Google apps, change the name of the package to google.zip, and move it to the Minimal ADB and Fastboot folder.
- Use ADB to move cm.zip to the phone’s internal storage with the following command: adb push cm.zip /sdcard/
- Use ADB to move google.zip to the phone’s internal storage with the following command: adb push google.zip /sdcard/
- Turn off the phone, and hold the volume up, volume down, and power buttons simultaneously to boot into TWRP.
- Select Wipe, and then choose Install.
- Navigate to the /sdcard folder, and choose cm.zip.
- Slide the screen to start installing CyanogenMod 13.0. Once the installation is finished, head back to the Install screen and choose google.zip to install the Google apps package.
- After the installation is finished, hit Reboot to boot into CyanogenMod.
You’re now running CyanogenMod 13.0. Any questions? Let us know in the comments below.