WalkingPad Z1 vs P1

Two specifications, and both of them are about typing rather than walking. That is the correct frame for this comparison and it is the one nobody uses.

Belt width: 16.5 in vs 15.7 in

0.8 inches. Small in the abstract, specific in practice: the failure mode it protects you from is clipping the edge of the belt while your attention is on a sentence rather than on your feet. Neither machine has a handrail, so there is nothing to catch yourself on. If you have done it before on a narrower deck, you know whether this matters to you; if you have not, it probably does not.

Starting speed: 0.3 mph

This is the specification neither maker markets and the one we think is most undervalued. Most pads bottom out around 0.6 to 1 mph, which is already a walk. A machine that will crawl at 0.3 mph gives you a setting for detailed work — slow enough that your hands stay steady, moving enough that you are not standing still on a stationary belt.

For someone whose plan is “walk during calls, crawl while I write, step off for the fiddly bits”, that bottom end is worth more than the top end. The Z1 does not go below 1 mph.

Unit weight: 51 lb vs 62 lb

Eleven pounds, on machines with no proper handholds, that fold to roughly the same size. This is the difference between a one-person carry up two flights and a job you plan around, and it is felt every time the machine comes out from under the sofa rather than only on moving day.

Capacity: 242 lb vs 220 lb

The lighter machine carries 22 lb more, which is the opposite of the usual relationship and is the single strongest point in the Z1’s favour. The P1’s 220 lb is the joint-lowest figure on this site. If you are within about 20 lb of it, stop reading the rest of this page — the decision is made.

Deck height: 4.1 in vs 5 in

0.9 inches of standing height, which comes straight out of your standing desk’s remaining travel. On a desk that already tops out marginally low for you, that is a real difference rather than a rounding one. The full arithmetic is here.

Folded length: 31.8 in vs 32.5 in

0.7 inches, and honestly it rarely decides anything on its own. Both stand upright in a closet and both go behind most doors. The one place the P1 turns this around: it folds to 5 inches tall against the Z1’s 5.4, so a sofa gap in the 5 to 5.3 inch band takes the P1 and rejects the Z1. Folding a Z1 stacks the deck and makes it taller than it is in use; the P1 folds flat.

Belt length: 47.6 in vs 47 in

0.6 inches in the Z1’s favour, which is inside the range where nobody notices. By total belt area the P1 is ahead, 775.5 square inches to 747.3, because width beats length here.

Noise. KingSmith publishes no decibel figure for either machine — it publishes one for the A1 Pro only, and nothing for the Z1, C2 or P1. So on the question that decides most apartment purchases, this comparison has nothing to offer, and anyone giving you a dB comparison between these two is working from something other than the manufacturer’s specification.

Also unsettled: belt feel, deck flex under a heavier walker, motor sound in your particular room, and durability. Those need use, and we have not used either machine. Our method, and what it cannot do.

• You will be typing while walking, most days. Both its wins serve that.
• You have clipped a belt edge before and remember it.
• Your storage gap measures between 5 and 5.3 inches.
• You want a genuine crawl setting rather than a slow walk.
• The machine will stay in one place and rarely be lifted.

Full P1 review and specification table.

• You are anywhere near 220 lb. This is not close.
• You are in a walk-up, or you move often, or the pad lives under a sofa.
• Your standing desk is already marginal for your height.
• You want the shortest folded length available anywhere on this site.
• You have not decided where it will live. The Z1 keeps more options open.

Full Z1 review and specification table.