The saving for the zero page is only the more compact encoding which saves one cycle for memory access (for the non-indexed variants, anyway)
E.g. LDA $42 is encoded as $A5 $42, and so takes 3 memory accesses (two to read the instruction, one to read from address $42). LDA $1234 is encoded as $AD $34 $12, and so takes 4 cycles: to read $AD $34 $12, and one to read the contents of address $1234. Same for the other zeropage vs. equivalent absolute instructions.
E.g. LDA $42 is encoded as $A5 $42, and so takes 3 memory accesses (two to read the instruction, one to read from address $42). LDA $1234 is encoded as $AD $34 $12, and so takes 4 cycles: to read $AD $34 $12, and one to read the contents of address $1234. Same for the other zeropage vs. equivalent absolute instructions.
See e.g. timing chart for LDA here:
http://www.romdetectives.com/Wiki/index.php?title=LDA