Showing posts with label Motorola. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Motorola. Show all posts

Tuesday 4 October 2016

Motorola’s Moto Z phones are slick modular smartphones


Slick is the word that comes to mind when you talk about Motorola’s new Moto Z phones launched in India. Both phones; the Moto Z and the cheaper and thicker Moto Z Play will be available later this month on October 17 on Flipkart and Amazon and these phones also represent the future of the smartphone.

Like LG’s G5 which launched earlier this year, the Moto twins are modular smartphones. The functionality of these phones can be augmented with mods which seamlessly can be strapped on to the device using magnetic connection points.

So while LG jumped the industry with a modular smartphone of its own, its implementation was horrendous and clearly wasn’t something that most users would’ve enjoyed. LG’s system entailed the user snapping open a section of the phone, detaching the battery and connecting the mod with it.

It was an ugly implementation to say the least. Motorola has a slick and functional solution. Mods magnetically connect on the back and the phone intelligently understands when the mod is enabled.

There are some useful mods too. There’s one from Hasselblad, which costs a bomb at Rs 14,999, but it adds a 10x optical zoom and full point and shoot camera system to the device. There’s a boombox mod from JBL which also doubles as a battery mod. This one comes for less at Rs 5,999.

Then there are other novel things like a battery mod essentially a battery attachment giving the phones monstrous battery life and a projector mod which can come in handy for watching movies or showcasing pictures.
There are some back plates too which come in various materials that include wood and a matte finish plastic.

The phones themselves too seemed to be very good in the short time I spent with them. The cheaper Moto Z Play is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 chip and has a 5.5-inch full HD screen. It also rocks a large 3,500mAh battery. The phone looks gorgeous clad in metal and glass and frankly looks sexier than the iPhone 7, but it isn’t the most ergonomic thing to hold in the hand. It also is a massive fingerprint magnet on the back which is home to a glossy plastic finish.

The flagship Moto Z is drop dead gorgeous. Copious amounts of metal has been used in its construction and the phone feels like a really really expensive phone. It is also the slimmest 2016 flagship phone at 5.9mm. That’s drastically thinner than the iPhone 7 and the Galaxy S7.

This also means that Motorola had to remove the 3.5mm jack something what Apple did with the iPhone 7. But Motorola’s reasons seem more genuine and understandable. There’s an adaptor for the same in the box which can be used with the USB Type C connector on the phone.

Processing chops wise, the phone has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 four core processor, 4 gigs of RAM and 64GB of storage which can be further expanded. There’s also vibrant 5.5-inch quad HD OLED screen. The battery on this one is smaller 2,600mAh, so you may need the battery mod if you’re a heavy duty user.

Both phones come with decent camera hardware too. The high-end Z gets a 13-megapixel sensor on the back with an optically stabilised lens. The Z Play gets a 16-megapixel snapper which is electronically stabilised.

Both are also running a stockish version of Android Marshmallow and Lenovo executives have promised that the phones will be one of the first ones to get the Nougat update, but that’s something time will tell.

Overall, the pricing is attractive for what the Motorola brand represents and what its competition is doing. Moreover, in the short time I spent with the phone, I could say that the mods do work well and do represent some real innovation from the folks from Chicago. In the meanwhile keep an eye out at the Gizmodo India reviews page for the full review of both the phones.