There have been radical changes in branding and models, but the character is the same as old. The very popular Moto X series is now known as Moto Z. Work with identity has also changed completely. Because it supports different types of modes. LG tried similar through G5 flagship. However, LG G5 could not become popular. We hope that Lenovo and Motorola together have tried to do something new.
Moto Z Look and Design
New Moto Z It is made of metal and glass. Its price can be justified only through these hardware specifications. However, there is nothing unforgettable in its look, if compared to Samsung Galaxy S7 (Review) and new iPhone.
Moto Z is longer than necessary. For this reason, there is a lot of space left under the screen. You will get a square fingerprint sensor with the logo of Moto. The sensor is like a home button in appearance, which is not really. You will get standard onscreen Android control for navigation. The sensor works to lock or unlock the screen. In the time spent with Moto Z, we repeatedly touched this sensor, as if it was a home button. Sometimes the phone was locked in this affair.
The side of the phone is of the metal frame. The left part is completely empty. There is a hybrid sim tray on the top. The lower back has USB Type-C port and has no 3.5mm audio socket. Power and volume buttons are on the right side and they are very small.
The most interesting part of Moto Z is the rear panel. All the modular modes here are amazing. The phone is very thin. However, the camera lens and dual LED flash site is bulging. At the bottom you will see a wide metallic contact point. It is a place created for motoromeds that stick to the back of the phone through a magnet. You can stick the style shell when you are not using the mod. If you want, you can also use the phone without a mod or shell, but you have to be ready to withstand the sharp edges. We get the review unit with wood-gray style shell. You can change the color and texture of Moto Z according to your convenience. Due to this shell, there was more convenience to grip the phone. Due to this, we have no complaints due to increasing width.
Modes and style shells are connected to the back of Moto Z with magnetic power without any hassle. And due to the rise of the camera, they remain in their place. We found that the magnetic lock was not completely reliable.
There is no claim about Moto Z’s water and dust proof, which is expected to be available in this price range phone. However, it is written on the website of Motorola that the phone has a nano coating that will protect the phone from the splashes of water or any other substance.
Moto Z Spies and Software
The specifications of Moto Z are quite spectacular, but not so much that the affordable OnePlus 3 and Asus Zenfone 3 can make a big difference. You get 1.8 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor, Adreno 530 GPU, 4 GB RAM and 64 GB storage. Support for microSD cards up to 2 TB is also available. However, due to hybrid SIM design you will not be able to apply another SIM on using microSD.
It has a 5.5 -inch display with 1440×2560 pixels resolution. Its pixel density is 535 PPI. The battery is 2600 mAh. Motorola has promised power of up to 7 hours in just 15 minutes of charging.
The sensor of the rear camera is 13 megapixels. It is equipped with laser autofocus, F/1.8 aperture and the most interesting optical image stabilization feature. The sensor of the front camera is 5 megapixels, but it comes with a wide angle lens. There is also a flash with it and with the help of big sensors, performance is expected to be better in low light. This phone runs on Android 6.0.1 in which too much customizations have been done.
We feel that the use of fingerprint sensor of Moto Z should have been possible for many other tasks. There is no sensor button, just by touching it starts doing its work. You can activate the phone from standby and will also be able to activate the fingerprint in one stroke. But, in the event of the phone being active, if you accidentally touch the sensor, it immediately locks it.
The biggest change in Moto Z in terms of software has taken place in the active display feature. In this glimpse, we have got it in the old Moto phone.
It also has some voice and gas control. You can also launch the camera app directly from the standby mode, just you have to rotate your wrist twice. We found it very useful.
Motorola has given its only app Moto in this phone. It contains all controls for active display, gasworks and voice assistants. There is also an icon called Moto Mods but it is a link to the web page.
Moto Z Performance
It is not easy to use Moto Z, like other big screen phones. Grip and convenience have been taken care of, especially on attaching style shell. Using the camera or playing a 3D game, the front and lower part of the rear panel of the phone becomes slightly hot.
Videos of all formats on the phone easily ran. The screen is bright and vibrant. Even in the strong light of the sun, there is no problem in reading. The only built in speaker is fine for playing games and watching videos, but it is not much fun to listen to songs on them. The sound of the headset given in the box is fine, but it is strange in use due to harsh plastic.
Talking about common performance, Moto Z never slowed down. Despite many big apps running in the background and being open, its speed did not decrease.
Motorola has changed the default camera app this time. The app given in Moto Z is easy to use. It has a Pro mode in which it is possible to control focus, white balance, ISO, shutter speed and exposure. Video and slow motion have their own mode. The app can detect bar code, QR code and business cards.
We liked the photo quality very much. In the pictures taken in daylight, we found that all the details of the object were properly captured. There were no textures and autofocus also faced sometimes problems. However, overall it can be said that the Moto Z camera justifies its price.
(Click to see the Moto Z camera sample)
Photos taken at night also came good. There was a little noise and motion blur, but we found many pictures of the work. The front camera is also very capable. But we felt that flash is more powerful for just one hand distance object.
(Click to see the Moto Z camera sample)
Battery life disappointed us. This is less than the 12 -hour claims of Motorola. Our video loop test gave disappointing results again and again. In the end, we requested to send a second review unit to the company. The new unit battery loop lasted for 13 hours 4 minutes in the test. Hopefully, the bad performance of the battery is limited to only one unit. The phone battery in common use lasted easily for a day. The charging work was done very fast. In just 15 minutes, the battery charged up to 20 percent and up to 45 percent in 30 minutes.
Our decision
In the field of modular smartphones, Motorola has made the most concrete attempt ever. Even if the modes are forgotten for a moment, the new moto is Zed is powerful and stylish handset. Most of the things about this are good and it also works well. This phone is for those who want style and power. It is important to use moto modes.
However, it also has some shortcomings, such as a very strange fingerprint sensor and it becomes too hot. It is more expensive than OnePlus 3 and Zenfone 3. If you do not like any modes, then you will not want to spend so much money for this phone. Instead you can consider Samsung Galaxy S7.