A Complete Review on Moto Z / Moto Z Force
The MOTOS came out a few days ago we had the Moto X before and I don’t know what moto Y. is but I think the gap is actually appropriate because Moto Z. It is a totally different phone than anything we’ve seen from Motorola or Lenovo in the past and I like a lot of it. So there’s it’s a Moto Z is a high-end flagship spec Android phone and it’s actually two phones the Moto Z and the Moto Z Force. Mote Z is the thinner prettier version of the flagship 5.2mm thin 2600mAHpower battery grow a glass on the front and the back and a 13MP camera. Moto Z Force is a slightly thicker version so is 2mm thicker and it gets a shatterproof display a 3500mAH power battery and a 21MP camera. So right off the battery of moto Z Force is a bit more expensive book. It’s probably worth it.
Unfortunately, these are also both exclusive to Verizon right now the unlock versions are coming later I hate carrier exclusives. That’s just the way it is with these so my favourite thing about this phone is actually the build quality is all metal and glass no chassis flex or any creaking of any kind tight tolerances material this could be one of the best moto phones ever built. And obviously, they’ve built a lot of good phones and also do you think it looks pretty good in black and that’s just my opinion but obviously that’s pretty subjective. There’s no arguing at this guy’s well built and as a result, it feels great to hold and carry it’s really solid. There’s a micro card slot up on top for expandable storage which is awesome. A single USB type C port at the bottom which is an interesting choice but maybe a bit premature I don’t think this is a phone where you have to get rid of the headphone jack. But they did anyway.
I slowly got used to this phone. Thanks to just attaching a USB Type C to headphone jack adapter to my headphones all the time. It comes in the box and Aussies Bluetooth audio bit more but yeah, of course, I still miss that headphone jack a lot. The buttons on the phone are quick in everything but they’re a bit of a stretch with the volume buttons all the way at the top corner. I mean I have big hands so even for me it’s a stretch. Which means if you have smaller hands, it’s probably a bit of a pain to reach them. The other side of the phone is blank so they could put the volume buttons are there on the left or put them below the power buttons like most other phones.
I’d say maybe the worst thing about this phone is that it’s a pretty constant fingerprint magnet and it definitely doesn’t look at with fingerprints. So if you hate them as much as I do you can either grab a skin for it which leaves the pins at the bottom exposed and wipes out the fingerprints completely which is great a link below. Or you can grab a colour swap piece for Motorola they’re a little more expensive but they’re way easier to put on and take off. So aside from the frustrating buttons and I guess maybe the lack of water resistance.
Moto Z is built greatly. On the front, you have a fingerprint reader in this square that kind of doesn’t match with the rest of the aesthetics on the front of the phone but it’s fast and it works well. So I’m not complaining that it’s there and you can long press to read your finger and wake up and then while it’s on you can long press again to sleep. It’s not actually a home button. No matter how many times accidentally try and the screen real looking out on the front is a 5.5inch QHD display.
Again a very good really high picks and city obviously and viewing angles are more than good enough pretty wide and color stay accurate. It doesn’t get quite as bright as Samsung’s panels but most don’t. It’s not the easiest to see outdoors but other than that the display on Moto Z looks pretty good. The software itself is Android 6.0 marshmallow right now with MOTOS very light customizations on top.
What we’ve seen in other moto phones even if the outside of the package it comes in is a way different. So you have to know your screen off gestures your chop shake to turn the flashlight on and off. Able to swing twice to open the camera, for example, those things aren’t going anywhere. You must get used to them and missed them on other phones.
Then the inside of the UI itself is still feeling a lot like stock Android in the way it looks and feels which is great. I’m a fan of the clean look and I like what they did to use a lot of Google’s apps as their stock apps is something each PC did earlier. So even in the past there would be phones that would look and feel like kind of close to stock Android. But they still use their own separate calculator and dialer and photos apps and all these things that Google already makes So now with this phone you take a picture and you swipe over and you’re in Google photos right away the one and only calculator app is the Google calculator, the one and only calendar app is the Google calendar. Now obviously not everyone is going to notice or even care. But I think that’s a really nice touch. I’m a fan of the software experience which means I’ll probably be really happy with the unlocked version later this year. I’m disappointed that Motorola isn’t fully committing to the regular Google security updates like on time for Android. But I still think it’ll get upgraded to new versions of Android faster than most phones and performance as you can probably already it has been smooth with my time with this device as you would expect with a high-end device.
Top notch specs animations are quick opening and closing and switching between apps is quick. It’s snappy I got pretty warm actually to the touch after using it for a while or especially after a long session of either web browsing or gaming not to the point of any performance issues but something to notice.
Now the camera on the back of this phone is another weird point for the moto Z., first of all, I can say that cameras and smartphones have never really been a strong point for Motorola it’s just true. They never really had the top of the game smartphone cameras and sadly that’s still true with this camera. So here’s the deal I did most of my testing with the moto Z Force with 21MP Camera F. 1 aperture optical image stabilisation doing the flash and for the most part the pictures look pretty decent. Especially in good lighting, it tends to overexpose a little bit which leads to more blown highlights than last shadows but that’s not a huge problem. There’s definitely a lot more noticeable processing though. First of all you get a lot of sharpening going on and there’s also plenty of noise reduction and we combine that you get some pretty soft or grainy night shots depends on what you’re taking a picture of which in this kind of an area the camera falls apart pretty quick.
It is not good at night or in low light. But look that’s not like it’s not capable of taking great photos most high-end smartphone cameras are capable of taking great photos but when I say it’s hit or miss it just means it’s a little bit moister than you would like it to be in your daily phone but it can definitely hit if you get in the right conditions also if you’re just selfied the front facing camera is pretty decent. It’s a wide angle it exposes well and has a front facing LED flash which you don’t see every day the actual camera bump on the back of this phone was pretty interesting though because with the figure phone you would think they would get rid of the camera home but they didn’t figure moto Z Force has the exact same camera hump and that’s because it’s probably the first phone to ever have a camera home with a purpose. It has a function to it it’s for keeping modem odds in place so modem odds are Motorola’s answer to the wave of modular smartphones we’ve seen in the past year or so.
The pins you saw at the bottom of the phone and that’s a combination of magnets and smart connectors that let the phone connect to a range of accessories like the colour swap back I told you about earlier and wrapping around the camera bump helps it hold in place super well. I don’t even know if I’d call this stuff modular because you’re not really swapping anything or taking anything off the phone but more just call modem odds modification because it’s easily the quickest and easiest way to just add functionality to a smartphone just by clicking it into place. You don’t have to reboot the phone. You don’t have to swap things in and out there’s no buttons there’s no clicking there’s no rebooting. It’s just a snap into place in two seconds and it’s secure and it fits and it works.
So here the Mods we have now number one is the colour swap backs. They just get rid of the camera bump and change the color slash material of the back of the phone the battery backs. These are a little bit thicker and they snap on and they just immediately start charging the phone. The JBL speaker which gets super loud way louder than the phone’s single front facing speaker and also has a large battery extension and even a little kickstand. The projector which has a built-in battery for power and can project whatever’s on your smartphone screen onto a wall or any projectable surface. So mod eyes are actually pretty awesome as they are now and we can cross our fingers for more to come since Motorola promises to try to make them work with future Motorola phones as well.
Only problem is they’re a little bit expensive and it’s hard to buy into these with the promise of an ecosystem. Especially when your next phone might just come from Samsung or Apple or anyone else really. But I stand by that this is the best execution of a smartphone mod that I have ever seen. Also here’s a million dollar idea a moto mod with a high-quality DAC and a headphone jack at the bottom and like a little battery in there that would be awesome. You’re welcome. I’ll take 10%.
Besides, probably the colour swap one is definitely the battery because the battery life of the existing moto Z and Z force is really super average obviously the moto Z has a 2600mAH battery that can only take you so far with a big bright QHD display. I’m not surprised. I was only getting two and a half hours of screen on time and having to charge every single day didn’t shock me at all. Moto Z force has a 3500mAH battery and again I’m getting like three hours and change of screen on time which for me is still charging every night when I’m using the phone with match brightness all day but it’s definitely like the the battery mod is the easiest way to just click it on it’s better than a battery case because you don’t have to like attach it or on the phone when you attach it to the phone. It starts charging me to. That’s pretty awesome.
So at the end of the day moto Z is a great idea with great execution but it’s just not a complete package like especially if you’re looking for a phone with a great battery life or a great camera thing are not going to find it here and you probably won’t buy this one for that but a lot of what they tried is awesome. I’m glad they did it. I do hope it works really well and I do hope there are more third party modem odds from other companies that just want to get in on this on the ground floor because Generation one is pretty damn good. So that’s been it.
You May Also Like: Samsung Galaxy Note7 Impressions!
