Moto-Z-Philippines

Lenovo unveils the successors to the Moto X at Lenovo Tech World 2016.

Not one, but two modular Moto Zs has been unveiled by Lenovo today. They’re in for the modular smartphone game, following the foot steps of the LG G5.

Although the main attraction here is the modular capability, it can stand as a flagship of its own, competing with the best of the best out there with its top-notch specs.

Moto Z

First off, we have the regular Moto Z. This is the true successor to the now discontinued Moto X line of smartphones which previously enjoyed its own success because of its near stock Android software. Lenovo decided to switch up the name to indicate that they completely reimagined the Moto X as well.

Moto-Z-Specs-Price

Lenovo claims that the Moto Z is the slimmest premium smartphone in the world. It’s important to note that they used the word ‘premium’ here, as other mid-range devices have thinner profiles. At 5.19mm, it sure is really thin, but this comes with a consequence of cutting out physical features which we’ll discuss in a bit.

Moto Z is housed in a premium metallic body with rounded corners on the sides. It features a 5.5-QHD AMOLED display and an unsightly Moto branding below. Above the display is also a 5-megapixel wide-angle front camera with LED flash.

At the back is 13-megapixel rear camera with autofocus, dual-ton LED flash and OIS. There’s a small camera bump which is a result of the thinness of the handset. A 16-pin connection interface is located at the bottom which can be used in conjunction with MotoMods. No earphone jack is in sight, but it’s reasonable for a device this thin.

Moto Z Specs

  • Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow
  • 5.5-inch AMOLED Gorilla Glass 4 Display, 1440 x 2560 pixels, ~535ppi
  • Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 2.15GHz quad-core processor
  • Adreno 530 GPU
  • 4GB LPDDR4 RAM
  • 32GB, 64GB internal storage, expandable up to 256GB via microSD
  • 13-megapixel laser autofocus rear camera, f/1.8, OIS, dual LED flash
  • 5-megapixel autofocus front camera, f/2.2
  • 4G LTE Cat 9.
  • WiFi 802.11ac, WiFi hotspot
  • Bluetooth v4.2, NFC
  • GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS
  • Fingerprint sensor
  • Dimensions: 153.3 x 75.3 x 5.2 mm
  • Weight: 136 grams
  • 2600mAh Li-Po non-removable battery

The Moto Z is equipped with Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor, together with Adreno 530 GPU and 4GB of RAM. There’s either 32 or 64GB of internal storage which is easily expandable via a microSD card slot. It runs on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow and it’s powered by a measly 2600mAh non-removable battery. That’s quite low for the large and pixel-packed QHD display, but Moto has a solution for that with MotoMods.

Moto Z Force

Moto-Z-Force-Price-Specs

The Moto Z Force is a little bit powerful than the regular Z. It’s thicker at 7mm, but it unfortunately still retains the camera bump. The good news is that it has a significantly bigger 3500mAh battery to power up the handset. There’s still no headphone jack which is weird given its larger dimensions.

Moto Z Force also has a better screen tech with Motorola’s ShatterShield. A better 21-megapixel rear camera is also in tow, with the addition of phase-detection autofocus in the already well rounded up set of features.

Both the Z and Z Force includes fast charging capabilities.

Moto Z Force Specs

  • Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow
  • 5.5-inch AMOLED Gorilla Glass 4 Display, 1440 x 2560 pixels, ~535ppi
  • Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 2.15GHz quad-core processor
  • Adreno 530 GPU
  • 4GB LPDDR4 RAM
  • 32GB, 64GB internal storage, expandable up to 256GB via microSD
  • 21-megapixel laser autofocus rear camera, PDAF, f/1.8, OIS, dual LED flash
  • 5-megapixel autofocus front camera, f/2.2
  • 4G LTE Cat 9.
  • WiFi 802.11ac, WiFi hotspot
  • Bluetooth v4.2, NFC
  • GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS
  • Fingerprint sensor
  • Dimensions: 155.9 x 75.8 x 6.99 mm
  • Weight: 163 grams
  • 3500mAh Li-Po non-removable battery

MotoMods

While the two phones can already hold their own against the competition, Lenovo is beefing them up even more with the help of MotoMods. The 16-pin connection interface will be used to magnetically connect with MotoMods.

Lenovo’s MotoMods version of modularity is a step above LG’s existing implementation. MotoMods can fully connect externally, which means that there’s no need to power down the phone or even remove the battery. Align them in and it will automatically snap at the back of the device.

Moto Insta-Share Projector

Moto-Insta-Share-Projector

The Moto Insta-Share Projector turns the little Moto Zs into a small projector. The Mod includes a 1100mAh battery and a kickstand to turn it to other angles.

JBL SoundBoost Mod

JBL-SoundBoost-Mod

As the name suggests, the JBL SoundBoost Mod, is a speaker mod. This also comes with a 1000mAh battery inside and it works with phones calls as well. There’s also a kickstand for comfortable watching of videos.

Incipio Off-Gird Power Pack

Incipio Off Grid Power Pack

This is a battery pack that gives additional power by snapping it at the back of the handset. It has a 2200mAh battery capacity which is very much needed in the regular Moto Z variant. In simple terms, it’s like the battery case we have today. The power pack will come with wireless charging feature and a range of design soon.

Style Mod

Moto-Style-Mod

This is pretty much like their previous custom backplates with the Moto X, only with a different name.

Motorola promised that more Mods will be coming in the near future and a few concepts has already been shown on stage. Some of them are the HyperCharge Mod which is basically a fast charging 3600mAh battery pack, OneCompute Mod (give I/O and PC peripheral connectivity) and SmartCast Mod (multi screen I/O and laser keyboard). But as of now, these are still concepts.

The Moto Z, Moto Z Force, and MotoMods will be available globally starting September 2016. No prices has been set as of the moment but we expect them to be a little expensive with the feature set they have. But knowing Lenovo, we still hope that it’ll be priced competitively.

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  1. kinda sucks, it’s more of a novelty than a real game changer :/ I’d rather have a thicker phone with bigger battery and 3.5mm jack. Wired headphones/earphones/headset is still better when it comes to sound quality. Only a few wireless headsets sounds good enough. I don’t like lugging around accessories too so the mods are out of the question, just a headset & charger/power bank will do.