Brand Moto Type Smartphone | Manufacturer Motorola Mobility Form factor Slate | |
First released September 2016 (2016-09) Dimensions 153.5 mm (6.04 in) H
75.3 mm (2.96 in) W
5.19 mm (0.204 in) D | ||
Moto Z is an Android smartphone developed by Motorola Mobility, a subsidiary of Lenovo. Unveiled on June 9, 2016 as its flagship model for the year, the Moto Z is distinguished by a system which allows case accessories to be magnetically attached to the device to provide additional functionality.
Contents
In the United States, Moto Z will be a time-limited exclusive to Verizon Wireless under the name Moto Z Droid Edition, as part of the Droid line of smartphones that are exclusively manufactured by Motorola. It was released direct-to-consumer as an unlocked device in September 2016.
Specifications
The Moto Z's chassis utilizes a metal frame and body; with no accessories installed, the device is only 5.2 mm thick. The rear of the Moto Z contains pogo pin connectors used to communicate with "MotoMod" accessories designed for the device. The Moto Z includes a 5.5-inch 1440p display, a quad core Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 system-on-chip, and 4 GiB of RAM. The Moto Z includes either 32 or 64 GiB of internal storage, expandable via MicroSDXC card, a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera, a 5-megapixel front-facing camera, and a fingerprint scanner. The Moto Z utilizes a USB Type-C connector, and does not include a 3.5 mm headphone jack; headphones must be used with a USB port adapter or over Bluetooth.
The Moto Z name is shared by three different hardware models: Moto Z, Moto Z Force, and Moto Z Play. Moto Z Force includes a larger 3500 mAh battery, 21-megapixel camera, and the company's "shatter-resistant" display, which consists of polycarbonate layers accompanied by an interior frame to provide reinforcement as opposed to glass. Due to this construction, it is also slightly thicker than the base model. In the United States, the Force model will be exclusive to Verizon Wireless.
A third version, Moto Z Play, was unveiled at IFA Berlin; it is a mid-range model with downgraded specifications and similar market positioning to the previous year's Moto X Play, including a Snapdragon 625 system-on-chip, 3 GB of RAM, a 1080p display, no optical image stabilization, and a thicker chassis. Unlike the other models, the Z Play has a 3.5 mm headphone jack. Similarly to the Moto X Play, it also includes a larger, 3510 mAh battery which Motorola promoted as the "longest lasting battery" that the company had ever incorporated into a smartphone. As with the other models in its family, it is compatible with MotoMod accessories.
Accessories
The Moto Z features an accessory system known as "Moto Mods". Mods are case-like accessories that are attached to the rear of the Moto Z via a series of magnets. Using the pogo pin connectors, Mods can communicate with the device to provide additional functionality. Mods are hot swappable, and are automatically detected by the operating system software once installed. During the launch event, Lenovo unveiled several mods to be available on launch, including battery packs, the "SoundBoost" (which features a JBL speaker and a kickstand), and a pico projector ("Insta-Share"). All Moto Z units will ship with the "Style Shell"—a basic case available with different color and material options.
Lenovo will allow third-party development of Mods, and plans to provide US$1 million in funding to the best prototype concept as part of a contest. To ensure that Mods will be backwards compatible with newer revisions of the Moto Z, Lenovo stated that it planned to maintain the device's overall design and dimensions for two hardware generations.
Reception
CNET was positive of the Moto Z, describing its design as being "sturdy and well-built", but appearing "naked" and having a large camera protrusion without an accessory installed. The design and placement of the fingerprint reader was criticized for resembling a physical home button but not being able to be used in such a manner. The Moto Z's performance was considered to be similar to other devices with the same system-on-chip. In regards to the MotoMods system, it was felt that although the accessories added weight to the device and were expensive, the implementation of the system was less "clunky" than that of the LG G5 (which was unable to hot swap accessories due to its design, which required removing the battery in order to install a different module). The camera was panned for having issues in automatically achieving correct white balance. In conclusion, it was argued that the Moto Z was "a good, if pricey, Android phone that has the same powerful specs and performance as other top-tier rivals for about the same cost", if not for the Moto Z's accessories.