Motorola’s next flagship phone is coming soon, and according to marketing materials shared with VentureBeat’s Evan Blass, it’ll feature a 5.5 inch, 2560 x 1440 pixel shatterproof display, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor, up to 6GB of RAM, and up to 128GB of storage. And like every other phone in the Moto Z family, it supports MotoMods for additional functionality.
Sounds like a pretty good upgrade from last year’s Moto Z Force, right?
It is… mostly. But the new phone has a smaller battery and you’ll notice I said “up to” for the memory and storage specs. It turns out that the US model won’t be quite as maxed out. On the bright side, while the original Moto Z Force was a Verizon exclusive in the United States, the new model is expected to be available from all four major carriers in the US.
US customers will only be able to buy the Moto Z2 Force with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. It’s the international versions that will have more of each.
You do still get a microSD card slot though, so you can add up to 2TB of extra storage if you need more space.
As for the smaller battery? It seems to be a sacrifice made for the sake of thinness. The new model has a 2,730 mAh battery, compared with the 3,500 mAh battery in last year’s model.
The new phone is a millimeter thinner. And suppose there’s a case to be made that thinness matters in a phone that’s meant to work with modular accessories that slap onto the back, making a phone that’s thinner than most into a phone+module that’s thicker than most phones.
But if you want the same kind of battery life offered by the original Moto Z Force, it seems like you might want to invest in a battery pack-style MotoMod… or maybe just pick up a cheap USB power pack so you can plug in your phone on the go.
Motorola also updated its Moto Z Play lineup in June, with the launch of the Moto Z2 Play. Like the Moto Z2 Force, that phone is a faster, thinner version of its former self… with a smaller battery.
This seems like the regular Moto Z2 not the Force. Last year’s Force had a bigger battery than the regular.
What’s Lenovo’s track record so far with software updates? Without updates, everything else is moot to me.
Historically apparently not great, but FWIW, my wife’s LG and my Moto are currently both on the May 1, 2017 security patch level, and LG is fairly good at updates. It took Moto some time to get that patch out though, but it’s a fairly new phone design (G5 Plus), and the LG is still Android 6.
Does it still have the shatter proof display?
Why is this thing so bland and ugly?
Does Moto not know that NOT everything must be put inside a circle?
I’ve never understood these types of comments. Phones today all look alike to me–the only difference being how much bezel they have, and given the widespread use of cases that’s about the only thing that even gets seen. So you basically have a rectangle you’re judging against other rectangles, and calling some ugly?
I’ve always judged by features and size.
One can say the same thing about features, all phones today have the same Snapdragon processor, RAM, and screen resolution, blah blah blah.
I’m just saying whilst this device isn’t actually that ugly, you can tell there’s little care about aesthetics. Which is sad for a flagship device.
I think a device is all about compromises. And a flagship device should cost more but have the least compromises. That means a balance in battery life, aesthetics, performance, features. The price shouldn’t be compromised, as we will pay more to get that higher-calibre gadget, just as long as it is reasonable $400-$1200.
LOL, you’re largely right about features, but only because Samsung started taking them away! 😉
At least microSD is becoming more common, and now with Android you can do more with it.
On the topic of features for this phone, I’ll look at width and height both of the phone and the screen, but thickness of the phone is not something I’ve ever focused on. Seems like a really bad trade-off to me in a device with a powerful chipset.
They need to keep that circular camera area on the rear, otherwise the phone won’t be compatible with Motomods
Cheers for the response!
Yeah, it finally makes sense… it slipped my mind it was for back-compatibility.
Not sure why I’m getting negged to bits about calling this thing unaesthetic or ugly.
Well, that’s disappointing. I was wanting one of these to replace my Droid Turbo 2. But the Turbo has the best battery life of any Android phone I’ve ever touched, and this isn’t going to come close.
Still… that gamepad mod is pretty awesome.
I would guess any phone with a Qualcomm 625 chip would be faster than what you have now with much better battery life no matter what size the battery. LIke computer CPUs, we’re now past the point where you need the latest and greatest.
I was going to say that given enough time Moto could get away with a smaller battery with a flagship chipset, but this is too much too soon.
I don’t own the current Z Force; do own the Z Play, though.
Honestly…I don’t think I’d care about the smaller battery. Between the couple of Moto Mods I have that charge my Play (a vent mount and the offgrid power pack from incipio) it’s seldom that my Play is ever actually below 30% or so.