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The Moto Z and Moto Z Force are the two radical new things on the phone market: Lenovo surprised everyone with the introduction of two modular phones with some crazy new attachments.
Innovation at its best
A new 16-pin magnetic mechanism allows users to attach all one of four modules available initially: a pico projector, a JBL speaker, a battery pack and a custom back plate.This, without a doubt, is the signature feature of the new Moto Z series, but what about the details and the other important features? We round them up for your right below, take a look.
Moto Z and Moto Z Force: all new features
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The new Moto Mods are without a doubt one of the most exciting aspects of the new Moto Z and Moto Z Force. Both phones support them via a 16-pin connection on the back of the device, where there are strong magnets. The attachment mods will then just snap on magnetically and pretty tightly.
Both support the awesome new Moto Mods
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The pico projector phone idea has been around for years, but only Samsung dared execute it with the Galaxy Beam in 2012, and it never launched a successor to that phone. The pico projector attachment for the Moto Z and Z Force make that possible: the projector mod provides 50 lumens of brightness and 480p video resolution, plus it lasts for one hour on its own battery. The JBL speaker mod also comes with its own battery that allows up to 10 hours of music playback. The third mod is an external battery, and you can also snap-on additional back covers with various original looks.
Three mods at start: a mod with a pico projector (cool!), one with beefier speaker and snap-on external batter
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Best of all, these are not all Moto Mods: Lenovo is opening the platform for others to develop and is serious about it. It offers 1 million in prizes, great incentive for ingenious developers and we're looking forward to see whether the idea will catch up. Best of all, third-party mods will be able to access the cloud, which makes for exciting possibilities. And yes, let's say the obvious - we're looking forward to a camera module with lenses!
Expect more Moto Mods: open for others to develop
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5.5" seems to be more and more of a norm in 2016 and both Moto Z phones feature a 5.5-inch screen with a Quad HD resolution. Both use AMOLED display technology.
5.5-inch Quad HD screen, but Moto Z Force has a shatter-proof one, Moto Z does not
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At 5.2mm, the Moto Z is the thinnest mainstream phone to date by a large margin, while the Moto Z force measures 7mm thick. Of course, this is not including the noticeable camera hump on the back of both phones.
Moto Z is the thinnest phone we've seen, Moto Z Force is as thick as iPhones and Galaxies
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The Moto Z Force has the slightly beefier camera of the two, while the Moto Z has a 13MP camera with no PDAF.
Moto Z Force has a 21MP camera with fast, phase-detection auto-focus (PDAF)
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Moto Z Force comes with a large, 3,500mAh battery, while Moto Z has one of the smallest batteries on a 5.5" phone
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But you get an adapter from USB-C to 3.5mm interface, so that you can still use your good old and trust-worthy headphones
Both phones ditch 3.5mm headset jack in favor of USB-C port
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You will be able to get multiple hours of additional battery life by just putting the two phones to charge for 15 minutes or so.
The pair supports ultra fast quick charging
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The Snapdragon 820 is the latest and most powerful system chip by Qualcomm. It's a quad-core chip that runs at up to 2.2GHz and is complemented by the use of plentiful 4GB of RAM.
Both run on Qualcomm's Snapdragon 820
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It's the touch area that looks like a button right below the display, but it's not an actually clickable button
The two feature fingerprint reader
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Moto Display gives you a simple, discrete preview of notifications and updates. Just give your phone a wave to see what’s new. Even play or pause your music without unlocking your phone. Moto Actions responds to your motions and gestures. Twist your wrist to open the camera. Two chops downward gives you a flashlight. Place your phone face down to activate do not disturb mode for calls and notifications. Keep your hands free by using your voice to ask for directions, search for information, or get answers to your questions—all without touching your phone.
AMOLED display technology Moto Display / Active Display
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Carrier exclusivity is evil. Yet, Lenovo does not seem to know as both its Z series phones are exclusive for Verizon Wireless, and will also be offered in an unlocked version, but so far there is no information when and whether they'd arrive to AT&T, Sprint or T-Mobile.
The bad: Both phones are exclusive for Verizon
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Three months is quite the long wait, but given the radical innovation in this pair, we understand that waiting period. Patience is a virtue.
More bad: Will be available in some three months, in September
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Moto Z price should be lower than the starting price of a flagship product from the likes of Apple iPhones and Samsung Galaxy. The information is allegedly coming from sources with inside knowledge of the situation. The official full retail price for the new iPhones and Galaxies stands at $650-$700, so the Moto Z price should be below that. How much exactly? Those details are not available yet, but here's to hoping that Lenovo prices this right to really spur excitement for this quite interesting new modular design. What about the price of the Moto Z Force? That one seems to be a more premium option that could be closer in price to those flagships, but there are no specifics about it.
Let's end on a positive note: Moto Z price is expected to be lower than iPhones and Galaxies
Moto Z and Moto Z Force: all new features
The new Moto Mods are without a doubt one of the most exciting aspects of the new Moto Z and Moto Z Force. Both phones support them via a 16-pin connection on the back of the device, where there are strong magnets. The attachment mods will then just snap on magnetically and pretty tightly.
