Moto Z 32GB

There was a time in the smartphone industry when Chinese brands were fighting it out for the title of the slimmest phone. OPPO’s R5 (review) featured a slim 4.85mm frame, whereas the vivo X5 Max (first impressions) got even thinner with its waistline measuring 4.75mm. Beating them with an edge (pun intended) was the Coolpad Ivvi K1, with its ultra-thin girth of 4.7mm. Thankfully though, better sense prevailed and phone makers realised that slimness comes at the cost of various aspects, which consumers don’t want to sacrifice on. It seems however, that Lenovo-owned Moto didn’t get the memo.

Remember the pins at the back of the Moto Z? Well, those 16 dots actually act as a connector, and provide the modularity aspect to the phone. The Moto Mods, as the company likes to call the modular accessories, attach to the smartphone via these pins, along with the integrated magnets. Essentially, these mods act as a snap-on for the smartphone, making it extremely easy to add or remove them. 

Motorola was among the first set of brands that boarded the QHD bandwagon with its flagships back in 2014 (with the Moto Droid Turbo). The Moto Z also opts for the superb 2,560 x 1,440 pixel resolution, which combined with its 5.5-inch display, translates to an eye-popping pixel density of 535ppi. The result is that the text is incredibly crisp and colours pop out as well, thanks to the Super AMOLED display. The viewing angles are great as well. While the brightness levels are adequate, the screen is quite reflective under direct sunlight, which makes it difficult to read.

If you’re a fan of stock Android, then Motorola smartphones would certainly appeal to you. Its offerings ship with the vanilla version of Android layered with a few useful additions, and the Moto Z is no different. It ships with Android 6.0 Marshmallow. Thanks to the Google Now launcher, the homescreen has only one screen with a right swipe bringing up Google Now. In terms of preloaded apps, the phone just comes with Google’s suite.

This year, most smartphone brands have started to opt for lower megapixel counts for their cameras, and Lenovo also follows the same approach. While last year’s flagships, the X Style and X Play (camera review) boasted 21-meg sensors, the Moto Z comes equipped with a 13-megapixel camera at the back. For shooting in dim lighting, the smartphone has a dual-tone LED flash. The primary snapper has all the usual flagship-like features – laser and phase detection autofocus, optical image stabilisation, and more. At the front, the Z has a 5MP shooter for capturing selfies.

For a flagship smartphone in 2016, the hardware ingredients are rather conventional – a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 mated to 4GB of RAM – and the Moto Z features the same combination. The 64-bit quad-core processor from Qualcomm is based on a custom-made Kryo chip, and features two high-power cores tuned at 2.15GHz, while the low-power cores run at 1.6GHz. Couple that with the beefy RAM capacity, and the fact that the Lenovo-owned company has optimised the software, and you’ve got yourself a powerful smartphone.

The cost of the slimness offered by the Moto Z is paid by its battery life. The 2,600mAh embedded battery, combined with power-draining features like the QHD display, finds it difficult to fuel the smartphone for the whole day. The phone can barely last an entire working day, even with moderate use. With GPS, mobile hotspot, or gaming, the battery drains even faster. Additionally, if you're one of those who frequently check the battery levels of the smartphone you’re using, then the Moto Z isn’t for you, as it’ll certainly cause low-battery anxiety.