Moto Z and Moto Z Force
Today Lenovo has unveiled not one but two new Moto Z smartphones - the Moto Z
and Moto Z Force. These are basically two versions of the same flagship
smartphone, where the former is thinner and the latter has a bigger battery and
a ShatterShield screen that the company guarantees won't break when you drop
it.
The Moto Z (seen below) is 5.2 mm thin,
and it's made from "aircraft-grade aluminum and stainless steel". It
has a 5.5-inch QHD AMOLED touchscreen, Qualcomm's Snapdragon 820 SoC, 4GB of
RAM, and 32 or 64 GB of expandable storage. The rear camera is a 13 MP unit with
laser autofocus, OIS and dual-tone LED flash, while the selfie shooter is a 5
MP affair with a wide-angle lens.
The handset has a fingerprint scanner,
and a water-repellant coating. It's kept running by a 2,600 mAh battery which
can charge very quickly - up to 8 hours of use delivered with just 15 minutes
of charging. The connector is USB Type-C. The Moto Z runs Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow.
The Moto Z Force (pictured above) is
thicker at 6.99 mm, but that means it can pack a bigger, 3,500 mAh battery, a
higher-res camera, and a shatter-proof display. It's got a 21 MP shooter with
f/1.8 aperture on the back with phase detection autofocus, while keeping the
laser autofocus and OIS features from the Z. Otherwise, the two phones are
identical, including the fact that neither has a 3.5 mm headset jack. Motorola
will include a USB Type-C to 3.5 mm adapter in the box, though.
The main selling point of both Moto Z
devices is their support for the new MotoMods. These are modular accessories
that simply snap onto the phones' backs thanks to some powerful magnets. They
connect using those 16 "magical" dots you can see on the lower part
of the rear of the Z and Z Force.
In the US, you'll find the Moto Z Droid
Edition and the Moto Z Force Droid Edition at Verizon starting "this
summer". Motorola will also sell an unlocked version of the Z directly to
consumers. In other countries, the Moto Z will become available starting in
September. The Z Force will be exclusive to Verizon, at least in the beginning.