Moto Z review: Lenovo brings a huge price increase, lame modular system

Under Google, Motorola was one of our favorite OEMs. The company delivered bang-for-your-buck hardware, stock Android with some actually good additions, and speedy updates. Motorola couldn't hold Google's interest for very long, though, and in 2014, Google sold Motorola to Lenovo.

When Google took over Motorola, the company mentioned it would have to clear "12 to 18 months of product pipeline" before Google's changes would take effect. Assuming the Lenovo had the same 12 to 18 months of pipeline after the October 2014 takeover, the Moto Z and Moto Z Force mark the first "Lenovorola" flagship.

And boy, are things different. Along with the new name (formerly the Moto X) comes a huge jump in price: Motorola's flagship has gone from $400 in 2015 to $720 (for the Z Force) in 2016. That's an 80-percent increase. The device is no longer customizable on Moto Maker—you used to be able to make hundreds of color combinations, but now there are only three pre-baked color options, like any other phone. Motorola's love of software updates seems to have gone out the window, too. Major updates now take several months instead of several weeks, and a Motorola rep told us the company won't be providing security updates for the Moto Z.

Update: We're getting conflicting information now on whether or not this is truly getting monthly updates. Motorola stated "Moto Z and Moto Z Force will be supported with patches from Android Security Bulletins. They will receive an update shortly after launch with additional patches." The word "monthly" is conspicuously absent from this statement though, so it's not a promise that the Moto Z will receive monthly security updates every month. For instance the 2015 Moto X was on the "February" security update for the past few months, and just recently it was updated to the "May" update. That's something like a "quarterly" security update. We've asked Motorola if the Verizon Moto Z and GSM Moto Z will be getting monthly security updates every month, and are waiting to hear back.

Update 2: We're back where we started. The final word on the Moto Z update situation is that Motorola will not commit to monthly security updates.

The new Motorola also brings an obsession with thinness. The Moto Z measures just 5.19mm thick, Motorola is calling it the "world's thinnest premium smartphone." To achieve that minuscule depth, the Moto Z is one of the first mainstream Android phones to dump the 3.5mm headphone jack in the name of thinness. This is the same move Apple is rumored to be making with the next iPhone. Motorola's answer to "if everyone was jumping off a bridge, would you do it, too?" is apparently "we'll jump off the bridge first!"

The thinness isn't just for thinness' sake, though; you can make your thin phone a lot thicker by snapping on a modular backpack called a "Moto Mod." You can add more battery, louder speakers, or even a projector! Motorola even has a developer program where people can experiment with modules. But are those modules good enough to excuse the price hike, the slow updates, and the slow Lenovo-ization of what was once one of our favorite Android phone lineups?

Design

SPECS AT A GLANCE: Moto Z
SCREEN	2560×1440 5.5" (535ppi) LCD
OS	Android 6.0.1
CPU	Quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 (two 2.15GHz Kryo cores and two 1.6 GHz Kryo cores)
RAM	4GB
GPU	Adreno 530
STORAGE	32GB or 64GB with MicroSD slot
NETWORKING	802.11b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS, NFC
BANDS	GSM: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz CDMA: 850/1900 UMTS: 850/900/1900/2100 MHz LTE (FDD): B1/2/3/4/5/7/13
PORTS	USB Type-C
CAMERA	5MP front camera with LED flash Z Force: 21MP rear camera with OIS, laser autofocus, dual LED flash Z: 13MP rear camera with OIS, laser autofocus, dual LED flash
SIZE	Z Force: 155.9 x 75.8 x 7 mm (6.14 x 2.98 x 0.28 in) Z: 153.3 x 75.3 x 5.19 mm  (6.04 x 2.96 x 0.20 in)
WEIGHT	Z Force: 163 g (5.75 oz) Z: 136 g (4.8 oz)
BATTERY	Z Force: 3,500 mAh Z: 2,600 mAh
STARTING PRICE	Z Force: $720 Z: $624
OTHER PERKS	fingerprint sensor, notification LED, Moto Mod compatibility

There are two versions to consider: the Moto Z and the Moto Z Force. The Force version dumps the thinness obsession (6.99mm versus 5.19mm) in favor of a bigger battery (3,500 mAh versus 2,600 mAh), higher-res camera (21MP versus 13MP), bigger price tag ($720 versus $624), and "shatterproof" plastic screen instead of Gorilla Glass. Other than the thickness, the two phones look identical. These are also the Verizon DROID versions with extra crapware and branding. I was expecting the devices to be festooned with Verizon swooshes, but the branding is actually quite minimal—there's only a "Droid" logo on the camera bump.

The price has seen a big increase, but at least the body of the phone has been improved to match. The frame of the phone is aluminum, while the stainless steel back helps the Moto Mods stick to the body. There are just two small plastic windows on the top and bottom of the back that serve as a path for radio signals. Overall it feels like a premium device and a big improvement over the solid-but-basic Moto X.

On the back, you'll find a huge camera bump on both the Moto Z and the thicker Moto Z Force. The camera sticks out about 2mm on both models, and it houses laser autofocus sensors and a dual LED flash. Here you'll also find the strip of gold contacts that the Moto Mods connect to.

On the front of the phone, we're treated to a massive bottom bezel. There really isn't a whole lot in this space. There's a fingerprint reader that looks like a home button but isn't—it's just a fingerprint reader. The Moto Z goes with software buttons for navigation, which makes a lot less sense when the phone design leaves so much room in the bottom bezel for Samsung- or Apple-style physical or capacitive buttons. There are four sensors, one in each corner of the front, so you can wave your hand over the phone to see a dimmed version of the lock screen. Above the screen is the usual 5MP front-facing camera, an earpiece, and a sensor cluster, but one surprise is a front LED flash for brighter selfies.

The one spot where the Z and Z Force designs differ slightly is on the side of the phones. The sides on the Moto Z are rounded, while on the Z Force they come to a point. This seems to account for the small size difference between the devices—the Z Force is 2.6mm wider and 0.5 mm taller than the Z. On the left side you'll find the power and volume buttons with a nice distinguishing texture on the power button, and on the top is a slot for the combo SIM card and MicroSD tray. Unlike Samsung and LG, Motorola did not disable Android 6.0's awesome adoptable storage feature, so to make the most of the card slot we recommend digging through the settings and formatting the SD card as "internal storage." This will merge the SD card and internal storage into a single pool, making an SD card a nice install-and-forget storage upgrade.

On the bottom of the phone you'll find a USB Type-C port but no 3.5mm headphone jack. In its new insatiable lust for thinness, Motorola deemed the port too large and removed it. The company does at least ship a Type-C to 3.5mm adapter in the box, which alleviates some of the pain while creating new headaches. It's another adapter to remember to pack when you travel, and it's just a USB to 3.5mm adapter—it doesn't allow you to charge the phone while having headphones plugged in. My life with the Moto Z was not enriched by the lack of a headphone jack; it just feels like a less-capable smartphone.

Even more confusing is the fact that the thicker Moto Z Force doesn't have a headphone jack despite its extra thickness. Lots of phones fit a headphone jack in a body that size—the 6.9mm thick iPhone 6 and 6S immediately come to mind, and some iPods are even thinner than that.

"ShatterShield" technology on the Moto Z Force

Motorola's "ShatterShield" technology on the Z Force isn't a big secret—it switches out Gorilla Glass for a plastic screen cover. Motorola goes the extra step of adding a second touch layer for durability in case you break the first one. ShatterShield on the Z Force is now on its "second generation," and it's a big improvement over the first version. The gen-1 ShatterShield on the Droid Turbo 2 basically looked like a cloudy piece of Plexiglass, resulting in dull colors and a dim screen. The second-gen version is much better and looks just as clear as Gorilla Glass.

When you first pick it up, the main difference is in the feel—glass is a conductor of heat and often feels cool to the touch in a way that plastic does not. The plastic is hard enough that there isn't any flex to it. Other than the temperature, it looks and feels like any other phone screen.

The other main difference is that, well, you can't break it. We've dropped it face down on the ground a few times, and it just keeps right on going. The downside is that plastic scratches very easily with just about anything—we've already accumulated a few scratches on our review unit in just a few days. That's the real tradeoff. On the Moto Z with Gorilla Glass, a drop will shatter the screen, but it's hard to scratch. On the Moto Z Force with a ShatterShield cover, the phone can handle a drop but will scratch on all sorts of stuff.