Nearly one year after introducing the Moto X Pure Edition, Motorola and Lenovo have taken the wraps off of its successor, the Moto Z. Yep, they skipped Y.
The highlight feature of the Moto Z is its Moto Mods. These are modules that snap on to the back of the Moto Z and connect to the phone using 16 pins at the bottom of its backside. Motorola has already prepped several Moto Mods modules for the Z, like the Insta-Share Projector that can project a screen up to 70 inches in size and includes a battery that can provide 1 hour of projecting before dipping into the phone’s battery.
Another Moto Mod module is the JBL SoundBoost, a speaker with its own kickstand and battery that provides up to 10 hours of sound. And then there are the Power Packs, which are battery packs that Motorola says will provide the Moto Z with up to 22 hours of extra battery life. If all you care about is personalizing your Moto Z, you’ll be able to buy a Style Shell that’ll be available in wood, leather, and patterned fabric.
Motorola says that it’s working on more Moto Mods, and it’s also launching the Moto Mods Developer Program to help other developers create modules.
When it comes to the phone itself, the Moto Z features most of the specs that you’d expect from a flagship Android phone in 2016:
- 5.5-inch 2560×1440 AMOLED display
- 13-megapixel rear camera with optical image stabilization and laser autofocus
- 5-megapixel front-facing camera with wide-angle lens
- Quad-core Snapdragon 820 processor
- 32/64GB of storage
- microSD slot
- 4GB of RAM
- 2600mAh battery with Turbo Charging support
- USB Type-C (No 3.5mm headphone jack, meaning you’ll use this port for headphones as well as charging. Motorola will include a 3.5mm-to-USB-C adapter with the Moto Z.)
- Fingerprint reader
- Android 6.0.1
- 5.2mm thick
Motorola and Lenovo today also introduced the Moto Z Force, a device that looks largely similar to the Moto Z but includes a few tweaks. For example, the Moto Z Force has a ShatterShield display to protect it during drops, a 21-megapixel rear camera, and a beefier 3500mAh battery. Unfortunately, the Moto Z Force will be a Verizon exclusive in the US.
As for the Moto Z’s launch, it’s going launch at Verizon this summer. It’ll be an exclusive to the big red carrier until this fall when Motorola will offer an unlocked GSM model. No pricing info has been disclosed.
Because the Moto Z and Moto Z Force are launching exclusively at Verizon this summer, there’s no word yet on what kind of T-Mobile support (like band 12 LTE) the unlocked model will have when it launches later this year. Motorola did add T-Mo band 12 LTE support to the Moto X Pure Edition after launch, so it’s possible that the unlocked Moto Z will have some T-Mo support.
Based on what Motorola announced today, are you interested in the Moto Z?
Source: Motorola (1), (2), (3)