Motorola Moto Z review: Plans | Pricing | Specs

Where to buy

Go back a little over 10 years and you’ll remember that Motorola (alongside Nokia) ruled the mobile world. The RAZR was an icon of personal communication, with its thin design and robust flip build quality, years before Steve Jobs announced the iPhone.

The company has been bought and sold by Google since those days and is now owned by Lenovo. Motorola pinned its hopes to the modular ecosystem for hardware that was built into the Moto Z and Moto Z Play as well as newer handsets like the Moto Z2 Play and Moto Z3 Play.

Launching alongside some pretty impressive first- and third-party modular attachments, the Moto Z was designed to try and accommodate a simple, intuitive modular ecosystem. For the most part it succeeds, with an intelligent system that comes with impressive mod attachments, though the cumulative costs can be prohibitive.

Design

• Thin design
• It's all about the mods
• Weird button placement

• Read more on the Motorola Moto Z design

  Motorola carved its name on the world using a phone called the RAZR, so it's no surprise that thinness is one of the Moto Z's major selling points. The fact the Moto engineers managed to cram in top-tier specs when the phone is just 5.2mm thin is ridiculously impressive.

  The moto mods platform introduced with the Motorola Moto Z platform is clearly the winner from a design perspective. The attachments seamlessly attach to the phone, can be taken off without removing the battery and just look nicer.

  Getting third-party partners like JBL and Hasselblad on board definitely helps. But the fact the mods all work seamlessly is the best addition – attach the Incipio mod and the phone’s battery will be kept charged. Add the Hasselblad and you can use your phone like a traditional point and shoot camera.

  One design issue that came up had to do with Moto Z's physical buttons. Over the course of the review, it became increasingly frustrating to use them. The power button is the same size as the volume buttons and the exact same distance below the volume down button as the volume up. It's ridged, but it still created unnecessary confusion.

  More frustrating is the placement of the fingerprint sensor, which sits below the screen and looks just like a home button but is exclusively there for unlocking the device with your digits. There's no button aspect to the sensor despite its appearance, which leads to constant situations where you try and navigate home but instead lock the phone with your thumbprint.

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Camera

• Standard camera is ordinary
• Hasselblad mod is much better, but it's a pricey mod.

• Read more on the Motorola Moto Z camera

  The base camera on the Motorola Moto Z is one that was fine for its time, but only just, with a 13MP rear and 5MP front camera. That's largely because Motorola was very keen to point out its tie-up with premium camera brand Hasselblad for its own camera mod, which adds optical zoom at additional cost.

  If camera specs are your primary concern, the Hasselblad mod is a bit of a must-buy prospect because without it, the Moto Z is pretty ordinary when it comes to taking photos. We've reviewed the range of moto mods available at the Motorola Moto Z's launch.

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Performance

• Snapdragon 820 gives it enough power
• Moto actions are practical and fun

• Read more on the Motorola Moto Z performance

  For its time, the Motorola Moto Z was something of a powerhouse, with a Snapdragon 820 processor, 4GB RAM, 64GB on-board storage (plus support for 2TB expandable storage), 13MP rear camera with an f1.8 aperture and optical image stabilisation. Back in 2016, that was state of the art, although it hasn't aged all that well.

  The specs only tell half the story though, so it’s reassuring to see that the Moto Z manages to come through on the performance front as well.

  Handset	Geekbench 4 CPU Single Core (higher is better)	Geekbench 4 CPU Multi Core (higher is better)
  Apple iPhone 7 Plus	3374	5649
  Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge	1359	5333
  Samsung Galaxy S7	1378	4718
  Apple iPhone SE	2449	4171
  Apple iPhone 6s	2465	4052
  Google Pixel XL	1629	4051
  Motorola Moto Z	1477	3853
  Sony Xperia XZ	1636	3604
  Google Nexus 6P	1293	3594
  Motorola Moto X Force	1352	3581
  Sony Xperia X	1122	2626
  Motorola Moto G Play	522	1334

  Things aren't quite so cheerful in the 3DMark Ice Storm unlimited test, with the Moto Z sitting towards the bottom of the cluster of devices running the same processor. But it's close, and the results shouldn't be considered bad.

  Handset	3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited Result
  Apple iPhone 7 Plus	37956
  LG G5	29597
  Apple iPhone SE	29276
  Samsung Galaxy S7	28903
  Samsung Note7	28646
  Google Pixel XL	28458
  Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge	28402
  Apple iPhone 6s	28171
  HTC 10	27392
  Sony Xperia XZ	26279
  Sony Xperia X Performance	26125
  Motorola Moto Z	25629
  Google Nexus 6P	24703
  Sony Xperia Z5	19197
  Alcatel IDOL 4S	18186
  Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge Plus	17981
  Huawei Mate 8	17947
  HTC One X9	16877
  Sony Xperia X	16648
  Sony Xperia XA	11173
  Oppo R9	11053
  Motorola Moto G4 Plus	9757
  Telstra Signature Premium	9559
  Oppo R7s	8390
  Motorola Moto G Play	4475
  LG Stylus DAB+	4321
  Alcatel Pop 4	3863
  Samsung Galaxy J2	3469

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Battery life

• 2600 mAh battery

• Read more on the Motorola Moto Z battery life

  The sheer thinness of the Motorola Moto Z seriously limits what Motorola can do in terms of battery life. Naturally, there are battery mods that you can buy, and they're almost a must-buy too. Here's how the Motorola Moto Z compared to a range of its contemporary handsets in Geekbench 3's battery test:

  Handset	Geekbench 3 Battery Test Duration	Geekbench 3 Battery Score
  Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge	11:55:00	7150
  Huawei Mate 8	11:14:40	6659
  Apple iPhone 7 Plus	11:11:20	6713
  Sony Xperia X	10:40:40	6406
  Samsung Galaxy J2	10:05:20	2689
  Samsung Galaxy S7	10:01:20	6013
  Motorola Moto X Force	9:46:50	3914
  Motorola Moto 4G Plus	9:44:10	3977
  Motorola Moto G Play	9:36:00	3840
  Alcatel Pop 4	9:20:30	2490
  Samsung Galaxy Note 5	9:18:00	5580
  Google Pixel XL	9:14:20	5543
  Huawei P9	8:26:30	4948
  Sony Xperia XZ	8:24:20	5042
  Alcatel Idol 4S	8:14:20	4943
  LG Stylus DAB+	8:11:40	3278
  Apple iPhone 6S Plus	7:48:10	4681
  LG G5	7:36:10	4561
  Alcatel Go Play	7:21:10	2941
  HTC 10	6:54:30	4145
  Samsung Galaxy S6	6:51:30	4115
  Sony Xperia X Performance	6:46:51	4068
  Oppo R9	6:41:50	4018
  Google Nexus 6P	6:39:20	3754
  Moto Z	6:38:10	3981
  Telstra Signature Premium	5:48:50	3260
  Apple iPhone SE	4:27:10	2671
  Apple iPhone 6s	3:52:10	2321

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Verdict

• A pioneer in modular phones, but one that is definitely showing its age.

• Read our Motorola Moto Z verdict

  The Moto Z was quite the pioneer when it came to smartphones. It was a flagship device targeting early adopters who wanted to be able to get more from their hardware over time.
  Of course, if the Moto Mods platform interests you, but you don't want to pay for the Moto Z, the Moto Z Play offers the same ecosystem at a lower price point . You can also look into the newer Motorola Moto Z2 Play or Motorola Moto Z3 Play instead.

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Pricing and availability

• Price: RRP $699
• Where to buy: Amazon | eBay

Specifications

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