Motorola Moto Z review: Plans | Pricing | Specs

Name: Motorola Moto Z
Brand: Motorola

Nick Broughall

Last updated: Mar 19, 2021

Motorola wants you to make your own phone with the modular Moto Z, but it has a way to go to prove the platform is worth the investment.

Thin design
Lots of flexibility with moto mods
Good performance for a phone of its era

Adding moto mods can quickly get expensive
Ordinary battery life
Weird button placement

5.5 inches

Display size

1440 x 2560px

64GB

Internal storage

13 MP

Rear camera

2,600 mAh

Battery size

Finder rated as Average vs similar phones

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Display

Display Size

5.5 inches

Resolution

1440 x 2560px

Pixels per inch (PPI)

535 ppi

Camera

Rear camera megapixels

13MP

Rear camera aperture size

f/1.8

Video recording

Front camera megapixels

5MP

Front camera aperture size

f/2.2

Physical Dimensions

Dimensions

155.3mm x 75.3mm x 5.2mm

Weight

136g

Connectivity

NFC

Yes

Wi-Fi

802.11 a/b/g/n/ac

Network category speed

N/A

Power, storage and battery

Processor

Snapdragon 820

RAM

4GB

Operating system

Android 6

Internal storage

64GB

External storage support

Up to 2TB

Battery capacity

2,600mAh

Device features

Headphone jack

Yes

Fingerprint sensor

Yes

Water resistance rating

N/A

Wireless charging

Launch price (RRP)	$999
Launch date	2016-09

Go to Motorola's site More info

Nick Broughall

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Nick Broughall is a global group publisher across shopping, travel, tech, streaming and reviews at Finder. An award-winning journalist with over 15 years' experience writing about technology, Nick has edited leading tech publications, including Gizmodo, TechRadar and T3 Magazine, as well as contributing to CNET, the Sydney Morning Herald, Lifehacker, news.com.au and many more. In 2016 he was awarded the Best Reviewer title at the 14th Annual IT Journalism Awards and has been a finalist for Best Reviewer, Best Consumer Technology Journalist and Best News Journalist on multiple occasions. Nick has a Bachelor of Media and finds joy in solving problems with technology.

Where to buy

What's in this review?

Design
Camera
Performance
Battery life
Verdict
Pricing and availability
Specifications

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

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.
Back to top

Camera

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

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.
Back to top

Performance

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

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

Battery life

2600 mAh battery

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

Verdict

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

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.
Back to top

Pricing and availability

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

Specifications

Display

Display Size

5.5 inches

Resolution

1440 x 2560px

Pixels per inch (PPI)

535 ppi

Camera

Rear camera megapixels

13MP

Rear camera aperture size

f/1.8

Video recording

Front camera megapixels

5MP

Front camera aperture size

f/2.2

Physical Dimensions

Dimensions

155.3mm x 75.3mm x 5.2mm

Weight

136g

Connectivity

NFC

Yes

Wi-Fi

802.11 a/b/g/n/ac

Network category speed

N/A

Power, storage and battery

Processor

Snapdragon 820

RAM

4GB

Operating system

Android 6

Internal storage

64GB

External storage support

Up to 2TB

Battery capacity

2,600mAh

Device features

Headphone jack

Yes

Fingerprint sensor

Yes

Water resistance rating

N/A

Wireless charging

Latest Motorola Moto Z news

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Motorola Moto Z review: Plans | Pricing | Specs