Moto Z is ready to modify

LENOVO’S Moto brand has a new phone out – the Moto Z – that’s both smart and cleverly designed, offering a modular approach to provide more fun functions.
Housed in a body of “military-aircraft-grade” aluminium and stainless steel that’s 5.19mm thin and 136 grams in weight, the phone packs quite a lot of power with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 quad-core processor running at 1.8GHz, plus an Adreno 530 GPU for graphics tasks.
You get four gigabytes of DDR4 working memory (RAM) and 64GB of storage that can be boosted all the way up to two terabytes with a microSD card.
The display looks great on a 5.5-inch Amoled screen at 2,560x1,440-pixel resolution protected with Corning Gorilla Glass.
The Moto Z initially used the Android 6.0.1 operating system, but now there’s Android 7.0 Nougat and the performance is noticeably better, with new features added.

Using the AnTuTu Benchmark 6.2.7, I measured that performance at 130,764 points, which doesn’t put the phone in the Top 10 (where the iPhone 7 rules with 183,106 points), but there’s nothing to complain about.
In my test, 3D graphics were rendered fast and looked beautiful, as seen in the racing game Asphalt 8.
On top of this you’ve got a very fast LTE 4G connection. In my case, using TrueMove H’s LTE network, data connection speed was very rapid. I downloaded the Android 7.0 firmware for an upgrade – a 1GB file – in less than two minutes. Just as speedy was image backup to the Google Photos cloud.
My Ookla Speedtest app clocked the download speed at 82.26Mbps and uploads at 19.41Mbps.
And, yes, the Moto Z can handle High-Resolution Audio FLAC 24bit/192 files, although, apparently because it’s so thin, the phone has no 3.5mm stereo jack. Instead you can use the provided adapter for headphones.
That let me plug in my Sony MDR-1ABT High-Res Audio headphones and hear the truly impressive sound quality coming through the phone. It missed none of the high details and the bass was quite powerful.
As for cameras, they’re both good in terms of quality. The main 13-megapixel camera has a fast f/1.8 lens, image stabilisation and laser focus. There are several shooting modes, including “Professional” so you can adjust shooting parameters like white balance, ISO, manual focus and exposure compensation.

With this camera you can shoot 4K video clips at 30 frames per second, Full HD clips at 60fps and HDR 1080p clips too. The front “selfie” camera has an f/2.2 wide-angle lens that’s good for group shots.
Armed with decent cameras, I got some fine portraits and landscapes and even the gang-selfie looked sharp.
For enhanced security there’s a fingerprint sensor that’s quite efficient at unlocking the phone.
But what males the Moto Z stand out among smartphones is the modular design. The back cover is magnetically connected, so it’s easily removed to expose the Moto Mod connector. Moto Mods are a range of interchangeable backs that easily snap onto the back.
The features you can add this way include, so far, Hasselblad True Zoom, Moto Insta-Share Projector, JBL Soundboost, Incipo offGrid Powerpack, and Moto Style Shells.
Hasselblad True Zoom is useful for taking photos because it gives you 10x optical zoom, a Xenon flash, and RAW-format shots, as well as an on/off button, shutter button and zoom lever. You get that famous Hasselblad design and it has a great, comfortable feel to it.
The on/off button starts and closes the camera app. Half-press the shutter button for auto-focus just like on a real camera.
Using this set-up I got some terrific shots of the distant pavilion at Rama IX Park from a high vantage point about two kilometres away.
The Moto Insta-Share Projector is for both projecting and sharing images. Projected images can be up to 70 inches on any flat service.
JBL Soundboost gives you powerful JBL stereo sound with no need for Bluetooth pairing. It includes 10 hours of battery life at no cost to the phone’s battery. There’s even a built-in kickstand to prop up the phone.
Incipio offGrid Power Pack is a 2,220mAh battery, providing an additional 22 hours of battery life on the go.
And, for personalising your phone, Moto Style Shells come in a variety of beautiful designs and materials such as real wood, leather and fabric.
While the Moto Z has a suggested retail price of Bt23,900, Hasselblad True Zoom costs another Bt9,990, Moto Insta-Share Projector Bt12,990, JBL Soundboost Speaker Bt3,990 and Incipio offGrid for Bt3,990.
You get the Wooden Style Shell with the phone. The rest will be available for purchase soon.

Key Specs
- Networks: 4G LTE (Cat 9) UMTS / HSPA+ GSM / EDGE
- Operating system: Android 7.0 Nougat
- Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 quad-core processor 1.8GHz.
- Memory: 4GB DDR4
- Storage: 64GB, expandable to 2TB
- Display: 5.5-inch Amoled, 2,560x1,440-pixel resolution, Corning Gorilla Glass
- Cameras: 13MP f/1.8 OIS, laser auto-focus main, 5MP f/2.2 wide-angle lens front
- Connectivity: Moto Mods, USB-C port for headphones, charging and data transfer, 3.5mm to USB-C headphone port adapter included
- Wireless connectivity: Bluetooth 4.1, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
- Sensors: Fingerprint reader, accelerometer, ambient light, gyroscope, hall effect, magnetometer, proximity
- Battery: 2,600mAh with fast charging (15 minutes for eight hours’ use)
- Dimensions: 153.3x75.3x5.19mm
- Weight: 136g