Australian hands on with the new Moto Z and Moto Z Force and their Moto Mods

At their TechWorld event in San Francisco this morning, Lenovo’s Moto division has taken the wraps of their latest Moto phone announcing the Moto Z and Moto Z Force as well as a range of expansion ‘Mods’ which snap to the back of the phone. Duncan has done the round-up, but I spent some time with the phones and though I’d jot down some thoughts.

To start with, the Moto Z is the instantly ‘sexy’ version of the two phones, at 5.2mm thin it’s hard to deny that people will love that phone, even with a simple style cover adding a few millimeters to it it’s still going to feel lovely in the hand. The phone does have a bit of an unfinished feeling without the style cover or a mod on the rear; it’s got a very slick glass like feel to it but that’s to be expected.

The Moto Z Force is also a little heavier, but there are reasons. It has a bigger battery (3500mAh on the Moto Z Force vs 2600mAh on the Moto Z), and a larger camera sensor (21MP on the Moto Z Force vs the 13MP on the Moto Z), as well as the ShatterShield crack and smash proof screen. This certainly gives you pause when you’ve cracked a screen in the past. Sadly for us, Moto has made the decision for you, with the Moto Z Force limited to the US market for now.

The Moto Mods are the bomb. Really. Moto has done a great job here. They snap on easily and with the exception of the projector mod which didn’t seem to align properly they had no issues. Snapping the JBL speaker mod to the back and having your music instantly get louder and clearer is an amazing experience. There’s no stuffing around rebooting the phone to install a mod either and the snap-on battery pack will be an instant winner with many people. The only disappointment was I was unable to try the Projector Mod properly as it was flat after having numerous tech journos try it out, but watching them gleefully project a screen onto the roof and then keystone it to get it properly squared was awesome.

Moto SoundBoost:

Moto PowerPack:

Moto Insta-Share Projector

One ‘mystery’ mod remains with the Moto Mods, with Moto promising a camera module made in partnership with (what a number of Lenovo execs have described as) a major camera name; that’s coming soon. The talk behind the scenes is it will include an optical zoom, which could make a massive difference to mobile photographers.

I do have thoughts on the lack of 3.5mm jack on the Moto Z though. I honestly can’t remember the last time I plugged in headphones, but I like the reassurance of knowing I can on a phone. Having to use an adaptor to use wired headphones is a bit of a pain, especially when some of the best headphones on the market still use corded connections. Still, it’s rumoured a fairly major player in mobile is about to do this as well, so Moto has beaten them to the punch.

All up, the Moto Z is a winner. We’re getting mods in Australia, though they won’t comment on a launch date, pricing or even confirm which of the mods we’ll see. Moto has committed to a September global timeline for launch, so we’re champing at the bit here waiting for the invite to an Australian launch.

And if you love video here’s the hands-on:

Daniel travelled to San Francisco as a guest of Lenovo