TELUS | The Lenovo Moto Z Review

Last updated on November 10th, 2020 at 12:07 am

“You need a Moto Z.”

— Casey Palmer to basically everyone he talks to, gushing over how awesome his phone is.

In the beginning, I wondered what was so cool about a phone without a headphone jack.

When Apple announced the iPhone 7 in September, people lost their minds—what’s the point of having a device with access to millions of songs if you can’t listen to them? Buy wireless earbuds, they said. Change up the charging port with a dongle, they said.  It took a feature everyone knew so well and did away with it—for a number of good reasons, mind you (waterproofing and Bluetooth redundancy to name a couple), but for all the negative hoopla they got about it, people failed to note two things:

1. We must embrace better methods to make better phones, and
2. That Apple didn’t do it first.

My Smartphone’s Cooler Than YOUR Smartphone.

Released three months before the iPhone 7, I admittedly hadn’t even heard of the Lenovo Moto Z before TELUS passed it my way for a review, but I’d soon learn the error of my ways!

An ultra-thin smartphone with a slick Quad HD display, a speedy Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 820 processor, and TurboPower™ Charging giving you up to 8 hours of battery life in 15 minutes, the Moto Z’s a bloody powerful device with a neat little trick up its sleeve—it can become more than just a phone!

You see, it’s been a long time since the smartphone industry’s wowed us. We’re bombarded by devices with faster this and newer that, but when so many of these innovations are just copies of features that competitors had for years, it takes a lot more to turn our heads when so much feels the same. So many devices obsess over what’s inside. They’ve got bigger batteries and faster processors, but they can only take you so far… there’s gotta be something phones can do to change the game, and the Moto Z asks why focus so much on the inside when you can do so much more on the outside?

And with that thinking in mind, we’ve gotta talk about Moto Mods™!

Moto Mods™—They’re Changing the Way We Smartphone!

Moto Mods™ have the Moto Z combine with peripherals to transform it into a number of gadgets! For now, you can turn it into a speaker, projector, or fully-featured camera, but more importantly, Moto Mods™ represent a shift in thinking, challenging what we expect from our smartphones in the future! Motorola Mobility’s actively exploring what else they can add to the Moto Mods™ line, continuing to extend the usefulness of its phones well beyond the features they have when originally purchased.

And even better, they’re easy to use! Moto Mods™ slap onto the back of the phone with magnets—really strong magnets—doing away with tangly wires and cumbersome plugs for a 16-pin connector that makes them work instantly. No Bluetooth, no Wi-Fi—you can connect a Moto Mod™ to the back of a Moto Z and seconds later become the life of the party! Or choose a different one and you’re ready for the big meeting, showing off your video on a 70″ screen. You can even make yourself the next Ansel Adams and use a 10x optical zoom to shoot things that you’d never normally capture with a standard smartphone camera!

There’s a lot that Moto Mods™ open you up to—let me tell you about a few I got my hands on and how they helped me make the most of the way I smartphone!

The Incipio offGRID™ Power Pack || Extra Power to Get You Through Your Day!

One of the simplest Moto Mods™ is a battery pack you clip to the back of your phone, giving it a 2220 mAh boost for up to 20 more hours of power as soon as they’re connected!

The Incipio offGRID PowerPack Moto Mod for the new #MotoZ and #MotoZPlay keeps your phone charged longer so you can do more. pic.twitter.com/oZxuwLQDWZ

— Motorola Canada (@MotorolaCA) September 27, 2016

To give you an idea of how beneficial that is, this phone just couldn’t cut it with its standard 2600 mAh battery. I keep immensely active on my phone every day, and coupled with the flashy features the Moto Z boasts, I can burn through that in a matter of hours.

But the Incipio offGRID™ is my bae, essentially doubling the Moto Z’s capacity without making it too bulky—for someone who usually carries an extra battery pack, you don’t know how good this feels!

The JBL Soundboost Speaker || Because Standard Smartphone Speakers do NOT a Party Make!

Bluetooth speakers aren’t anything new—you can buy ’em in countless shapes, colours and sizes, and man can they ever pump the jams!

I mean, no matter how powerful those speakers might be, they’re also awfully inconvenient. I mean, how many of us need speakers every day? Smartphones’ built-in speakers have grown mighty enough to meet most of our needs, but they may fail to do the trick if there’s a party with your name on it and no outlet in sight!

Good thing the JBL Soundboost Speaker has a battery of its own, offering up 10 hours of play for whatever music floats your boat! With a kickstand built in to keep your speaker elevated, it ensures that your music’s filling the room instead of just bouncing off the ceiling!

Y’all ain’t ready.

The Hasselblad True Zoom Camera || The Best Camera is the One You Have With You… But it’s EVEN BETTER When You Have a Real LENS to Work With!

While the Incipio offGRID™ is the Moto Mod™ I use most, the Hasselblad True Zoom is by far my favourite, adding a 10x optical zoom, Xenon flash, and RAW format photos to a smartphone whose camera’s already pretty stellar!

Now for you purists out there, let me be straight—we don’t yet have smartphone tech to outdo a real camera. My SLR is faster, sharper and shoots photos with more vibrant colour, but it’s a camera—that’s what it’s supposed to do. For a great shot on the go, the Hasselblad True Zoom proves a trusty ally—here’re a few sample photos if you want to see for yourself!

The Lenovo Moto Z—A First Step in the Future of Smartphones

I’m not here to convince you why the Moto Z’s an amazing piece of hardware—it’s something you’ll need to experience for yourself. Even without a 3.5″ headphone jack or a Micro USB port, it’s the device I turn to most! It looks good, sounds good, and takes great pictures—what more could a blogger ask for?

If you really want to step your smartphone game up, it’s time to start colouring outside the lines with a phone that’s more than just a phone. Whether you need more sound, more power, or more photos worthy of joining your family’s permanent collection, the Lenovo Moto Z’s definitely a phone you’re going to want to look at!

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a Quad HD screen to covet.

Good luck to all who enter, and until the next, I remain,

–case p.

Disclaimer: To help type this post to its appropriate levels of awesome, TELUS provided both a Lenovo Moto Z and a Lenovo Moto Z Play for review, giveaway, or whatever else worked! Opinions are my own, and I use the Moto Z all the time. Bonne chance!