Motorola Moto G4 Plus review
The original Moto G – released back in 2013 – was one of the first smartphones that kicked of the trend of affordable but high quality smartphones, and went on to become one of the best-selling Motorola smartphones ever. Motorola has continued to release a successor every year since then, but with a lot more OEMs offering options in this ever-growing category, Motorola did have to do something different with the forth generation of their affordable mid-range smartphone.
- Hands on with the Moto G4 and Moto G4 Plus
- Moto G4 Play announced
That something different arrived in the four of three variations of the latest Moto G, with the Moto G4 Play, the Moto G4, and the Moto G4 Plus, that come with varying display sizes, processing packages, camera setups, and other hardware features, with the latter being the highest-end of the lot. While more expensive when compared to its siblings, the Moto G4 Plus remains extremely affordable, and tacks on a few extras that ultimately make it far more compelling to users.
Buy the Moto G4 Plus now!
What does this device bring to the table? We find out, in this comprehensive Moto G4 Plus review!
Design
Unlike the flagship Moto Z, which features a dramatic departure from the norm, the new Moto G4 Plus retains a lot of the design language of its predecessors. There are a few minor aesthetic changes, but for the most part, the line of Moto G4 devices features a design that is largely reminiscent of previous Motorola smartphones.
The Moto G4 Plus comes with an all plastic build, and despite appearances, the frame is plastic, albeit with a metallic finish. Understandably, you don’t get the premium look and feel of a smartphone that features a metal or glass build, but for a phone made of plastic, the Moto G4 Plus is definitely one of the sturdiest ones out there. It doesn’t feel hollow, rattle, or creak in any way, and feels like a very solid phone overall. This is something that Motorola has always done a good job with, and its great to see this continue to be offered with the Moto G4 Plus.
On the back is the signature Motorola dimple, and the back cover has a nice texture to it, that helps a lot with the grip. However, the smooth finish of the sides does result in the phone being a touch slippery, but not enough to be a cause for concern. The back is also removable, and gives you access to the SIM card slot and the dedicated microSD card slot, with some versions of the device, depending on the market, also coming with dual SIM card slots. While the back cover is removable, the battery is not.
The power button and volume rocker are found on the right side. The power button comes with a textured pattern that makes it easy to differentiate from the volume rocker, but the button layout is unfortunately a little too high up on the chassis to be within comfortable reach. The power button should have also ideally been placed below the volume rocker, but that isn’t case, and requires a lot more effort to get to. The buttons don’t provide a lot of tactile feedback either, and you’re often left wondering whether you have actually pressed them, because of how they feel. The headphone jack and the microUSB port are at the top and bottom respectively.
Display
Unlike previous generations of the Moto G, the IPS LCD displays of the Moto G4 and Moto G4 Plus have been bumped up to 5.5-inches, with resolution getting a boost to Full HD as well, resulting in a pixel density of 401 ppi. That said, those who prefer a smaller size have the option of the Moto G4 Play, which comes with a 5-inch 720p display.
The larger display and higher resolution allows for a more enjoyable experience when reading text, watching videos, and playing games. It’s not the best Full HD display on a smartphone out there, but it certainly more than gets the job done. It looks sharp, with good viewing angles, and the display is vibrant enough for the colors to not appear washed out.
Performance
Under the hood, the Moto G4 Plus comes with an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 processor, clocked at 1.5 GHz, and backed by the Adreno 405 GPU and 2 GB, 3 GB, or 4 GB of RAM, depending on which storage option you opt for. This particular review unit comes with 3 GB of RAM, and the performance has been pretty good.
You won’t see very impressive results when running benchmark tests, but as far as real world performance is concerned, everything has been fast and responsive. Apps launch quickly, multi-tasking is smooth, and the device can handle gaming without much of a hitch.
Hardware
The Moto G4 Plus is available with 16 GB, 32 GB, or 64 GB in built-in storage options, and as mentioned, this also dictates how much RAM you will be getting. There is also expandable storage via microSD card, up to an additional 256 GB. While there are versions of the device, depending on the market, that feature dual SIM capabilities, you will still get a dedicated microSD card slot, so the great news is that users won’t have to make the choice between dual SIM support and expandable storage, which is often the case with other affordable smartphones out there.
The Moto G4 Plus comes with a single front-facing speaker above the display, and is a part of the earpiece. There is no stereo sound to be had, but the single speaker does sound pretty good, and is capable of getting decently sound without sounding tinny or distorted.
Also up front is a fingerprint scanner placed below the display, and this is one of the extra hardware features that is available only with the Moto G4 Plus. The fingerprint sensor is as fast and accurate as expected, and is comparable in quality to the scanners found with more high-end smartphones as well.
It may sound a little nitpick-y, but it has to be mentioned that this scanner isn’t particularly attractive looking. The square shape clashes with the rounded and curved design of the Moto G4 Plus, and looks out of place. Another very minor issue is the fact that the sensor doesn’t double as a home button, and anyone who has used a device with a front-facing fingerprint scanner will find this something that takes some getting used to.
There is still no NFC available, which is unfortunate, and means that you won’t be able to use this device to quickly connect to Bluetooth speakers, transfer content, or use apps like Android Pay. Another point of note is that the Moto G4 Plus, and other devices in the line, aren’t water resistant anymore. While you will get some form of splash protection, that should keep it safe from a simple splash of water or a sprinkle of rain, these phones aren’t IP-certified, and will not survive being submerged in the water.
The Moto G4 Plus comes with a 3,000 mAh non-removable battery, which has become the standard size for a lot of current generation smartphones. The battery has been pretty good, and the device can provide a full day of use with average usage that involves sending and receiving messages, browsing the web, checking social media, watching a few videos and playing games for a little while.
With more intense usage, such as when playing a lot of games or taking a lot of pictures, the battery does run out pretty quickly though. However, the Moto G4 Plus does come with fast charging capabilities, so you will be able to get back to a full charge in a short amount of time.
Camera
The camera is another hardware feature that is better on the Moto G4 Plus when compared to the other devices in the Moto G4 series. The Moto G4 Plus comes with a 16 MP rear camera with a f/2.0 aperture, phase detection auto focus, and a laser auto focus system, along with a 5 MP front-facing shooter. However, there is no optical image stabilization available, which is unfortunate.
The Motorola camera app has also been improved significantly, with there being a shutter button now that makes taking pictures with one hand easier, and the app in general is simpler and easier to use. A swipe from the left side opens up a menu for basic camera settings, and a button on the upper right corner lets you quickly switch between photo and video, along with a few other modes like panorama and slow motion video. The most notable change with the camera app is the addition of a manual mode, which is something that was definitely long overdue.
As far as picture quality is concerned, it is actually surprisingly really good. Granted, it’s not going to stack up favorably against the high-end Samsung and LG flagships out there, but for a device that is so inexpensive, the camera is certainly capable of taking some nice looking shots. In good lighting conditions, you get shots with plenty of detail and vibrant colors, and the images are sharp, without looking over sharpened.
Dynamic range isn’t the best, with the camera tending to crush shadows a little too much, but that is all taken care of with HDR. Using HDR mode tones down the shadows and highlights, and adds some more vibrancy to the image, without making it appear unnatural or fake.
In low-light conditions however, is where the camera falls apart extremely quickly. We expect some noise to be present in images taken in poorly-lit situations, but the grain is quite significant with the Moto G4 Plus. Highlights are also typically overexposed, there isn’t a lot of detail to be had, and the camera also has trouble finding a point of focus in low light.
If you’re looking for a really good low-light smartphone camera, the Moto G4 Plus is unfortunately not going to cut it, but in most other situations, this camera more than gets the job done. The 5 MP front-facing camera comes with a wide angle lens, and proves to be more than adequate to cover all your selfie taking needs.
Software
On the software side of things, the Moto G4 Plus is running Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow, and this is as close to stock Android as you can get without it being a Nexus smartphone. There is virtually no bloatware to be found, and the software package isn’t as packed with features as what may be found with the high-end Motorola offerings.
There are some features available though, such as Moto Actions, which lets you do things like turning the flashlight on with a chopping motion, flipping the phone over to silence it when it rings, or launching the camera with a twist of your wrist. A simpler version of Motorola’s ambient display feature is also available, but with there being no sensors on the front, it is entirely contingent on motion.
You can’t wave your hand over the display to wake up the phone, and it also doesn’t continuously pulsate to indicate notifications. The only time it lights up is when you take the phone out of your pocket or pick it up from a table, or when you initially receive a notification. Other than these Motorola features, the software package is entirely stock Android, and sometimes, a clean and simple experience is all you need to keep things smooth and snappy.
Specifications
| Display | 5.5-inch IPS LCD display with 1920 x 1080 resolution 401ppi |
| Processor | 1.5 GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 |
| GPU | Adreno 405 |
| RAM | 2/3/4 GB |
| Storage | 16/32/64GB |
| MicroSD | Yes, up to 256 GB |
| Cameras | 16MP rear camera with f/2.0 aperture 5MP front camera with f/2.2 aperture |
| Fingerprint sensor | Yes |
| Battery | Non-removable 3000mAh battery |
| Software | Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow |
| Dimensions | 153 x 76.6 x 7.9-9.8mm 155g |
Gallery
Pricing and final thoughts
If the standard black or white options aren’t enough, the Moto G4 Plus can be customized using Moto Maker, that lets you choose between different back cover and accent colors, and allows you to add an engraving as well. That said, the availability of Moto Maker is dependent on the market.
The price and availability of the Moto G4 Plus in the US is still unknown, but in India, the 32 GB version (with 3 GB of RAM) is priced at Rs 14,999 (~$230), while the 16 GB iteration (with 2 GB of RAM) is priced at Rs 13,499 (~$207), and we can expect the pricing to be similar in the US as well.
So, there you have it for in-depth look at the Motorola Moto G4 Plus! The Moto G series has always been among the best bang for your buck smartphones around, and things remain the same, even with the technically more expensive Moto G4 Plus.
- Hands on with the Moto G4 and Moto G4 Plus
- Moto G4 Play announced
The Moto G was in desperate need for an upgrade though, and the changes Motorola has made to the display and camera make the Moto G4 Plus a very compelling option for those who are looking for a smartphone that falls in the sub-$250 category.
Buy the Moto G4 Plus now!
What do you think of the Moto G4 Plus and the improvements made vs previous Moto G smartphones, and do you plan to buy one? Let us know your views in the comments below!
The best tech and apps for your home office
By The Wirecutter Staff
This post was done in partnership with The Wirecutter, a buyer’s guide to the best technology. Read the full article here.
You don’t need the thinnest, lightest, or most elegantly designed items for your home office. You want reliable, comfortable, efficient tools—but it doesn’t hurt if they look nice, too. That’s why a team of three experienced remote workers spent more than 150 hours researching and testing new gear and apps, and picking the most office-friendly items from The Wirecutter’s guides, to give you a selection of tools that we’re sure will earn a place in your workspace.
Home-office laptop
The 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display offers the best balance of power and portability. Photo: Kevin Purdy
For most home-office users, we recommend the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display. It offers the best balance of power and portability for a range of work, plus it has a fantastic screen, keyboard, and trackpad. We like the 13-inch model with an Intel Core i5 processor and 8 GB of RAM for most people, but if you regularly work with complex spreadsheets, compile large blocks of code, or edit photos and video, you may want to step up to 16 GB of RAM.
Its superior specs will keep the Pro relevant and working well for longer than the more portable MacBook Air; it also offers a higher-resolution screen and a Force Touch trackpad. Because the Pro has an HDMI port and two Thunderbolt ports, you can connect an external display and still have another left for connecting a Thunderbolt dock, storage devices, or other peripherals. At 3½ pounds, the Pro is still portable enough for occasional business trips.
In addition to its fantastic hardware, the MacBook Pro with Retina Display runs Apple’s stable, easy-to-use, bloat-free OS X. And if you ever have a problem, AppleCare plans and Apple’s Genius Bar Support are peerless in their quality.
Business laptop
Lenovo ThinkPad laptops are the quintessential business notebooks, thanks to their rock-solid construction, easy serviceability, and excellent, deep-throw keyboards. Photo: Marshall Troy
Most people, even actual businesspeople, don’t need a “business laptop” anymore—any ultrabook (such as the MacBook Air or Dell XPS 13) will do just fine for most office work. But if you need a laptop that will still be kicking in five years despite knocks, bumps, and spills, and you’re willing to pay a little extra, you should get the Lenovo ThinkPad T460, specifically the configuration with a 1080p screen, a backlit keyboard, 16 GB of RAM, and a 512GB solid-state drive.
After more than 30 hours of research and testing, we found that the ThinkPad T460 is fast and durable (with a military-specification certification for ruggedness) and still reasonably light, thanks to its magnesium-alloy body. It has dedicated buttons for the TrackPoint and one of the best keyboards of any laptop, period. It even has batteries you can swap in and out while the system remains running. It’s the best option for anyone who needs more ruggedness and more ports than an ultrabook can offer.
27-inch monitor
The Dell UltraSharp U2715H has a fantastic high-resolution display and a great combination of connections, adjustability, and USB 3.0 support. Photo: Kevin Purdy
The Dell UltraSharp U2715H is the best large monitor for your home office. It has a beautiful 27-inch IPS display and ultrathin side bezels that make the screen look even larger. Its stand is among the most adjustable we’ve found, which is crucial for a monitor you’re going to spend hundreds (or even thousands) of hours looking at every year. It can tilt, swivel, and easily rotate from landscape to panel mode.
The 2560×1440 display is large enough to put two windows side by side, but not so high-resolution that you run into weird scaling issues. Its factory-calibrated display is near-perfect, as we discovered when we tested it with a $1,200 X-Rite i1Pro 2 spectrophotometer and a $170 Spyder4 Pro colorimeter. No other 27-inch monitor we tested looked as good.
The U2715H has two HDMI 1.4 connections, one Mini DisplayPort 1.2 connection, and two standard DisplayPort 1.2 connections—one for going from your PC to your monitor, and the other for hooking up a second monitor to the first. Many monitors have the DisplayPort input; not as many have the output. You also get an audio jack for connecting your own set of speakers or headphones to the monitor (if your computer can pass audio signals over HDMI or DisplayPort), as well as five USB 3.0 ports—including one specialized for quick-charging devices (up to 1.5 amps).
Wireless mouse and Bluetooth keyboard
The Logitech MX Master and the Bluetooth Easy-Switch Keyboard are pricey, but the investment is worthwhile for people who spend all day using these devices. Photo: Kevin Purdy
After spending more than 100 hours testing 28 mice and 21 Bluetooth keyboards over the past year, we found that the Logitech MX Master is the best wireless mouse for home office professionals, and that Logitech’s Bluetooth Easy-Switch Keyboard (for Mac or Windows) is the best Bluetooth keyboard. The MX Master has five programmable buttons, a second (programmable) scroll wheel for your thumb, and a rechargeable battery, plus it can pair with up to three Bluetooth devices at the same time. It’s comfortable, too.
Logitech’s Bluetooth Easy-Switch Keyboards have long been the gold standard for Bluetooth keyboards because of their smooth, well-spaced keys, their adjustable key backlighting, their platform-specific layouts for Mac and Windows, and their ability to switch instantly between multiple paired devices. Both the Logitech MX Master and the Bluetooth Easy-Switch Keyboard are more expensive than the other mice and Bluetooth keyboards we recommend, but we think the investment is worthwhile for people who spend all day using these devices.
Portable document scanner
The Fujitsu is speedy, accurate, and portable, with easy-to-use software. Photo: Amadou Diallo
Don’t let the “portable” label fool you: The Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300i is the best tool for getting a large amount of scanning done at your desk, keeping your space tidy and your documents organized. After more than 70 hours of research and hands-on testing, the S1300i delivered the best combination of accuracy, speed, and portability, and it came with the easiest-to-use software of any we tested. It can load as many as 20 sheets of regular laser paper and scan them, duplexing if needed. And it’s small and capable of drawing power from a single USB port, so it’s great for carrying on business trips or simply moving to another room.
Printer
Because the Brother Hl-L2340DW is a laser printer, it’s low-drama compared with any inkjet.
We’ve spent more than 200 hours researching and testing printers over the past few years, and of the 100 cheap printers we’ve come across, the Brother HL-L2340DW (or—if it’s cheaper—the HL-L2360DW, which adds an Ethernet port but is otherwise nearly identical) is the safest bet for most home offices.
For home offices where printing is mostly limited to mailing labels, packing slips, and the occasional document, the dirt-cheap cost of ownership is the best thing about the HL-L2340DW. Each page costs just 2.7 cents’ worth of toner and drum wear, less than with any other printer out there. The HL-L2340DW also provides automatic two-sided printing, and supports mobile printing standards like AirPrint and Google Cloud Print, as well as printing over Wi-Fi (though in a small office connecting to the printer via USB is probably easier).
Because it’s a laser printer, the Brother is relatively low-drama. Toner cartridges have a high capacity, which reduces the chance that you’ll find yourself out of toner when you really, really need to print. Laser printers don’t need to run lengthy cleaning cycles, either. You give up color printing with a cheap laser printer, but that’s more trouble than it’s worth at this price.
Webcam and Web-meeting app
The Logitech HD Pro Webcam C920 has the best call quality for frequent video meetings. Photo: Kimber Streams
If you need a webcam, we recommend the Logitech HD Pro Webcam C920, our choice after we researched 15 different webcams and tested two head-to-head in Skype calls, Google Hangouts, and Zoom meetings. It has great image quality and helpful software, and reviewers universally love it. The C920 sits on top of your laptop screen or monitor and braces itself against the back of the screen, or you can mount it on a tripod.
The best Web-meeting software for people who work from home and get to select their own is Zoom, which works on Windows, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android, and BlackBerry. Zoom’s free Basic plan contains enough features and free connection time to cover most teams’ meeting needs, and it works across the vast majority of devices. Among the 20 services and plans we considered, it’s the fastest, most painless route between “We need to have a meeting” and being in that meeting.
Time-tracking and invoicing apps
Harvest conveniently tracks time, and FreshBooks provides robust, multiplatform tools for billing, payment tracking, and expenses.
If you don’t have a good time-tracking or invoice-generating service already set up, the easiest services to try out are Harvest and FreshBooks. If you’re a one-person shop and need time tracking, project management, and simple create-and-send invoices, we recommend Harvest. If you generate trickier invoices, have many expenses, and need to closely track payments from different clients, FreshBooks will help you get paid. Both are easier to set up for most people than the 40 other invoicing and tracking services our experienced freelancers considered.
USB 3.0 docking station
Anker’s Dual Display Universal Docking Station offers the best selection of ports plus fast-charging USB. Photo: Kimber Streams
We researched 30 docking station models, tested six top contenders for more than five hours, and found that Anker’s Dual Display Universal Docking Station is the best for most home offices. In a field of very similar products, Anker’s dock offers the best combination of high-speed drive transfer, fast-charging USB ports, and 4K video support at the lowest price.
Anker’s dock has two USB 3.0 ports and an additional four USB 2.0 ports. In our tests, the USB 3.0 ports put out 0.5 A (enough for some small accessories such as Bluetooth headsets), and the USB 2.0 ports were more impressive at 1.5 A. That’s still a slower rate than what many smartphones and tablets support, but it isn’t bad. And 4K video support from both the HDMI and DVI connectors worked without issue.
Router and modem
The AC1750 Netgear R6400 is faster than the TP-Link Archer C7, and the ARRIS SurfBoard SB6141 supports most of the fastest Internet packages. Photo: Kevin Purdy
The router and modem we recommend for home office users are the the Netgear AC1750 R6400 and the Arris SURFboard SB6141 DOCSIS 3.0, respectively. The Netgear AC1750 R6400 was faster at most tests than the router we recommend for most people—40 percent faster at longer distances under ideal conditions—and it offers power features usually found in much more expensive routers, such as a built-in VPN server to provide a secure connection to your network while you’re on the road, and a QoS feature to prioritize certain apps’ traffic. Meanwhile, the Arris SURFboard SB6141 is more than fast enough for the Internet plans most people have. Though it’s compatible with most of the fastest Internet packages from seven of the eight major ISPs, you should confirm that it works with your Internet plan before you buy it; if it doesn’t, you’ll want to buy one of the cable modems your provider recommends instead.
This guide may have been updated by The Wirecutter. To see the current recommendation, please go here.
The After Math: Can’t buy me love
There’s something in the air this week. Seems everybody’s in L-O-V-E, love. Well, except maybe this guy. Researchers successfully tested a new gene therapy using the DNA from three donors. Lenovo debuted the world’s first Tango-enabled smartphone. Tinder kicked all the kids out and Google’s gave its devs something to crow about. Numbers, because how else would we know that one is the loneliest?
Moto Z Droid Edition sends original images to Google Photos for free
Motorola is bundling the Verizon-exclusive edition of Moto Z with a feature shutterbugs would love: two years of free original-quality Google Photos storage. It wasn’t mentioned on stage during Lenovo’s event, but 9to5google has spotted the info on the upcoming handset’s web page. Motorola’s website only has the “Droid Edition’s” details up, so it’s not clear at this point whether the unlocked version will get the freebie, as well.
Google Photos doesn’t cost anything, but it’s limited to 16-megapixel images and 1080p videos. Further, it doesn’t save images in their original state: it keeps compressed jpeg versions instead. If you want to save your original snapshots without compression, you’d have to upload them to Google Drive, which only gives you 15GB of free storage per month. Upgrading to 100GB will cost you $1.99 per month. If you’re not exactly sold on the Moto Z but already have a Nexus device, you could be looking at a similar deal. Android Police dissected the app in May and found that it could give Nexus devices unlimited original-quality photo storage, as well.
Source: 9to5google, Motorola
Lenovo foldable smartphone and tablet concept hands on
Foldable smartphones and tablets, it looks like they’re coming soon at some point. We’re here at Lenovo Tech World in San Francisco and a lot of cool stuff were announced here, like the Tango-ready PHAB 2 Pro and the shockingly modular Moto Z and Z Force, but the ones we really thought were cool are concepts. Yes, concepts, as in they’re not something we’ll be buying anytime soon – wherein they’ll more than likely incur premium costs when they arrive, due to the new tech they’re employing.
Either way, it really opens the idea of what we’ll potentially see down the road. Now, during a Q & A session with some of the engineers, we got a sneak peek at two foldable devices. The first one being a foldable smartphone, the one shown off during the keynote by YouTuber Meghan McCarthy. When it’s flat, it looks very much like an elongated phone from the front, something that oddly looks out of place if it were placed alongside today’s smartphones.
However, you know something’s up when you look at it from the back. Obviously, there’s more to than just the display being folded, since the chassis itself is bending to match the display. Lenovo’s concept seems practical because as it’s being bent, the interface slowly begins to shift – so that its operation while on your wrist is more appropriate. This isn’t a form factor we’re familiar with, so it’ll be interesting to see how Lenovo will tackle the way various operations we’re familiar with already on something curved.
Lenovo says that folding a display in isn’t a problem, but rather, it’s when you’re bending it out, which is the case here with the smartphone. That’s because of how the glass or whatever is covering the panel itself is being stretched, but from what we can see, it’s using this stretchy plastic looking cover – much like you might see those plastic covers over furniture. You can visibly see that layer, just because it distorts a bit under certain angles.
As for the foldable tablet, it’s pretty neat because it can go from a sizable tablet, to a phablet sized thing by bending it right in the middle. Whereas the phone bends in multiple places throughout the chassis, the tablet simply has its bending points around the middle area. And the same plasticy layer covers the display.
These are some pretty cool concepts, especially when they’re optimized to make them practical when they’re bent – like how the interfaces shift and all. Being concepts, you know that we’re thinking a lot about price, even though we won’t be seeing them anytime soon. We can only imagine them to be pricey, but hey, it’s pretty cool that foldable smartphones and tablets are coming at some point.
Who knows how these concept devices will evolve over time, or whether they’ll come to fruition at some timely manner. Regardless, Lenovo’s concepts provides us with a closer look at what are some of the challenges behind making a foldable smartphone. It’s a solid effort, probably requiring additional refinements, before they can certified for consumer sale. Even then, however, you can certainly expect some pricey figures attached to them.
A closer look at Lenovo’s bendy concept phone and tablet
We knew Lenovo’s Phab2 Pro and Motorola’s Moto Z series were breaking cover today, but the moment that drew the loudest gasps was when a YouTuber bent a phone around her wrist. Lenovo’s crazy, flexible devices are incredibly far from being real products, but we still had to track them down to get a closer look at what makes them work. After all, these aren’t Kyocera Echo-style, half-assed folding screens — the Folio tablet and the Cplus phone have display panels that actually contort when you bend their respective bodies.
Crafting gadgets that can handle these usage scenarios is tricky, though, but Lenovo has a sense of humor about it. When bending the Cplus to curve around someone’s wrist, the Android phone’s tall display “cracks” — actually just a software trick that distorts the screen. The Folio, on the other hand, was more straight-laced. Folding the tablet in half bends the screen around the outside of the chassis, effectively turning it into a big ol’ phone.
Sheer wow factor aside, the Folio didn’t actually do much; it’s likely the more-polished Cplus had a considerable headstart in development. Alas, Lenovo representatives barely let us touch them. As CTO Peter Hortensius said, “These are not things that will survive in the wild.” Even so, we’re still pulling for the Folio and the Cplus to become full-fledged products. We’re just not holding our collective breath.
Get all the news from today’s Lenovo and Motorola event right here!
Lenovo shows off a bendable phone for your wrist
At Lenovo’s big keynote in San Francisco today, CTO Peter Hortensius introduced a new bendable screen that snaps around the wrist like an old-school slap bracelet. It’s the company’s way of moving into a hingeless device era.
Screenwriter and producer Meghan McCarthy of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fame, planted in the audience, got up to demonstrate the new technology. She wrapped a seemingly active phone screen onto her wrist. There was an audible cracking sound, but the screen snapped on like a bulky wristband. Next she moved on to a folding tablet with cat faces. She bent it in half and put the flexible screen next to her ear, pretending to make a call.
Hortensius then did a quick walk-through of the bendable-screen technology. “What else has to bend as the screen bends?” he said. A flexible screen needs equally flexible parts, including the battery and the motherboard, which need to fold and unfold along with it. It’s an innovative idea, but that’s all it is for now. The flexible phone isn’t a fully functional product yet.
Lenovo promised that the concept device will be on display after the keynote. Watch this space for more details on the folding screens.
Get all the news from today’s Lenovo and Motorola event right here!
$500 Lenovo Phab2 Pro is the first Google Tango phone
The second generation of Lenovo’s Phab phones are here already, headlined by the first-ever Project Tango-equipped smartphone with sensors and cameras that can map its surroundings. The Phab2 Pro (check out our hands-on impressions right here) is special because it fulfills the promise of demos that Google’s Advanced Technologies and Products (ATAP) division has been showing us for a few years. The phone’s dual cameras create an “eye” that sees its surroundings in 3D with depth perception, while additional sensors monitor location and nearby objects 250,000 times per second.
Google and Lenovo have shown off experiences that use the Tango technology to provide augmented reality-guided tours in museums and odd experiences like Woorld, but there are more-practical applications. For example, Lowe’s has an app that it says will allow homeowners to remodel by virtually envisioning how appliances or furniture will look in their space. Lenovo VP Jeff Meredith envisions the technology becoming “pervasive, just like GPS.”
Despite shrinking from 7 inches to a 6.4-inch size usable by human hands and coming with Android 6.0 Marshmallow, each Phab2 packs a large 4,050mAh battery, along with Dolby Atmos audio features, including the ability to record in 5.1 surround sound. But the similarities end there. The Pro elevates things to the stratosphere with premium specs and sensing abilities that trump any phone we’ve seen before — all with a price of $500, unlocked.
The Pro also adds on a specially designed eight-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 processor, 64GB of built-in storage (expandable via microSD), 4GB of RAM and a 2,560 x 1,440 pixel “assertive” display. All of these phones are scheduled to arrive globally in September, while the Tango-enabled Phab2 Pro will be sold at Lowe’s and Best Buy stores and online by the end of the year.
Get all the news from today’s Lenovo and Motorola event right here!
Source: Lenovo
Lowe’s has a Tango AR app for home improvement projects
We’ve explored the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya using Google’s Tango technology, and we’ve also used it for a little gaming. Now that Lenovo is bringing the first Tango device for the masses, we’re also going to see new augmented reality software that make use of Google’s 3D mapping software tech. Lowe’s, the hardware and home improvement store chain, has an app of its own that allows you to place appliances, add accessories and make other virtual tweaks to your house before you begin a project.
What’s more, the company will sell Lenovo’s $500 Phab2 Pro starting around the holidays this year. The Tango software will give you an idea of what a certain shade of hardwood flooring will look like in your living room or confirm your suspicion that the refrigerator you’ve been eyeing won’t actually fit in your kitchen. In addition to gaming and educational uses, this Lowe’s Vision app provides a real-world solution not only for interior designers, but also DIYers who are looking to spice up their houses on their own.
For virtually placing furniture, there’s a Tango app from retailer Wayfair. The software gives you an AR version of the piece you’re thinking about buying, allowing you to place it in your house to see if it will really work. You’ll get the dimensions and other info about the furniture or accessory alongside pricing and, of course, a button for adding it to your shopping cart.
Get all the news from today’s Lenovo and Motorola event right here!
The Moto Z and Z Force are Motorola’s new modular flagships
So long Moto X, hello Moto Z. For its next round of Android flagships, Motorola is going for a new brand, an ultra-thin design and support for “Mods” that expand their capabilities. And yes, the Moto Z is seriously thin at just 5.19 millimeters millimeters thick. How Motorola achieved will probably be controversial, though: the Moto Z and its slightly beefier sibling, the Moto Z Force, don’t have headphone jacks. Instead, you’ll have to plug in the included USB-C to 3.5mm jack adapter to use headphones. But is any of this enough for Lenovo to finally have a hit phone? (Take a look at our hands-on impressions of both phones here.)
At the very least, you can’t say Motorola is being lazy. It’s embracing the idea of modular add-ons, Moto Mods, wholeheartedly. Both new phones have magnetic connectors on their rears, which a variety of accessories can connect to. So far, that includes a homegrown pico projector, a speaker upgrade from JBL and a variety of battery packs from Incipio, Tumi and Kate Spade. Moto says the Mods will work on next year’s phones, which should give potential buyers a bit of piece of mind. Yes, the whole concept is similar to what LG attempted with the G5, and it’s still unclear if mainstream consumers care about modular upgrades.
Lenovo is the first major manufacturer to dump headphone jacks in exchange for a thinner design, and it’ll likely end up taking the majority of consumer flack for doing so. But it’s not alone: Intel is also pushing USB-C over headphone jacks, and Chinese phone maker LeEco has already dumped them with its latest devices. We’ve even heard from the rumor mill that Apple might be considering the same thing for upcoming iPhones. But as someone who usually has expensive earbuds plugged into my smartphone, I’m not looking forward to relying on a dongle. (And I’m definitely not going to be upgrading to USB-C headphones anytime soon.)
While it took a few revisions for the Moto X to become truly great, the Moto Z seems like a leap ahead in many ways. It’s got the usual speed improvements, with a new quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor running at up to 2.2GHz and 4GB of RAM. Its screen is a tad smaller than last year’s, at just 5.5-inches instead of 5.7-inches, and it sports the same quad HD resolution of 2560 by 1440 pixels (535 pixels per inch). Naturally, its thinness means it’s significantly lighter than before, weighing in at just 4.6 ounces (136 grams), compared to last year’s Moto X Pure (Style outside of the US) at 6.3 ounces (179 grams).
On the camera front, the Moto Z packs in a 12 megapixel rear shooter with an f/1.8 aperture lens, optical image stabilization and laser autofocus. Its front camera is a typical 5 megapixel entry. Motorola seems to have crammed in as much whiz-bang technology it could to deliver a better photo-taking than its past phones: the rear camera also features color-corrected flash with dual LEDs and a 1.12um pixel size.
Just like last year, there’s also a more powerful model with a few additional features, the US-only Moto Z Force. It’s a bit thicker (6.9mm) and heavier, but it also packs in a significantly larger battery (3,500mAh compared to the Z’s 2,600mAh) and a more capable 21 megapixel camera with phase detection autofocus and Deep Trench Isolation (a technique Apple used for the iPhone 6S camera). The Moto Z Force’s screen also uses Motorola’s Shattershield technology, which it claims is more resistant to cracks and scratches than Corning’s Gorilla Glass. While it’s not as mind-blowingly thin as the Z proper, the Z Force sounds like the ideal Android phone for power users.
Unfortunately, you’ll have to be on Verizon to nab the Moto Z phones this summer, where they’ll be available as “Droid Editions.” Motorola says it’ll also sell the Moto Z unlocked on its website this fall. The Moto Z will be available internationally in September, but Motorola says the Z Force is a US-only affair for now.
Get all the news from today’s Lenovo and Motorola event right here!
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