Nissan BladeGlider first drive: Madcap concept hints at all-electric sports car future
It’s almost 34-degrees Celsius and we’re standing at the edge of a rickety karting circuit that’s located around 50-miles outside the centre of Rio de Janeiro. No, this isn’t the Olympics, this is our real-world induction to the Nissan BladeGlider.
The BladeGlider is bizarre looking sports car, featuring a skinny track at the front and a wider track at the rear that gives it the appearance of a motorised arrow head.
There’s a burly looking policeman guarding the gates to the track and every now and then the sound of human flesh sizzling under the fierce sun is interrupted by the high-pitched whine of its electric motor and the squealing of tortured rubber. It pounds the tight circuit with two rather bemused and behelmeted individuals belted into the rear seats.
But this is one all-electric prototype that’s highly unlikely to ever grace a Nissan showroom. So “completely and utter pointless”, you may be thinking but, hey, the caipirinhas here are supposed to be awesome, right?
Nissan BladeGlider prototype preview: Electric excitement
But let’s be serious for a second. Nissan first unveiled its BladeGlider concept at the Tokyo Auto Show in 2013, with its jaw-dropping styling borrowing elements from the DeltaWing Le Mans racer and electric powertrain promising equally racy performance without the nasty tailpipe emissions and the associated running costs.
Nissan
“We wanted to prove that electric cars can be exciting,” explains Gareth Dunsmore, director of EV Nissan Europe, when asked why the company invested so much time and money into a prototype that probably won’t see the light of day. “But the only way to do that is actually build something, to let people experience it for themselves,” he adds.
A cynic would have interrupted at this point and suggested that Tesla has been doing such a thing for a few years now – but BladeGlider is very different. If you had to compare it to a conventional car it would be a Caterham rather than a comfortable BMW 5-Series rival.
Nissan BladeGlider prototype preview: Flicking a V to convention
The driver, who sits at the very front of the three flying-v formation seats, is cocooned in a fighter jet-esque cockpit. There are three screens, the middle-most monitor providing power output information and battery charge details, while the flanking two displays replace the wing mirrors with a live video feed from outside.
Nissan
All three occupants are strapped in with a race-spec four point harness, while the F1-style steering wheel features a plethora of buttons and dials that control everything from the strength of the regenerative braking to the amount of power delivered to the rear wheels.
A conventional sports car this isn’t, because on top of the space age interior there’s an all-electric powertrain that sees a 220kW lithium-ion battery and two 130kW electric motors (one at each rear wheel) pair up to deliver around 268hp.
The angular machine weighs just 1,300kg, meaning the ludicrously instantaneous 707Nm of torque is enough to propel it from 0-62mph in under 5-seconds.
Nissan BladeGlider prototype preview: Sounds, smells and sighs
It feels like a true performance machine from the rear seats, with the open-top cockpit allowing all of the sounds, smells and sights to leak into the cabin.
Nissan
The lack of screaming V8 engine also means that every tyre squeak can be heard, while the sound of the wind rushing past is both slightly eerie and massively exhilarating.
We can only imagine what it’s like to pilot the machine, but the skilled helmsman sat in front wrestles with the steering wheel every time we exit a corner and he occasionally tackles certain sections completely sideways.
Nissan claims that a race-honed torque vectoring system offers the driver plenty of options when it comes to grip levels. The electric motors can be tweaked to constantly monitor and deliver optimum power for tidy lines or flicked into Drift Mode if you feel like acting the hooligan.
And that’s a given considering Formula E experts Williams Advanced Engineering were drafted in to help with the development of BladeGlider – and the UK firm’s experience on the race circuit is instantly obvious.
Nissan BladeGlider prototype preview: Coming to nowhere near you, ever
Scintillating stuff, then, but Dunsmore and the rest of the Nissan technical staff claim it’s extremely unlikely this thing will ever go into production.
Nissan
And as for the whole “electric cars can be exciting” thing, that’s all well and good when your model line-up actually contains an enthralling EV but Nissan is currently peddling the Leaf and the eNV-200. Both of which lack a certain amount of fizz.
However, Nissan is currently mapping out a future that sees its internal combustion engines slowly replaced by electric and hybrid vehicles, so let’s just hope that one of those is a bonkers, three-seat sports car that looks a bit like a Dairylea Triangle with wheels.
Because the BladeGlider is bonkers and brilliant.
Asus ZenWatch 3 to launch on 31 August, going head-to-head with Samsung Gear S3
In the world of wearables, 31 August is going to be a busy day. First of all Samsung pinned a date on its next Gear launch and now Asus has joined the fray, tweeting that it will also be lining up a launch on 31 August, just a few days before IFA 2016 opens its doors.
Asus is expected to announce the ZenWatch 3, which appears to be making the shift from a squared face to a circular face, joining the majority of other wearable devices out there – and leaving the Apple Watch as about the only device that’s sitting in a squared body.
Confirming its plans, Asus shared the news of a new launch on Twitter, the emphasis falling on that word “time”.
The time for something incredible is now! #IFA16 #ASUS pic.twitter.com/D7GgqHJvUW
— ASUS (@ASUS) August 17, 2016
The Asus ZenWatch 3 has previously revealed itself, passing through the FCC, along with a selection of images that confirm the design. It looks to be carrying three buttons on the body, so offers a slightly chunkier design than the previous ZenWatch models.
We’ve been fans of Asus’ Android Wear devices so far. The affordability and interesting design has set them apart from rival devices, along with comfortable straps and nice features like a decent clasp to make it nice to wear.
As it stands at the moment, little else is known about any features that the Asus ZenWatch 3 might offer, but we’ll know everything on 31 August.
You can keep up with all the IFA 2016 news on our hub and we’ll be reporting live from the show in Berlin, Germany.
NASA’s asteroid-bound spacecraft will blast off in September
It’s official: OSIRIS-Rex is blasting off to meet a near-Earth asteroid named Bennu on September 8th, NASA has confirmed at a press briefing. The spacecraft will launch from Cape Canaveral and travel for two years before it reaches its destination. Once it’s on the object, it will spend another three years to take its temperature, 3D scan its surface, and look around for the best site to collect the 2-to-70-ounce sample it needs to take back home. That’s right — OSIRIS-Rex will be the first US spacecraft to grab a chunk from an asteroid as part of its round-trip journey. It follows in the footsteps of Japan’s Hayabusa, which successfully brought home a sample after seven years in space. NASA expects the spacecraft to be back by September 24th, 2023, assuming everything goes according to plan.
The agency has also revealed during the briefing that it plans to give four percent of the sample to Canada’s space agency, which is a project partner. Another 0.5 percent will be given to JAXA (Japan’s agency) as thanks for the Hayabusa sample it gave NASA. However, most of the material (75 percent) will be stored and kept safe for future techniques that could yield more clues on the beginning of life on Earth.
Source: NASA
Airbnb takes down its experimental Trips app for Android
Airbnb has pulled down an unreleased app it was testing from Google Play shortly after people caught wind of its existence and what it can do. The experimental application represents the future of the company, you see, one that goes beyond vacation home rentals. While the test wasn’t open to the public, a Bloomberg report revealed that travelers will be able to use the app called Airbnb Trips to book restaurant reservations and even city tours. If it can truly offer everything you’ll need when you go on a trip, then it has the potential to become an essential companion for jetsetters and frequent travelers.
TechCrunch asked the company about the app, but company spokesperson Nick Papas only said: “We’re continually experimenting with new things and we don’t have anything to share right now, but we have a few exciting things in the works.”
Airbnb has been planning to offer services other than rentals for quite a while now, so Trips didn’t exactly come out of left field. While you can’t get a glimpse of the app on Google Play anymore, you might only have to wait a few more months to be able to use is. Bloomberg believes that Airbnb will officially launch an Android and an iOS version during its annual conference in November. That’s the same conference where the company is expected to reveal a new program that gives homeowners an opportunity to make some extra cash by offering guided tours to their guests.
Source: TechCrunch
Best Buy Launches 50th Anniversary Sale With Discounts on MacBook Pro, iPhone
Best Buy is celebrating its 50th anniversary on Monday, August 22 and in honor of the occasion, the retailer is offering 50 deals for 50 hours, dropping the prices on a wide range of products from television sets to computers.
Of interest to those potentially looking to purchase an Apple device, Best Buy is dropping the price of some MacBook Pro models by $150, and students can save an additional $150 for a total discount of $300 through Best Buy’s Student Deals program.
Best Buy is also offering the iPhone 6s for $1 or the iPhone 6s Plus for $99.99 with the purchase of a two-year contract on Sprint or Verizon Wireless. For those who want to buy an iPhone 6s or 6s Plus using AT&T Next, Best Buy is offering a $200 gift card with purchase.
Other discounts include $180 off Beats Studio Wireless Headphones and tons more. A full list of deals is available from the Best Buy website.
Best Buy’s sale kicks off at 10:00 p.m. Central Time on Thursday and lasts through 11:59 p.m. Central Time on Saturday.
To see the best prices on a wide range of Apple products, make sure to check out our deals roundup, which has tables featuring discounts from a number of different retailers.
Related Roundup: Apple Deals
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Instagram Apes Snapchat Again With New ‘Events’ Channel
Instagram has introduced a new “Events” channel in the Explore section of its app that highlights user photos and video clips captured during specific events from around the world.
Currently only available in the U.S., the new channel implements an algorithm to curate media from events like sports games and concerts, based on a user’s preferences and habits, according to a post on the company’s site.
Snapchat users may be experiencing a case of déjà vu all over again at this point, given that the new Instagram feature is extremely similar to the rival app’s Discover channel “Live Stories”, where reels of photos and videos are shared publicly by users at a particular event.
The addition of the new feature by Instagram certainly follows a trend. Earlier this month, the Facebook-owned photo and video sharing platform announced “Instagram Stories”, which functions identically to Snapchat’s Stories in that it lets users post customized images and videos on their profile, where they live for 24 hours before disappearing completely.
Surprisingly, Instagram has been upfront about its recent tendency to imitate Snapchat features. While demoing its new Stories feature for TechCrunch, Instagram CEO Kevin Systro admitted that Snapchat “deserve all the credit”.
Tag: Instagram
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McDonald’s pulls plug on Happy Meal activity trackers
McDonald’s Happy Meals might be beloved for their included toys, but the food inside is just as unhealthy as most of the menu at the Golden Arches. As the Rio Olympics approached, the franchise hoped to reverse its kids combo’s poor nutritional reputation by including an activity tracker in place of a normal toy. Unfortunately, reports of possible skin irritations prompted the chain to end the promotion early.
Instead of handing out the pedometers until the international games ceased their four-week run, McDonald’s will hand out a substitute toy while they investigate the potential dermal abrasions. The franchise gave no further details, according to The Associated Press, leaving it uncertain whether they will again attempt to urge athleticism using Happy Meal giveaways.
Source: The Associated Press
Wikiverse turns Wikipedia into a visual universe of articles
I’ve spent (too) many lazy evenings hopping from one Wikipedia entry to the next, reading things that could be useful for trivia night. It’s fun enough, but this website that visualizes Wiki as a universe could make the experience even better for a lot of people. You can zoom around to visit clusters of stars representing interconnected topics — clicking on one will load the article itself right within the interface. Since each star is visually connected to related entries with colored loopy lines, you can hop around like you would on the actual Wikipedia website.
Wikiverse is the upgraded version of an old Chrome experiment we covered back in 2014 called WikiGalaxy. It’s designed by French computer scientist Owen Cornec who wanted to find a way to display entries in “a more engaging way.” From what I can see, the new version is a lot more colorful compared to the older one. Cornec originally wanted to color code stars according to their super-categories, but he told us he wasn’t able to do so because there are too many super-categories to count. Instead, he decided to use colors to differentiate clusters from each other and to indicate whether an entry is within that cluster or in another one. Wikiverse also feels faster than its predecessor, even on browsers other than Chrome, so you’ll have zero issues pretending to be a spacecraft exploring a universe of knowledge.
Source: Wikiverse
Parallels Desktop 12 for Mac Comes With Sierra Support, Standalone Toolbox App
Parallels today announced Parallels Desktop 12 for Mac with support for macOS Sierra and the addition of several new features. The company also announced a new standalone app called Parallel Toolbox, which allows users to perform some simple tasks that aren’t necessarily tied to visualization.
New features in Desktop 12 include having Windows 10 “always on” in the background, the ability to instantly launch Windows apps, the ability to schedule incremental backups and Windows updates, the ability to assign special behaviors to Windows apps, improved integration for Microsoft Edge, Outlook, and Office 365, and Xbox app support. Additionally, Parallels has partnered with Blizzard to provide specific support for the hit game Overwatch.
Version 12 also includes 90 percent faster snapshot creation, 60 percent faster suspension of VMs, 25 percent faster shared folder performance, 25 percent faster compilation of Visual Studio projects, and up to 10 percent in battery life improvements for “certain environments.”
The company is also touting a new standalone app called Parallel Toolbox. The Toolbox places a drop-down menu in the Mac’s menu bar, allowing users to do certain tasks quicker. Tasks include the ability to record the screen, take screenshots, record audio, archive files, convert video and download video, lock the screen and more.
Parallels Desktop 12 for Mac is $79.99, while Desktop 10 or 11 users may upgrade for $49.99. The Business and Pro Editions are also available with a subscription fee of $99.99 per year, although Parallels 10 and 11 users with perpetual licenses can upgrade for $49.99 per year. Parallels Toolbox can be purchased for $10 per year or will be included with your Parallels Desktop 12 license.
Parallels 10 and 11 users can upgrade now at the company’s website. New users can purchase Parallels 12 starting on August 23. Parallels Toolbox also launches August 23.
Related Roundup: macOS Sierra
Tags: Microsoft, Windows 10, Parallels 12
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Motorola Moto Z Force vs LG G5 – Modular or Mods?
It just might be the future of smartphones: modularity. Though there are a number of different ways to look at this new technological step, we have here the first two phones to bring the concept to users’ hands. In one case, it is an involved process of removing parts of the phone and rebuilding it into a more capable device.
- LG G5 review
- Moto Z and Z Force review
In the other, it is a matter of simply slapping the new features onto the magnetic back. Which one does mods better? We find out in this comparison between the Moto Z Force and the LG G5.
Design
Before we get started, we want to make it clear how we want to name these features. While modularity is definitely what you can call what the LG G5 does, it is a bit different in the Moto Z. For that reason, we will generally call the act of adding features to a phone ‘modding.’ When speaking specifically, ‘modularity’ will be used primarily when describing the LG G5.
Before we even get into the two different methods of modding, it’s important to remember that we are still dealing with two standalone smartphones, capable of plenty on their own. The LG G5 was a drastic change from previous flagships, putting aside the curved body and display that defined the G4, and instead employing a different design language.
While the power/wake button is still found on the back, it now has a fingerprint embedded into it, and the volume rocker is now in a more conventional spot on the side. The metallic body has a rather rounded shape, but a noticeable sharpness can be felt due to the slightly protruding metal skeleton.
A slight curve can be found at the top of the display, there to provide a little more comfort when actually talking on the phone. And, of course, there is the removable bottom portion that is the crux of the phone’s modularity. Overall it is a rather drastic change that longtime LG fans may have needed to get used to, perhaps alleviated by the new modular features.
The same can be said for the Moto Z Force, the more powerful device in the brand new Moto line. What made the Moto X line well received is here in a few tiny ways, including the wooden cover that slaps onto otherwise shiny and fingerprint prone backing. Taken alone, however, much has changed as this fully metal body almost looks like blank canvas with obvious cues to its capabilities.
The chamfer on the sides makes it clear this is the thicker device with the bigger battery, and all buttons are where they should be. A new fingerprint reader is denoted by the small square under the display, which can be an eyesore and confusing because it is not a button. A large bezel above and below the display adds to the overall size of what is already a 5.5 inch phone, though on the backside of these areas are the magnets and connector pins for Moto Mods. The main issue we had was with the very large camera hump, which protrudes out quite a lot – thankfully, the Moto Covers make it flush.
It’s clear that both phones had to take on pretty drastic changes in design language to make modding a reality – whether or not that is a sacrifice of what made previous phones so recognizable is up to the user.
Display
Power is not lacking in either case, however. Though the displays are slightly different in a few key ways, Quad HD is the resolution across the board. The LG phone is 5.3-inches in size and is an IPS panel, making it less saturated than the 5.5-inch AMOLED display found on the Moto Z.
Color output is a rather subjective matter, but we will say that there have been no problems with either of these phones when enjoying everything from sharp text to gaming. AMOLED is generally a little more pleasing to users’ eyes, so the Moto Z may be the way to go if you want the more punched up colors.
Performance
Underneath the hood, the stories are the same however, with both featuring the Snapdragon 820, the Adreno 530, and 4GB of RAM. There’s no questioning the speed of either device, as these are what flagships are supposed to sport, and it’s more a question of what the software feels like in this case, and a bit of streamlining on LG’s part helps the G5’s case.
Though a pretty stock-like experience in the Moto Z is bolstered by a number of Moto additions like the Moto Actions and Voice, there isn’t too much bogging down the system. On the other hand, the G5 still rocks a very familiar looking LG UI, but has shed a few features so that they’re not all up in one’s face. LG even opted for no app drawer in initial builds of the interface, but that can be rectified with a downloaded UI update.
Hardware
Hardware features keep things pretty simple, minus the mods, of course. The lone 32GB of onboard storage in the Moto Z Force goes up against the 32 or 64GB options for the G5, but no matter which phone you get, there is still microSD card support to bolster it all.
The Moto Z also sheds the microphone jack, opting for an adapter that requires insertion into the USB type C port. In either case, the USB-C ports provide fast charging, though Quick Charge 3.0 for the LG phone seems just a step behind Moto’s own solution. In either case, a short stint connected to the wall can mean all the difference between no power and half battery in about half an hour.
Speaking of the battery, the Moto Z Force has the advantage here, with it packing a larger 3,500 mAh battery, compared to the 2,800 mAh unit of the LG G5. Both will comfortably allow for a full day or day and a half of use with average usage. Of course, if battery life is a huge concern, the battery of the G5 is replaceable, giving you the option of carrying around a spare. And in the case of the Moto Z Force, Motorola’s solution is a 2,200 mAh battery mod that you can easily attach to the device.
Camera
The first thing worth mentioning when talking about the cameras of these two devices is the 8 MP wide angle lens on the back that is coupled with the primary shooter of the LG G5, giving you something extra without needing any mods to be tacked on. Along with this wide angle lens is a 16 MP rear camera, with a f/1.8 aperture and OIS, while the Moto Z Force features a 21 MP rear shooter, also with a f/1.8 aperture and optical image stabilization.
As we mentioned during the full G5 review, the wide angle lens of the LG G5 is an absolute joy to use. It may not offer the highest quality or the sharpest image, but it’s great to use when you want to do things like take interesting selfies, or footage for vlogging. You get a lot more of the scenery into the shot with the secondary camera of the G5, and is certainly better suited to taking a picture of a landscape.
The more conventional camera setup found with the Moto Z Force are pretty standard. It doesn’t particularly excel in any single aspect, but the camera certainly isn’t bad by any means, and works well as a daily companion. When comparing the two, we did notice that the shots taken with the Moto Z Force feature a warmer tone than those taken with the G5.
Looking at the respective camera applications, there are quite a few features LG has packed into the app of the LG G5, including a variety of modes, and also returning is a robust manual mode that we have praised in the past. The Moto Z Force comes with a good manual mode as well, but in both cases, the viewfinder can get cluttered and messy pretty quickly if you are looking to make adjustments to a lot of aspects.
LG G5 camera samples
One very nice feature of the Moto Z Force camera is that it can be launched really quickly by using a gesture that involves a double twist of your wrist.
Moto Z Force camera samples
Up front, the LG G5 comes with an 8 MP front-facing camera, while the Moto Z Force features a 5 MP unit. However, users may prefer the latter, with the Moto smartphone coming with a front-facing flash. It’s certainly a rarity to see this feature with smartphones, and the Moto Z is one of the few that is available with it.
Software
The standalone experiences end on the software, in which the LG phone got a welcome streamlining. The LG UI still retains the rather bloated and somewhat cartoonish look – with icons stretching when reaching the homescreen threshold – and the initial lack of an app drawer that expected users to put up with all these icons crowding the homescreens.
Thankfully users were given the option to put the app drawer back on, and in the same vein, much of what used to be way too in people’s faces has been toned down. QSlide doesn’t take up so much space in the notification shade, and there are far fewer prompts for features that people simply weren’t using in previous LG devices. The bottom line here is that if you were not a fan of LG’s UI in the past, there might not be enough change here to make you feel differently. That said, we notice and appreciate what was slimmed down, minus the app drawer (which, again, isn’t much of a problem anymore).
It might come as no surprise that the Moto Z software is an easier pill to swallow. Historically, the Moto line has used interfaces that are very close to stock Android, with quite a few extras that are mostly out of the way. That is definitely the case with the Moto Z, which might have a few miscues, but overall provides a familiar but powerful suite of features.
Putting aside the fact that the fingerprint reader looks like a home button, holding it down to lock the screen is a very nice touch. Moto Actions still bring useful gestures like chopping twice to turn on the flashlight and the double twist to open up the camera. Finally, sing a custom phrase to wake the phone straight into a Google Voice Search never gets old. Here at Android Authority we tend to gravitate toward feature sets that have more we would use rather than options we would never touch. In this case, the Moto Z line succeeds where the LG G5 falls just short of the mark.
Modularity vs Mods
Coincidentally, this is the same story when it comes to the mods. In a nutshell, the Moto Z line is simply a more accessible and easier way of doing mods than LG’s brand of modularity. If you want another one liner to describe this battle, you need look no further than how many mods we have for either phone.
Modularity on the LG G5 is a process. Basically, one has to press a small release button on the bottom left side of the phone so that the bottom portion can be pulled and slid out. Bear in mind that the phone should be turned off before doing this, much like clicking “Safely Remove Hardware” before pulling out a USB device in Windows. The battery that is quite literally clipped into the bottom piece then has to be snapped off in what can only be described as a precarious manner, so that it can be snapped into any of the LG Friends (the name they gave the mods).Then the phone needs to be powered on again.
These mods are a CAM Plus camera module that gives the phone more battery, and hardware buttons to use for picture and video taking, and a Hi-Fi audio DAC by Bang & Olfsen, that can enhance headphone listening experiences. The usefulness of either Friend can depend on the user, but in our experiences with the CAM Plus, we found that although the hardware buttons and grip made picture taking pretty comfy, the added bulk and odd shape quickly took away from its practicality.
Ultimately, the biggest issue with LG’s modularity is the process, but there is also the problem of Friend availability. Even though the G5 has been around for months, there are only two currently on sale with no news of any other ones even in development. The usefulness of LG’s modding way requires proofs of concept, and that simply is not the case for a phone that will become old news by the time the LG V20 arrives soon in less than month, or when the next G device comes around the time of the Mobile World Congress next year.
Proof of concept is probably the best way to describe how Moto presented modding. While it is not full modularity by nature, it is still a way to add features not already available on the standalone device. The procedure to add these Moto Mods is simple – almost too simple – and just requires a lining up of the connector pins and magnets. Easily snap the phone and the mod together and it works immediately.
The Moto Mods include the Moto Covers for further customization, Incipio battery pack mods for much more available power, the JBL SoundBoost speaker for better onboard audio, and a Moto projector mod that is surprisingly powerful and fun but ultimately impractical. A closer look at the different mods is available here on Android Authority, but here is the gist – the most useful of them is definitely the Incipio Power Pack, which adds much more available battery life to the normal capacity Moto Z and the large unit in the Moto Z Force.
Moto’s way of modding is the clear winner when it comes to convenience, because simply attaching the mod makes it work immediately, provided each unit is charged – yes, each Mod has its own batteries so they don’t just feed off of the phone’s own battery to work. There are three main types of Mods with the promise of more to come, but at the very least there are different colored and styled Covers and Power Pack Mods so the look of the Moto Z can be changed in multiple ways. Though all of the mods add a significant amount of heft to the phone, only the Power Pack Mod has to be handled on the phone – even then, it isn’t weirdly shaped so as to make it a pain to use.
See also: Moto Mods Review: Blast, Power and Project in a snap8
Though LG was the first one to bring modularity to the mainstream, it just wasn’t accessible enough for the masses. Moto’s version of modding is the clear winner, not just because it is a simple plug and play method, but also because every Mod has proven their usefulness, even if overall practicality is up to the end user.
As far as cost goes, the Moto Mods can range in price, with the Power Pack costing $60 and the Projector costing a whopping $299. In the other camp, the CAM Plus for the LG G5 can be bought for $70. So adding features via mods to these phones can cost a pretty penny, but when judging them by cost and value, the Power Pack Mod is rather nicely priced for its utility – the rest of the Mods and Friends, maybe not so much.
Specs comparison
| Display | 5.5-inch AMOLED display Quad HD resolution, 535 ppi |
5.3-inch IPS LCD display Quad HD resolution, 554 ppi |
| Processor | 2.15 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor Adreno 530 GPU |
2.15 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor Adreno 530 GPU |
| RAM | 4 GB | 4 GB |
| Storage | 32/64 GB expandable via microSD up to 256 GB |
32 GB expandable via microSD up to 256 GB |
| Camera | 21 MP rear camera, f/1.8 aperture, dual LED flash 5 MP front-facing camera |
16 MP (f/1.8) + 8 MP (f/2.4) rear cameras, LED flash 8 MP front-facing camera |
| Battery | 3,500 mAh | 2,800 mAh |
| Software | Android 6.0 Marshmallow | Android 6.0 Marshmallow |
| Dimensions | 155.9 x 75.8 x 7 mm 163 grams |
149.4 x 73.9 x 7.7 mm 159 grams |
Gallery
Final thoughts
Taken alone, there is a lot to like about either of these devices. The Moto Z line has a new design language that may be different but it retains much of the DNA that made the Moto X line so well liked. It’s nice to have a powerful phone with the option to use the Mods and yet never truly need to.
On the other hand, quite literally, the LG G5 has some trouble convincing us to use its modularity. And not just us, either – I personally have come across a few people recently who were using the G5 without mods. Upon asking, these people said that they didn’t ever get a Friend or use the ones that may have come with their phones. What they did enjoy was the camera package, where the wide angle shooter totally added to their picture and video taking experiences. We tend to feel the same way, as the wide angle camera is the most fun we’ve had shooting with a smartphone in a while.
Is that enough to put the overall package of the LG G5 over the overall package of the Moto Z? Probably not, as nearly every other aspect favors the Moto Z – software, modding, and even customization.
- LG G5 review
- Moto Z and Z Force review
And so, there you have it – the Moto Z and the LG G5. The two main modularity or modding smartphones available right now. As we said in our full LG G5 review, we applaud LG for taking a chance and a crack at modularity, but Moto simply put a little more thought into its execution and accessibility. Taken alone as phones, there’s plenty to enjoy from either company’s brand of Android, and it is ultimately up to you to decide which one better suits your needs. Which one would you pick? Let us know in the comments below!
