- [Narrator] Motorola's best smartphone for 2017
is a thin, classy-looking handheld
with a long-lasting battery.
It's compatible with Moto Mod accessories,
and sold at a fair price.
That phone is the Moto Z2 Play,
which I reviewed several weeks ago.
It's newer sibling is the Moto Z2 Force,
and it's a much better deal for the wireless carriers
than it is for you.
(cheerful music)
If you're a spec sheet shopper who bases buying decisions
on the numbers, maybe you're puzzled
by my preference for the mid-range Motorola.
After all, the Z2 Force brings a cutting-edge
835 processor and Quad HD display,
neither of which are present on the Z2 Play.
But I'm still convinced that, at 5.5 inches,
most normal folks can't tell the difference
between full HD and 2K.
And Motorola did such a good job tuning the performance
in the Z2 Play that I would have no problems whatsoever
using it as a daily driver, especially given
how well its predecessor aged.
I don't see the Snapdragon 835
as a particularly compelling argument for this phone either.
It should make the carriers happy, though,
since the 835's modem supports
a few network-friendly features the cheaper ones do not.
I was more concerned with the decision to go with a battery
smaller than every other flagship Android of 2017.
And after a week of testing, I'm sorry to report
that that concern was justified.
While most of the competition can see me
through a 14 to 16-hour day, the Z2 Force
is an 8 to 10-hour phone for me, and I'm doubtful
that any amount of optimization can overcome
this combination of a flagship spec set and a small battery.
If you buy this phone and spend any length of time
away from a charger, you basically need
the $80 TurboPower battery pack to go with it,
great for the carrier that sells it to you though.
Part of the reason Motorola slimmed down
the internal battery was to accommodate
the ShatterShield display.
And if there's anything that's gonna sell this phone
apart from the Moto Mods, ShatterShield is it.
It delivers on its promises.
I saw review devices absolutely brutalized
at the launch event and afterward, and it's genuinely
impressive to see how well it withstands impact.
But it accomplishes this by trading
the typical brittle glass for soft plastic.
As a result, the top layer
shows warping and visual distortions.
And more damning, it's extremely scratch-prone.
There's a feature in the Motorola software
that lets you silence the phone by placing it face-down
on a tabletop, but I've never used it on this phone
because I'm too worried about the soft plastic
being scratched up by toast crumbs or whatever.
Motorola recommends buying a third party screen protector,
which I'm sure your carrier
will be happy to provide for a fee.
In brighter news, the software is as awesome as ever.
Almost every feature Motorola has added
is a useful addition that Android itself doesn't provide.
I've gone into detail on this in earlier Motorola reviews,
from the simple gestures to activate key features,
to the small but super useful conveniences.
So I'll just say that this is the best version of Android
you can find outside of the Pixel and OnePlus 5.
Around back, the phone has sprouted a second camera
with the same resolution as the primary,
but the lack of color filters on that sidecar
means it can kick out monochrome photos with more sharpness,
clarity and depth than just slapping
a black-and-white filter on an existing photo.
The added depth information also allows for a portrait mode
on this camera, which artificially blurs the background
to make the subject pop.
I don't like portrait mode on this phone
any better than I like it on any other Android.
There are stitching errors galore,
and it's little more than a toy.
But pair it with the Moto depth editor,
and it becomes a pretty fun toy.
Mostly I was happiest when shooting standard photos
and video with the phone, which have a bit more saturation
than I'm used to seeing from Motorola.
The typical complaints about low-light photography
hold firm, and there's more digital noise in sky shots
than I generally like to see but, well,
these are issues with almost every phone out there.
And not every front-facing phone camera
has a front-facing flash, something you'll appreciate
if you take a lot of night time selfies.
My two biggest complaints about this shooter
are the lack of optical stabilization,
and a bit of a lag between hitting the shutter button
and actually getting the capture.
There's a software update landing post-launch
that'll hopefully tweak that latter issue and hopefully
improve that electronic stabilization a little bit.
But even if it doesn't, this camera
will serve the vast majority of folks just fine.
Everything else is the same as on the Z2 Play,
from the too quiet front-facing speakerphone
to the call quality, which is just fine on T-Mobile U.S.
So let's spend a second touching on the latest Moto Mod.
On the plus side, I love that it's stick it and click it.
You slap it on there and start using it
right in the main viewfinder.
Ultra wide-angle photos and video, tiny planets,
live streaming to Facebook coming soon,
it's a 360 camera mod, and it's a lot of fun.
But it's also a lot of money, $300.
And it doesn't bring any spare battery capacity
even though it has the room for it.
And it's not as widely compatible as the Gear 360
from Samsung, which is also much cheaper.
The last time Motorola made an over-priced mod
with this many compromises, well, it ended up
giving them away for free a year later.
That's a snarky way of saying you get a free projector mod
when you buy this phone, which is cool,
but this phone really needs a Turbopower Mod
a lot more than a projector.
And it would also be nice to see the 30W charger
that came with last year's Force.
This year's is a pokey 15W.
And that complimentary style shell from last year?
Well that's gone too.
All this corner cutting to produce a phone that Motorola
wants to charge you $720 for the privilege of owning.
If I were buying a Moto Z this year,
I'd make it the Z2 Play.
You'll save at least $200.
The sacrifices you make in processor and camera
will not be noticeable to most folks,
and it's still compatible with all the mods
that make owning one of these so genuinely fun.
Unless you really need ShatterShield
or you can pick it up for a song,
there are better phones in the class than the Moto Z2 Force.
Learn more about the siblings and the mods
mentioned in this video by checking out theMrMobile
on YouTube, and please subscribe so you don't miss
more mobile tech video landing every week.
Till next time, thanks for watching.
And stay mobile, my friends.