- [Michael] I was prepared to be underwhelmed
by the Motorola briefing ahead of the IFA 2019 trade show,
and let's face it, while the Lenovo-owned brand
is finally doing well financially,
it's been a long time since Motorola did something exciting.
While what I saw didn't exactly blow me away,
neither of these is the rumored RAZR foldable phone.
But I did come away reassured
that the spirit of innovation is still alive at Motorola.
(energetic guitar music)
First up is a phone you might've seen
covered a couple of weeks back, the Motorola One Action.
On the surface, it looks like just another iPhone clone,
which is what originally turned me off.
But when I picked it up,
I immediately got a flashback to the Sony Xperia 1.
The good kind of flashback.
And this 21 by 9 form factor is still a rarity,
but holding phones likes this makes me wish it weren't so,
especially one handed.
I'll come back to that in a second.
Now, the Motorola One family
is a strategic play in the mid range.
That's the principle segment
driving Motorola's success right now.
So, you'll find a plastic back instead of glass, eh,
a full HD screen instead of a more ambitious one,
and a spec sheet topped by a Samsung Exynos processor,
which is kind of interesting.
Oh, but don't worry, it's engineered for millennials.
Okay, there is a cool part here
and it's what the company has done with the camera.
This one packs the expected trio of 12 megapixel primary,
five megapixel depth sensor, and a wide-angle action camera
that gives the phone it's name.
It's not the action camera's 170 degree lens
that made me sit up in my seat,
it's the fact the Motorola went in there
and rotated the sensor 90 degrees.
Like, physically rotated it and here's why:
So you can hold your phone upright
and still shoot landscape video.
Now, if that kinda sounds like a 2019 solution
to a 2015 problem, yeah, I feel you.
The reality is that the video snobs
have basically lost the war on portrait video
thanks to apps like Snapchat and Instagram.
And you know, that's fine.
This is still cool in a flip video kind of way,
for folks who wanna shoot proper landscape video
and want a more comfortable grip to keep it steady.
Folks like the skateboarders and surfers
who might ordinarily buy a GoPro for that purpose.
But while those folks will appreciate
the excellent software stabilization
that Motorola has included here,
they'll probably be as confused as I am
by the lack of ruggedization or water-proofing
that you'd expect from a phone
with action right in its name.
There's just Motorola's usual
water-resistant nano coating on the boards inside.
This is available now in Brazil, Mexico, and parts of Europe
and will come to the United States sometime in October.
Just don't expect that fetching
teal paint job to make the jump,
we're just getting the boring colors.
Sad.
If you're disappointed by that, don't worry.
There's even more to be sad about.
The more impressive of the two phones I saw
isn't slated to come out to the U.S. at all.
(record scratch)
Update alert, Motorola took our feedback from the pre-briefs
and presumably some more market research,
and decided, you know what,
we will launch this product in the U.S. after all.
So, what's so special about the Motorola One Zoom
that prompted such a dramatic, eleventh hour reversal?
(record scratch)
Let's start with the most important thing.
If you're addicted to eye-candy, yes,
that's a notification light built into the Motorola logo
and it can be any color you want, as long as it's white.
No matter, though, since it does a nice job
of setting off the glass pinstripe finish
of the quad camera module mounted atop
that satin glass back plate.
This camera's a doozy.
With a 48 megapixel primary sensor
with optical stabilization and eight megapixel telephoto
with three X optical zoom, also stabilized,
that 170 degree wide-angle again
and a depth finder to round everything out.
That ambitious camera module
is supported by equally aspirational specs,
including a big 4000 milliamp powered battery
that should last quite a while
in the conjunction with the power sipping processor.
I'm tired of talking numbers,
so let's lean into software for the finish.
You may have noticed the lack of Android One branding here.
Motorola is cooling way off on that program.
The One Action will only have it in certain markets
and the One Zoom won't have Android One at all.
Now, that's not too big a deal, since I've always found
Motorola's take on software to be excellent,
with useful improvements and a minimal aesthetic.
But I do wonder how this will affect
the company's already questionable reputation
for keeping up with updates.
And for what it's worth, the company says, quote,
"We will offer at least one upgrade",
that's an Android platform upgrade,
"and provide all security updates
"on a frequent industry standard schedule.".
We'll see.
Again, don't expect the Zoom to come to the U.S.
I'm mainly excited to see Motorola experimenting
with ambitious ideas in the mid range,
particularly in the optics department.
Because when that fabled RAZR does eventually land,
and I'm really hoping it's soon,
I'm not gonna wanna sacrifice
camera capabilities for a folding screen.
Folks, there's plenty more to see from IFA 2019 in Berlin.
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Until next time, thanks for watching
and stay mobile, my friends.
(lighthearted electronic music)