Gadgetory

so we're coming up on the final stretch of 2016 and we've seen the word modularity being thrown out a lot we've already seen two devices that try to take this idea and execute them quite well the first one being one from LG and then another phone by moto that didn't necessarily do modularity but certainly use the word mod which of these two actually puts new features onto the phone in a very user accessible way what we're going to find out but not only by looking at the modularity but also looking at the phones themselves it's Josh regard from Android thority what's going on everybody and this is the Moto Z versus the LG g5 now as is the case with these verses videos you can go ahead and look at the full reviews for both of these devices here at Android authority comms youtube channel you can also find the full written reviews at andrew authority comm as well and another note we are going to talk about the modularity or in the case of the moto z force the modding capabilities of these phones but we're going to take a look at both of these devices as stand-alone phones first but with the Moto Z force you have the larger of the two phones here and actually the thicker and somewhat more feature-packed of the moto z line very shiny metals what you get on the backing so it is really fingerprint prone and on the front you have two very large bezels one of which houses the fingerprint reader which is a square underneath of the display and also that fingerprint reader because it's a square on the bottom does make us feel like it's a button when in reality all it does is read fingerprints the larger Moto Z force gets a chamfer because it is a bit thicker and if you look on the backing there the camera optic package does pop out quite a bit which means that the moto covers which snap very neatly onto the back are kind of needed in order to make it flush and of course on the back we have magnets on the top and on the bottom where those connector pins are in order for you to put the moto mods onto here which work simply as a plug-and-play deal now contrast that with the LG g5 now putting aside all of the talk about paints and everything like that this is a metal device through and through that has a different shape on compared to previous LG devices gone are the days of the curve to display or leave in the curved phone and gone are the days of the rear-mounted button layouts now you just get the single button on the back but there is a fingerprint reader installed and above it is the dual camera setup with a wide-angle lens on top of the regular camera it is the smaller of the two devices which will make its handling just that little bit better but that is also because of a 5.3 inch display when compared to the Moto Z's 5.5 inch display and of course on the bottom there on the side is a release button that you have to hold down in order to slide off the entire bottom part of the g5 this is where the battery will be snapped out and put into other modules in order to create the modularity that the g5 introduced at beginning of this year really it's up to you guys which one looks better but there is one big advantage that the Moto Z has over the LG g5 customization now because those magnets on the back will allow for the attachment of plenty of different modal mods thirty of which are available now you can also get a number of moto covers and in the case of our phones we got dark wooden ones that snap neatly onto the back and give it the look that you probably remember from the Moto X a bunch of them will be made available so even if you don't really like the look of the Moto Z right now of course you can put some covers on that will change it and also make that camera package flush the displays for both of these devices are feature packs and comment quad HD resolution but the Moto Z has a slightly larger display at 5.5 inches compared to the 5.3 inch display of the LG g5 now the LG g5 does have an IPS display compared to the AMOLED of the Moto Z so the coloration might be a little bit different but if you want the colors to be that little bit more punched out then the Moto Z might prove a little bit better for you now there isn't always display on the LG g5 that shows icons for various notifications and it is always available even when the phone is in standby now moto display was always a very nice feature in the Moto X and it returns on the Moto Z simply wave your hand over the sensor or even close to the phone and a monochromatic pulsating display will come up if there are notifications there you can actually hold on to the icons and action upon them by swiping up down left or right you can also kind of take your pick when it comes to the specifications about devices after all they come with the Snapdragon 820 the adrenal 530 and four gigabytes of RAM storage can be made from 32 or 64 gigabytes when it comes to the LG g5 but the Moto Z only comes with 32 built in thankfully both phones do have microSD card slots for bolstering that onboard storage so you can always put a microSD card inside if you really need it there is one big problem with the Moto Z and that's its availability it's only available on Verizon Wireless and only works on that network so if you want to get a version that is unlocked you have to go outside the US or wait until Moto finally makes them for us perhaps unsurprisingly the battery life battle goes to the one that has the most capacity and that would be the Moto Z force with 500 milliamp hours compared to the LG g5 which has 2800 milliamp hours but with normal usage we get pretty much the standard amount of battery life here with a day to a day and half depending on usage but when it comes to charging the LG g5 actually has a bit of an advantage because it adheres to the quick charge 3.0 standard the Moto Z and the Moto Z force for that matter require their Chargers that are in the box because they have the cords that are tethered to the blocks but if you do use those you get really good charging time about half battery in about half an hour which is the same that can be said for the LG g5 when using proper quick charge 3.0 adapters which brings us to the cameras and one of the first things we'll mention is the wide angle lens that's found on the rear of the LG g5 without even any mods put into it you already get an extra on the LG g5 and the wide angle lens is a pure joy to use it's not necessarily going to be the highest quality or even the sharpest output but it is great to use when you want to do things like take very interesting selfies or if you want to do flogging footage you get much more in this very wide angle lens almost as much as a GoPro so if you want to get let's say a landscape it's probably the one you want to go for the more conventional cameras found on the Moto Z and the Moto z-force are pretty standard they don't necessarily excel in any one place but they also aren't all that bad and work well as daily companions when it comes to the coloration however we do notice a warmer tone in the Moto Z in most photos when compared to the LG g5 and when you look at the applications there are quite a few features in the LG g5 including modes and it's manual mode which has been praised in the past but a manual mode is also found in the Moto Z as well but in both cases things can get pretty messy pretty quickly if you are actually going through all of those settings one very nice feature about the Moto Z cameras is that they can be launched really quickly by just double twisting the wrist and also if selfies are really your game then maybe the Moto Z is the one you're going to want because it actually has a front-facing flash it's kind of a rarity to see this in smartphones and the Moto Z is one of the few that is available with it now finally before we get to the mods we talked about software and the LG g5 actually had a bit of a rough start mainly because it didn't have an app drawer now this caused a lot of hubbub and over time LG decided to rectify this problem by allowing the app drawer to be downloaded in their smart world application so once that is installed this pretty much looks like a regular LG UI a number of features have been streamlined or rather put aside so that they're not all up in your face trying to get you to use them after all things like the Q slide and the curiously missing dual window are things that most users probably would never find too useful it's still a very functional version of Android but we want to be surprised if anybody put a launcher on there but what moto has always excelled in is providing this pretty easy on the eyes and functional version of Android that is close to stock and adding features on top that are pretty much all out of the way but are ultimately quite useful and these can be found in the Moto app in the app drawer where you can set up a number of different moto actions like the double twist of the wrist to open the camera or a double chop to turn on the flashlight and of course the moto voice which is always really fun to use because it is fully customizable to a phrase that you would like to use for example on mine I say zero help me out when it comes to operating systems we do prefer ones that have features we would use rather than ones we would never touch and in that scope the Moto Z does kind of eek by because there's still a very functional Android on the LG g5 that just happens to be features on it that we pretty much would never ever use but thankfully they're nicely out of the way in LG UI and finally we can talk about the mods now one thing that we will say about modding is that modularity is not necessarily the phrase that you would use for the Moto Z that's because you're not taking anything out or adding anything in there's not really a whole lot going on rather than just magnets putting connectors into pins so modding is the term we're going to use for the Moto Z's and modularity is the term that we should use for the LG g5 the LG g5 really took a risk in bringing modularity in such a way that actually requires a little bit of a learning curve you have that little release on the bottom that pulls the entire bottom portion out and then from there you have to actually snap the battery off of the g5 s bottom portion and then put it into a whole new mAh now those modules are the cam plus module which add hardware buttons and also a little bit more battery life to the phone and of course the Bang & Olufsen DAC which adds some hi-fi audio capabilities to the phone these are the two main ones that are available and unfortunately we haven't seen any more and even though the LG g5 has been around for quite some time and even then the usage or rather the practicality of these modules is still in question even though we were able to use the cam plus module for a little bit of time we found it to be bulky and it made the shape of the phone just that little bit of a nuisance that it wasn't something we wanted to use all the time and even though - I do is gray it kind of has a bit of a niche audience the moto mods are kind of the easiest way that we've ever seen to put new features onto a phone granted those are the magnets on the bag with connector pins and you just have to slap it onto the back of the device but there are a few moto mods that are available and they range and usefulness the projector while it is pretty fun to use only has a one hour battery life and it costs a lot of money the JBL sound boo speaker is nice to have when you don't really have or want a separate Bluetooth speaker and then finally the most useful of them all which is the incipio power pack which adds more than 2,000 milliamp hours to the existing battery of either the Moto Z or the Moto Z force and in every single case you simply have to make sure that they have their charge either via wireless charging or USB C ports and just slap them onto the back of the device so it's probably not much of a surprise that the Moto Z kind of takes the crown when it comes to modding the main reason is that its ease of use the plug and play of it all just makes it easier than the LG g5 which you have to turn off the device take the battery out hopefully not break it in the process which usually doesn't happen and then you put the battery into a new module and then wait for the phone to power up again it's simply a steep learning curve that a lot of people just don't really want to go through which brings up a bit of a problem that we think LG might have we already see that with the LG g5 being out for a number of months now we haven't actually gotten any new modules we haven't gotten any new LG friends and if the LG v20 that's coming up is going to be modular as well then what if it's not cross compatible not to mention the fact that in terms of practicality the LG friends just simply don't stack up to the Moto BOTS you are going to have to pay a pretty penny not just for the phone but also for the mods that go into them as well so it's really up to you to decide which one as a standalone phone and then after that the Moto Z has the better modding phone which one would be better for you in the overall package we do like both of these phones for what they provide as standalone devices especially in the LG g5 which already has a wonderful wide-angle lens as its addition in the body the moto G on the other hand has great features on top of what is a great modding experience and if the Moto mods are going to grow from here then we think there's a lot of promise for them but in the end when it comes to modding we just have to see what's going to happen in this new world of smartphones that we call modularity that is still very young today we'll see what happens with the upcoming LG devices including the g6 or the V 20 if it does happen to be modular and that should be coming very very soon so stay tuned to Android 34 even more about both of these phones and future devices and then you can dive into our other websites to go outside the world of Android and those are VR source comm sound guys comment AB times comm after that you can bring it on back to Android authority comm to see all about Android because we are your source for all things Android