Gadgetory

metal and glass is all the rage these days right looking for that fashion form which can also satisfy all of the function you need throughout your day Samsung and Motorola are both making compelling arguments for your cash moving beyond the build materials it's interesting to see these two differ on thickness modo eliminated the headphone jack and shaved millimeters off of the Moto Z while Samsung actually added a bit of girth moving from the Essex to include a larger battery the Z is a shockingly thin phone but after that first moment holding it that thin this isn't a feature unto itself both of these will likely be used with some kind of case or mod backplate adding to that hand filled discussion the button action on the s7 is a bit more familiar volume keys and power button flanked different sides so there's a little less initial tactile confusion over the very small and evenly spaced keys on the Motorola ditto the fingerprint sensor which is a home button on most phones as it is on the Galaxy but acts as a power button replacement on the Z and moving over to the screens these displays battle well both are quad HD and AMOLED so using the auto brightness modes to our eye Samsung's contrast and color shifting eke out a very small win for outdoor viewing and sunlight but we think you'll be well served by the Moto 2 we're not surprised that these two also differ a lot on software Motorola perfected the NIR stock user interface and the Moto Z reinforces that aesthetic this is clean maybe even a bit start only the basic options for customization are available but there are some nice simple mods to tailor the experience like sensors on the front face to wake the screen there twisting the phone to launch the camera and the moto assistant to augment ok Google of course with these being Verizon branded phones there's a bunch of stuff pre-installed but nothing which impacts the look and feel of the interface moving over to the Galaxy this might be the leanest build of TouchWiz we've ever seen but it still influences nearly every aspect of the Android UI from notification shade to home screen options to settings menus this is still very much a Samsung joint of course while we wait for Google to catch up on features like split screening apps in Android n we can already play with that on an s7 and running that software these are both powerhouse phones at this point it's overkill to talk about the basics these phones will crush messaging social media video streaming and most daily multitasking situations no worries there we really need to climb into graphics intensive applications before we can demonstrate any differences our current canít play crisis benchmark seems to be Marvel future fight which is consistently underperformed on welcome chipsets at the highest quality we don't know what magic moto conjured but the Moto Z visibly outperforms the s7 in this game it's not completely free from lag or stutter but it rarely becomes the slideshow which the galaxy is more apt to produce stepping down from this game these too often battle for ties and games like implosion in asphalt 7 but we do seem to see a slight efficiency advantage for the Motorola there's no contest for camera performance though moto has significantly improved the Z cameras but sticking with the 13 megapixel rear camera on the Moto Z Samsung's track record with camera innovation overpowers what moto is capable of here first the Samsung delivers pure speed for launching the app and locking focus when shooting full auto the two are close enough in terms of exposure and output but the Samsung pulls ahead with a far more feature-rich camera app delivering nearly every control we would want for photos and videos and a pretty complete collection of tools to alter photo post-processing do you want more saturation and less sharpening in your pics it's easy to do we have no such options for the Moto Z we have to acknowledge that these are early days for this phone and we expect that these issues will be sorted but we are encountering a fair number of gremlins in this camera app especially in low-light situations this should be easily fixed by a software update but it's a bit less likely that this app will continue to evolve to include some of the options or controls we mentioned before even the ability to capture a raw image would be a welcome addition the Moto Z isn't as compromised as moto cameras of the past but it does fall behind some of our favorite top-tier content creation phones comparing audio playback flips the script though the Moto Z speaker is higher quality and benefits from being pointed in the right direction it's more difficult to block the speaker when playing games and propping the phone up for video a more direct audio path to your ears headphone audio is also a win for the Moto ok so using an adapter is kind of a bummer but the amp output is higher and we get better output numbers with a lower noise floor disappointingly however the Moto Z seems to truncate high res audio where the Samsung seems to include the full frequency range of 24-bit audio the Moto Down samples us to 16-bit playback still if you're listening to mp3s the Moto delivers a higher-quality headphone experience moving to battery life Samsung chalks up another win mostly for including a larger battery but it's not the runaway victory we thought it might be on our media tests streaming 30 minutes of HD video over Wi-Fi at 50 percent brightness the Samsung drained 5% of its battery while the Moto drained 6 these numbers are pretty close and in daily use we routinely ended each day with more battery on the Samsung then on the Moto but usually by a narrower margin than the difference in capacity between these two phones for recharge speeds our early testing isn't great for the Moto Z and we'll be detailing this in our full review but 30 minutes on the included charger only delivered a 38 percent jump and that's with us flipping the phone into airplane mode there could be something up with our Moto Z review unit as our Moto Z force was capable of a 43% recharge over 30 minutes and that has a significantly larger battery we've tested and retested our galaxy s7 and the best we've ever managed on the Samsung included charger is a 33% charge so we guess the Moto Z wins this battle but not by much lastly we've got to talk about the gimmicks Samsung built their reputation on throwing everything in the kitchen sink into their phones water resistance built-in heart rate monitor TouchWiz software tweaks there's a lot going on inside a Samsung the Moto on the other hand delivers one of the most exciting accessory options for any phone we've ever played with snap-on back plates to customize moto mods to add functionality it increases the overall price of the phone but it's a handy way to tailor fit each phone to your specific needs depending on how creative Lenovo moto gets with future mods they might help extend the life of a moto Z offering future technologies or options which aren't built-in to current devices at least we can dream that a manufacturer might be so magnanimous so let's wrap this up where does that leave us between a moto Z and a Galaxy s7 competition is good we like close fight and moto has something really interesting here we're still inclined aside with the galaxy is the better all-rounder but the Moto Z looks like it's more capable of satisfying specific needs for consumers these two trade blows really well a good camera versus a great camera good audio versus great audio better gameplay or better battery life but in a number of areas these two battled to a tie and that's what we want from premier top-tier phones when spending over $600 on a gadget we want two companies bringing their best as always thanks so much for watching be sure to subscribe to this channel for our full coverage on both phones including full reviews in depth camera examinations and more comparisons for pocket now I'm Juan Carlos bag now some gadget guy on Twitter and Instagram and I will catch you all on the next comparison you