Gadgetory

smartphones are supposed to improve every year they should be faster take better pictures and have a battery that lasts longer but Motorola's Moto Z two forces evidence that this isn't always the case sometimes phones can take a step or two forward but even more backwards the z2 force is coming to every major US carrier this month for round $720 and for that price it's hard to recommend just about anybody Motorola's made it faster and added a dual lens camera but the battery has been shrunken down just for the sake of thinness and probably in hopes of selling more moto mods the big selling point of this phone is that it's got a shatterproof display Motorola promises that the 5.5 inch 2k screen won't crack or break from the everyday drops that would spell doom for other smartphones the secret to all this is that that display is actually plastic several layers of plastic and it makes plastic he sounds when you press on it in certain spots and the topmost layer is very prone to scratches I've only had this review unit for a few days but it's already starting to pick up marks from living in my pocket can't imagine how it's gonna hold up over the course of a few months or a year with the old moto is the Motorola let customers replace that top layer themselves for about 30 bucks but that's no longer an option on the upside the CT force is definitely tough I dropped it on in the pavement when I was taking off the latest moto mod and it came away with just a few Nicks but water is a different story there's a nano coating applied to the phone that should keep the Z tube force safe in the rain or from a spill but you can't submerge it so it's not protected the same extent as the galaxy s 8 HTC u 11 or the iPhone 7 for over $700 and own a phone that's advertised as being tough it really should be once you're over the invincible screen gets actually using the Moto C to force it's blazing fast inside is the latest Snapdragon processor 4 gigs of ram 64 degrees of storage and a micro SD card slot in case you need more space all of Motorola signature Android improvements are here moto display gives you a helpful view of notifications as they come in without waking up your phone and motive oh no is it someone show me command for opening apps or showing the weather or the calendar I didn't really use the show me command because Google assistant can do all this stuff and it usually does it better too the second headline feature of the z2 force is its dual lens camera both rear cameras are 12 megapixels one shoots color and the other one shoots monochrome black and white now when you pair those with a flash it looks like a smiling robot face but overall Motorola still isn't making much progress at the important part which is capturing better quality images this camera works just fine and good lighting but elsewhere these photos can't shake that taken with a smartphone look they're muddy and over-processed motorola takes advantage of having two cameras with some cool depth of field tricks you can blur the background of your subject but the effect feels fake and artificial kind of like on the iPhone or you can remove color from either the foreground or background of your shot or take quote true black and white images using just the monochrome sensor these ideas are clever but it's the execution where Motorola falls flat and there are plenty of apps that can do these same functions and get better results where Motorola's gotten the most criticism about the z2 force and deservedly so is in its downsized battery which has a capacity of just 27 30 milliamp hours that's a big drop from the 3,500 milliamp hours that we got last year but thanks to the efficient Snapdragon 835 processor that change doesn't really tank the phones and dorrance they'll still get you through a day of typical use even when you're snapping on moto mods I saw between four and a half hours to five hours of screen on time so the big question then is why did Morel make this choice in the first place for a thinner phone I guess but the Moto Z to play is thinner than this and actually has a headphone jack here we're again left without a headphone jack and most of all this whole thing just feels like a barely disguised way of selling more moto mod battery packs when you're talking over $700 that's a lousy feeling cost-cutting doesn't stop there either there's no wireless charging on this youtube force you've got to add a $40.00 moto mod for that and the included charger isn't as powerful as the one in the box last year there's not even a style shell to cover up that camera bump these decisions scream of the company clean profits and accessory cells first and their customers second and that's ultimately what syncs the Moto Z to force some people have said a thinner phone makes it easier to use moto moneth and carry them around but in all seriousness how often are you going to be carrying around a Bluetooth speaker or a film projector those moto mods are still novel and fun JBL speaker sounds great in this new 4k 360-degree video camera would be a ton of fun for vacations video quality is excellent outdoors but it's also $300 which makes it a total non-starter for a lot of people Plus why wouldn't you just buy a battery pack or a Bluetooth speaker that works with your other gadgets too this whole moto mods concept but once seemed like an innovative idea is now holding back and restricting motor oils design very few people are gonna pick this over a galaxy s 8 sitting beside it on the same shelf now to be fair motorola still makes very good phones at the g5 plus and the z2 play but this just isn't one of them not when you can get a one plus five with the same specs for nearly $250 less or the galaxy s 8 for about the same cache if you really need a phone and a screen that won't break just buy a good case