Motorola Moto Z3 Review - Review 2022

The Moto Z3 is the first 5G telephone—with an asterisk. Motorola has been promising a 5G add-on Moto Modern for its modular Z line of phones for a while now, and the Z3 is the commencement one that will officially become it. Information technology'll be for Verizon's 5G network, and it will come up "early in 2022," according to Verizon network chief Nicola Palmer. That means until then the Z3 has to stand on its ain merits. The specs are fairly midrange, consisting of last year's processor and a 1080p screen. Fortunately, the Z3 is priced accordingly at $479.99, making information technology more affordable than the unlocked Z3 Play. It doesn't match top-tier phones like the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 in sheer power, but its combination of cost, performance, and the unique Moto Mods functionality permit information technology to hold its own amidst midrange competitors.

Design, Features, and Display

The Z3 is easy to confuse with the remainder of Motorola's Z-series. It looks a lot like the Moto Z2 Force Edition ( at Amazon) and is almost identical to the Z3 Play. The Z3 on Verizon is a slim, metallic slab with a shimmery glass back. It measures half dozen.2 by 3.0 by 0.27 inches (HWD) and weighs v.v ounces. It'due south a trivial thicker and heavier than last year's phone (half-dozen.1 past three.0 past 0.24 inches, 5.04 ounces), but it has a slightly larger battery. Information technology'south a little bit too wide to exist comfortable to use i-handed, but the bezels are thin due to the 18:9 aspect ratio. Keep in mind that Moto Mods will add together considerably to the thickness and bulk, unless all you're using is a basic Style Dorsum.

Above: Moto Z3, Moto Z3 Play

Similar the Z3 Play, the fingerprint sensor has been moved to the correct side, nether the book buttons. The left side of the phone has a ridged power button, while the bottom has a USB-C charging port. The top has a SIM/microSD card slot that worked fine with a 256GB card during out testing.

At that place's no 3.5mm headphone jack, but the phone does ship with a USB-C dongle for wired audio. The magnetic connector pins on the bottom piece of work with Moto Mods, letting yous hands snap on various backs for added functionality. The phone is splash resistant, but not waterproof.

The Z3 has the aforementioned screen as the Z3 Play. On the front, you'll find an 18:9, vi-inch, ii,160-by-1,080 AMOLED screen with saturated colors and inky blacks. The resolution works out to a crisp 402 pixels per inch. Information technology won't be as sharp as the Quad Hard disk drive Samsung Milky way S9 (720.00 Get 50% Off w/ Eligible Merchandise-In at T-Mobile) (570ppi), merely information technology's on par with the 1080p OnePlus 6 (402ppi). Viewing angles are great, and the screen gets quite bright, making it easy to utilise nether direct sunlight. You lot tin adjust screen colour temperature and saturation to suit your preferences in the Settings menu.

Above: Moto Z3, Moto Z3 Play

You tin use Moto Actions on the Z3 (enabled through the Motorola app). This includes diverse gestures like twisting the telephone to launch the camera app or chopping twice to trigger the flashlight. There's a handy active brandish that displays fourth dimension, date, and notifications when you pick the telephone upwards.

If you desire to salvage some screen existent estate, you lot can switch between Android virtual buttons or a new, Android P/iOS-like horizontal bar, which uses taps and swipes to navigate. We started using it with the Z3 Play and found it quite easy to use in one case we got the hang of information technology.

Network Performance and Connectivity

Out of the box the Z3 runs on Verizon'due south network and supports LTE bands (1/2/3/four/5/7/eight/12/13/17/20/26/28/34/38/39/40/41/46/66). This allows information technology to have great connectivity in heavily congested midtown Manhattan, where nosotros reliably had solid downlink and uplink, with a high of 17.2Mbps downwards and 10.1Mbps up.

Call quality is decent. Transmissions practise sound robotic, merely clarity is skilful and noise counterfoil does a not bad job of blotting out near groundwork noise with merely modest baloney. The earpiece doubles as the primary speaker, allowing for good speakerphone calls, but average music playback.

Other connectivity protocols supported include dual-band Wi-Fi, NFC, and Bluetooth 5.0 for wireless listening on more than 1 sound device at a time.

Moto Mods and 5G

Moto Mods is where things go interesting. The Z3 is backward-compatible with all the Moto Mods that have been released to date and works with everything from the diverse battery Mods to the Moto Gamepad. Merely what makes the Z3 compelling is that the haemorrhage-border 5G Mod will connect to Verizon'southward millimeter-wave 5G network using four Qualcomm antenna arrays on different sides of the device. That'southward considering millimeter-wave signals are very easy to block: If your hand covers an antenna, speeds plummet. Installing the quartet of antenna arrays is a way effectually that, equally you lot're unlikely to cover them all.

Inside, the Mod has a Qualcomm Snapdragon X50 5G modem, an X24 4G modem, and its ain two,000mAh battery that information technology shares with the phone. The phone, meanwhile, has its own slower X16 4G modem. Hither's how they all work together: When the modern is strapped on, the X16 goes into a depression-ability listening manner. All 4G data transfer goes through the X24, which tin can accomplish 4G speeds upward to 2Gbps, double the speed of the X16. If the phone needs to make or receive a vocalism call, or coverage drops to 3G or 2G, the X16 turns back on to handle the call or procedure the slower data.

Moto told us the reasons for all of these handoffs basically comes downwardly to making sure the software is stable. It was easiest to implement the X24 in a 4G, data-just manner, as opposed to figuring out how to road telephone call audio into information technology. (An app-based, as opposed to VoLTE or traditional, call over 4G would get through the X24, because of how and where VoLTE audio is encoded in the device versus over-the-pinnacle-audio.)

See How Nosotros Exam Phones

Verizon's network tells the X24 when 5G is available, and if it's available, the X24 goes into a lower-power mode and the X50 takes over. Now, yes, this means that in 5G mode, you'll have one active 5G modem and ii listening 4G modems, so it'due south all going to employ upward more than battery power than the integrated Qualcomm 4G/5G solution we wait to see announced at the Qualcomm Snapdragon Superlative this December. But Motorola insists that betwixt the Modern's two,000mAh battery and the phone'southward three,000mAh you'll still get a "full day" of utilise.

From a subscription perspective, the Mod acts similar "a data card connected to your phone," according to Moto engineers. That means it has its own embedded SIM and its own subscription—but Verizon isn't saying anything yet almost service plans or whether it tin be swapped betwixt phones. It volition also piece of work as a Wi-Fi hotspot (with your phone) and every bit a USB-C modem for a PC (with your telephone). Last year, Verizon execs promised to greatly loosen data caps for 5G, but we haven't heard an update since and then.

The Mod will initially piece of work only with the Z3, although Moto said it'due south working on making it compatible with earlier generations of Verizon Moto Z phones. That's a software challenge, not a hardware ane, so information technology's plain possible. The Mod will only work on Verizon'southward 5G network, not whatever other carrier'southward, though. And it makes the phone thick and heavy.

Processor, Battery, and Camera

The Z3 is powered past a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor. The 835, which was concluding year's flagship bit, doesn't support 5G, but all of that magic will come in the aforementioned Mod. We asked Motorola about that 835 processor choice, and the answer was basically that it's proficient enough. Upgrading to the Snapdragon 845 would enable a few extra features, such equally college-quality 4K recording, which could be compelling in a 5G environment, but the 835 is all the same a respectable processor, especially when paired with a 1080p rather than a 2K screen.

In the PCMark benchmark, which measures a diverseness of tasks like web browsing and photo and video editing, the Z3 scored seven,378. That's higher than the Snapdragon 636-powered Z3 Play (5,786), simply a bit lower than the OnePlus 6 ($529.00 at OnePlus Canada) (eight,484) with its newer Snapdragon 845 chipset and 8GB of RAM. Of course, in real-globe operation, it'due south hard to find the difference. The Z3 is fast and responsive and the 4GB of RAM is sufficient to handle multitasking without any meaning slowdowns. High-end gaming also isn't an consequence; the Z3 can play PlayerUnknown Battlegrounds on high graphics settings without much choppiness.

Bombardment life is good. The phone clocked seven hours, 35 minutes when streaming video over LTE at maximum brightness. That'due south longer than the OnePlus 6 (five hours, 49 minutes), though both fall short of top-tier phones like the Samsung Galaxy S9 (720.00 Get 50% Off w/ Eligible Trade-In at T-Mobile) (which lasted longer than ten hours in the same test). If you demand more juice, you always have the option of using one of the diverse Power Pack Mods. The included 15W Turbo Power adapter supports fast charging. Wireless charging isn't congenital in, but it's bachelor with a Moto Fashion Crush Wireless Charging Modern.

The Z3 has dual 12-megapixel main cameras, and an 8-megapixel front-facing photographic camera. The ii principal cameras have color and black-and-white sensors respectively, and they combine for better low-light functioning, according to Moto. In testing, we got mixed results. Photos taken outdoors were good, with well-baked details and authentic color reproduction. Shots we took indoors were a dissimilar matter. Taking some shots indoors led to blurrier photos than I've been accustomed to seeing from the Samsung Galaxy S9 and the OnePlus 6. When the Z3 focused accurately and snapped, images looked sharp and noise was minimal, but often it seemed the autofocus just missed the mark. Fortunately, in that location are manual controls that let you set focus, ISO, and shutter speed to attempt and get more reliable shots. The front camera is fine for selfies and video chats. For video, the phone offers fairly stable 4K recording at 30fps, but it won't hit the smoother 60fps top-tier devices tin offering.

Software

Motorola'southward version of Android has always been shine and clean, and this is mostly the instance hither. The phone runs Android 8.ane Oreo, only because it's a carrier phone, information technology does come with bloatware. Aside from the Motorola features we've already touched on, you'll get 18 preinstalled apps consisting of a mix of Verizon apps and games, along with Facebook and Yelp. It'south a heavier load than we're used to, but out of 64GB of total storage, nosotros had 46.06GB available for use. That'southward plenty of space for adding more apps and games, and you still take the option of using an extra SD card.

Conclusions

The Moto Z3 Play isn't a flagship phone. With concluding year's processor, a 1080p screen, and an average photographic camera, it can't compete with the latest and greatest like the Samsung Galaxy Notation nine or the OnePlus 6. Fortunately for Motorola, information technology's not meant to. The reasonable $480 cost point makes it less expensive than the unlocked Z3 Play ($500) while giving it a more powerful chipset. The promised 5G Moto Modernistic is even so some ways out, but until then Verizon customers take a solid phone at an affordable cost which can be used to exam out Moto Mods. If that doesn't entreatment to y'all, then we similar the OnePlus 6 for its more powerful hardware and sharper camera, but unfortunately, it won't work on Verizon. On the more than affordable terminate, nosotros like the Moto G6 and G6 Play for their solid performance and back up for all US carriers.

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Source: https://sea.pcmag.com/product-guides/28678/motorola-moto-z3-review

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