This article is more than 6 years old.
Motorola has launched its 2017 flagship phone, and there's just the one this time. The Moto Z2 Force is the only high-end Z phone this year, taking the unbreakable screen from last year's Force and the smaller battery from the regular Z phone. Not everyone will be happy about this change, so let's break down the best and worst things about this phone.
The Best
- Speed: The Snapdragon 835 in this phone is used to great effect, unlike the same chip in the Galaxy S8. The Moto Z2 Force is one of the fastest phones you can get, multitasking with ease and flying through web pages. The graphical prowess means you can play even the most demanding mobile games without dropped frames.
- Software: Motorola continues to do a great job with Android itself, mostly by not messing around with it too much. The Z2 Force runs a mostly stock build of Android 7.1.1 with just a few cool Motorola enhancements. There's Moto Actions for gesture control—for example, twist the phone twice to launch the camera or chop twice to turn the flashlight on. Moto Display lets you see notifications on the screen while the phone continues to sleep. These features are effective and clever.
- Fingerprint sensor: The fingerprint sensor below the display is one of the best you can get on a phone. It's fast, highly accurate, and you can even use it to put the phone to sleep with a long-press.
The Worst
- Display: The 1440p AMOLED display on this phone looks fine, but the shatter-proof cover is an issue. While it doesn't crack, it's made of plastic. That means it'll scratch over time. In fact, comparing the Z Force last year to the new one, this one seems much softer and more prone to scratches. In addition, the top plastic layer can no longer be replaced as you could on older shatter-proof phones from Motorola.
- Smaller battery: Motorola shrunk the size of the battery in this year's Z2 Force from 3,500mAh to just 2,730mAh. The battery life is very average, but it could have been great with a little more juice. The phone is only 1mm thinner than last year's, so the bulky Moto Mods aren't going to be any more comfortable.
- Moto Mods: Speaking of Moto Mods, they still don't make a lot of sense. Some of them are far too expensive at $250-300, and the performance is lacking. For example, the $300 camera add-on is inferior to point-and-shoot cameras that cost less. The battery Mods are the only ones you can really justify, but even these are expensive, and they won't actually add to the capacity of your phone—they simply charge it, meaning there's power lost to inefficiency.
