When Lenovo launched the Moto Z with support for Moto Mods, I fell in love with the modular functionality but I was skeptical as to how long they will be supported in future devices. One year has passed and Lenovo has launched the updated Moto Z2 Force. And lo and behold, it features the same 16-pin connector in the rear necessary for Moto Mods.
Why am I talking so much about Moto Mods this early in the review? Well, it’s because they greatly expand the functionality of the device and help it set apart from the competition.
With the Moto Z2 Force, Motorola actually slimmed down the phone, reducing its battery capacity to a mere 2,730mAh assuming you will buy the battery Moto Mod if you need the extra power. The build and battery won’t get you through a full day of moderate to heavy usage on a single charge. I’m not a fan of this approach. I think the device should have all the core components that make up a great daily driver smartphone. Battery life is a core component.
Thankfully, the other areas are pretty darn solid. Upfront lies a 5.5-inch QHD P-OLED display with great viewing angles and contrast. The AMOLED display enables the ambient Moto display feature that shows notifications when the display is asleep and in my opinion, it’s one of the best ambient displays in the market. My only complaint with this display is that it doesn’t stretch to all four corners of the smartphone like the LG G6 or Galaxy S8. There’s still a fairly hefty bottom chin that is starting to show its age aesthetically.
There is a neat little trackpad you can use to navigate the device instead of the on-screen buttons. Once you get used to it, it actually works pretty well. A swipe to the right will go back while a swipe to the left will bring up the overview tray. You get the idea. I like to have options but I did find myself to have sticking with the on-screen buttons most of the time.
The fingerprint scanner is also built into this home button here. It works to unlock the phone very well. I mentioned I would have liked to have seen less bezels, less of a chin. But since this phone employs Moto Mods, there’s really no other area on the phone where you could install a fingerprint scanner.
Unlike much of the competition, however, the Z2 Force features a plastic display that will not shatter when dropped. It will pick up some micro scratches in everyday usage as well as bigger dents when dropped on more rocky surfaces but it will not shatter. So if you live an active lifestyle and plan to keep this phone for at least a couple of years, this feature will be all the more attractive to you.
As for the software, it is very clean and should please the die-hard Android junkie with its simplicity. While there are some Motorola features here and there, it’s basically running stock Android 7.1.1 Nougat. And with the Snapdragon 835 chipset with 4GB of RAM, the whole phone runs very fast and keeps up with the other high-end devices it is competing with.
On the rear, there are two 12-megapixel f/2.0 camera sensors with laser and face detection auto-focus. You will see they protrude a lot from the rear of the smartphone. Once again, I wish Motorola would have filled out the phone with some more battery to make the sensors flush with the phone but they didn’t. You’ll have to slap on a Moto Mod to make this camera’s sensors flush with the rear.
One sensor is the main shooter while the other shoots in monochrome or black and white. I would prefer to have a wide-angle sensor or a telephoto sensor instead of the monochrome sensor but that’s just going to come down to personal preference. If you like the monochrome sensor, you will absolutely love this smartphone. And if you just want the ability to create ultra milky depth of field shots, you can still do that here with this setup. There’s a feature in the camera settings that lets you add some extra milky depth of field to your images.
But as for photo quality, the main sensor is capable of taking some breathtaking images in well lit environments. But generally speaking, photo quality is high; just not superb. There’s no optical image stabilization built in so photos can often come out slightly blurry due to the lack of stabilizing hardware. And in low-light environments, photos tend to look pretty noisy.
On the flip side, the monochrome sensor can capture some excellent low-light photos. By removing the color sending layer, the monochrome sensor is able to pick up three times the amount of light than the main sensor. The only downside, your photos will be in black and white.
The Moto Z2 Force features a front-firing speaker like Motorola’s previous flagships. There’s only one speaker here so you don’t get a true stereo sound. But it’s far superior to bottom-facing speakers or rear-facing speakers. And the sound quality is pretty crisp and punchy and it gets quite loud. If you want to listen to headphones, you will have to use wireless headphones or use the included USB-C adapter to connect a pair of wired cans.
For $756, the Moto Z2 Force is just too expensive to recommend for most users. While I love the concept of the Moto Mods because of the added functionality they offer, they too are expensive and really shouldn’t be required to help the Moto Z2 Force better compete with the other flagships on the market. I firmly believe Motorola should have included a bigger battery in the Z2 Force as well as optical image stabilization. The shatterproof screen is a nice touch. But it does tend to pick up scratches easier than a glass display. Unless you really need this shatterproof display and top-of-the-line specs, I’d recommend you look into the Moto Z2 Play, which offers similar specs and features but at a much more affordable rate.
I’m curious to hear your thoughts of the Moto Z2 Force in the comments down below.
