ALL smiles, the opening speaker at Motorola Mobility’s recent relaunch in the country took the stage, calling the event the “dawn of a new era in the smartphone industry.”
“Before anything else,” said the ecstatic Dino Romano, Mobile Business Group Philippines country manager of Lenovo, the Chinese tech company that bought Motorola Mobility from Google in 2014, “may I just request everyone to say, ‘Hello, Moto’?” What followed was a chorus of the brand’s iconic tagline from the mixed crowd of media members and VIPs at a City of Dreams Manila ballroom.
The call was not only a nod to nostalgia from Motorola’s successful slogan, but a direct welcome statement, too, for the returning brand under its new identity, simply “Moto”, after a few years of absence in the market.
Romano pointed that local clamor brought the company’s return to the Philippines. He said the country is one of the fastest-growing smartphone markets in the Asia and is a “very important” one for Lenovo.
As for the name change, he said “[Moto] sounds fresh, it sounds current and it’s more relevant to today’s generation,” while underscoring the company will still be known as Motorola Mobility. “In terms of communication, we want to sound younger and more hip.”
The nomenclature was just one of the many things introduced on that night of multiple launches, which include the announcement of the brand’s newest ambassadors, James Reid and Nadine Lustre, and, of course, its fresh portfolio of three smartphone series.
Moto revealed that the modular Moto Z + Moto Mods Family will carry the banner as its flagship models, while the Moto G Family slots in the mid-level market. Rounding up the extensive series offerings is the Moto E Power as its lineup for the entry-level segment.
Lenovo Mobile Business Group Philippine Marketing Manager Vincent de la Cruz said Moto has steered clear of the cookie-cutter smartphones that have filled the market in the last decade, and instead, will offer “truly innovative” devices.
“We believe innovation has been incremental at best,” he said at the launch. “The smartphone as we know it, the touch screen as we know it has been around since 2007. Most of the innovation has focused on slightly better camera features, slightly bigger display or a slightly faster processor. We say ‘slightly’ is no longer acceptable.”
While the competition has “tried and failed” to introduce breakthroughs to the market, such as “battery covers that are out of shape” and “zoom cameras that are truly not integrated,” de la Cruz said, this time, Moto has something really different and useful. “Rather than just focusing on the specs, we are looking at consumers and try to see where their interests lie, where their passions are.”
This is where Moto’s modular flagship models, the Moto Z and the Moto Z Play, come in, parallel to the launch of five Moto Mods—add-on devices that cater to the different passion points of consumers. de la Cruz said, “We are not just introducing a brand-new phone, but also a brand-new ecosystem. We are reimagining what is possible.”
One of the Mods is a projector called the Moto Insta-Share Projector Mod, which can project up to 70-inch images to any flat surface and comes with one hour of extra battery life, complete with a kickstand either for movie viewings or file presentations. It retails at P14,999. Next is a cutting edge camera add-on: the Hasselblad True Zoom Camera Mod that marks the first foray of the Swedish camera specialist into mobile space. Features include up to 10x optical zoom, 12-megapixel sensor resolution, optical and electronic image stabilization, Xenon flash and the function to save in files in raw format for postprocessing needs, all of which “raise mobile photography to the next level,” de la Cruz said. It is also complete with a physical zoom and shutter buttons, and goes for P14,099.
The other three devices are the JBL Soundboost Speaker Mod that comes with 10 extra hours of battery at P5,499; the lightweight Incipio offgrid Power Pack with heavy-duty 2200 mAh, providing an additional 22 hours of battery life, available at P4,999; and the Moto Style Shell Mods, or back covers that come in real wood, leather or ballistic nylon, which range from P699 to P999.
Samples were provided at a kiosk during the launch and it’s surprising how each Mod maximizes the true potential of a modular smartphone. Thanks to a magnetic mechanism with smart pins, the application of each add-on was more snappy than clunky. Also, the devices were highly responsive once attached to the flagships—both of which are stellar at face value in their own right, might we add.
Like Moto’s phenomenal phone Razr V3 before them, the Moto Z and the Moto Z Play are impossibly svelte. In fact, the former checks in at just at 5.2 millimetres or 0.2 inches, making it the thinnest premium smartphone to date. It packs quite the specs despite its slight frame, with a 5.5” AMOLED-1440p Quad HD-535 ppi display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor, 4 gigabyte of RAM, 64 GB of internal storage (with microSD Card support up to 2 terabyte), 13-MP rear and 5-MP front cameras and up to 24 hours of battery life. “Its turbo-charging feature also gives users seven hours of standby power in just 15 minutes of charging time,” de la Cruz said.
Speaking of luscious battery goodies, Moto’s other core device, the Moto Z Play, comes with the brand’s longest-lasting battery ever. It also supports turbo-charging, and with just 15 minutes of plug, it can live up to 10 hours on standby power. The battery on this phone measures up to 3510 mAh, making it last up to 50 hours in mixed usage. Other specs include a 5.5″ Amoled display with 1080p HD and 403 ppi, Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor, 32 GB of RAM (with microSD Card support up to 2 TB), 16-MP rear and 5-MP front cameras. Both units are water-repellent with nano-coating.
Pricing for the Moto Z starts at P33, 999, while the Moto Z Play starts at P22, 999. “The pricing of the Moto Z is very competitive, in as much as it’s actually slightly lower than most of our competitors in this price segment,” de la Cruz said. “If you spend P40,000 or so for another brand, you’ll only get a phone. With the Moto Z and Moto Z Play, you can buy a phone and add a Mod for the same amount.”