Moto Z review: The ultra-thin modular flagship with magnetic Moto Mods.
The modular phone that actually shipped Mods.
Moto Z bet on magnetic Moto Mods — snap-on battery packs, a JBL speaker, even a pico projector — in an astonishingly thin 5.2 mm body. The tiny battery made the Mods almost mandatory, but it was the most successful modular-phone experiment of its era.
01Display
80/10080/100 puts it above the 76-point average for flagship phones of 2016.
02Camera
60/10060/100 is one of the weaker camera results among flagship phones of 2016 — 10 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
03Performance
70/10070/100 puts it above the 68-point average for flagship phones of 2016.
04Battery
50/10050/100 is one of the weaker battery results among flagship phones of 2016 — 17 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
05Build
72/10072/100 trails the 75-point cohort average for flagship phones of 2016.
06Value
60/10060/100 — right at the average for flagship phones of 2016.
- Just 5.2 mm thin — remarkable build.
- Magnetic Moto Mods (battery, projector, JBL speaker).
- Snapdragon 820 flagship power.
- microSD survives.
- Tiny 2,600 mAh battery (needed Mods).
- No 3.5 mm jack — early adopter.
- Camera bump was large.
- Mods were pricey.
How this review is built: every section score, spec row and comparison on this page comes from SpecEagle's tracked catalogue — scores weight measured specs against the 109-phone cohort of flagship devices released around the same time. We don't publish invented lab anecdotes. Spot an error? .