Moto Z review: The 2016 modular phone — ultra-thin, with magnetic Moto Mods.
The 2016 modular experiment — clever, but a dead end.
The Moto Z built its pitch on magnetic Moto Mods and an ultra-thin body. The tiny battery and now-abandoned Mods ecosystem make it a curious piece of history.
01Display
74/10074/100 — right at the average for flagship phones of 2016.
02Camera
56/10056/100 is one of the weaker camera results among flagship phones of 2016 — 14 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
03Performance
44/10044/100 is one of the weaker performance results among flagship phones of 2016 — 24 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
04Battery
44/10044/100 is one of the weaker battery results among flagship phones of 2016 — 23 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
05Build
66/10066/100 is one of the weaker build results among flagship phones of 2016 — 9 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
06Value
50/10050/100 is one of the weaker value results among flagship phones of 2016 — 10 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
- Magnetic Moto Mods — projector, battery, speaker, camera add-ons.
- Remarkably thin at 5.2 mm.
- Sharp QHD AMOLED display.
- Light at 136 g.
- Tiny 2,600 mAh battery (a Mod was almost required).
- No headphone jack; mono speaker.
- Software ended at Android 8.
- Discontinued — Moto Mods are gone.
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? .