Motorola has confirmed it won’t release any new Z-series phones other than the Moto Z4 this year, ending rumblings it could be planning rugged ‘Force’ and affordable ‘Play’ variants.
The news broke on Twitter over the weekend when the company reacted to a fan asking if it would release Force and Play versions of the Moto Z4, as it has done for past flagships.
You can see the exchange below.
Hi Raffi. We will not be announcing additional moto z devices this year.
— Motorola US (@MotorolaUS) May 30, 2019
The move is atypical in today’s smartphone climate where companies tend to have multi-device strategies. Samsung currently sells multiple S10 smartphones. These include the regular Galaxy S10, larger Galaxy S10 Plus, semi-affordable Galaxy S10e and next-gen Galaxy S10 5G.
Huawei has the Huawei P30 and Huawei P30 Pro phones and OnePlus currently sells OnePlus 7 and OnePlus 7 Pro handsets.
Apple is expected to follow the same strategy with its next iPhone. Rumblings suggest we’ll be treated to an iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Max and iPhone XR 2/iPhone SE 2 in October.
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The Moto Z4 made its unintended debut last week when it briefly went on sale on Amazon before being officially announced. Motorola announced the phone will retail for $499.99 unlocked and ship from June 6 mere days later.
The Moto Z4 is a modest upgrade on last years Z3, featuring a tweaked design and refreshed internal components. The key differentiator between it and other flagships is its Moto Mod functionality. The system lets you attach optional add-on peripherals, like a battery pack or a 5G Mod, to the phone thus adding further functionality to the handset.
Outside of that is uses the same 48-megapixel primary Sony camera sensor as the Motorola One Vision, Honor 20 View and OnePlus 7.
Under the hood there’s a mid-range Snapdragon 675 CPU that should let it offer moderately better performance than the new Google Pixel 3a and Pixel 3a XL, which use an older 670 chip.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.