Photo: Motorola
It's been over 17 months since I last upgraded phones (link). That's a pretty good stretch for me. Last summer I told the salesman at the Verizon store if he could get the price tag of this Z4 down to under $500 (including activation fee), I'd buy it. But he couldn't. This weekend I was in the area of Best Buy and I felt the urge to check out the store. I had long since forgotten/given up on this phone.
While at the store, I looked at the laptop that I plan to get when I start my job at the Creation Museum next month, and then expected to leave. My daughter was looking at the phones, and we walked by the Z4 for some reason and I noticed the price tag was only $400. That's well under what I was hoping last summer. When I got to talking with the salesman, it turned out with a two year no interest contract it was only $240. Sold.
The feel of the back of this phone is amazing. It doesn't feel like glass, but it is. It's got kind of a ceramic feel to it. Good job Motorola, this phone feels fantastic in the hand.
The embedded fingerprint sensor (behind/inside the screen) works good. I've read complaints about it, and sure it doesn't work 100% of the time on the first try. But remember there's no physical button to put your finger on, just an illuminated icon, so aligning your thumb or finger on the sensor is easier said than done. Even when I know exactly how to do it, sometimes I don't get it right and I remember my thumb needs to be a quarter-inch higher. No worries.
I love love love the dark themed phone app. As dumb and petty as such an appreciation sounds, the primary blue background of the phone app in the Z3 was just insultingly childish. Thanks for fixing it Motorola!
The Motorola Display (their version of the always on display) works a little more consistently than the Z3, so that's a welcome improvement. Though really, I've never seen a better example of an idea that was not taken far enough. The lack of customization on that feature is stupifying. They should really be running with this feature, instead, it still works the same as it did in 2015 and the software is still on version 1.01. When will there be a version 2, or even just 1.5? The larger display is nice. They squeezed two more lines of text in, compared to the Z3.
After a few days, I'm very happy with it. The camera images are adequate, though the saturation is lower than I'd prefer and the camera app is surprisingly slow, even though it appears to be the same app as they've been using forever. It's as if when the camera is activated the CPU goes into overdrive and is taxed to take any photos.
Photo: Motorola