We're in the first round of new Motorola products now that Motorola is completely owned by Lenovo. And at the Masonic Auditorium in San Francisco — at Lenovo's annual TechWorld conference — we got our first look.
Meet the Moto Z and Moto Z Force — an evolution from the Moto X line of old. And meet the new Moto Mods — swappable backs that change the functionality of the phone, affixed by a series of 16 magnets.
And meet the Lenovo PHAB 2 Pro — the first consumer-grade phone to sport Google's Tango technology. It can see what's inside rooms. And it remembers. Motion tracking. Depth perception. Area learning. And all in a (large) smartphone, that retails at just $499.
Let's get to it. Here's what you need to know about Lenovo and Motorola's big announcements!
Moto Z and Moto Z Force
The latest flagship smartphones from Motorola are the Moto Z and the Moto Z Force. They're 5.5-inch phones (with Moto's Shatter Shield tech so the screen won't shatter), running Android 6.0 Marshmallow atop a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820. They come with 32GB of onboard storage and can take microSD cards for up to 2 terabytes. And they've got 4GB of RAM.
Both phones use the new USB-C connector, have a water-repellent coating and sport fingerprint readers.
The rear camera weighs in at 21 megapixels, and the front-facing camera shoots at 5MP.
For battery, the Moto Z has a 2600 mAh cell. The Moto Z Force steps things up to 3500 mAh — about 34 percent more.
More: This is Moto Z
More: Moto Z Force is the tougher twin brother{.cta .large}
Moto Z Droid Edition smartphones
As has been the case since, well, forever, Verizon is getting its own version of the Moto Z. And as you'd expect, it's the Moto Z Droid Edition.
We've got two versions of these Verizon versions, as you'd expect. There's the Moto Z Droid Edition, and the Moto Z Force Droid Edition.
More: Moto Z and Moto Z Force will be Verizon exclusives through this fall{.cta .large}
More: Moto Z Droid Edition specs
Moto Mods
Both the Moto Z and Moto Z Force can take advantage of Moto Mods — removable backs that magnetically snap into place via 16 dots. There are three of them initially.
JBL SoundBoost Speaker is like "a BoomBox strapped to the back of your phone." It has its own built-in battery for up to 10 hours of use. It'll also serve as a speakerphone. Moto Insta-Share Projector is a pico projector with a built-in kickstand and battery and gives you an hour extra projection — up to a 70-inch screen. Power Packs provide an extra 22 hours of battery life. And they're not just big, bulky battery backs. Kate Spade and Tumi have gotten in on the action.
That's just the start of Moto Mods. More are in the works. And Motorola's opening it up to developers, with a $1 million developer award at stake.
More: Go in depth with Moto Mods
More: Moto Mod Developer Kit will launch this summer{.cta .large}
The PHAB 2 Pro Tango phone
That Google and Lenovo have been working on a phone version of Project Tango is not a secret But we've now gotten our first look at what will be the consumer product. It's based on Lenovo's PHAB 2 Pro — a very large smartphone that's able to house all the cameras and sensors needed to make this space-mapping stuff work.
And it's very, very cool
And it'll be available at Best Buy (and likely other places) in September for $499. Lowe's (as in the home-improvement store) said it'll have a renovations app in Google Play for the PHAB 2 Pro
And it's no longer "Project Tango." It's now just "Tango," thank you very much.
More: Hands-on with the PHAB 2 Pro Project Tango
