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Now, four generations on, we have the Moto Z4. Looking back over the last few generations of Moto Z devices, you can see where Motorola began moving towards the midrange. The Z4 marks a shift away from that strategy. Motorola went all-in on midrange this time around, simplifying the line — no more Play variants and other branding to confuse consumers.
The Z4 feels like a more thoughtful, focused device than past Z phones, and I think it paid off. Motorola was able to jam excellent features and hardware into the Z4 while making budget-saving cuts in other areas. The result is a device that, in most areas, rivals the big flagships without the eye-watering price. It follows the standard smartphone design — glass front and rear with an aluminum band wrapping around the outer edge of the phone.
To start, the rear panel uses an etched matte glass that Motorola claims is fingerprint resistant. I think a more apt description is fingerprint diminishing. Smudges and fingerprints cover the rear panel of my unit.
In case you are experiencing issues like this, there are two things we can recommend. Moto Mods have been a staple of the Z series phones since , for better or worse. Poor cellular signal This seems to be a major problem based on reports we run into online. Just got the phone a couple days ago, they really trimmed out all the unnecessary apps. Read more.
When I played with the white variant during my hands-on with the Z4, it showed even fewer fingerprints on the back. Aside from the fingerprint issue, the matte glass has another significant advantage over standard glass: the feel. I hate using cases with my devices, but glass-backed phones often require a case — and not just because of fragility. In other words, the glass edge around the screen curves subtly to meet the aluminum frame.
Plus, the frame features a similarly shaped chamfer where it meets the rear glass. It makes the edges of the phone feel smooth and holding the device a pleasure. In day to day use, it held up very well, handling all the video, web browsing and social media I threw at it. Whether in loading apps or opening a web page, the Z4 never failed to complete the task. It just did so a little slower. When swiping around between apps, I found myself waiting just a little longer for things to load. Animations were also janky more often than not, particularly in the multitasking menu.
Swiping between apps usually caused the Z4 to stumble. That said, other areas were almost always smooth. The animation for this feature rarely stuttered.
However, the is more than capable when it comes to the things most people use their phones for. Whether I was streaming music, answering a phone call or checking Twitter, it got done what it needed to get done. If it dropped a few frames or had to pause for a second or two while it loaded, so be it.
At a certain point, the difference in speed becomes apparent, and the experience with the device suffers for it. That said, the is gentle on the battery, and I often found myself ending my day with between 30 and 40 percent battery remaining. More important, in my opinion, is the Screen on Time SoT , which can really show how well a phone holds up.
The Z4 often got me about five hours of SoT. One last note on the hardware: the speaker placement is just weird. The Z4 has a top-firing speaker that can get decently loud, but by no means offers a great audio experience. It sufficed for watching the odd YouTube video, but that was about all. One part of the Moto Z4 that Motorola made a big deal of was the camera. What that actually means is the rear camera combines four pixels into one large pixel, so your photos come out as megapixel photos. Motorola says this helps capture more information, and the logic makes sense — larger sensor means more light is getting into the camera and it can capture more detail.
In most of my tests, which were outdoors on sunny days or in well-lit rooms, the Z4 produced some reliable results. I found in some cases, the photos lacked detail, and often the colours were far more saturated than I would like.
From a Home screen, swipe up to access all apps. Navigate: Settings > Security & Location.
When I did take the camera into more challenging situations, it still held up, but not as well as I hoped it would. Colours aside, you can see more and sharper details in the 2 XL photo. None of this is to say a Z4 is a lousy camera — it often took shots that surprised me with their quality. However, I think other smartphone cameras will better serve anyone who cares about photography. The Z4 is good, but not the pinnacle of smartphone photography. For starters, the Z4 camera offers a relatively full manual mode that lets users tweak focus, white balance, shutter speed, ISO and exposure.
While some of the ideas behind the suite of software bonuses were good, I seldom found a reason to use them.
Take the Cinemegraph mode, which lets you record a short video, and then select an area that will move while the rest of the photo remains still. It did brighten up my low-light photos quite a bit, but often scrubbed out details and made areas of my pictures incredibly noisy.
Portrait mode also produces decent results, but again, other phones do it better, especially with the special effects you can add on to each shot. Moto Z4 portrait mode effects using selfie camera. I found it incredibly aggressive in its smoothing features, especially on the megapixel Quad Pixel front camera. Can somebody please help or at least tell me when a update or fix is going to be released,? I don't recall anyone else reporting this issue, so it might not be common or widespread.
So there may not be any software fix needed? If two phones in a row had the same issue is it possible that the same app from the Play Store is somehow interfering with the GPS signal or GPS functionality? Sometimes that scanning can interfere with other functions.
What Location mode do you have selected? That's very strange that two phones have the same issue but yet doesn't seem to be widespread to lots of users. This is unusual behavior, and I agree that it's highly unlikely that it's the phone, since two have the same issue. Can you confirm that, for example, Google Maps isn't working when this happens? I understand that you say GPS is turning itself off. Are you seeing that in the shortcut icons or in Settings, or both? Can you test in Safe Mode to see if this is an app issue? To go into Safe Mode, press the physical power key, then press and hold the pop-up "Power off" key until the Safe Mode instructions pop up.
I know you said only stock apps - humor me. Also, please update your profile with current phone, carrier and serial number -- this will help me investigate. Need help updating your profile? See here. I figured it out. Turns out it was the metal bumper case So far anyway.
It's been working perfectly for the last couple days. I think it can be labeled as solved.