xandros9's iOS and Android Adventure

[xandros9]

It may appeal to a small niche, mostly business users who can afford it and want a PKB, but I don't see it going beyond that. That's OK if it makes a profit. I just don't see the average Android fan buying one.

Sent from my Alcatel Idol 4S

Nope, not at all! But I'm sure it find a niche, just not a big one and at that price point, might by smaller than I'd like to see.

 

[anon(50597)]

Nope, not at all! But I'm sure it find a niche, just not a big one and at that price point, might by smaller than I'd like to see.

There are many successful niches.

Sent from my Alcatel Idol 4S

 

[nate0]

Fyi: There are also two more unnamed unannounced bb devices in the pipeline. Google search it if you all are into bb devices

 

[xandros9]

Not my phone but something I wanted to tease...

 

[xandros9]

And surprise! I got a Moto Z Play, more to come eventually!

 

[libra89]

And surprise! I got a Moto Z Play, more to come eventually!

Wow no more Priv?

I'm sure that you will enjoy that battery life though, especially coming from a Priv.

Looking forward to your thoughts and impressions though.

 

[xandros9]

As announced, I’ve replaced my Priv after seven months of service with a Moto Z Play XT1635-02.
(01 is the Verizon Moto Z Play Droid, 02 is the unlocked US model. I believe 03 is international and might be dual-SIM.)

And here is our next chapter in this gripping adventure!

Here’s quick list of Moto Z Play details:

• Midrange but zippy Snapdragon 625 + 3 GB of RAM
• 5.5” 1080p AMOLED screen. It’s flat which makes things easier for fans of glass screen protectors.
  • It’s still a big phone, almost identical to the Priv in size except I believe it is taller. But there is a one-handed usage mode available, toggled the same way as BlackBerry's swipe shortcuts.
• USB Type-C, Fingerprint sensor
• 16 MP Camera, not sure what I think of it yet.
• Front facing flash, Snapchat doesn't make use of it, and frankly I don't really do selfies either.
• Moto Mod support, glass back + potential for style covers. A wooden one came with the phone.
• Battery life deserving of the hype. (3510 mAh, close to the Priv's battery size)
• Android 7.0 Nougat (This device launched with 6 and I hear 7.1 is in testing)

Here are the things that I found notable on the Moto Z Play coming from the Priv. (and in general)

HARDWARE

• Unlockable bootloader and custom ROM support, so when support ends, I’ll have more options.
• I don’t notice the downgrade in display sharpness despite the slight size increase and drop from 1440p to 1080p. Both are PenTile-arranged AMOLED panels.
• I lost wireless charging in favor of Moto Mods. I don’t care too much for them but they’re certainly nifty. I’m waiting for this summer’s release of the Style Shell with Wireless Charging, but at $40 it’s a very tough sell.
• No keyboard of course, I sideloaded BlackBerry’s virtual keyboard since I prefer it.
• The fingerprint sensor is not a home button, but it can be used as an on-off button as well, which is cool.
• In the hot car + GPS navigation, the Style Shell (wood) appeared to bend backwards, loosening the fit significantly. We'll see if that happens again.
• The power and volume buttons are all next to each other and are the same size, but interestingly enough the power button is textured with horizontal lines to distinguish it. I like it!

SOFTWARE

• I essentially traded BlackBerry’s Picture Passcode feature for a fingerprint sensor. The latter wins for most situations.
• Moto’s custom gestures and additions, hoo boy there’s a lot to cover here. More on that in a bit.
  • Of course I lost some BlackBerry additions like the swipe shortcuts and Productivity Tab. As much as I liked it, I never really used it.
• Currently on the April 1[SUP]st[/SUP], 2017 security patch. Last two were March and January 1[SUP]st[/SUP]. So hardly the monthly updates BlackBerry prides itself on, but it’s not horrible so Motonovo has that going for them.
• Android 7.0 Nougat versus 6.0.1 Marshmallow. Nothing crazy there.
• General performance blows the Priv away, especially when things really heat up. I don’t do heavy 3D games though so I can’t comment on that.
• I lost BlackBerry’s DTEK of course, but I subscribed to the Hub+ Suite like I did before I picked up my Priv.
• Holding the power button only shows the Power Off option. I miss the Priv’s Restart option. (and let’s not get started on the options other phones may have.)
• I can select 2G, 3G or LTE in the options. A setting the Priv does not have.
• The very colorful boot screen/animation has an obnoxious "HELLO MOTO" sound effect but thankfully you can turn that off in the settings.
• No double-tap-to-wake or Ambient Display but we have Moto Display which is similar, responds when my hand approaches and is only slightly more interactive. Basically the same, just done a little differently. Looks like Moto isn't letting the 2016 models get the new updated Moto Display however. We're probably looking at a restriction not unlike Microsoft's arbitrary Creator's Update cuts.
• the SD card is still adoptable/able to be formatted as Internal storage.
• We can set a custom "hot word/phrase" to activate the voice assistant (Not sure if it can pull up Cortana but I know it works with Google Assistant) - However the tradeoff is that it can no longer use my voice as a trusted voice. So decide between letting your voice alone unlock the phone and do more versus saying something other than "OK, Google" to get the phone's attention.

Day 6, example usage.

• Unplugged shortly before 8:30
• Approximately 90 minutes of GPS navigation cumulative
• Approximately two hours of Bluetooth music playback
• I lost my screen-on time after a reboot midway (cellular data issue) but it certainly wasn’t nothing.
• 3G connectivity with a switch to LTE (I’m experimenting with this)
• Right now, it’s at 37% just after midnight.

Since then performance has been great. 7.5-8 SOT is the name of the game here.

MOTO GESTURES

I was unfamiliar with the gestures that Motorola had on their phones since the Moto X (and maybe before that? I'm not familiar with the history there) and I'm blown away.

Twisting my wrist twice for the camera, "chopping" the phone twice to toggle the flashlight, I've been spoiled by these. There are also a slew of useful gestures such as automatically turning on Do Not Disturb when the phone is facedown, or silencing the ring (but not the vibrate) when there is an incoming phone call and the device is picked up.

They are reliable and I am very impressed.

I did get these at the loss of BlackBerry's Advanced Interactions, but those were fairly simple in comparison. (hold to stay awake, place face-down to sleep...)

As more comes to mind, I'll write back here.

 

[libra89]

@xandros9 Sorry that I'm so late. I saw and read this when I originally had a chance to. I have only heard good things about the Z Play, you chose well. Sounds like battery life is solid for you, which is great.

Some questions for you:
-Do you or have you used one-hand mode?
-Did you cave into the Wireless shell now that a new mod has been announced or are you choosing not to just for now?
-The gestures are cool, I agree. Are they second nature now to you or do you find yourself sometimes still using the "old" way to do something such as turn on the flashlight?
-Are you used to the size now?

Also, it's been nearly a month since you have had it. Do most of your general impressions/thoughts remain unchanged? If not, is it in a good or bad way?

Just curious to know how this month has been treating you.

 

[xandros9]

@xandros9 Sorry that I'm so late. I saw and read this when I originally had a chance to. I have only heard good things about the Z Play, you chose well. Sounds like battery life is solid for you, which is great.

Some questions for you:
-Do you or have you used one-hand mode?
-Did you cave into the Wireless shell now that a new mod has been announced or are you choosing not to just for now?
-The gestures are cool, I agree. Are they second nature now to you or do you find yourself sometimes still using the "old" way to do something such as turn on the flashlight?
-Are you used to the size now?

Also, it's been nearly a month since you have had it. Do most of your general impressions/thoughts remain unchanged? If not, is it in a good or bad way?

Just curious to know how this month has been treating you.

Oh no worries, I've been doing my own stuff!

I've been using one-handed mode on occasion, it's great when well... using one-handed! No fancy animations or anything but it does the job as well as I expect. It just scales the display down, no fancy sliding stuff like iOS.

I have no caved yet on the wireless charging shell but I am mighty tempted! The $40 is still a steep price I'm not a fan of but maybe... just maybe...

I'm thinking I'll want to snag one before mid-August so if any deal comes along that might be the nudge I need! But we'll see...

The gestures have become second-nature and I don't know how I lived without them frankly. I haven't used the old way to toggle the camera ever and I've only used the flashlight notification shade toggle a couple times when already using the phone.

As for the size, eh. It's about the same as my Priv so I can live with it. One-handed mode helps a lot. I guess I had to adapt.

Also something I found and I believe I neglected to mention was that Moto has a more proactive way to handle incoming texts and it can announce it, not unlike the way Cortana would handle texts in the car/with headsets. This is a really cool feature I missed (but not as much anymore) albeit one I haven't really used so far.

My general impressions remain the same, I've thrown a glass screen-protector on it since and it's still as solid as day one. It's currently only on the May 2017 security patch level though (got an update a few days ago) and the 7.1.1 update + July security hasn't hit my US update channel yet although it's been popping up in other regions and carriers these past couple weeks or so.
Also since the battery life has freed me from worry, I'm ironically worried about OLED burn-in now since the display can be on more hours in the day, but I guess I'll deal with it when it happens.

A big negative though is Moto/Lenovo removing the 7.1.1 night mode feature in their release. I can understand not bringing the new Moto Display and stuff to older devices, but I don't appreciate this move.

 

[xandros9]

And I finally succumbed to the wireless charging temptation, swung by Best Buy and picked up the nylon(?) grey wireless charging mod. It's slightly thicker and I'm not sure what else to say. I'll probably do a review of it.

It's my first and likely only Moto Mod (other than the wooden style shell that came when I bought the phone)

 

[GrayW0lf]

Did you happen to see this?
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/keyboard-mod-a-physical-keyboard-for-the-moto-z#/

Also: appreciated your review of the wireless charging shell. I picked one up and enjoy having the feature on my Moto Z (Unlocked).

 

[libra89]

Wow it's been a lot of months. I watched this and thought of you @xandros9
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxWWO66zEH4

I'm curious though, are you still using the Z Play? If not, what you are using currently?

 

[xandros9]

Wow it's been a lot of months. I watched this and thought of you @xandros9
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxWWO66zEH4

I'm curious though, are you still using the Z Play? If not, what you are using currently?

Aww I'm touched! Makes me want to go find a Sailfish phone again since I no longer rely on Exchange for information and stuff.

The Z Play is gone, I use an iPhone SE now, I'm trying to stick with this one! Even as I said it for the last two whoops.

Basically it came down to Google removing "Okay Google" with the screen off from my Z Play (and I'm sure others) last summer and I was ticked, and jumped ship because I don't see Apple removing Hey Siri from phones to promote say, the X. https://forums.androidcentral.com/g...oes-ok-google-work-your-phone-screen-off.html

And because they share PIM applications and otherwise work together - among other reasons, I picked up a Mac as well. Windows 10 and Android don't really support CalDAV and CardDAV too well which is how I sync my calendar and contacts now because I'm trying to eventually phase out my Outlook.com account in favor of FastMail.

 

[Old_Mil]

Just got rid of my LG G6 and switched to the Xperia X running sailfish two weeks ago. I like it so far. With the OS getting certification for government use in Europe I hope to see the system continue to gain traction.

 

[libra89]

Aww I'm touched! Makes me want to go find a Sailfish phone again since I no longer rely on Exchange for information and stuff.

The Z Play is gone, I use an iPhone SE now, I'm trying to stick with this one! Even as I said it for the last two whoops.

Basically it came down to Google removing "Okay Google" with the screen off from my Z Play (and I'm sure others) last summer and I was ticked, and jumped ship because I don't see Apple removing Hey Siri from phones to promote say, the X. https://forums.androidcentral.com/g...oes-ok-google-work-your-phone-screen-off.html

And because they share PIM applications and otherwise work together - among other reasons, I picked up a Mac as well. Windows 10 and Android don't really support CalDAV and CardDAV too well which is how I sync my calendar and contacts now because I'm trying to eventually phase out my Outlook.com account in favor of FastMail.

Sweet! I can understand that, that makes total sense to me. Congrats on the Mac and iPhone SE! It must feel nice to use a small phone again. I feel that way every time I try out a big phone and then go back small.