Motorola Moto Z3

Moto Z3 comes as an excellent upgrade to the Moto Z2 Play. Priced at Rs. 32,990, this phone arrives as one of the first phones which are upgradable to 5G.

Performance, display and camera – the Moto Z3 has it all. It is all set to come back into the fierce competition with its flagship rivals and beat them by providing quality performance. It does not disappoint. However, it fails to innovate the phone with a proper design that could stun you. The constant lack of waterproofing in the Motorola series makes it an ill-equipped fighter in the flagship competition. For people with a tight budget who wants to compete with high-end phones, this is an excellent product to go for.

Moto Z3 plays it safe with the design. It does not introduce any new changes but rehashes the handsome but old design. It’s slim and the new 18:9 display does not make it too large to handle. However, Z3 downgrades considerably from Z2 Force by not providing the Shattershield display – a five-layer protection with warranty. Plus, the phone remains splash-resistant only, which now seems like a persistent shortcoming with all its competitors moving on to water-resistant bodies.

Moto Z3 has a 6-inch AMOLED screen with the new and fashionable 18:9 display featuring Full HD 1080p resolution. The HD display fits fewer pixels in the same space similar to QHD+ panels of Samsung, thus being able to provide a sharp display quality. It records a brightness of 564 nits which comes quite near to the high-end iPhone X’s 574 nits and shows that it has significantly improved to tackle top-end phones in certain aspects. Sunlight legibility is fine. Concerning colour production and space, it scored about 228% of the sRGB spectrum which is the same as Galaxy S9 but at a cheaper rate, and coupled with a superior contrast that offers a great display.

Powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835, it is the same chipset that had been used in Samsung Galaxy S8 and Google Pixel 2. It has enough power to run essential apps smoothly, and switching apps is fast. On benchmark measures, Moto Z3 got a 6,020 score which is a tad bit lower than Pixel 2’s 6,282. Graphics tests found out that the Moto Z3 delivered 3,650 similar to the above smartphones, but with Galaxy S9 capping at 4,617. Performance-wise, it can run light games but don’t expect a lag-free performance while playing graphics-heavy games like PUBG Mobile and Fortnite.

Moto Z3 has dual 12-megapixel shooters on the back with a f/1.7 aperture. It can capture details and click quality images, but it depends a lot on the conditions making it fall short of the best cameras in the market. The secondary camera is monochrome and produces quality black-and-white images and lets you use certain features like Spot Color to preserve specific colours on specific aspects of the image. It is a feature that is fun to play with. Moto Z3 can click solid pictures, but for the most part, it can be a hit and a miss. It produces a sharper shot than Apple iPhone 8 Plus in certain well-lighted situations, but Apple beats it with its fantastic dynamic range.

The portrait mode of Apple is a wonder with its sensitive boundaries and subject brightness, but Moto Z3 is not capable of producing such quality in its images. The lack of telephoto lens can produce a fish-eye effect.  

Moto Z3 is equipped with a moderate 3,000 mAh battery, same as its predecessor. However, in the current flagship market, it is a weak power pack, considering most flagship phones are carrying 4,000 and above mAh of battery. In a continuous web surfing test, the battery was able to manage about 9 hours and 22 minutes which is not a great record and also falls behind Z2 Play. All-in-all, Moto Z3 has a sub-par battery.

One of the key highlights of Moto Z3 is that it can be upgradable to 5G. This feature alone could be a reason to buy this phone. On the other hand, the phone packs a good amount of power and the new 18:9 display sets it up as a fierce competitor in the modern large screen flagship market. However, the lack of waterproofing remains a consistent issue. It does not have a great design, and the decision to discard the unique Shattershield warranty drops this device in terms of ranking. It is for the people who want top-end features in a phone but pay lesser for it. However, Moto Z3 comes with many compromises, and on certain aspects, OnePlus 6 is better.