Sooner or later I will get my hands on telling you about the company's smartphone lineup Lenovo, but in fact I'm afraid. Why am I afraid? Because there are many devices there, they are all different, there are 'budgets', there is a quite extensive middle segment, more expensive models, and also tablets, because Lenovo are one of the few who still release new tablets on Android and Windows. So I decided to start with a simpler one – the Moto line. This is also Lenovo, so you can say I'm just preparing from an easier story to move on to a more complex one.
So, Lenovo Moto is a line of smartphones once an American company Motorola, whose mobile division was bought by a Chinese concern Lenovo. Many feared for the future fate of the Moto brand (and I too), but in general, it seems to me, of all the difficult options for the development of this situation and of all the companies that could buy Moto, the brand Lenovo is the best. what could have happened. I will explain my point of view before moving on to the story about the lineup.
All of you probably know the 'Lenovo ThinkPad' line of laptops, all-in-ones and other products. And also servers, expensive workstations and other things related to the corporate segment. Someone remembers ThinkPad as part of a powerful American corporation IBM, while others associate it with Lenovo. The trick is that Lenovo didn't just buy several divisions and rights to the 'ThinkPad' trademark from IBM and then buried them, as many similar companies do. Take for example Microsoft and Nokia, the latter actually ceased to exist after being bought by 'soft'. Or Google's small purchases, where the internet giant buys out a service that competes with its own and then just quietly shuts it down. Lenovo not only continued to support the ThinkPad brand, they continued to develop it, which is very important. The company invests in ThinkPad annually, releases new products, improves laptop design, updates old and adds new devices, maintains and improves services, and so on. Yes, there are always 'old-timers' who will tell you that 'before IBM ThinkPads were OGO-GO, but today they are pffff'. But if you look at the situation objectively, under the wing Lenovo the ThinkPad brand is doing quite well. Despite the fact that it has undergone many changes, some of which, perhaps not always and not to everyone, seemed convincing and correct. But, one way or another, ThinkPad today is a well-known international brand, just like ten or fifteen years ago.
The same, I sincerely hope, will happen with the Moto brand under the wing Lenovo. Yes, now not all of the company's steps are clear to me and seem logical: transformation of Motorola into a sub-brand of smartphones Lenovo (and not spinning off into a separate powerful brand), attempts to make Moto a premium segment, and some others things. But we, in any case, cannot assess all these steps correctly, without having all the information and the full picture within the company, understanding the plans Lenovo regarding the Moto brand, understanding the goals and objectives. So it will be possible sometime later to talk about how successfully or unsuccessfully Lenovo integrates the Moto brand into its company. For now, let's talk about products.
Budget segment. In the model lineup Lenovo Moto, the budget segment is represented very conditionally, because there are no really cheap smartphones, by the standards of the Russian market. But still, let's take a look at the most affordable devices from the company.
3rd generation Moto G. In Russia it costs 17,000 rubles, is equipped with a 5 'screen with a resolution of 1280 × 720 pixels, runs on Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 with 1/2 GB of RAM and 8/16 GB of internal memory. There is a slot for a memory card, there are 13 MP main and 5 MP front cameras and a nice design with replaceable covers included.
Moto G (3rd gen) smartphone review
Not a bad smartphone as a gift to loved ones, it is not as cheap as the army of Chinese counterparts, but more predictable, let's say. He is more likely to have no problems with voice quality, network signal reception, Wi-Fi operation, and so on. That is, if you want to give someone from your family a simple but reliable device, I personally would, among other things, consider first and foremost the third generation Moto G.
Most recently, the fourth generation Moto G was presented, more precisely, a new line, which is now called Moto G4 and includes three smartphones. And one of them – Moto G4 Play – is just a continuation of Moto G 3gen. In terms of characteristics, the new model almost completely copies the previous smartphone, only here the resolution of the main camera (8 MP) is lower, there is no moisture protection, but a slightly more capacious battery (2800 mAh). Accordingly, if the new product is sold in Russia, you can count on the same price as for the third generation Moto 3, or a lower price.
Middle segment. Until recently, Moto had only one current model in this segment (we are talking about the Russian market) – Moto X Play. A solid middle peasant with a good design, replaceable covers, a 21 MP main camera and a capacious 3630 mAh battery. Other parameters familiar to this segment are a 5.5 'screen with FullHD resolution, Qualcomm Snapdragon 615, 2 GB of RAM and 16/32 GB of internal memory and a card slot. The price is higher than that of competitors – 30,000 rubles, but this is Moto.
In 2016, the company introduced two more devices that can be attributed to the middle segment. These are Moto G4 and Moto G4 Plus.
Moto G4 is very similar to Moto X Plus – from the new Snapdragon 617 platform, 13 MP camera and 3000 mAh battery. The Moto G4 Plus has a 16-megapixel camera with laser focusing, there is a fingerprint scanner (inscribed in an ugly square button under the screen) and three versions of RAM and internal memory – 2/16, 3/32 and 4/64 GB, otherwise – all the same. Of the obvious innovations of the Moto G4, I will note the design, it has really changed a lot.
What the prices will be is not yet clear, but, obviously, approximately at the level of Moto X Play, if we are talking about Russia.
Flagships. Finally, the most interesting category when it comes to Moto devices. Here, let's say, are the most useful and most interesting devices of the brand.
Moto X Style. Large display with a diagonal of 5.7 'and a resolution of 2560 × 1440 pixels, 3 GB of RAM, a slot for a card, platform Qualcomm Snapdragon 810, 21 MP main camera, 3000 mAh battery. In general, good specifications, an almost pure OS Android and, most importantly, a wide choice in terms of design (we have not quite yet, but I am sure) make the Moto X Style an interesting device. Of course, if you start to study everything in detail, it turns out that there is not the coolest camera here, the device is by no means compact, and so on, but if you do not look at the device as a set of specifications, but just try, pick it up and use it, it’s another matter . I don’t know how, but Moto smartphones are good in this regard, especially when it comes to the feel of the device. However, the price of 40,000 rubles may discourage you from studying it, but this is already the cost of pricing in our market and the ruble exchange rate.
Moto X Force. One of the few modern smartphones, where there is a new technology, innovative not in words and in presentations, but in deeds. Yes, this is Moto's ShatterShield. The sandwich technology of several layers of strong transparent plastic, a screen, a touch pad and a protective backing really works (only the lazy hasn't tested it) – you can just accidentally drop the Moto X Force or throw it against the wall with a swing, the screen will remain unharmed. Yes, the smartphone itself may be damaged, chips, cracks and so on will appear, but not on the screen. It may seem that 'the game is not worth the candle' and the screen cracks and beats once every hundred years for one sloppy person out of millions, but such thoughts will only visit until the moment when he crashes on some device personally for you. So yeah, ShatterShield is a new technology – very cool and useful!
Otherwise, Moto X Force is a solid flagship of last year: a 5.4 'screen with a resolution of 2560 × 1440 pixels, Qualcomm Snapdragon 810, 3 GB of' RAM 'and 32/64 GB of internal memory, a memory card, 21 MP main and 5 MP front camera, 3760 mAh battery and the feeling of an expensive and reliable device in your hands (priceless). However, the smartphone is actually expensive – 50,000 rubles in Russia. You have to pay for advanced technology.
A week with Moto X Force