Motorola has been away from the Kenyan market for a while. Since it’s parent company, Lenovo, has a presence in the country, it was only a matter of time before they brought back Moto phones. The brand is now back with a bang touting an innovative device that makes the bold claim of being the thinnest premium device in the world. Is this phone enough to get people back on the Moto wagon? Find out in this in-depth review.

Design 

The design of the Moto Z is by far it’s biggest appeal. The claim of the thinnest premium phone in the world is not just marketing buzz. This phone is truly slim. The rear and the camera ring glitter when light falls on them. You are sure to turn a lot of heads while using the Moto Z.

The front is all glass and the back is a combination of glass and a material that looks like metal with subtle lines. The lines resemble those of solar panels. Still on the back, there is a protruding camera bump. For those who hate such bumps, there is a Moto shell mod cover that nicely levels the bump with the rest of the body.
Below the display are 4 circular components. The 2 big circles are sensors for aiding with Moto Display feature. The other 2 pin sized circles are mics for the Moto Voice feature that will be discussed later in this review. This components are completely invisible in the black model in case they don’t sit well with you.

Display

The display is a 5.5 inch AMOLED panel with a QHD (2560*1440) resolution. That works out to an amazing 535 pixels per inch . With that kind of resolution, texts and all small details are very vivid and sharp.
The AMOLED has toned down colors unlike the screens from Samsung. Despite that, the colors still pop much more than a typical LCD. There is a setting to turn the  color to be a little more realistic if you want. I wouldn’t recommend it though, once you feast your eyes to the “vibrant”  mode, you wouldn’t wanna go back.

Performance

A snapdragon 820 chipset coupled with 4GB RAM powers the phone. This is the exact same configuration found in the Samsung Galaxy S7. The performance is really off the charts. I never experienced even one stutter during my time with the phone. However, the phone gets hot when playing intensive games. The hardware is well complimented by the stock software that is pre-installed.

Software

Moto Z being a former child of Google, the company being Android, comes in a stock software package. At launch, the phone comes with Android 6.0 but the new version, 7.0 Nougat,  has already been released as an Over-The-Air (OTA) update.
Only one app is non-stock, the Moto App. This is the hub of all the magic that makes the Moto Z’s software special. It hosts moto voice which lets you use your own custom phrase to wake the phone and give oral commands. The phone has 4 mics so you can rest assured that it will hear your command. I even tried it in a noisy room and it responded. No worrying about your African accent, chances are the Moto Z will understand your command clearly.

The Moto Display feature uses the two proximity sensors below the screen.  When you wave your hand above the display or take the phone out of your pocket, the display automatically turns on to show you your notifications.
The remaining sections of moto app is called Moto Actions, it helps to set up gestures for doing various things such as muting the phone, opening the camera app and so forth. My favorite gesture is double pressing the power key to open the Camera app, it works every time.

Since a 5.5 inch is too big for most people to operate with one hand, Moto Z comes with a thoughtful one handed mode. To activate it, you just swipe your finger up from the on screen keys. It is part of the options in the Moto Actions suite. Tapping on the black screen area deactivates it.

Telephony and multimedia
This is the section that has the most surprises. First of all, the Moto Z has its loud speaker at the earpiece above the display. It is loud enough to listen to music and do hands free calls. Normal calls are also very audible and sufficiently loud.
In the multimedia department. Watching  movies in this screen is a pleasure. The AMOLED reality does justice to videos. Couple that with a loudspeaker Moto Mod and you are in for quite an experience.
The other surprise comes in the music listening department. The Moto Z has no 3.5mm head phone jack instead it outputs audio via the USB-C port. Fortunately, there is a adapter in the box that coverts the USB port into a head phone jack so now you can still use your favorite earphones, just make sure not to lose the adapter. In case you do, you can stream music via Bluetooth as you look for USB-type C earphones.
The music produced via the earphones is loud and clear, the bass is decent and the vocals are very articulate. You will find yourself discovering new beats in your favorite songs.

Camera 

The rear camera is 13 MP with optical image stabilization for shooting blur free pics and shake free videos. There is a laser auto focus that ensures quick focus speeds. The camera can record upto 4k resolution  videos. Pictures on the camera look great especially under bright light. There is auto HDR which really works perfectly making sure there are no overexposed pictures at any given time . Professional mode is also onboard, this mode helps the pros gets creative with photography. Low light pics are okay if you use the dual LED flash. Not using the flash results in dull pictures that can only be savaged with the professional mode. In overall images produced have lots of detail and great dynamic range. The colors are saturated which really breaths life into the photos.

A 5MP selfie graces the front of the device. This is a unique camera that houses an arsenal of features to make your selfie great. It has beautification mode which can either be manual or automatic. There is a flash for bright low light selfies. A professional mode also exists too, this feature is usually rare on front facing cameras. In addition, HDR selfies are also at your disposal. The quality is the selfies is really amazing. The camera is wide angle so your can easily fit many people in it. The pictures have saturated color rendering and details are well captured.

Battery

Motorola insists that the device can give a whole day of battery life. Looking at the battery capacity of only 2600mAh powering a 5.5 inch QHD screen I was skeptical of that claim. I have seen phones with such small batteries struggling at pushing half this resolution. Well I was pleasantly surprised by the Moto Z. If you use the phone sparingly, it can achieve that kind of longevity. During standby, the phone almost doesn’t consume any battery life at all,  it seems Motorola really optimized the device. The only thing that’s seems to take a toll on the battery is activating Internet connection. If you go easy on the Internet surfing, the battery will last you a whole day. I once lasted 2 days without charging the device while using it to take photos, notes and some gaming.
When it comes to charging, the Moto Z is a champ. The Turbo Power charger that comes with the device is the fastest I have ever used. It only takes slightly over an hour to charge from 0-100%.

Moto Mods

This is the headline feature of the Moto Z. Moto Mods are basically hardware attachments that are magnetically connected to the device to extend its functionality. The back of the Moto Z has pics that integrate seamless with other pins on the mods.
The good people at Lenovo have us a JBL Sound Boost Mod for testing. It’s a two speaker unit with a built in kickstand. The unit attaches easily to the device and instantly outputs the audio from the phone. It is super loud and crisp. Even at the highest volume level it doesn’t distort. I found myself using it a lot when showing videos to a group of friends or playing a game.
Other mods are available such as a power pack mod for extra battery, an insta-share mod which serves as a portable projector, and moto shell for personalizing the back cover. You get one moto shell in the box.
There is a lot of potential in this mods and we are happy to see that other manufacturers are adopting them such as the keyboard mod being crowd funded at Indiegogo.

Conclusion 

The Moto Z is an amazing phone that I would recommend to anyone looking for a unique high end device. It has slimmest dimensions in the world, a beautiful AMOLED display, great pictures, decent battery life coupled with super fast charging, chart topping performance, and lastly, the advanced Moto Mods.
Its competitors include the class leading Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 edge, the HTC 10 which is very rare in Kenya, the one plus 3 such has the same screen size and internals but for a lower price tag, and the LG G5 which comes has its own solution for moto mods. None of this however gives you a powerful package in such a thin head turning form factor.

Since whatsapp was acquired by Facebook, it has been very vibrant in pushing new features. I have always looked forward to the next update, that was until the 24 hours status feature was released.

At first, I didn’t understand the update. Why would they cap it to only 24 hours, it’s simply not enough time to have all your friends see your status content . But after trying it several times it slowly grew on me. This whole time I kept missing the text based status; turns out I wasn’t the only one. There was a global backlash around the lack of the text status.

Fortunately, the whatsapp team has been listening and is on track to bringing it back. The evidence of this return comes from the whatsapp beta app. This app is used to test new features before they are rolled out to the stable app. Additionally, a statement from whatsapp was issued stating that the text update will appear next to profile names when a user is looking at group information or trying to start a new conversation.

Still on the whataspp beta app, there was once a feature that enabled users to delete or edit a text they had already sent if the recipient had not read it yet. We can only hope that this too makes it to the stable app soon. For now, let’s rejoice on the comeback of a beloved feature.

Samsung has been keen on its efforts on VR. The company has been vigorously pushing the platform forward by releasing new VR hardware and services that add value to its Gear VR line. On the 2018 Olympics in Korea, Samsung plans on live streaming the games to Gear VR customers all over the world. This will be the first time in the world that live streaming has occurred on virtual reality. The news comes at a great time when the  price of the Gear VR just got slashed by half from $100 to $50 (KES 5,000) in the US. Other parts of the world still get a reduced price of KES 8,000 ($80) from the company’s official website.

To make the ambitious live streaming a success, Samsung has already met with the ICT vice minister of Korea, delegates from LG and also members of KT telecom. Pulling off such a move will require a very fast and reliable network with the qualities of 5G service. Korea has always been at the forefront of network advancements, it’s also the home country of Samsung and LG so there is a very high likelihood that the project will be a success.

During the previous Olympics at Rio, Samsung gave their VR customers access to exclusive pre-recorded footage of sports and other events happening in the arena. This time round, the company is looking to build on that momentum.

Virtual Reality as a whole has been embraced by many developers and content providers. They include Netflix which has VR movies, Facebook 360 for watching videos, and Google Daydream for apps and all kinds of other VR content. The unique feeling of being immersed at the center of the action as if you were in the middle of the pitch or the battle field is what gives the technology its appeal. In Kenya, selected Samsung shops offer a first-hand experience of the VR right in the store. All you need to start enjoying VR is the headset which goes for around KES 8,000 to 10,000 and a supported smartphone. Currently the Samsung Gear VR only supports the Galaxy Note 5, Galaxy Note 7, Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 Edge, Galaxy S6 Edge Plus, Galaxy S7 and lastly the Galaxy S7 Edge.

Internet video streaming has come a long way. Nowadays , people do not have to follow TV scheduling like they used to back in the day.  That form of TV was very inconveniencing, if you weren’t seated in front of the television when your favorite program was being aired, then u would miss the show. Forever. Sure, the same system exist in most households, but at least for today, most shows are on YouTube, you can stream and catch up on what you missed.

One of the most streamed shows of all time, HBO’s Game of thrones, also called a Song of Ice and Fire, just took this new trend to new heights. So season 6 ended a while back, it was a mega hit so much so that people that had never watched the series bought season 1 to 5 just to understand what was the fuss with the epic season 6. Now, fans from all around the world are eagerly waiting for season 7, and the crew behind the show took advantage of this.  In a classic movie production style, the game of thrones team decided to use suspense to reveal the premier date for season 7.

They curved the date on a solid material and had ice melted around it. They then had cameras recording the action and live streaming the ice melting through Facebook Live. Fans of the show were then asked to comment with the word “fire” to have the melting accelerated by a flamethrower. Now, logically, the ice would melt and reveal the date; it was quite a fitting act considering the series comes from a book called “A song of ice and fire”

Over 100,000 people were tuned in for over one hour of watching ice melting excruciatingly slow. However, the stunt had its fair share of issues, Technical difficulties temporarily stopped the streaming twice.  Some say the two disruptions were to melt the ice faster  behind the scenes. Others on social media especially on Twitter made jokes on what would be revealed when the ice finally melts.

The fire finally won over the ice and the date was shown to be July 16, 2017. In addition, the producers of the series said that the last season (season 8) would be the shortest, only 6 episodes long. All we can do now is hope that the upcoming season 7 will be magnificent as season 6 was.

For all the Samsung users who lost faith in their Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 there is hope for variety with the new Samsung that is said to be introduced on March 29th. For Samsung, this will be the opportunity created for redemption after the Note 7 disaster. The new smartphone has been said to come in multiple color options, including white and Gold. Numerous hints have been aired on the Samsung website as they have been asking customers to sign up with their email address to get early notifications about the new Galaxy 8. Customers have also been given a segment to vote on the color that they would prefer for the New Galaxy. The options are black, silver and amethyst.

This is different from previous reports which suggest that in place of Amethyst, the color Violet would be available when the phones are announced. Violet is quite similar to Amethyst, so it is more than possible that all Samsung did was change the names of these tints. It is evident that Samsung is trying to make the Galaxy S8 appealing to a variety of customers especially because it is the first phone announced by the company, after the Galaxy Note 7 fiasco.

Although it is uncertain how the amethyst color will blend with the smaller bezels on the upcoming phone, especially since the Galaxy S8 is said to feature a 5.8-inch display, while the Galaxy S8 Plus will have a 6.2-inch screen. Black has been said to be the preferable color as it will fluently merge with the larger display and make top and bottom bezels almost indistinguishable when the screen is off. However, the preference for varied color variants is subjective, some users prefer their phones black, while others enjoy lively tones and shades.

Technology is ever evolving and has been constantly changing our lives with new gadgets coming our way. When someone once told me that everything will be driven by technology I laughed away as I said that clothes would never be a gadget. Here we are now, 2017 and two very different corporate companies have collaborated to bring to us wearable technology. The jacket, which Levi introduced this week was made in partnership with Google’s project Jacquard a division within the company’s Advanced Technology and Projects. After two years they have come up with Project Jacquard Commuter Trucker jacket.

Picture a jacket that is almost as good as your phone in every way. The jacket has conductive fibers that are woven directly into clothing these conductive fibers are flexible and can be washed — though the actual electronics are handled by the cufflink, which you have to remove before you wash the jacket. Any motions you make on the left cuff of the jacket’s sleeve register as touch inputs just like a screen. The process works just like any phone that connects through a wireless system. The jacket connects to your smartphone via a Bluetooth attachment that clips on as a cufflink.

The coolest thing about this jacket is the fabric of the left sleeve. It has a rechargeable tag tucked inside it. On the whole, this is one kind of a jacket as it is also smart. Because it is made up of conductive yarn it helps in all round touch functionality powered by the tag. The tag comes with support for USB charging, which makes it pretty easy for plug and charge. The functionalities on the Commuter jacket include playing music, opening lock screen, managing calendar, Google Maps, and much more as it pairs with your smartphone. Only snag being that it can’t work seamlessly with an iPhone.

Just by using finger movements you can check the time on your phone,  play-pause-forward the music, along with other features. To connect your phone to the Commuter jacket, you have to install “Project Jacquard” app on your phone and from the app you can pick gestures that you want for different functions. Levi’s also said that they are working on adding more gestures in the future, which would be helpful in making the jacket smarter.

Now that Kenya has 4G internet in some parts, a lot of possibilities have been opened, the market is now ripe for video streaming services.

Video Moja is a new entrant in that streaming space with a promise of enabling Kenyans to access thousands of movie titles for free.

Interface and functionality

After singing up with your Google Plus or Facebook credentials, you will be presented with a simple interface. The home tab has four sections namely, latest, trending, recommended, and favorite. The sections and the user interface are self-explanatory and one gets their way around pretty fast. The recommendations section is random at first but it gets better as the app learns from your preferences. The favorite section hosts the movies that you liked by tapping the love icon.

Clicking on a movie at any section brings you to an information page. The page gives a brief description of the movie, the cast and a star rating.  From the same page, you can share a movie with your friends via social media and you can also have a film moved to your watch list by clicking the “watch later” icon. Further down the page, there are a number of movies recommended; they are of a similar genre with the film in context.

Speaking of genres, there is a dedicated genres tab. The genres include Action, comedy, drama, romance, religious, and horror. In case you can’t find your movie, you can type its name in the search bar. The app conveniently starts displaying the search results as you are typing so you don’t have to finish the whole name.

There is a watch list tab that holds all the movies that you decided to “watch later”. If you change your mind on watching the movie, you can simply delete it from the watch-list with ease.

Lastly, you have a profile tab. This tab holds a compilation of all your watched movies in case you want to re-watch any of them. Under this tab, you can edit your profile and also make some setting preferences.

Impressions

While using Video Moja, there are some things I realized like the way every tab is reloaded a-fresh every time you revisit it, perhaps this helps maintain smooth performance by not overloading the RAM however, reloading the thumbnails every time might not be easy on your data bundles.

The movies in this app are sourced from Youtube, on one side, the move helps keep the content free, on the other side, the developers need to come up with new features to make people choose Video Moja over Youtube; all the current offerings on the app are already available on Youtube such as “liking a video” and “choosing watching a video later”.

Speaking of watching a movie later, the “share movie” button is so small and closely placed to the “watch later” button, such that it is hard to click one without accidentally touching the other

The selection of movies at the moment is mostly Nigerian. Well, given that the app has a Swahili name, I expected more East African content, hopefully some will come soon.

On a positive note, the list under the tabs kept changing with new content, this helps in discovering new movies. Moreover, for a video heavy app, Video Moja is fluid while navigating but to get the best experience, you will need a 4G connection and maybe 2GB RAM, and above, on your device. The star rating pop-up at the end of every movie is a great feature to collect ratings which are useful to other people who haven’t watched that particular film.

Pros

Free content

A large selection of movies

Quick app discovery from search bar and auto-refreshing sections

Fluid operation

Simple and straight forward interface

Cons

No Kenyan and International content, only Nollywood movies.

App heavily consumes data.