Verizon Announces Price And Availability For Moto Z And Moto Z Force Droid Editions

Today Motorola and Verizon announced the availability and pricing details for the Moto Z Droid Edition and the Moto Z Force Droid Edition, the Verizon exclusive versions of Motorola’s Moto Z smartphones. The Moto Z Droid with 32GB of internal storage costs $26 per month for 24 months using Verizon’s device payment plan or $624 total. The Moto Z Force Droid costs $30 per month for 24 months or $720 total. Both phones will also be available with 64GB of NAND through Motorola’s Moto Maker website for an extra $50. The new Moto Z Droids are up for preorder online starting today and will be available for purchase in Verizon stores beginning July 28.

Pricing for the Moto Mods, the modular accessories that snap onto the back of the phones using strong magnets, was also revealed. The JBL SoundBoost speaker, which includes two speakers, a kickstand, and an additional 1000mAh battery, costs $79.99. The Moto Insta-Share DLP projector, which outputs a 854×480 WVGA image at 50 lumens nominal and also includes an 1100mAh battery, is $299.99. Incipio, Kate Spade, and TUMI offer several 2200mAh Power Packs that range in price from $59.99 to $89.99. Each design comes in both standard and wireless charging versions, with the latter supporting the Qi and PMA standards.

Moto Insta-Share Projector, Style Shell, JBL SoundBoost speaker

Just like with past Motorola phones, there are several decorative back plates that allow you to customize the look and feel of the new Droids. These come in several colors and materials, including real wood, leather, and fabric, and sit flush with the rear camera when snapped into place. The decorative Style Shells start at $14.99, with the nylon fabric and wood versions costing $19.99 and the leather-covered plates costing $24.99. All of the Moto Mods and back plates will be available the same day as the phones.

Motorola first announced the Moto Z and Moto Z Force at Lenovo’s Tech World event in June. These new phones replace the Moto X family as the company’s flagship devices. Both phones have a 5.5-inch QHD (2560×1440) AMOLED screen and come with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820 SoC, 4GB LPDDR4 RAM, and either 32GB or 64GB of internal storage that’s expandable via microSD.

Moto Z Droid (left) and Moto Z Force Droid (right)

There are a few notable differences between the two models. The Moto Z Droid comes with a smaller 2600mAh battery packed inside an especially thin all-aluminum chassis. The Moto Z Force Droid bumps battery capacity to 3500mAh and increases rear camera resolution to 21MP versus 13MP for the Moto Z Droid. It also includes a hybrid autofocus system that combines PDAF with a laser, which should be a step up from the standard Z’s laser autofocus. Both cameras have f/1.8 apertures and OIS.

While the Moto Z Droid’s screen is covered edge to edge with Corning Gorilla Glass, the Moto Z Force Droid uses Motorola’s second-generation Moto ShatterShield technology, which should improve the screen’s resistance to cracking or shattering if dropped.

For more information about these phones, including a full list of specifications and additional pictures and discussion, please see our original Lenovo Tech World article.

Meizu MX6 Launched: 10-core Helio X20, 5.5-inch Full HD, ¥1999

The launch cadence for Meizu smartphones has been rather speedy as of late. Already this year we’ve seen the introduction of the m3, the m3 Note, the Pro 6, and at the tail-end of last year we had the Pro 5 as well. This week sees the launch of the MX6, an update to the MX5, using MediaTek’s 10-core Helio X20 (MT6797) SoC.

Alongside the SoC, the MX6 uses a Full HD (1920×1080) display measuring 5.5 inches, 4GB of LPDDR3 memory with 32GB of storage, a 3060 mAh battery, a fingerprint sensor, a USB Type-C connector and Android 6.0 with Meizu’s Flyme UI. While there is no microSD card slot, the MX6 will offer Dual-SIM capabilities and uses a reported ‘24W’ peak charging mode to fully charge in 75 minutes or a 10 minute charge should give a half day of battery (though Meizu doesn’t specify if that’s a half ‘working day’ or actually 12 hours, probably the former given that the device is rated at 9 working hours on the website).

The rear camera is a 12MP Sony IMX386, with 1.25-micron pixels, phase-detection auto focus (PDAF), an f/2.0 lens and dual tone flash. While the MP count seems to have dropped from the MX5, the use of larger pixels to increase image clarity in low light, combined with PDAF, has its own advantages. The 5.5-inch TDDI display according to the spec sheets is good for 1500:1 contrast ratio, 85% NTSC and a peak brightness of 500 nits – it’s worth noting that Meizu’s landing page states ‘500 cd/m² Peak’ but the specification sheet says ‘450 cd/m² typical’. The Cat 6 modem is supported by dual-band 802.11ac and BT 4.1, while the fingerprint sensor has a rated response time of 0.2 seconds. The 7.25mm unibody design features the microphone port on the bottom next to the USB Type-C, and dual microphones (one each end) with additional noise cancelling software filters.

The MX6 will launch in China for 1,999 yuan (~$298.51), with pre-orders taken from today for a shipping date of July 30^th. Gray, silver, gold and rose gold colors will be available. There is no indication yet if the MX6 will be sold outside China or in capacities other than 32GB.

Related Reading:

July 2016: The Meizu m3 Note Review (with Redmi Note 3 for comparison)
June 2016: The Meizu PRO 5 Review
Feb 2015: The Meizu MX4 Pro Review

Gallery: Meizu MX6 Launched: 10-core Helio X20, 5.5-inch Full HD, ¥1999

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