Yeah, that might be a familiar name.
Some of you remember my initial thoughts on the Moto Z, which were admittedly a bit sour and kinda skeptical. While I did warm up slightly over time, I still wasn't too much of a fan of it. And now, here we are. What a plot twist, eh?
The story on how I got it was pretty interesting.
Some of you remember my bad luck with phones, beginning with dead LG G4s, and progressing to the Note 7, of which you already know the fate that befell that beautiful, but ill-fated device.
So, living on a 3.5 year old One M7 again for some time, since I had a vacation in Thailand popping up, I decided to go purchase a new phone there as an unlocked device. I initially wanted to go for an unlocked HTC 10 in Carbon Gray. Well, after some time searching for one, I concluded that finding an HTC 10 is like finding a needle in a haystack, as the place was pretty much populated with Huaweis, Oppos and Vivos, along with the usual Apple and Samsung section. My next choice was the ZTE Axon 7. I was very close to getting the gray model, only to be told that they were out of stock not only in the particular store I was in, but also throughout the city. It also didn't help that this particular Axon was the A2017G variant, which has poorer software support and global LTE compatibility.
Yet another defeat. The Oppo and Vivo devices didn't interest me and while the S7 edge is a mighty fine device, I wanted to try something different. There was actually a Moto Z and a Z Play right behind me, but I only played with them for a few minutes, and that particular store didn't have them in stock yet. An XPERIA XZ and X Compact was also present, but I had concerns with the way Sony's been going with their handset business.
I decided that if I am unable to find a good Android-powered handset by the end, I may just spring for an iPhone 7 Plus, which had the 128GB variant in stock and was also globally unlocked (sadly, it has the Intel modem, which I didn't like, something which may influence my decision to just purchase the US unlocked model).
After a while in Bangkok's famous
Mahboonkrong mall, I came across a store whose other branch I visited the other day. Again, they didn't have the Axon 7 in stock (only the Axon 7 Mini), but when I asked about the Moto Z, they apparently did have quite a few in stock, mainly the Z Play but they also had 2 Moto Zs, albeit they were in white.
After looking at the 2, I eventually decided on the regular Moto Z (even though I feel the Moto Z Play is the better all-rounder) and I got a JBL SoundBoost MotoMod for a pretty nice price. I'm still trying to find an Incipio mod to make the battery last longer.
Pretty interesting story on how I came to the Moto Z, eh? It was not what I planned for, but I am actually quite surprised by it. I'll post a full impressions and review after a while.
