I have it in my hand. I will be happy to answer any questions, with the stipulation that I won't have a full picture of battery life until I use it for a few days.
Sprint Moto Z2 Force
- Thread starter stanleywinthrop
- Start date
I'm interested in the camera, particularly if you have another relatively newer phone for comparison shots. Thanks!
So I've had the phone close to 24 hours.
Some quick initial impressions:
1. Battery life. I'll need to use the phone for at least a week before I'm ready to call it "good" or "bad", but so far I have no complaints.
2. Camera. I have to warn you that I am not super picky about smartphone cameras. Generally all the previous Motorola's I have owned have suited my limited needs. That being said the few shots I have taken so far have been fine for me. I will post some after I have a good variety taken over the weekend.
The Good:
1. Software. Motorola continues to knock this area out of the park. Phone has the standard Motorola interface we have come to love over the past 4 years. It is buttery smooth and I haven't encountered a single stutter yet. There has been one pleasant surprise: while I don't think it is the full google pixel app, the phone app does now incorporate local searches much like the google version. Very nice feature that I have been side loading for the past few years. One Button Nav: I understand this feature isnt for everyone I suggest that you give it a try. It's awesome once you get used to it. There was a software update waiting when I first turned the phone on. It claimed to fix a "battery meter" problem. The update was performed in the background and required a reboot at the end, which is the first time I have encountered this process. Very convenient compared to the old method that took away your phone for the duration of the update.
2. Hardware. After all the hoopla about reduced battery size for thinness this phone is beefier than I was expecting. It is not as thin feeling in my hands as I was led to believe by most of the reviews.
3. Here's a pleasant little quirk: the included charger does the 5V\3A (PD) quick charging as well as Qualcomm quick charge 2.0. I'm not sure if any other charger out there can do that.
4. Display: very good, no complaints. After the hoopla over the scratch ability, the first thing I did upon opening was to put a cheap glass screen protector on. So far despite being only $6 it has been doing the job. I do not have the "crinkling" sound some reviewers have reported. I'm inclined to believe that particular problem was confined to pre-production models.
The Bad:
So a couple of nitpicks that I want to relay:
1. SD card. For whatever reason (maybe because of Sprint?) you can't make the SD card integrated storage. This is the first time I've run into this restriction on a Motorola phone, and it's annoying.
2. Sprint bloatware. Lots of it. Good news is that almost all of it is deletable or can be disabled.
3. Here is a minor annoyance. Recently Sprint released a MySprint app on the Play Store. On other Sprint phones, the My Sprint app would download and automatically replace the old Sprint Zone app. For some reason on this phone when I downloaded the My Sprint app, the Sprint Zone app remained, so I have both. Annoying.
So that's all I have for now. Overall, I am extremely pleased with my purchase, especially at Best Buy's price.
Some quick initial impressions:
1. Battery life. I'll need to use the phone for at least a week before I'm ready to call it "good" or "bad", but so far I have no complaints.
2. Camera. I have to warn you that I am not super picky about smartphone cameras. Generally all the previous Motorola's I have owned have suited my limited needs. That being said the few shots I have taken so far have been fine for me. I will post some after I have a good variety taken over the weekend.
The Good:
1. Software. Motorola continues to knock this area out of the park. Phone has the standard Motorola interface we have come to love over the past 4 years. It is buttery smooth and I haven't encountered a single stutter yet. There has been one pleasant surprise: while I don't think it is the full google pixel app, the phone app does now incorporate local searches much like the google version. Very nice feature that I have been side loading for the past few years. One Button Nav: I understand this feature isnt for everyone I suggest that you give it a try. It's awesome once you get used to it. There was a software update waiting when I first turned the phone on. It claimed to fix a "battery meter" problem. The update was performed in the background and required a reboot at the end, which is the first time I have encountered this process. Very convenient compared to the old method that took away your phone for the duration of the update.
2. Hardware. After all the hoopla about reduced battery size for thinness this phone is beefier than I was expecting. It is not as thin feeling in my hands as I was led to believe by most of the reviews.
3. Here's a pleasant little quirk: the included charger does the 5V\3A (PD) quick charging as well as Qualcomm quick charge 2.0. I'm not sure if any other charger out there can do that.
4. Display: very good, no complaints. After the hoopla over the scratch ability, the first thing I did upon opening was to put a cheap glass screen protector on. So far despite being only $6 it has been doing the job. I do not have the "crinkling" sound some reviewers have reported. I'm inclined to believe that particular problem was confined to pre-production models.
The Bad:
So a couple of nitpicks that I want to relay:
1. SD card. For whatever reason (maybe because of Sprint?) you can't make the SD card integrated storage. This is the first time I've run into this restriction on a Motorola phone, and it's annoying.
2. Sprint bloatware. Lots of it. Good news is that almost all of it is deletable or can be disabled.
3. Here is a minor annoyance. Recently Sprint released a MySprint app on the Play Store. On other Sprint phones, the My Sprint app would download and automatically replace the old Sprint Zone app. For some reason on this phone when I downloaded the My Sprint app, the Sprint Zone app remained, so I have both. Annoying.
So that's all I have for now. Overall, I am extremely pleased with my purchase, especially at Best Buy's price.
Last edited:
So, I thought I'd check back in with an update as I've now had the phone for a week.
1. Battery life: Perfectly acceptable. I'm averaging 4-4.5 hours of screen time. This is a step down from the Moto G5 Plus I recently had, but that's not a fair comparison as the G5+ had the best battery life of any phone i've ever owned, including the 3900 Mah Droid Turbo.
2. Camera. Acceptable for my uses. I'm posting some pictures below. I'm not picky when it comes to cameras and this one has adequately performed everything I've asked it to.
3. everything else I mentioned is holding up. The software is superb and the hardware is solid.
1. Battery life: Perfectly acceptable. I'm averaging 4-4.5 hours of screen time. This is a step down from the Moto G5 Plus I recently had, but that's not a fair comparison as the G5+ had the best battery life of any phone i've ever owned, including the 3900 Mah Droid Turbo.
2. Camera. Acceptable for my uses. I'm posting some pictures below. I'm not picky when it comes to cameras and this one has adequately performed everything I've asked it to.
3. everything else I mentioned is holding up. The software is superb and the hardware is solid.
I thought I'd comment on a few Sprint specific things:
1. Sprint Zone/My Sprint apps. This situation never really resolved itself. I removed the Sprint Zone app via an adb method (it's out there) and downloaded the My Sprint from the Play Store and it works perfectly.
2. APN settings. This is the first Sprint phone I've owned that allows the user to access APN settings. I'm not quite sure what that signifies.
3. Dialer: As I stated the default dialer is the google one that includes the "nearby" places feature. Very useful, and from what I gather none of the other versions of the Z2 force include the nearby places feature.
4. Voicemail. Sprint's standard android voicemail app is included. It includes adds unless you want to pay extra. Annoying.
5. Wifi calling is a part of the software, and it works fine. The only drawback is that Sprints HD voice codec is disabled when wifi calling is enabled. Recently Sprint's Samsung S8 phones were updated to "calling plus" which is a VoLTEish service that allows data and voice calls simultaneously. I'm hoping this software is pushed to the Z2 in the near future.
1. Sprint Zone/My Sprint apps. This situation never really resolved itself. I removed the Sprint Zone app via an adb method (it's out there) and downloaded the My Sprint from the Play Store and it works perfectly.
2. APN settings. This is the first Sprint phone I've owned that allows the user to access APN settings. I'm not quite sure what that signifies.
3. Dialer: As I stated the default dialer is the google one that includes the "nearby" places feature. Very useful, and from what I gather none of the other versions of the Z2 force include the nearby places feature.
4. Voicemail. Sprint's standard android voicemail app is included. It includes adds unless you want to pay extra. Annoying.
5. Wifi calling is a part of the software, and it works fine. The only drawback is that Sprints HD voice codec is disabled when wifi calling is enabled. Recently Sprint's Samsung S8 phones were updated to "calling plus" which is a VoLTEish service that allows data and voice calls simultaneously. I'm hoping this software is pushed to the Z2 in the near future.
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