by Kymberly Martin
With a mod squad of conversions
A collection of revolutionary interchangeable backs that converts a smartphone at a quick click into a zoom camera, big screen projector, boombox or battery powerhouse. That is the Moto Z, (pronounced zee), launched by Motorola Mobility in Sydney on Wednesday.
The Moto Z launch is being support by advertising in cinemas, newspapers and on buses and trams in Sydney and Melbourne, with out-of-home advertising in Westfield shopping centres directing customers to Harvey Norman stores.
“This is our biggest campaign for Motorola in Australia for many years,” Moto marketing manager for Australia and New Zealand, Diana Jones told Appliance Retailer, at the media launch. “It’s an important product for us, a new category, an innovation and we are investing heavily into it.
“Moto Z is the first device of its type. Some competitors have tried to do this entire modular experience before but it has not really worked because these were clunky and you needed to pull the phone apart to attach it. This is an easy snap on system that is ready to go and use with whatever Moto Mod appeals, it depends what the passions are.”
The world’s thinnest premium smartphone packs in a lot of features, such as a 5.5-inch AMOLED display, a Snapdragon 820 processor, coupled with 4GB of RAM plus 64GB of storage supported by up to 2TB of extra storage via a MicroSD card. There is also 13MP camera and front-facing 5MP camera along with a 2600 mAh battery that gives up to 24 hours of mixed usage battery life. The Moto Z retails at $999.
Its sibling, the Moto Z Play looks almost identical, but delivers more battery life – up to 45 hours with its massive 3510 mAh battery but less storage with 3GB of RAM with up to 2TB with microSD and a 16MP camera. RRP is $699.
Now for the other stars of the Moto show, the Moto Mods – these magnetically attach to both the Moto Z and Moto Z Play and turn the smartphones into a stereo sound speaker, a True Zoom camera or a 70-inch movie projector.
The Moto Mods include: the JBL SoundBoost speaker ($159); Hasselblad True Zoom camera ($399); Instashare Projector ($429); Incipio Power Pack ($119), ($139 for wireless option); Style Caps in six finishes ($29-$39).