The Moto Z4 is the latest iteration of Motorola’s modular handset that mixes premium design and features. It’s also an excellent option for those upgrading to 5G on Verizon.
The Z4 runs Android 9 Pie and has handy gestures like twisting to launch the camera or chopping to activate the flashlight. It’s also got Motorola’s One-Button Nav system, which replaces the standard three-button setup with a swipeable button.
Display
The Motorola Moto Z4 is a beautiful smartphone with a great screen, an excellent camera, and a unique Android experience. It’s a solid mid-range option for anyone looking to upgrade from an older phone or who wants to spend less than $500 on a new phone.
The Moto Z4’s display is a 6.4-inch 1080p OLED panel with a 19.5:9 aspect ratio. It offers wide viewing angles, crisp details, and vibrant colors.
Camera
The Moto Z4 is the latest midrange phone to feature a rear-mounted camera with a 48-megapixel lens. Unlike its predecessors, it doesn’t use twin lenses but relies on software to augment the camera’s single lens.
The software delivers features such as AI Portrait Lighting, auto smile capture, and intelligent composition that automatically generates a second photo to ensure the shot is aligned correctly. You can also enable a Night Vision mode that works similarly to the dedicated night modes found on other phones.
Battery
If you’re looking for a smartphone with good battery life and screen quality, the Moto Z4 may be precisely what you need. Motorola’s latest modular phone offers impressive battery performance and a line of adapters to customize your experience without the high price tag attached to many of today’s popular phones.
The Moto Z4’s battery is one of the biggest strengths, with an impressive 3632mAh cell that’ll last up to two days on a single charge if you don’t use it to its full potential. That’s longer than the previous Moto Z3, and if you need more juice, the TurboPower charger that comes with the device can give you up to 120 minutes of top-up time.
While it doesn’t offer wireless charging, you can add it later with a Moto Mod. The Z4 also introduces Night Vision, which helps improve low-light photos by combining eight frames of an image and dynamic noise reduction and sharpening to produce a cleaner result in dark environments.
Performance
The Motorola Moto Z4 is an Android phablet built for the future. It’s upgradeable to 5G, with a 6.4-inch 1080p OLED screen, 128GB of storage, and a headphone jack.
The screen is very vibrant, with excellent contrast and natural or oversaturated colors, depending on your viewing preferences. It’s a great way to see what you’re doing on the go, but details can be fuzzy in bright light.
While this phone doesn’t perform as well as last year’s OnePlus 6T or Google Pixel 3A XL, it’s still a suitable midrange device for $500. It’s also likely to get updated quickly with software updates from Motorola, which is a big deal for the Android ecosystem.
Software
There’s a lot to love about Motorola’s near-stock Android 9 Pie interface. It’s simple to use and doesn’t have any bloatware.
There are a few excellent additions to the software, including Moto Actions and a gesture-based navigation mode. There’s also an app switcher that makes it easier to switch between apps and the home screen.
One of my favorite features is the option to swipe to shrink the UI to either lower corner for more effortless one-handed operation. There are gestures like two quick chops to toggle the flashlight, flipping for Do Not Disturb mode and others.
