Most anticipated tech of 2016: August to December edition
Motorola Moto Z
Fall 2016 update
Upon its debut in July, Motorola's premium Moto Z made waves with its magnetic snap-on accessories. Unlike the LG G5, which featured swappable components but fell short on execution, the Moto Z's modularity offered coherence and ease of use.
With the Moto Z Play released in September, Motorola trims down the hardware but beefs up the battery, retains the modularity and lowers the price. Affordable, reliable and resilient, the Z Play is an excellent midrange phone -- even without the quirky Mods. It's available in the US on Verizon for $408; the unlocked GMS version will become available globally in October for $450 (or £347 and AU$590, converted). Though it doesn't have all of the bells and whistles of the original Z or Z Force, the Z Play embodies most of the best virtues of the Z series -- and includes an increasingly rare 3.5mmheadphone jack -- without breaking the bank.
The Moto Z Play and Hasselblad True Zoom snap-on camera module.
With the Moto Z (or Moto Z Droid Edition as it's called by US carrier Verizon), customization isn't about what your phone looks like. It's about what it does. Snap-on "Moto Mods" give your phone a meatier battery, turn it into a boombox for your weekend cookout and transform it into a video projector for an impromptu movie night.
These Mods aren't perfect. They add a layer of bulk when they snap onto the phone's back and you'll need to cough up extra dough to buy them. But Motorola's whole magnetic take on the modular ecosystem is simpler and more approachable than Google's intricate (and still developing) Project Ara. It's also easier to use than LG's clunky G5, which forces you to remove the battery, thereby turning off the phone, if you want to swap parts.
On top of that, the phone ain't cheap. Motorola hasn't said how much the Z costs worldwide, but it will sell with US carrier Verizon for $624. International prices aren't available yet, but convert to about £475 or AU$835.
On the whole, the Moto Z is a reliable and powerful device that can stand up to most of the top-of-the-line phones -- and that's even if you strip away the compelling modular factor. But you wouldn't do that, would you, because those modules are half the fun.
If you're not interested in snapping on an extra battery, or case, or speaker, then skip the Moto Z andbuy something else. But if you can't wait to be on the cutting edge of smartphone design, the Z here is actually useful while still being different and cool. (If you're from the US, you could also check out the Moto Z's meatier counterpart, the Moto Z Force Droid Edition, but in truth I like the Moto Z better.)
Without a doubt, the Moto Z's biggest draw is its Moto Mods, hot-swappable accessories that can decorate the back or, better yet, add extra functionality -- such as a battery pack or audio speaker.
Motorola's take is polished and well-executed because attaching the Mods is as easy as lining up magnetic parts -- science does the rest. You can change Mods in seconds and won't have to power off the phone to do so. There's a decent variety of starter Mods, and Motorola's parent company Lenovo says it's lining up more partners.
Companies such as Incipio, Tumi and Kate Spade make battery packs that can wirelessly charge the phone while also extending battery life. JBL's snap-on speaker rests on a kickstand while it cranks out tunes louder than the phone's built-in speaker. Perhaps the quirkiest Mod, however, is from Motorola itself: the Insta-Share Projector beams images, videos and the Moto Z's display onto any surface. Check out Moto Mods pricing and availability here.
By and large, the Mods stay put when you snap them on. Slimmer "Style Shells" (think of this as a customized back plate) hugged the Moto Z when we dropped it from every angle onto carpet. The bulkier speakers sometimes popped off at the end of a 4-foot drop (which we expected), but otherwise, you'll pull them off when you want to.
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Lenovo Phab2 Pro: World's first Google Tango phone could be the key to mind-blowing indoor maps
I'm walking around the conference room, aiming my Tango phone at the space between two chairs where Lenovo executives are sitting. A third empty chair, a plush leather one, sits on the carpet. I'm walking around it, seeing how it looks. But it isn't real: it's augmented, generated by an app on my phone screen. As I move around, it stays in place convincingly. I think to myself...I could use this to furniture-shop for my living room without even lifting a finger
If you haven't used Google's Project Tango, or don't even know what it is, let me simplify: it's a depth-sensing 3D camera system that can scan the world around you and help place virtual objects in the real world. It might be the future of where smart cameras are headed. And it could be a sign of how phones might evolve further into world-scanning powerhouses.
Google's been developing Tango for years as a way to measure distances in 3D space, map out indoor areas, and create virtual and augmented reality, floating virtual objects into real space. Now, Lenovo's got the world's first ready-to-buy Tango phone, and it's calling it the Lenovo Phab2 Pro. And it'll be available this September.
What Tango can do
CNET's seen Tango in action many times, doing all sorts of funky things: simulating furniture shopping,navigating museums, diving in giant VR aquariums. Tango has been in a developer-kit tablet for a while, where it was used for lots of experimental ideas. Tango's chief skills are depth-sensing, location-mapping, and placing virtual objects into reality with a better sense of accuracy. On the tablet, most apps were used in landscape mode. On the Phab2 Pro, most Tango apps are still landscape-mode oriented, too.
The apps I got to try were varied. One placed virtual furniture in the room I was in, allowing me to experiment with what would fit in real, physical space. Lowe's is making one of the first potential Tango killer apps with Lowe's Vision, which measures living space and then can layer in additions, furniture and decor to model in the space. Think Microsoft HoloLens, but instead of floating in front of your face you're viewing things on your phone screen. The rear trio of Tango-enabled cameras have an infrared depth-sensing, a wide-angle lens, and can track motion.
There was another app where I was able to walk around the room I was in, while the Tango camera started generating a 3D photo-mapped model of where I was. This is Tango's most amazing feature: with a bunch of these, you could walk around and map out interior spaces in full 3D. Tango's also unique because it can not only measure, but learn about the shape of areas: where objects begin and end, and where walls and doorways are. At Google I/O, Google said it's aiming to use this tech to map out interior places with the accuracy of outdoor maps. Maybe it's to beef up Google Maps' worldwide database. As an everyday person, however, I'm not still not sure how this would help anyone.
That's the biggest challenge with Tango: it still feels like tech seeking a killer app or purpose. But it definitely has a bunch of clever tricks up its sleeve.
There are a few games, too. I tried running around and shooting at virtual alien-things that hopped around the room I was actually in -- the conference table, the chairs -- much like some augmented reality phone games have already allowed for years. On Tango, the position tracking is far more accurate. It still feels a little silly. More impressively, I laid virtual dominoes on the nearby table and watched them knock down one by one. I walked around my domino creation, and it mostly stayed put -- with a bit of drift that Lenovo says will be corrected by launch. I looked a 3D velociraptor model standing in the corner of the conference room.
Lenovo promises 22 Tango-ready apps for launch this year, and estimates up to 100 apps by the end of 2017. Those numbers may sound conservative. Tango still feels like a development project, in a lot of ways.
Smart cameras are the future (probably)
Tango isn't the only type of smart camera tech lurking around: Intel's 3D RealSense cameras have been around for years, and can also track depth. They're making their way into other devices includinghelmets. Microsoft's developed similar positional-tracking tech in the Kinect and in the HoloLens. Amazon tried something similar in spirit with the Fire Phone and its array of cameras. And Apple acquired Primesense, the company that created the Kinect, back in 2013.
There have been many attempts at similar tech. Will Tango get it right?
Smarter cameras equipped with more advanced computer vision processing and deep learning could be the magic equation. Face and object recognition, auto navigation, and advanced mixed-reality applications that fuse the virtual and real. If phones get upgraded, smarter cameras, they could be doorways into a new future.
The Tango phone is called the Lenovo Phab2 Pro
Lenovo's new Phab2 phone line comes in three models, all of them with massive 6.4-inch screens. The one with Google's new magic Tango cameras -- the Phab2 Pro -- costs more ($499 unlocked in the US, equivalent to £345 UK or AU$672), and has an extra camera array on the back, arranged down the middle. There's a wide-angle camera, plus infrared depth sensing and motion tracking.
The Phab2 Pro has a Quad HD-resolution display, 4GB of RAM, and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 processor that's specifically built for Tango. The phone's large size means it feels more like a tablet than a phone. But it's smaller than the previous developer-edition Tango tablet, and more affordable. Plus, it's a connected phone. For those reasons alone, it'll likely be the new Tango device of choice. Whether it becomes more depends on apps.
Specs
Apple iPhone 7
curved wraparound screen? Nope. Wireless charging? Not yet. Are you bothered that the new iPhone looks the same as last year's iPhone? If you are, I understand the feeling. The iPhone 7 doesn't feel like the "whole new thing." Does that bother you? Maybe. But is it better? Yeah, it is. Except for one small 3.5-millimeter thing.
The iPhone 7, as you may have heard (you've certainly heard), has no headphone jack and it looks almost identical to the 2014 iPhone 6 and 2015 iPhone 6S. But there are still compelling reasons to consider an iPhone 7, even if you own last year's model.
It's also got a "wide color gamut" screen with enhanced color accuracy, and enhanced stereo speakers, though I didn't find those improvements as critical as the ones above. And the home button isn't "clickable" anymore -- it uses the same pressure sensitivity and vibration feedback found on the 3D Touch screen. It works perfectly well, but takes some getting used to because there's no mechanical click when you press the home button.
As with last year's iPhone choices, you can also opt for the step-up iPhone 7 Plus, which offers a larger screen (5.5 inches vs. 4.7 inches). But that model's big attraction is the dual rear cameras, which can stitch together two images to offer unique effects such as 2x optical zoom and -- after a future software upgrade -- a cool in-camera bokeh effect, which blurs the background while keeping the foreground in focus.
Now, should you wait until 2017? All the rumors point to Apple delivering a major design overhaul for the iPhone's 10th anniversary -- anything from a Galaxy Edge-style wraparound OLED screen to a fingerprint sensor hidden under the screen to wireless charging. It's tempting. But in the meantime, especially if you want to take advantage of the various retro-contract "free with 2-year commitment" offers, know that the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus are worthy, useful upgrades to their predecessors -- even if they look almost identical from the outside.
Let's not diminish the missing headphone jack. The loss will hurt, especially while other iPhones exist that still have a headphone jack onboard. If you want to plug regular headphones into your new iPhone, a process that seemed simple and uncomplicated before, you now need to consider whether you brought the included dongle, or have a pair of Bluetooth headphones. Or your special Lightning headphones that come in the box. But it's surmountable. I lived with the new iPhone 7 and 7 Plus for a week, and this is my story of life without the jack and with everything else in the new iPhones.
Headphone jackless
Mark me down as someone who will miss the headphone jack.
Despite living in a mostly wearable, wireless world, I don't like Bluetooth headphones. And I also hate dongles. I'm learning to deal with both now. Apple's new AirPods make a case for how more-advanced Bluetooth mini-earphones could be fun to carry around. But to me, nothing beats a cheap pair of plug-and-play earphones for lazy convenience.
Other phones that offer what the iPhone 7 offers don't seem to need to get rid of a headphone jacks. But maybe the trend will grow. The adoption of USB-C, a versatile jack, may lead to headphone jacks going away in Android phones, too. Maybe we should just get ready for the change.
No headphone jack means you'll have to make do with a dongle
True, the iPhone 7 gives you a number of options: Get a pair of Bluetooth headphones. Apple's AirPods, maybe? I'll get to those in a minute. You could use the included wired Apple EarPods, which now have a strange Lightning plug instead of a 3.5mm one. Or the Lightning-to-regular-headphone adapter dongle, which Apple's thoughtfully included in the box. (You can buy extras for $9 a pop.) But you have to remember to take it everywhere with you, and who wants to remember to carry a dongle? (If you leave it attached to your headphones, you better not bring another pair of headphones.)
That little headphone jack is the one thing that I could see bothering people about this phone. Like the single USB-C port on Apple's newest MacBook, it's a compromise that feels forced.
If you're already a wireless headphone power user, you won't miss a thing. But someday -- who knows when? -- you'll find yourself somewhere wanting to use a pair of wired headphones. And you'll find that you can't plug them in because you left your dongle behind. Don't cry to me when that happens.
Design: Black is the new black
In a world of curved eye-popping displays, the iPhone now looks a little old-fashioned. It's slim and attractive and still very well-designed, but the iPhone 7 looks just like the iPhone 6 and 6S. It's like the MacBook Air, or the iPad: A familiar, old form. Maybe more durable, but it's mostly the same. Apple smoothed out the seams that used to hide the phone's antennae, so the aluminum around the back looks smoother. The camera bump is larger, by just a bit.
As Spinal Tap would say, the new jet-black variant (left) is "none more black."
Apple added new colors this year, too. Now the phone comes in two versions of black in addition to the existing silver, gold and rose gold colors. Regular black is matte, while jet black is a high gloss. Jet black, it turns out, is a fingerprint and scratch magnet. Mine is already peppered with microabrasions after just a few days. My suggestion: Don't buy jet black if you care about scratches.
But if you're looking at the iPhone 7 from the front, it's almost impossible to distinguish from the iPhone 6 or 6S. That's how similar the design is.
A home button that doesn't click
Using the new home button, even after a week, feels weird. It's been a hard adjustment.
I've clicked so many home buttons. The iPhone 7's "button" is really a solid state circle that doesn't move at all. It's like the new MacBook trackpads, in a sense. Push down, and you get a haptic "click" that's not quite as satisfying.
Say farewell to the satisfying click of the home button.
You won't wear down the button, though, because it doesn't move. And really, it feels a bit like 3D Touch -- Apple's new pressure-sensitive touchscreen tech introduced on the 6S and returning on the 7 -- moved into the home button.
So if that home button is now just a flat surface, it also feels like a carrot on a stick to use 3D Touch more. I still don't use it much, but iOS 10 uses it a lot more...and to some effective ends. There are so many ways to pull up apps from the home screen, or check info, that the home button really isn't needed much. Now that the screen auto-wakes on lifting, that's doubly true. I bet that home button will just disappear next year, with the fingerprint reader absorbed into the display. Why not?
Yeah, it's really water resistant (but don't go swimming with it)
Apple's IP67 water-resistance rating on the new iPhone finally catches up to phones that have been dunkable for a while. Samsung's Galaxy S7 can survive a drop in the sink. The Note 7 can do it, too. Even the supercheap Moto G4 can do it.
How water resistant is the iPhone 7? Apple calls it "splash and water resistant," and by the way, IP67 means 1 meter of water for 30 minutes and complete dust resistance. But Apple also warns that any dip in salt water should be followed by an immediate rinse in fresh water. And also, you have to dry your phone for at least a couple of hours before charging (I'd take the safe side with this).
Apple finally takes the plunge and waterproofs its iPhones.
I took the iPhone 7 in the shower. I dropped it in a fish tank a few times. I put it in a sink and turned on the tap and filled the sink with the iPhone in it. Stay tuned for further, longer tests. But it's survived every test easily. But FYI, capacitive displays go nutty in water. You won't be able to use it when submerged -- nor should you.
Other small perks: Stereo speakers, a slightly improved display, buzzier haptics
I couldn't appreciate Apple's wider color-gamut display on the iPhone 7, which is supposed to the best next to the iPad Pro 9.7 and 5K iMac, as well as 25 percent brighter. It's good, don't get me wrong. But to my eyes, next to a 6S or 6S Plus, it felt the same. And in direct sunlight (I used it in seriously bright New York September sun), it was sometimes hard to see. Like all iPhones, but not really better.
The speakers sound louder. They surround the left and right sides of the iPhone now, instead of a single speaker down by the home button. It's better for casual game playing or movie watching, but I'd take headphones every time. Or, if I was sharing with someone, I'd pick a larger screen. They don't always sound as defined and crisp as I'd like.
The display is still a bit difficult to view in direct sunlight.
The best improvement of all might be haptics: the vibrations, or rumbles, or taps, or throbs the phone makes in response to your actions. Apple updated the "Taptic Engine" in the iPhone 7, which makes all the vibrations seem sharper and more defined. The silence mode is now a quick tip-tap. Pushing in on 3D Touch icons (if you even do that) throbs more readily. Some sounds and settings now come with phone-rumbling enhancements. Change the clock time, feel the click of the wheel as you spin it. It means that more tactile feedback is possible, even in apps with onscreen buttons. It's like a phone-wide Xbox One rumble pack.
Nice camera bumps, especially in low light
The iPhone 7 gets an upgrade I wished were in the 6S -- namely, optical image stabilization (or OIS). The slightly wider f1.8-aperture lens also lets in more light for low-light photos. OIS and that new lens both make a difference in everyday shots, I've found. Photos at dusk in my backyard that were barely viewable on the 6S looked far brighter on the 7.
With OIS, you can capture clear photos even if you have an unsteady hand.
The 12-megapixel camera's other improvements, including a new ISP for other image improvements, might be too subtle for casual point-and-shooters to appreciate. The four-LED flash is brighter, and helped light up a room so well I could even shoot a barely passable photo of the darkened room next door. Note that Live Photo slows down the shutter speed, so turn it off for faster shots.
This photo was taken at dusk, and it was so dark I couldn't see the lawn. Big step up from 6S.
The front-facing FaceTime camera has been bumped to 7 megapixels now, and it looked great for selfies or videos. With one small caveat: I found that some shots seemed a little washed out in the background even with HDR on in my early review unit.
That's a red Shake Shack tomato.
However, I still found that the I preferred the iPhone 7 Plus camera. Part of that is obvious: It has a dual camera on the back that allows for 2x optical zoom or extra levels of digital zoom. And the added screen size is more useful for looking at photos and editing them.
The iPhone 7's new processor, called the A10 Fusion, promises another significant set of speed bumps with two cores. There's also a new wrinkle: A lower-power battery-optimizing mode with two other cores. In classic Apple fashion, the phone switches between these cores automatically and you can't tweak it.
The iPhone 7 is equipped with an A10 Fusion processor.
In a few benchmarks using GeekBench 4 (an updated version of the no-longer-available GeekBench 3 that we use to test phones), the 7 made big gains (3,488 single-core, 5,605 multicore in case you're curious).
The phone is seriously fast. It's faster than any other iOS devices including the iPad Pro, and faster than Samsung's last batch of phones by a significant margin. But I have to say -- as I do many years -- that this iPhone feels about as fast the last iPhone in most everyday instances.
Someday, maybe, we'll see phones stop getting relentlessly faster every year. For now, it's something to appreciate. But I wouldn't drop everything and get this phone just for any promised speed gains.
Battery life: An extra jolt
I wouldn't call the 7's battery boost dramatic, but I'd call it practical. Both the 7 and 7 Plus seemed to last a whole day without needing a recharge as I'm pretty used to doing. Performance seemed similar to theiPhone SE, anecdotally. Full battery benchmarks are coming this week.
But I don't think battery benchmarks will tell the whole story this time. Our video playback test in airplane mode doesn't reflect what everyday internet use is like, and with Apple's new power-managing processor, what you do will possibly cause different results.
I liked having more battery at last, something I wanted in the 6S. Apple's attentiveness to more power-efficient processing is promising. But lots of great phones now have super-size batteries in them. Think of the Motorola Moto Z Play and Galaxy S7. Apple's battery capacities in iPhones, historically, are usually smaller.
With the iPhone 7, you can go all day without a recharge.
More storage
All the iPhones finally got storage upgrades. Now $649, £599 and AU$1,079 will get you 32GB, and after that $749, £699 and AU$1,229 for 128GB and $849, £799 and AU$1,379 for 256GB. 32GB is the bare minimum I'd recommend anyone get for a phone that lacks expandable storage. I'm sad that 64GB went away.
256GB seems like an insane amount unless you're a filmmaker and live off your iPhone. Shooting in 4K chews up space, and 256GB isn't unrealistic at all if you're out recording a day's worth of video footage.
APPLE IPHONE 7 AND 7 PLUS STORAGE AND PRICING
| Model | Storage | US | UK | AU |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple iPhone 7 | 32GB | $649 | £599 | AU$1,079 |
| 128GB | $749 | £699 | AU$1,229 | |
| 256GB | $849 | £799 | AU$1,379 | |
| Apple iPhone 7 Plus | 32GB | $769 | £719 | AU$1,269 |
| 128GB | $869 | £819 | AU$1,419 | |
| 256GB | $969 | £919 | AU$1,569 |
Hub to the connected world
Phones are hubs. They're utility devices. They're essential. Some people want a phone that's totally swappable, fixable, functional. Some want great battery life. Some want an awesome camera or a huge display. Some want weird things. Some want something easy. There's no right answer. It's complicated now, but in a good way. Most phones do a better job now than anything that ever existed before.
Our favorite phones at CNET are those that mix great utility and awesome design. Now along comes the iPhone 7, and it's...well, it's kinda boring.
The iPhone is what it is: A highly designed, perfected fusion of hardware and software. This version is better than before.
Phones are already the way we connect with tons of things around us. I spend my time with dozens of wireless wearable peripherals. Apple's pushing its own versions more than ever: AirPods, the Apple Watch and probably more things to come. Virtual and augmented reality, perhaps. A whole universe of connected smart home gadgets.
The iPhone is the thing at the center. And this one's better, overall. But if you want something that looks and feels different, wait till next year. Or, go elsewhere. Nearly every other phone, including Apple's still-excellent iPhone 6S, still has that comfy old headphone jack.
That might change very soon, though, across the smartphone landscape. And the iPhone might change radically with it.
This iPhone feels like it's laying the groundwork for a more sealed-off, improved, wireless system. In the meantime, it's a little bit boring.
I'm OK with that if it's reliable. This year's upgrade isn't something you need to have. But its improvements are likely doing some subtle paving of the way toward changes in another iPhone next year.
If you care about better photos, and want to be a little more future-proofed for whatever Apple has in store for that dual camera, seriously think about getting the 7 Plus.
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