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More images of Motorola's 2018 smartphone lineup leak (Updated)
Update (01/17): Some more details are rolling in that make these Moto leaks a little more believable.
On Tuesday, a user on Reddit caught a glimpse of the Moto G6 Plus in the wild. The real-life version of the phone looks extremely similar to Droid Life’s renders in the original article:
mysmartprice also posted a higher-quality set of renders of the Moto G6, G6 Plus, and G6 Play on Tuesday:
mysmartprice also noted that the Moto G6 and G6 Plus will feature a USB Type-C port and a 3.5 mm headphone jack at the bottom.
@evleaks also had a few things to say about Droid Life’s leaks (via Android Police):
I’ve never seen a leak as thorough, as early, and as potentially damaging to a company as @droid_life‘s renders-and-all reports covering nearly the entire 2018 Motorola lineup — barely halfway through January.— Evan Blass (@evleaks) January 16, 2018
They are not fake.— Evan Blass (@evleaks) January 16, 2018
A million different reasons, from them being early drafts to your potential misidentification of “mistakes” (for instance, how do you know what the 2018 MM pinouts look like? Surely backwards compatibility won’t be a requirement forever)— Evan Blass (@evleaks) January 16, 2018
Original article (01/16): Motorola had a bittersweet 2017. The Moto Z2 Force fell below expectations compared to the flagship competition, but the company’s mid-range smartphones offered solid specs and great design at affordable price points.
All eyes are on the Lenovo-owned company to bring the wow factor in 2018, and according to a massive leak from Droid Life, that just might happen— if these renders turn out to be real.
Before we get into any of this, it should be noted that Droid Life was not able to confirm any of these leaks with a second source, so take this with a big grain of salt.
The biggest leak of the day concerned the Moto Z3, Moto Z3 Play, and 5G Moto Mod. The render above allegedly shows the Moto Z3 Play (top) and the Moto Z3 (bottom), though there’s notably no Z3 Force mentioned. Droid Life says a higher-end Moto Z3 device (likely the Moto Z3 Force) will arrive later in 2018 with a Snapdragon 845 and higher-resolution display.
Both phones look to feature 6.0-inch Full HD+ 18:9 panels, which would be pretty odd. Motorola announced its existing lineup of Moto Mods would be compatible with three full years of Moto Z devices, which sure sounds like all three generations would feature more traditional 16:9 aspect ratio displays. Of course, Motorola could figure out a way to make an 18:9 screen work with current Moto Mods, but it might look a little odd.
What’s also odd is Motorola’s flip-flopping approach to its flagship lineup. 2016 saw the release of the Moto Z, Moto Z Force, and Moto Z Play. The company dropped the standard Moto Z2 from the lineup in 2017, leaving only the Z2 Force and Z2 Play. This leak claims all three models will return.
Neither the Z3 nor Z3 Play come with fingerprint sensors, which suggests Motorola might be shifting towards face recognition with this new lineup. It’s also worth pointing out the lack of navigation keys on the phone. Instead, there appears to be an elongated software home button, which could allow users to navigate back, home, and open recent apps by long-pressing and swiping. Other Motorola devices already do this with their hardware home buttons.
The circuit line on the back of the Z3 also looks like it’s been redesigned. While the Moto Z and Z2 lines both have what appear to be the same circuit lines, this Moto Z3 image looks different.
Also revealed was an image of what’s allegedly Motorola’s 5G Moto Mod. Back in December 2016, Motorola teased that Moto Mods have the potential to bring 5G to smartphones, and this might be our first look.
Images of the Moto X5, Moto G6, G6 Plus, and G6 Play also leaked. The Moto X5 (pictured above) looks very similar to the Z3 devices, but with an iPhone X-style notch at the top, with two front-facing camera sensors. Also like the Z3, there doesn’t appear to be a fingerprint sensor, though the phone does have the elongated software home button.
The device is also rumored to sport a 5.9-inch Full HD+ 18:9 display.
The Moto G6, G6 Plus, and G6 Play appear to adopt the same design language as 2017’s Moto X4, with Motorola’s 3D glass and big camera bumps. Both the G6 and G6 Plus look to sport Full HD 18:9 displays, though there’s no word on the G6 Play’s screen.
The G6 will reportedly come with a 5.7-inch Full HD+ display, a Snapdragon 450 processor, and a 3,000 mAh battery. The bigger Plus model will likely come with a 5.93-inch display, a Snapdragon 630 SoC, and a 3,200 mAh battery. Both the G6 and G6 Plus will supposedly feature either 3 or 4 GB of RAM and 32 or 64 GB of storage, while the Plus model might also be offered with 6 GB of RAM. Both devices will supposedly come with 12 and 5 MP rear cameras, along with 16 MP front cameras.
As for the G6 Play, we’re looking at a 5.7-inch HD display and a whopping 4,000 mAh battery.
Are these leaks real or fake?
There are a few little things in these leaks that make us feel like they shouldn’t be believed. Motorola’s renders are usually quite polished, and these aren’t. For starters, whoever created these renders made a lot of odd choices when writing out the text:
- “MotoMods,” as shown in the Z3 render, should actually be styled “Moto Mods”.
- In the Moto X5 render, there’s something called “Moto XP’s.” Yes, with an apostrophe.
- The “plus” and “play” in the last two renders are in different fonts.
- The spacing between the M logo and the names of the devices is off in the last two renders.
It’s possible these renders were created from some sort of legitimate CAD image, but we don’t think they came from Motorola.
What do you think? Are these real or fake? If they are real, do these devices look interesting to you? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.