Stock Android Moto M debuts in UAE, compatible with all four US carriers

Posted on by Jules Wang

The Moto M has landed outside of China in, of all places, the United Arab Emirates. Some things have been switched in translation including the MediaTek Helio P10 chipset for a Qualcomm Snapdragon 617. But the biggest changes come in its versatility.

While the Chinese model, codenamed XT1662, has cellular compatibility with the nation’s networks, it seems that this XT1664 will work with all of the major US carriers on both the GSM and CDMA sides. PhoneArena has also learned that Lenovo has decided to stick with stock Android for this Moto M, not even Motorola’s light-skinned UI. Google Photos backups also come free for two years at original quality.

Other specs recall of the Moto M we’ve talked about: 3GB of RAM, 32GB of storage with microSD capacity up to 128GB, a USB-C port, dual SIM slots, a 16-megapixel main camera, an 8-megapixel selfie camera, a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor and a 3,050mAh battery.

It’s a very decent phone with an unknown price tag outside of China — the XT1662 launched at the equivalent of $295. But if anyone gets a hold of this phone, we’d love to see if we could pull some proper Project Fi action running on Sprint, T-Mobile and US Cellular…

The post Stock Android Moto M debuts in UAE, compatible with all four US carriers appeared first on Pocketnow.

Moto X (2017) in play as Lenovo could shift some work to an ODM

Posted on by Jules Wang

As Lenovo continues to make ends meet and turn around its mobile side, here’s a bit of speculation that concerns on how far the Chinese manufacturer may go to cut costs.

hellomotoHK has dropped a list of devices that are expected out from the just-resolved Moto brand in the coming year. Six devices (give a few extra variants or so) will be released and only two of them will have involvement from a diminished Motorola unit. And there’s a lot of give and take as to how to interpret this list — which we can’t independently verify.

In no particular order, Motorola will solely lead the charge on the next modular Moto Z model(s) while it will collaborate with Lenovo to form the next Moto G(s). The Moto X (for real?) gets transferred to Lenovo’s oversight while the Moto M remains in this column. Finally, it seems that the budget Moto E and what might also be a budget-level Moto C are in the pipes and they will come from Lenovo and an ODM.

The Moto E came out of Google-owned Motorola in 2014 as a basic smartphone with basic Android for a basic price. When Lenovo took over the company later that year, the E’s hardware specs have vastly improved. Who knows what might be intended with an ODM introduced into the mix? Financial savings, almost for sure, but will its basic, wide-availability mission be compromised? Will a Moto C supplement this mission?

What will “Motorola” mean in 2017? And how does Lenovo come out of it when we already know what it will arrive into it with? This list does not provide a verifiable crystal ball, but we’ll be collecting and connecting the dots along the way.

The post Moto X (2017) in play as Lenovo could shift some work to an ODM appeared first on Pocketnow.

Lenovo-branded phones are apparently no more, long live the Moto family

Posted on by Adrian Diaconescu
It's only fair to share...Share on RedditShare on FacebookShare on Google+Tweet about this on TwitterPin on PinterestShare on Tumblr

Lenovo has never had much of an own-brand presence in the challenging but highly lucrative (for some) global smartphone landscape, which is why the PC-first manufacturer acquired erstwhile mobile industry leader Motorola a couple of years back.

It’s probably time to admit now that’s failed to put the Chinese tech giant on the Samsung and Apple-controlled map, after yet another quarter of disappointing sales and sliding proceeds. With executive patience quickly running out, it looks like a new round of production and marketing cost reductions is in store, alongside a predictable streamlining of a far too vast, redundant and unnecessary device portfolio.

Get ready to bid adieu to Vibes, K-series Lenovo-labeled handhelds and basically anything that doesn’t greet you with “Hello Moto” on startup. This time for real, at least according to a seemingly well-connected Asian publication.

We’re not sure if Lenovo is already giving up on Tango-powered Phab Pros also, or perhaps moving prospective sequels under the Moto branding umbrella, but both domestically and internationally, expect narrowed focus on Gs, Zs and Ms going forward.

Apparently, “Lenovo’s overseas smartphone performance has been better than China’s”, despite a solid home debut a few years ago, which makes insisting on Motorolas worldwide a relatively safe advertising bet all of a sudden. Let’s see if this one pays off in the long haul.

The post Lenovo-branded phones are apparently no more, long live the Moto family appeared first on Pocketnow.

It's only fair to share...Share on RedditShare on FacebookShare on Google+Tweet about this on TwitterPin on PinterestShare on Tumblr

Moto M hits retail in China with everything expected

Posted on by Jules Wang

It’s about go-time for both the Lenovo P2 and the Moto M, two mid-range phones from one company umbrella right in China.

As far as the Moto M is concerned, a listing provided on Taobao has nearly all the details we were told of a few days ago: octa-core Helio P15 processor with 4GB of RAM and 32GB of storage, a 5.5-inch full HD screen, a 16-megapixel main camera and an 8-megapixel front camera. A fingerprint sensor, liquid-repellent coating, Dolby Atmos sound enhancements and a 3,050mAh battery top the phone off for ¥1,999 or $295.

We don’t believe sales of this phone will expand too far from China, just as with the Lenovo P2. And both devices will need the focus if they’re going to compete with quality yet cut-rate manufacturers like Xiaomi.

The post Moto M hits retail in China with everything expected appeared first on Pocketnow.

High-res Moto M renders, marketing materials, full specs and pricing revealed and clarified

Posted on by Adrian Diaconescu

Forget 4.6-inch screen size, mind-blowing 5,100 mAh battery capacity, Snapdragon 625 or Helio P10 processing power. The Lenovo-made Motorola Moto M is practically guaranteed now to roll out to Chinese shores in just a few days with a 5.5-inch display, 3,050 mAh cell, and MediaTek Helio P15 SoC in tow.

A little disappointed to hear the Android mid-ranger’s rumored colossal juice pack will not pan out in the end? Well, Lenovo’s own-brand P2 is still coming, 5,100 mAh battery, SD625 chip, 13MP rear-facing camera and all.

For its part, the puzzling Moto M finally clears everything up, shaping up as a respectable $300 or so handheld, with a large, adequately sharp 5.5-inch panel, strong octa-core CPU, 4GB RAM, expandable 32GB internal storage, as well as 16 and 8MP shooters.

Pictured a number of times already, including out in the wild, Moto Z’s lesser sibling looks fairly stylish in its clearest render yet, sporting robust metallic attire, striking top and bottom antenna bands, a rear-positioned fingerprint sensor, and decently slim front bezels.

While our Mandarin is a bit rusty, and we can’t understand everything Lenovo plans to highlight in official publicity material, it’s more than obvious photography performance, fingerprint security, memory, storage, near-stock Android 6.0 software, battery endurance, and even some degree of water resistance will be heavily promoted. All for a reasonable 2,000 Yuan.

The post High-res Moto M renders, marketing materials, full specs and pricing revealed and clarified appeared first on Pocketnow.

Moto M leaked once again with some specification conflicts

Posted on by Jules Wang

The Moto M will be introduced a week from today and we thought that we had all the leaks we needed to know about it. For one, there was going to be a huge battery. For another thing, the phone would at least come to some areas outside of China.

Well, NowhereElse.Fr‘s Steve Hemmerstoffer has put out another wild leak thanks to a source and he has disclosed specifications, some of which go against what we’ve heard prior to today.


There’s a possibility that some geographic regions will get either a Qualcomm or a MediaTek chipset, but it was believed that the Helio P10 would be used in Moto M units with the latter. Instead, we find that the updated P15 will be used — a minor, but appreciable update to the mid-ranger SoC. But another distinction is the battery: 3,050mAh versus the 5,100mAh we heard before.


Here’s the thing, though: it turns out that the leaked spec placard we believed was for the Moto M is actually for the Lenovo P2. While the 5.5-inch full HD is a shared spec here, we welcome the development of a sure 4GB of RAM. The rest of the spec sheet — the 32GB of storage, the 13- (or 16, depending on which pictures you believe) and 8-megapixel cameras — is pretty okay.

There are plenty of expectations to manage, even for a couple of phones that sound like mid-rangers. We should hope to clear and clarify things as best as we can before these products launch.

The post Moto M leaked once again with some specification conflicts appeared first on Pocketnow.

Moto M launch event featuring Lenovo P2 scheduled for November 8

Posted on by Jules Wang

If you’re looking for something like an older Moto phone from Lenovo anytime soon, November 8 may be the closest that we get to it. As a bonus, we’ll be getting another phone strictly from Lenovo.That’s according to an invitation to an event in Guangzhou from Motorola. Yep, Motorola is the brand face of Lenovo when it comes to smartphones even though the actual ...

Continue reading »

The post Moto M launch event featuring Lenovo P2 scheduled for November 8 appeared first on Pocketnow.

One big battery for the Moto M rumored

Posted on by Jules Wang

Do we need another Motorola device this year? We’ve got Moto Z’s to last us through the end of the year and a Moto G slate that looks to be still alive and kicking. Well, what we have been talking about is the Moto M, something like a Moto Z Play, but bigger.A leaked promotional placard layout leaked by @krispitech on Twitter tells us about a phone that will launch in December ...

Continue reading »

The post One big battery for the Moto M rumored appeared first on Pocketnow.

Leaked live Moto M pics appear to confirm Full HD screen, 4GB RAM, and more

Posted on by Adrian Diaconescu

Unwilling to give up on either its own brand when it comes to mobile devices, or Moto-labeled products that are way easier to market in the Western world, Lenovo likes to keep itself busy, recently unveiling the P2, A Plus, K6 trio, Moto E3 and E3 Power, Z, Z Force and

Continue reading »

The post Leaked live Moto M pics appear to confirm Full HD screen, 4GB RAM, and more appeared first on Pocketnow.

Moto M (XT1662) pictured with rear-fitted fingerprint sensor, likely measuring 5.5 inches after all

Posted on by Adrian Diaconescu

Compact smartphone enthusiasts unwilling to compromise… too much on raw power and other specifications appeared to have at least two solid sub-5-inchers from top-tier OEMs to look forward to this fall, but at the end of the day, the diminutive Sony Xperia X might be left alone on that boat.Originally expected to be branded Moto X 2016, and then

Continue reading »

The post Moto M (XT1662) pictured with rear-fitted fingerprint sensor, likely measuring 5.5 inches after all appeared first on Pocketnow.

That rumored 4.6-inch Moto X 2016? It’s most likely a Lenovo Moto M

Posted on by Adrian Diaconescu

Android device manufacturers sure enjoy their alphabet soups. Samsung’s “streamlined” product portfolio goes from A to C to E, J, O(n) and even Z if you also count Tizen models, while Sony has recently circled back from Z to X, reportedly considering dropping C, E or M series pretty soon.Then there’s Motorola, or rather Lenovo, which inherited the Moto E, G and X families from Google, and after a couple of years of struggles, financial losses and ...

Continue reading »

The post That rumored 4.6-inch Moto X 2016? It’s most likely a Lenovo Moto M appeared first on Pocketnow.