"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
06/20/2018 at 15:44 • Filed to: None
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"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
06/20/2018 at 15:44 • Filed to: None | 1
| 8 |
One of Motorola’s strengths is making cheap phones with nice clean software that will work on every US carrier. Unfortunately their high end Z series phones haven’t followed this trend, until now.
Motorola’s *2015* flagship phone, the X Pure Edition (a.k.a. X Style outside the US) was universally compatible and unlocked. But for whatever reason, carrier deals, or who knows really, none of the 2016 or 2017 Z series phones were universal unlocked. Motorola brought back the X series in 2017 with the X4 but it’s more of a small step up from the G series than anything approaching a flagship.
The Z3 Play also isn’t a flagship phone, it’s an upper-midrange phone with a slightly underpowered Snapdragon 636 processor. Although the 636 is apparently a nice improvement over the previous low/midrange processors like the 625 and 630. The Z3 Play has a 6.0" 1080p 18:9 aspect ratio screen, a fingerprint sensor on the side, and Motorola’s usual nice clean software. It also is packaged with a free extended battery pack Moto Mod that sticks to the back of the phone.
What was unclear until now was which carriers it would work on. Well, even though Motorola at the global launch in Brazil a couple weeks ago didn’t say anything about US carrier compatibility, the Motorola US website now has the Z3 Play !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! for $500, including the battery pack. In the specs, it lists all of these bands, including everything for working on Verizon, and even T-Mobile’s new LTE bands 66 and 71.
This is very encouraging to me, because it gives me hope that maybe the as-yet unannounced flagship Z3 will be a similarly universal compatible unlocked phone, and will bring along a Snapdragon 845 and improved camera, hopefully with image stabilization. Make it a good bit more affordable than the Pixel 3 XL, and I’d be all over it.
Or hey, if the Z3 Play drops below $400, I might even go for that.
MarquetteLa
> Textured Soy Protein
06/20/2018 at 16:06 |
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I’ve been an iPhone user since 2012, but I don’t really like the direction Apple has been going in the past few years. I’m still using a 2014 6+, and this Keyboard Mod would be enough to get me to switch to a Motorola phone. I can’t find any ordering information on it outside of that linked Kickstarter, though. Do you know anything about it by chance?
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Textured Soy Protein
> MarquetteLa
06/20/2018 at 16:12 |
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As far as I know the keyboard mod is dead in the water.
Maybe check out the new BlackBerry Key2.
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MarquetteLa
> Textured Soy Protein
06/20/2018 at 16:33 |
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Balls. The screen AND keyboard on that Blackberry are too small. I’m not using the keyboard *that* often, but when I do, it’s usually writing more than a sentence or two. Autocorrect sucks so hard, and it’s infuriating when it kicks in and won’t stop changing what I’m typing (without looking!), despite what I’m typing BEING AN ACTUAL FUCKING WORD. I can type with 98% accuracy with my thumbs on a physical keyboard. I want a phone with a nice, large screen and a slide-out, large keyboard. I hate paper-thin phones. Add some thickness via a keyboard. It blows my mind that there seem to be no options for a phone with that form factor.
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Textured Soy Protein
> MarquetteLa
06/20/2018 at 17:06 |
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The Z3 is pretty chunky with the battery mod attached.
I don’t particularly like typing on my work iPhone 6S and its narrow screen but I’m pretty good typing at length with Gboard swipe typing on my S7 Edge. I actually put Gboard on my 6S too but it’s just not the same on iOS.
gettingoldercarguy
> Textured Soy Protein
06/20/2018 at 17:25 |
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I think the keyboard is alive, his last update was a couple of weeks ago with slow shipping.
I have two Moto mod backup batteries and cycle through them to not fatigue my built in one.
For high end audio (if that matters to you) try the bluewave Get. It uses the aptx hd codec and sounds awesome, plus that amp can power any cans you have.
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MarquetteLa
> gettingoldercarguy
06/20/2018 at 17:34 |
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I just read through some of the recent updates on the fundraising page. Looks like they’ve hit some bumps on the development road, but are committed to mass production. Looking forward to hearing more about it as time moves along.
The Snowman
> Textured Soy Protein
06/20/2018 at 19:00 |
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All US carriers? Google Fi?
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Textured Soy Protein
> The Snowman
06/21/2018 at 07:37 |
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I don’t know if it will be coming to Project Fi. It has the necessary radio bands to use the Sprint and T-Mobile networks that Fi rides on, but I don’t know if it’ll work on Fi. The X4 Android One edition does so that’s something.