I don't disgree with you at all as far as the departure from the Moto X. But what was Lenovo going to do? If they just put out another standard Moto phone, everyone would just say..... "well there goes Lenovo/Motorola. they can't compete with Samsung." It wouldn't have mattered if it had the same or better specs than the S7. Just look at the HTC 10. It is arguably the best flagship this year, but it likely won't sell well, because it is just another phone.
While the aesthetics are very off, I do see this as a prototype phone for new innovation. Something they felt they had to to do stay alive. Something the LG G5 tried and failed on first attempt. And for their first attempt, Lenovo has done it SO much better. As long as the pins stay the same on the back and they support the mods in future versions (as promised), this really could take off.
So they had to start making adjustments to design to fit with the mod plan:
1) Overall choice number 1... make it thin : they have to make it thin or any mods will make the phone look like a brick (and some still do even with the phone as thin as it is)
2) Large camera hump : Obviously this is due to the thinness, but I also think it has to protrude more to work with some of the mods attached. And with any mod attached, there is no longer a hump
3) The battery : I am actually impressed the size they fit in there with everything else going on including the mod connectors. Sure it is small, but most all mods have extra battery.
4) Finger print reader : This was a miss. Obviously it couldn't go on the back with the mods. Perhaps they should have just left it off? But then they would have been dismissed on poor security. The one they have is not good though. It should have been a capacitive button like the HTC 10. To have this scanner taking up room on the front but still have on screen buttons is really annoying.
5) The chin and bezels.... again, due to space. But I do wish there was space in there for navigation (see above)
6) No headphone jack. There is an adapter. I could personally care less about this. Might be a dealbreaker for some, but Apple and Samsung will be doing it in the next couple of years as well. So get over it.
Perhaps they should have made this a different phone and kept the X. But obviously Lenovo didn't see potential there and put everything into one basket. If this gets any traction, there will be a second revision, and I think it will be greatly improved.
The biggest mistake they made is Verizon exclusive. But perhaps the subsidies from that helped seed the prototype planning. But the issue is that when the "pure" edition comes out in Fall, it is against the Note, the Nexus and devices will be getting N. This is confirmed it will still ship with MM unlocked. So it will be in the rear view mirror for many.
Completely agree with everything you said. I would probably be buying the base phone if it was available now on AT&T or T-Mobile, but it looks like it'll at least be fall (at which time I'll be looking at the next iPhone, Note, and nexus) and even then might not come out for either carrier.
And really, if your going to put the fingerprint sensor on the front and have a chin, put some capacitive buttons too so we don't have the on screen buttons taking up extra space.
Everyone says "Apple needs more innovation" ..... Samsung made a water proof phone... "Look at that innovation!" a curve on the screen.... "Amazing!".
Then here comes Lenovo with a ready-to-be-sold modular phone. Way better than the G5. Better than what we have seen from Project Ara.... this is true innovation. And the response is, the finger print scanner should be circular?? Oh good, now Samsung can learn from this and improve Touchwiz? Huh?
And then they show off working bendable and fold-able phones. That is freaking amazing! Imagine if Samsung or Apple had that kind of presentation. People would be busting a wad all over this place. So much brand bias around here it is just laughable.
People get mad that I hate on Samsung and Apple aroudn here. This is exactly why. Anyone who tries anything that is not Samsung or Apple just get a cold shoulder. But then when Samsung or Apple eventually do it, which they will, it is the second coming.
While there are some that are biased, the reaction is more because of execution and support.
When Apple released the finger print scanner on the iPhone, they weren't the first I remember my Motorola Atrix having one. But Apple executed it the best on both hardware and software that until this past fall no body else could emulate. Samsung wasn't the first to release a phablet or a stylus with a phone, but they still do both better than just about anyone on both the hardware and software. When someone else can do that same type of execution and support then you'll see the same type of hype, but until then people will nit pick the faults of a great idea.
If Apple did this modular idea, you know there would be a crap ton of modules coming out within the next couple of months, and even apps that would take advantage of these extra modules. You know it would be baked in and supported on future iPhones too.
But here it's like an experiment. Yes, it's much better than LG's implementation, but how much 3rd party support will it get? How much software support will it get? Will Motos future phones use the same modules or will they be model specific?
And those foldable phones and tablets, when are they going to be available? How much will they be? What's the software look like on those? How durable are they? Those are basically concepts, while cool, have a lot of unanswered question to get hyped up about right now. And yes, if Apple showed something like that off people would've been "busting a wad" because they would've also given us a software tour, spec sheet, feature list, pricing and availability, and given references to how 3rd party developers could make software for it.
