ThinkPhone hands-on: Moto’s attempt to woo big business

Whereas Lenovo has been an enormous pressure within the enterprise laptop computer area because of its lengthy line of ThinkPads and ThinkBooks, Motorola is now hoping to leverage its dad or mum firm’s experience by bringing a few of Lenovo’s finest options over to its latest cellular gadget: the ThinkPhone by Motorola.

At first look, Motorola nailed the ThinkPhone’s primary design. It sports activities a comparatively stealthy look that includes aramid fiber in again (and you may nonetheless see the weave like on ThinkPads), aircraft-grade aluminum across the sides and a display screen constituted of Gorilla Glass Victus in entrance. However extra importantly, Motorola claims the telephone is MIL-STD 810H-certified, which implies it’s constructed to resist drops of as much as 1.25 meters and different environmental stresses. And like all good handsets today, the ThinkPhone additionally options an IP68 score for mud and water resistance together with submersions of as much as 5 ft for half-hour. In order that’s the sturdiness facet of issues coated comparatively totally.

To make sure the ThinkPhone delivers top-notch safety, Motorola is together with its ThinkShield platform which helps a spread of risk detection providers and IT options similar to easy-to-use cellular gadget administration (MDM) and zero-touch enrollment. However for me, after complaining quite a few occasions about lackluster software program help on its shopper telephones, I actually like that Motorola is committing to not less than 4 years of standard safety updates and three main OS upgrades for the ThinkPhone (the gadget will include Android 13 out of the field). Granted, that is nonetheless a bit in need of what Samsung and Google supply on Galaxy S and Pixel telephones, nevertheless it’s a pleasant enchancment and something in need of this could in all probability be a dealbreaker within the enterprise area.

Nevertheless, the place issues get attention-grabbing is the best way the ThinkPhone works when paired with one among Lenovo’s enterprise laptops. Utilizing what Motorola is asking Assume to Assume connectivity, you may sync the handset with a close-by ThinkPad, permitting you to wirelessly share information, mirror your telephone’s display screen in your pocket book, copy-paste textual content and pictures and extra. And in case you’re the kind of one who all the time needs to look their finest throughout video calls (like my colleague Cherlynn Low), you may even use the ThinkPhone’s digital camera (each back and front) as a webcam as a substitute of the lower-res sensor that’s in all probability constructed into your laptop computer.

As a result of the ThinkPhone helps Motorola’s Prepared For platform, you may as well use the handset as a transportable desktop in a pinch by connecting it to an exterior show, keyboard and mouse. All instructed, it’s a pleasant little bit of synergy between Moto and its dad or mum firm, although I do marvel why it took so lengthy for the 2 to lastly work collectively. Keep in mind, Lenovo purchased Motorola from Google manner again in 2014.

One other good nod to the ThinkPad line is the pink button on the facet of the telephone, which will be programmed by IT personnel to open a particular piece of firm software program or to launch a particular app by the consumer. On prime of that, you may double faucet the pink key to open a menu with shortcuts to options just like the superior webcam perform or app streaming. Because of a partnership with Microsoft, the ThinkPhone may even come pre-loaded with Workplace 365 (together with a free one-month trial). And sooner or later, there’ll even be a push-to-talk function constructed instantly into Groups, so you may ship audio messages with a single faucet.

As for common specs, the ThinkPhone seems fairly strong, although there isn’t actually something that stands out. It encompasses a 6.6-inch OLED show with a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chip, 8GB or 12GB of RAM and as much as 512GB of storage. The telephone additionally helps twin sims, however sadly there’s no possibility for expandable storage by way of microSD. The front-facing selfie cam makes use of a high-res 32MP sensor whereas the twin shooters in again are comprised of a 50MP principal cam and a 13MP ultrawide lens. I’m a bit dissatisfied to see that Motorola didn’t embrace a zoom lens or perhaps a devoted macro cam, however contemplating this telephone is supposed for enterprise, I can see why these have been left off.

That mentioned, I do like that Motorola included a large 5,000 mAh battery and help for 68-watt quick charging (to not point out an included energy brick). Not solely does this imply you may add hours value of juice in only a few minutes, Moto’s energy adapter can also be beefy sufficient to cost most ultraportable laptops that help USB-PD, so it might probably pull double obligation in a pinch.

Nevertheless, the large problem for the ThinkPhone is that with units from Samsung and Apple being by far the preferred with regards to enterprise handsets, it could possibly be tough for Motorola to interrupt in, even with help from Lenovo. Moto has but to disclose detailed pricing for the ThinkPhone, although it’s slated to develop into obtainable within the US, Europe, Latin America, the Center East, Australia and elements of Asia someday within the “coming months.”