Motorola’s Moto Z was one of the most outstanding flagships in 2016 thanks to its modular design that outshone the LG G5 by far.
Apparently, the tech giant wants to pick it up from where it left with the 2016’s flagship and up its game with the Moto Z 2017. One major piece of hardware that is guaranteed to feature on this phone is the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 SoC. This can be confirmed thanks to a new tweet that shows off a mystery Motorola phone going through a Gigabit LTE test on Sprint.
Even though the tipster doesn’t confirm that this is indeed the Moto Z 2017 that is being tested, the fact that the phone will be powered by a Snapdragon 835 SoC confirms that it will be Motorola’s flagship device. Looking at what happened last year, where the company turned to the Moto Z as the flagship phone, we expect the same to continue this year with a new Moto Z 2017 flagship.
.@sprint demo is going to be using an as yet unknown Motorola device based on .@Qualcomm's Snapdragon 835. #gigabitLTE
— Diana Goovaerts (@DiaMariesbeat) March 8, 2017
The tweet, which was made by Diana Goovaerts, the Editor of Wireless Week, includes an image of the alleged Moto Z 2017 phone in action, but she’s quick to note that the device is “in a case and taped over.” In short, we could be looking at a prototype of a phone that will be released later in the year. Other than the Snapdragon 835, the tweet also confirms that the phone will come with four antennas.
Here's the mystery Motorola phone coming later this year with four antennas. In a case and taped over. pic.twitter.com/vjrz3XnEAN
— Diana Goovaerts (@DiaMariesbeat) March 9, 2017
From the Sprint tests, the alleged Moto Z 2017 managed to clock download speeds of between 700-900 Mbps, which is a huge step towards realizing the new 5G technology. However, since the device will be powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 835, we could see it released towards the end of the first half or early in the second half of 2017, just like the original Moto Z.
Samsung Galaxy S8 will be the first phone to be released based on the new Snapdragon 835 and the launch of this phone will happen at the end of this month.