Verdict
The Motorola ThinkPhone is a quality no - nonsensicality phone , but you do end up paying quite a bit for the Lenovo ThinkPad link , without huge benefit for most buyers .
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
The Motorola ThinkPhone is something you might have auspicate way back in 2014 .
In that year Lenovo acquired Motorola . Lenovo ’s iconic laptop brand is Thinkpad . Motorola was , perhaps still is , an iconic sound stigma on its own . Slap the two together and what do you get ? This headphone , apparently .
It is a more or less stage business - focused phone that utilize significantly higher - end technical school than most of the Motorola phones I see .
The Motorola ThinkPhone is a good smartphone . However , Androids are not able to recognise themselves as stage business devices as clearly these solar day as they could in the BlackBerry epoch . And at £ 899 that raises the question of whether it ’s worth the clean substantial outlay when a few of the finishing touches are n’t as good as those of Samsung , Google or Apple .
Design
The Motorola ThinkPhone pairs very nicely with aLenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon . They have a alike finish on the back , signify to front like carbon fiber .
In both case , it ’s reward plastic , but that does not mean it ’s chintzy to produce . Where some laptop computer use a carbon copy fibre weave for this form of finish , the ThinkPhone has an “ aramid ” stratum . A bit of digging evoke this is very like to Kevlar . And it ’s a much more worthy stuff than carbon fiber , as it wo n’t block phone reception or the wireless charge feature of the Motorola ThinkPhone .
Glide a finger across the earpiece ’s back and it feels like a slimly soft soupcon plastic . However , I ’d advise just place on the slightly harder - feel plastic case bundled in the boxwood . It adds a lot less bulk than the basic silicone polymer cases supplied with 90 % of Motorola phones .
This earphone sits in an inoffensive mediate - ground in terms of size . Not a giant . Not tiny . And the supple case maintain this bunch - pleaser material body .
It also miss the build up - in screen protector Motorola usually slaps on its phones . My take is Motorola feels a plastic shielder would undermine the sense quality a bit , and glass defender often interfere with in - screen door fingermark scanners . The Motorola ThinkPhone has one . It ’s fast and responsive .
There ’s also a red accented crosscut button on the side . This , thankfully , does not just launch Google Assistant . you may choose an app to adulterate upon a press , or double press , or make it toy / intermission music .
Like almost every phone in this class , the Motorola ThinkPhone does not have a phone jack . Its stereophonic speakers are firm , though . Maximum bulk is beneficial and the timber is not flimsy , although the very best have sound bass .
This phone does have excellent H2O resistance , with anIP68rating . It ’s the best you ’ll find in a “ normal ” phone . IP68 connotes something is dustproof , and has been quiz to withstand immersion in piddle at a depth of 1.5 m or greater .
Screen
The Motorola ThinkPhone has a 1080pOLEDscreen with almost all the characteristic you ’d bear of a high - end phone screen bar , see in some telephone set of the cost , a curved panel . And that style arguably would n’t befit a business phone anyway .
Colour is keen , contrast is the common strike expected from an OLED phone . Its maximum refresh is high than many top - tier up phones too , at 144Hz .
You wo n’t see that top refresh pace unless you select it manually , though . By default the Motorola ThinkPhone sticks to its Auto mode , which cycles between 60Hz , 90Hz and 120Hz based on what ’s hap on - screen . I have n’t seen it drop below 60Hz , based on the read - out you’re able to access in Android ’s developer mood .
This is a screen by LG Display , as it ’s a phosphorus - organic light-emitting diode . These can sometimes take on a tenuous blue tincture when take in from an angle , compared to Samsung panel , but there ’s little - to - none of that here .
Maximum brightness is good too . The Motorola ThinkPhone will max out at 480 nit indoors , but the high cleverness mode reaches 900 nits . 923 nits was the highest I quantify when playing back HDR video . It ’s a way below the claimed 1200 nits , but this material body may be possible when not filling the display with white .
For the money you’re able to get a much high resolution screen . TheOnePlus 11is £ 170 less , but has far more pixels packed into its video display . They are not particularly impactful pixels , but do put the value of the ThinkPhone up for public debate .
Software and performance
Motorola is eff in tech circles for having a light - skin senses glide path to Android . It keep the facial expression and sense close to vanilla extract , adding just a few neat touches like Motorola ’s signature lock filmdom .
This tactic has worked for a decennium , but the Motorola ThinkPhone assure the company consist on the extras just a little thickheaded . It makes sensory faculty – it ’s a “ pro ” phone , so it needs to prove that somehow .
There are extra security features , like the choice to scramble your keypad whenever you unlock your phone , to check people seeing the pattern you trace from a coup d’oeil . Smart , but also somewhat nettle . There ’s the secure folder routine , where you could stash away stuff and nonsense behind a parole too .
Motorola packages these up , alongside existing Android protections , in a Moto Secure app . I do n’t conceive it amounts to much , if only because encrypted folder apps are rough-cut anyway . And I do n’t need to scramble my computer keyboard , thanks .
The ThinkPhone also has Ready For , which shows you how to get at your earphone apps on your Windows laptop computer / PC screen . However , this is also available on recent Motorola Edge - serial phone . This is really no more of an ideal business phone than most other top - remainder Androids in most respects – but then people have been incorporating phones into their work lives long before the iPhone existed , so are we surprised ?
Using a ThinkPhone largely sense like using another high - ending Motorola to me , and there ’s nothing wrong with that . The more substantial stuff for patronage vendee is Lenovo ’s fleet direction technical school , allowing IT squad to have some dominance over a whole U. S. Army of ThinkPhones used across . But that does n’t impact the experience of an ordinary individual review the speech sound solo , and is n’t something I can test .
The telephone has Qualcomm ’s Snapdragon 8 + Gen 1 CPU , a flagship central processing unit a generation behind theSnapdragon 8 Gen 2used in theSamsung Galaxy S23 .
This is no longer a chart - top chipset , even among Androids , but it is plenty potent . There ’s a lovely zippiness to jumping around Android on the ThinkPhone , missing from the last couple of mid - range phones I ’ve look back .
I ’ve also seen no distressing moments of the phone getting red-hot when just surf or pickings images , which has happened with a few of these Snapdragon 8 - serial phones .
A 3DMark Wild Life bench mark shows how well the phone handles pressure sensation . A 20 - minute gaming - mode stress test sees just svelte thermal throttling , operation dropping to 92 % of its uttermost .
establish I ’ve seen plenty of Qualcomm - powered phones lose 55 - 60 % of their performance through throttling over the last yr or so , the Lenovo ThinkPhone gets an enthusiastic thumbs up . This phone is moderately handy for play , once you ’re done with the spreadsheet and whatnot .
Camera
The Motorola ThinkPhone does not have an immediately compelling camera array , weigh how much this phone costs . It uses a 50MP primary television camera , a 13MP radical - wide and a 2MP macro . A makeweight macro camera on a top - oddment phone ? It ’s not a great look .
This layout looks like identical to that of theMotorola Edge 30 Fusion , a 2022 mid - range Android . It include an Omnivision OV50A ( 50MP ) sensor and a SK Hynix HI1336 ( 13MP ) . The 2MP macro is another Omnivision roast . Motorola clearly has self-confidence in that 50MP Omnivision chip , though , as it ’s used in theMotorola Edge 40 Protoo .
Is it deserve ? The Motorola ThinkPhone ’s main television camera is not going to interest theiPhone 14 ProorSamsung Galaxy S23 Plus , but it can take pleasing photos in all situations .
In day you get solid active range and a ripe impression of point , if not quite the pixel - floor confidence with tricky textures of the very better . The ThinkPhone generally holds up pretty well at nighttime , with some caveats .
I take the phone on a distich of nights out . It did well for a bit of belated - night street picture taking and for taking some pictures at a lance . However , in another even lower light scene , the image wait much noisy and less detailed than I ’d expect from aGoogle Pixel 7orSamsung Galaxy S23 .
This is no great surprise . I ’ve never thought Motorola had hemorrhage - bound processing , more like just enough to get by . Normal low - lighting ? Good . Extreme humble light ? carrying out is just OK when you zoom correctly into the pics .
I do find colour to be a logical weak stain of the ThinkPhone ’s primary television camera . Daytime picture can await just a touch oversaturated , and the tonality just is n’t always spot on .
My pickiness here is elevated by the fact you ’d expect a ThinkPhone ’s camera to be redundant sober and mensurate . Most of the sentence , though , picture look straight - up endearing .
The 13MP radical - wide camera holds up well moot its lower resolution . It can even take seemly motion-picture show in somewhat dismal indoors conditions . However , at the price you could of path do better . Plenty of phone at this level also have a rapid growth .
Video is a bit of a surprise , as the ThinkPhone can burgeon forth at up to 8 kilobyte resolve , 30 frame per second . I do n’t intend most should bother with this way beyond experiment , though .
The trilled shutter burden is so unsound at 8 chiliad ; geometry looks all wobbly and slanted as presently as you set off fast panning . It ’s not a stabilise mode either . 4K/60 and below is much honorable , and 4K/30 shot is in particular smooth - looking and forgiving – in the sense of using electronic stabilisation , not frame - rate - related suaveness .
The Motorola ThinkPhone ’s 32MP selfie camera is very capable too . It can pick out piles of detail in dependable light , and leans heavily on pixel binning and low - light processing to make facial features look reasonably confident and piercing , even in bad lighting . It can also use the phone silver screen as a filling flash , for much just outcome .
Battery life
The Motorola ThinkPhone has a 5000mAh assault and battery , one a fiddling large than the more style - drive 4600mAh Motorola Edge 40 Pro . Its stamina is fairly similar to that of the cheaper Motorola sound with 5000mAh battery , perhaps a small worse .
At time I ’ve drained the battery completely in a Clarence Shepard Day Jr. , but on light solar day you’re able to expect to have 30 % left by the remainder of the mean solar day .
The ThinkPhone has a 68W charger that front - loads its power curve . No high - wattage speech sound sticks at its claimed watts the whole way through the lodge process , but this Motorola holds onto a in high spirits horizontal surface for a skilful while . It accomplish 50 % charge in just 13 arcminute , and 85 % in half an hour .
It still hold 44 minutes to reach 100 % , though , which is far from the fastest I ’ve see in a 60 - something watt charging organisation . This phone also support 15W wireless charging , which is neat .
Latest deals
Should you buy it?
This is a classy , sober Android phone that provides good performance , looks decent enough and has some of the characteristic consort with Lenovo ’s ThinkPad stage business laptop computer .
You ’re yield a good chunk of money for the ThinkPad connection here , certainly more than it ’s really deserving unless you are concerned in the enterprise fleet management elements .
Final Thoughts
The Motorola ThinkPhone is a up to phone that is easy to wish . It charges fairly quickly , feels tight , is a midway - of - the - route size and come with a quality pillowcase that scarcely adds to the phone ’s bulk .
However , it does n’t really do enough to justify its high price for the average buyer , over alternatives like theOnePlus 11,Google Pixel 7andXiaomi 13 .
There ’s nothing wrong with the ThinkPhone , other than that it probably make more sense for businesses than someone . Unless you are just choke for something to geminate with your Lenovo ThinkPad laptop .
Trusted Score
How we test
We test every mobile earphone we review exhaustively . We use industry - standard test to compare features properly and we utilise the earpiece as our main equipment over the follow-up point . We ’ll always enjoin you what we find and we never , ever , take money to review a product .
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FAQs
It has IP68 water resistor , just about as potent water resistance as you could ask for .
There is no headphone mariner here .
There is no memory notice slot .
