Reviews of Motorola ThinkPhone

A fresh face on the market is always welcome. Or, in this instance, a few extremely well-known, very old ones that have branched out into the smartphone industry. The iconic ThinkPad notebook company has roots in IBM and the 1990s. Later, in 2005, Lenovo bought it as a component of IBM’s personal computer division. The second prominent name engaged in the development of the ThinkPhone is Motorola Mobility, a renowned business that was acquired by Google in 2011 and subsequently merged with Lenovo in 2014. The Motorola ThinkPhone is undoubtedly one of the outcomes of this rich history, however this oversimplifies the timeframe and the complexity of the many acquisition events.

So what we have in our hands is a novel—at least till now—product developed by Motorola for the Android OS and actual phone’s internals and infused with conventional ThinkPad functions and aesthetics. It was unveiled by Lenovo.

Neither business held back in this situation. The ThinkPhone’s aesthetic is very similar to that of the venerable ThinkPad. There are obvious allusions to the design throughout the materials, surfaces, colour scheme, and even the middle frame’s slightly boxier shape. Also, the ThinkPhone exhibits the same level of toughness as ThinkPads, meeting MIL-STD-810H standards, IP68 ingress protection standards, and Gorilla Glass Victus.

The ThinkPhone from Motorola features top-tier components like a 6.6-inch, 144Hz, 10-bit, HDR10+, P-OLED display, dual speakers, a sizable 5,000 MAh battery, 68W wired charging, and 15W wireless charging. Because of the ThinkPhone’s slightly dated but still quite potent Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset, it is obvious that it has been in development for some time. Its camera configuration might use a dedicated telephoto lens. On paper, it still appears to be quite powerful with a 50MP main camera and a 13MP ultrawide.

Let’s look at the Motorola ThinkPhone’s retail box before learning more about it.

Unboxing of Motorola Thinkphone

The ThinkPhone is packaged in a cardboard box that is 100% recyclable. With Motorola choosing a natural, brownish tone and soy ink printing, it also looks the part. Yet, the two-piece box itself is still fairly robust. Both the phone and the charger come with a small cardboard cradle. There is sufficient of protection to withstand shipment while yet being environmentally friendly.

By today’s standards, our review device came with what we would consider a respectable accessory collection. In particular, a USB Type-C to Type-C connection and a 68W PD “TurboPower” charger are provided in the box. According to the press release, a USB Type-C headset, a protective case, and a protective film for the display will also be included in some areas, or some combination of these. For further information, you should speak with your neighbourhood retailer.

Design

The striking black and boxy look of the ThinkPad laptop brand is certainly well known to the majority of you. In a more modernized form, it has continued to exist today. But the original inspiration is still very much present. Actually, that has its roots in the Japanese bento lunchbox.

However, the ThinkPhone isn’t nearly as boxy. It has its fair number of curves, especially on the back of the device where the back panel folds into the central frame, just like a contemporary ThinkPad laptop. For a modern phone, the design itself is neither unusual nor special, but the carbon fiber pattern is clearly and definitely ThinkPad.

The rear of the ThinkPhone almost appears to be a pre-applied skin, but it is a bit fancier than that because it also has a delicate texture. In our perspective, the ThinkPhone logo is expertly crafted on the rear. It sits on its own layer and has a kind of embossed texture on the back. Sadly, unlike on some Thinkpads, the tiny red dot in the “i” does not illuminate.

The ThinkPhone’s frame is very ordinary save from the fact that it attracts fingerprints like crazy. It’s just a block of metal.

Even so, the design team was able to include another distinctive feature of the ThinkPad design—a vivid red accent on a second programmable button on the phone’s left side. Even the top side is textured, much like the renowned track point on ThinkPad computers.

The phone’s front shows very little bezel around the display when we turn it around. Even yet, Motorola was able to squeeze a few sensors onto the top frame on the earpiece’s left side.

Also extremely fair in size and not too obtrusive is the selfie punch hole.

Build Quality of Thinkphone

The toughness and durability of the ThinkPad line has always been a point of pride. Although not precisely a rugged laptop in the true meaning of the word, these devices are built to withstand abuse and have repeatedly shown to be able to do so. The ThinkPhone seems to follow the same reasoning. Although it is not precisely the typical tough phone that is big and awkward, it is nevertheless built to last.

The ThinkPhone, which has a MIL-STD-810H certification and can withstand drops onto concrete from up to 1.3 metres, was earlier mentioned. Moreover, it includes IP68 ingress protection, meaning it should be safe for up to 30 minutes in freshwater up to 1.5 metres deep.

The frame is made of aircraft-grade aluminium, which feels quite sturdy and flexes hardly at all. Moreover, a thin aramid fibre for the back is listed in the materials list. Moreover, Gorilla Glass Victus is guarding the display on the front. When everything is taken into account, the ThinkPhone appears to be well-suited for prolonged endurance.

Connectivity and controls

The ThinkPhone offers two Nano-SIM slots and SA/NSA/Sub6 5G connectivity, as was already mentioned. There is also a version with a single SIM. There is tri-band Wi-Fi 6e for local connectivity, as well as Bluetooth 5.2 with LE and NFC. There is no radio and no 3.5mm jack on board. Moreover, the ThinkPhone has GPS, GLONASS, and Galileo.

There are a wide variety of sensors included into the ThinkPhone. On North American devices, this comprises a magnetometer and compass combination (Haechitech mxg4300), a light and proximity sensor combination (Sensortek stk3acx), an accelerometer and gyroscope combination (TDK-Invensense icm4x6xx), and a barometer.

The USB Type-C port’s capabilities were also examined. It performs USB Host or OTG functions as claimed. Beyond that, the ThinkPhone belongs to a small set of gadgets that can produce video via USB alt-mode. Motorola’s Ready For desktop environment is being fed through to an external monitor in the case of the ThinkPhone. Casting to a TV or PC while using wireless technology will also produce the same outcome.

Controls

The layout and control scheme of the Motorola ThinkPhone are somewhat conventional. Despite the red shortcut key, that is. User customization is possible. A single click can activate a voice or screen recorder, start and stop music playback, or launch an app.

The Motorola Ready For app is launched with one of the available pre-defined actions when the button is double-tapped. While in landscape mode, the red key can also be disabled. That button has a respectable amount of adaptability overall.

On the phone’s left side, there is only the red key and a group of three antenna lines.

The power button and volume rockers are located on the right side. Although they are not particularly nice to push, these are positioned fairly adequately. They have a slightly mushy texture. It wasn’t unusable, but it could have been much better. Also, it is more difficult to feel for the power button without looking because it feels and is sized very similarly to the volume rockers.

With the exception of a tiny hole for the secondary noise-canceling microphone and a few antenna lines, the top of the phone is mostly empty.

A bottom-firing speaker, a microphone, a USB Type-C port, and two Nano-SIM card slots are all located on the phone’s bottom side. The ThinkPhone does not support expanded storage. In case you were curious, there is no notification LED.

The Motorola ThinkPhone has a fingerprint reader built into the display. It is an optical device, and it operates quickly and precisely. About it, we have no problems.

Display

Undoubtedly, one of the best features of the Motorola ThinkPhone is the display. That appears to be very impressive on paper. A 6.6-inch diagonal screen with a resolution of 1080 x 2400 pixels corresponds to a density of about 399 ppi, which is exceptionally clear and sharp in person.

The display that Motorola uses is sufficiently bright. On the slider, we were able to achieve 514 nits, and under harsh outdoor lighting, we achieved an impressive 1069 nits.

Color Accuracy

On the ThinkPhone, colour reproduction accuracy is likewise excellent. The display supports 10-bit colour. There are only two colour modes available on the phone: saturated (the default) and natural. The DCI-P3 colour space is what saturation mode aspires for, and it comes quite close. There is a slight but noticeable boost to the blue and green channels.

With DeltaE values that are low enough to be regarded as color-accurate, Natural mode essentially succeeds in its goal of covering the sRGB colour space.

HDR Support

The ThinkPhone’s display supports HDR10+. Software reports HDR10, HDR10+, and HLG decoder support. Lack of Dolby Vision. It’s odd that the Netflix app doesn’t report any HDR compatibility, but Netflix may release an update to remedy this.

The ThinkPhone has the highest Widevine L1 DRM certification available, enabling streaming services like Netflix to provide FullHD broadcasts that fully saturate its display resolution. This is another thing we are delighted about.

High refresh rate

The Motorola ThinkPhone sports a 144Hz refresh rate display, as was already mentioned. There are four refresh rate options available in its settings: 60Hz, 120Hz, 144Hz, and Auto. The phone is simply set to a static 60Hz, 120Hz, or 144Hz frequency for the first three, and that’s it.

The ThinkPhone offers additional refresh rate choices in addition to 60Hz, 120Hz, and 144Hz. Indeed, 60Hz, 90Hz, 120Hz, and 144Hz are on that list. As with previous Motorola phones, there is no 48Hz mode. With a highly responsive and content-aware system in place, auto refresh rate mode fulfils its promise of AI-driven automatic refresh rate switching.

In reality, what happens is that the OS keeps an eye on what is displayed right now. When it detects movement, it decides if it needs a boost up to 90Hz or up to 120Hz, and then responds accordingly. In our experience, the system performs remarkably well.

The fact that we never actually saw it trigger 144Hz mode is the sole drawback. To even receive a 144Hz refresh rate, you must manually pick the 144Hz mode in the settings.

Here is a brief demonstration of how effectively Auto refresh rate mode recognises items like the BlurBusters UFO test in a browser and then a video playing in both a local player and YouTube and adjusts to the ideal refresh rate on the fly.

Battery life

The Motorola ThinkPhone’s 5,000 mAh battery has a good capacity. For its 8.3mm profile and 188.5 g weight, that is pretty acceptable.

In our unique test, the ThinkPhone achieved a fantastic battery endurance rating of 116 hours. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chip in the ThinkPhone has already demonstrated its efficiency and performs admirably overall. The test findings, both off-screen and on-screen, are excellent.

Charging Speed

A Motorola 68W charger is included with the ThinkPhone. In spite of its maximum output, it is actually relatively little. The output ratings of this device are 5V@3A, 9V@3A, 15V@3A, [email protected], and [email protected]. It appears to be based on USB Power Delivery, and with a 20V output, it works well for emergency PD laptop charging as well.

The ThinkPhone’s included adapter allows it to charge fairly quickly. After 15 minutes, we were able to bring it back from the brink of death, and in 30 minutes, 86%. Even though it was far from the fastest charge, a complete charge took little under one hour.

Speakers

The ThinkPhone sports a hybrid stereo speaker setup, with an amplified earpiece handling one channel and a dedicated bottom-firing speaker handling the other. This is a rather typical practise.

This characteristic makes the ThinkPhone’s speakers less than perfectly balanced, but on the plus side, they can go quite loud. Nevertheless, there is a lot of distortion at high level on the ThinkPhone, so it is both a pro and a drawback. You can be sure that your phone will always ring, at the very least.

The ThinkPhone produces output that is adequate, if not exceptionally spectacular. For what it’s worth, it sounds alright to our ears at a modest volume, with great voices, a little bit of bass, and a murky treble.

In the ThinkPhone, Motorola has also added Dolby Atmos. It provides a very complete range of equalisers with a large selection of presets.

However, we advise just staying with the default Smart Audio option because it does an excellent job of automatically optimising for the majority of situations.

Software

The ThinkPhone, which is essentially a Motorola phone, runs an extremely pristine, almost AOSP-looking version of Android 13 with only a few Moto tweaks on top. We continue to think that this uncluttered design is a selling point that applies to all Moto products.

Recent AOSP versions have large, bubbly buttons—four on the first pull, up to eight on the second—and a full-screen notification shade that make the Quick Settings and notification shade stand out.

I’ll move on to widgets, which got a makeover with Android 12. For widgets of various sizes, the widget picker provides responsive previews. By integrating with the Material You theming engine, the new API allows dynamic colouring, enabling widgets to adjust to the background.

Although it’s hidden behind a slightly modified Moto-specific theming engine, the Material You auto-theming feature is still present. Accent colours depending on your background are still available, and they will be applied to Google apps and the settings menu. You can download a variety of dynamic wallpapers through Motorola’s dedicated Interactive wallpapers app.

Motorola has, as is customary, provided a few helpful extras. All of them have been included to the Moto settings app, which organises them into categories. The Moto app has undergone a redesign.

Personalization is the first category; it is here that OS-native auto-theming finds a permanent home. In addition to Google’s own wallpapers, there is a large selection of Moto wallpapers available. You can also use AI to design your own wallpaper using images from your gallery.

The gestures follow. You’ve probably already noticed Moto’s karate chop action for turning on and off the flashlight, as well as his twisting motion for opening the camera app. Both continue to function while the device is locked.

With face unlock, the lift-to-unlock gesture works well because the device unlocks as soon as you pick it up and glance at the screen. There is also a swipe-to-split feature that launches split-screen multitasking. Double-tapping the phone’s back will perform a custom action as well.

Peek Display and Attentive Display are features that pertain to displays. The former performs admirably as a second-best substitute for the Always-on display feature, which is actually absent but is compensated for by some additional functionality.

When you pick up the phone or the device detects motion nearby, the screen illuminates. When you receive a notification of any kind, you may tap on it to view the message and even respond to it from the lock screen.

As long as a face is staring at the screen, Attentive Display turns off the screen timeout.

The Play section follows. The Gametime utility can be found here, and it provides the standard features of utilities like call and notification blocking and screen recording. In addition, a Dolby Atmos sound enhancement tool and optional shortcuts employing the volume keys are available for media playback even while the screen is locked.

Google has been extensively focusing on the privacy and security features of Android in more recent versions. The Privacy dashboard, for example, provides a consolidated view of the permissions that are being utilised by which apps and when. Also, there are camera and microphone indications in the upper right corner of the screen providing a clear indication that you are being viewed or heard, as well as easy toggles to completely restrict access to those. You can choose whether an app uses your precise coordinates or an approximation of your location.

It should be rather clear what a secure folder is. You can store your private programmes and files there. Some intriguing network security features are included, such as the capacity to restrict 2G data connections or to prevent some apps from connecting to the network while you are linked to an unprotected Wi-Fi hotspot.

You may lock your network and security settings for as long as your screen is locked, which is another intriguing security option. Moreover, you can encrypt the pin input interface to increase security. Using a second Moto Secure app shortcut, you can also access all of these security and privacy options.

The security measures on the ThinkPhone are something that Motorola and Lenovo are proud to promote. It appears that the ThinkPhone has a lot of systems running in the background, doing their jobs. ThinkShield is a top-notch security platform with underlying core security policies, capabilities, unique hardware, software, and procedures that guarantee the security of the complete device. The ThinkPhone also has Moto Threat Protection, an innovative hardware and AI-based security solution.

The Android app Moto KeySafe provides an extra layer of protection to the system, better safeguarding the smartphone’s most critical data. It isolates PINs, passwords, and cryptographic keys and stores them in an environment that is impenetrable to tampering, safeguarding the data from the inside out.

It makes sense to have what Motorola and Lenovo are dubbing a “Zero Touch” device deployment and fleet management solution as the ThinkPhone is primarily intended for the enterprise population. The ThinkPhone’s security app features, such as lockscreen pin scrambling, be adjusted and set remotely using tools like Moto OEMConfig and Moto Device Manager.

Think 2 Think connection is another “enterprise-friendly” feature being pushed for the ThinkPhone. It suggests flawless compatibility between a Lenovo ThinkPad laptop and a ThinkPhone. Yet, it appears to be built mostly on the well-known Morotola Ready For platform.

Motorola’s “ready for” platform, which was unveiled in 2021, offers a wide range of use cases that place the phone at the centre of a big-screen experience. You can get a Windows desktop-like environment, play a game on your phone and see it on the external screen, or even have a video conversation on a bigger display by connecting a TV or monitor.

With a cable, the connection can be made using either the “ready for” cable (or another USB-C MHL Alt option) or a USB-C-to-C cable with a suitable monitor. An alternative is to wirelessly link up to a display that supports Miracast.

The phone’s screen can be used as a touchpad and/or keyboard if you don’t have a mouse or keyboard nearby.

On a computer running Windows, you can use “ready for” as well; a window will open on your desktop. This is useful if you want to multitask across devices on a single screen or run an Android app from your computer.

When making video conversations on a Windows Computer, you can utilise the phone’s camera to record your own image and an external display to watch the other participants.

The last Ready For use case is for playing games on a larger screen, such as a laptop or television. The obvious advantage of the phone’s larger display for gameplay is that you can run the game on it while connecting an external controller.

Performance and benchmark

The Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset serves as the foundation of the Motorola ThinkPhone. The fact that the phone doesn’t use Qualcomm’s most recent and finest chip suggests that it has been in development for some time. Even still, there’s no denying that the ThinkPhone is a powerful flagship device. A primary Cortex-X2 core, three Cortex-A710 cores running at 2.75 GHz, and four Cortex-A510 cores operating at 1.80 GHz make up the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1’s octa-core CPU design. It has an Adreno 730 GPU.

The ThinkPhone combines said processor with up to 512GB of non-expandable UFS 3.1 storage and either 8GB or 12GB of RAM. The following configurations are offered: 128GB with 8GB of RAM, 256GB with 12GB of Memory, and 512GB with 12GB of RAM. The higher tier models should do a little bit better in some complex benchmarks like AnTuTu because our review machine has 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage.

Start out by running some GeekBench and CPU tests. We can see from the performance charts that the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 inside the ThinkPhone is performing as predicted and is surrounded by its peers. That naturally means Motorola did a superb job putting this processor to use and harnessing its potential.

Also, we can observe how much the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset improves overall performance. It’s important to keep in mind that some of the handsets that compete with the ThinkPhone already use Qualcomm’s most recent technology. It is possible to see the difference in AnTuTu and its more complex set of benchmarks.

In graphical tests, the Adreno 730 GPU still performs admirably despite being a generation older. Yet once more, it’s obvious how much of a performance edge the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 and its Adreno 740 have.

The ThinkPhone will only ramp up its refresh rate to 120Hz in Auto mode by default, just as we explained in the section on managing high refresh rates. With the more basic GFXBench tests, we rapidly reached that cap. In case you were curious, the Adreno 730 has the power to saturate the phone’s entire 144Hz refresh rate during these testing.

And as predicted, the ThinkPhone and its Adreno 730 perform flawlessly on all 3DMark tests except from the challenging Wild Life Extreme. The ThinkPhone achieves a very respectable score there, coming quite close to the standard iPhone 14.

The ThinkPhone is remarkably snappy and slick in use. Its simple and lightweight OS undoubtedly aids in this. It has plenty of raw strength to take on any task at hand and feels incredibly fast to operate. While though the ThinkPhone’s lack of the most recent Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor is disappointing, it is also not a big concern in real life.

The metal frame of the ThinkPhone, in particular, may become very warm to the touch when under heavy load.

It manages heat load and throttles reasonably well without experiencing any significant jarring drops that would have produced stutters. Even with cooling, it doesn’t really wow, but overall, it’s fine.

Camera

The ThinkPhone nearly totally copies the Motorola Edge 30 Fusion’s camera arrangement. A 50MP OmniVision OV50A sensor and an f/1.8 lens are used in the primary camera. It has a 1/1.5″ sensor size, 1.0 m pixels, and a native resolution of 8192×6144. Phase detection autofocus (PDAF) is made possible by QPD throughout the full picture array of the sensor. An OIS-capable lens is also used here to integrate the sensor.

based on an f/2.2 lens and a 13MP SK Hynix HI1336 sensor. It has a 1/3-inch diagonal and 1.12 million pixels “image format. It also has sufficient resolution (4208 x 3120 pixels), which is not often the case for many contemporary ultrawide sensors, to capture UHD@30fps. The ultrawide camera has focusing as well, enabling it to function as a macro camera as well.

The depth sensor on the ThinkPhone is perhaps last but not least. A GalaxyCore GC02M1B sensor with 1.75 m individual pixels and a 1/5 is employed “image format. It is a straightforward 2MP, f/2.4 camera.

The ThinkPhone and Moto Edge 30 Fusion diverge in their selfie cameras. The OV32B40, a 32MP camera provided by OmniVision, is used in the international model. It contains 0.7 m pixels per row and a 1/3″ optical format. It incorporates a 4-cell colour filter and on-chip hardware re-mosaic to deliver 32MP Bayer output in real time at excellent quality. The ThinkPhone, which was created exclusively for the Chinese market, employs a 16MP selfie in its place.

The camera app was developed by Motorola, just as the rest of the OS. As a result, it hasn’t altered much from what we saw on earlier Motos.

The camera settings are arranged in a carousel layout that may be customised. The less often used shooting modes are found in the hamburger menu at the right end of the carousel.

For all three cameras, Pro mode provides you complete control over the camera’s settings, including white balance, ISO, autofocus, shutter speed, and exposure compensation. Even a histogram is included.

Swiping up in the viewfinder will reveal more settings for each camera mode; there is a small arrow tip to show this. In this area, you may adjust the flash and self-timer in photo mode as well as the resolution and frame rate in video mode. There are many more settings, like photo resolutions, in the gear icon for the general settings menu.

Daylight photos

Starting with the 50MP primary camera. It has a Quad Bayer pixel setup, so by default, it can take 12.5MP still pictures. Overall, these pictures are attractive, but they don’t really stand out. The colors are excellent and true to life, and the detail is good. There is also a lot of contrast.

However, there are some problems with and room for improvement in these pictures. When pixel peeping, the finer detail appears a little mushy. The images also have a distinct graininess. The dynamic range might also be wider.

The high-res mode on the ThinkPhone can be used to capture images at their full 50MP resolution. Taking these photos also doesn’t take too long, because to the quick chipset. Although you have to put up with the larger file size, we don’t believe it’s worth it in the end.

There isn’t any type of dedicated telephoto camera on the ThinkPhone. Digital zoom is still an option, and the 50MP main camera has the necessary pixels. Generally speaking, images taken at a 2x zoom are just as clear and high-quality as those taken at a 1x magnification. Thus, it is completely usable.

But the camera UI doesn’t have a quick option for 2x, so you have to pinch and zoom, which is a pain.

Ultra-wide Camera

The 12.5MP resolution of the still images captured by the ultrawide camera matches that of the primary camera. Overall, these appear quite respectable, with high detail, nice color reproduction (even if not a perfect match to the primary camera), and a respectable dynamic range for an ultrawide. Rarely does the autofocus perform improperly, and the vast majority of routine photographs come out sharp and in focus.

Although both edge softness and image distortion close to the edges are somewhat problematic, neither is surprising on an ultrawide. Similar to the main camera, there is some surface graininess, but it is not overly noticeable.

Macro Camera

The ultrawide camera is also in charge of taking macro pictures because of its focusing. Strangely enough, these are saved in a resolution of slightly over 13 MP. However, the choice is not completely random because that is the native resolution of the available ultrawide sensor.

These macro images appear to be of very high quality, with lots of detail, little noise, and excellent color.

With the ultrawide in macro mode, we do have some issues, mostly with the autofocus. It’s not only a little tricky up close, but it doesn’t even let you get that near to the target. Given that the Motorola Edge 30 Fusion had no problems in the same ultrawide macro scenario with the identical hardware on board, this is a very strange behavior, hopefully one that can be corrected.

Low-light photos

The main camera’s performance in low light isn’t something we particularly like. The images it takes have crushed shadow detail and are mushy, fuzzy, and simply too dark. Additionally, light sources are destroyed.

The ThinkPhone automatically enters the night mode on its own. However, there is a manual night setting that alters the shots in a more noticeable way. The ThinkPhone does take a few seconds or so to snap a night mode photo, but it’s worth it.

On the primary camera, night mode significantly sharpens and cleans the image. In truth, these photographs are generally overprocessed yet still superior to the standard ones.

In night mode, light sources are also handled considerably better. The pictures are still a little too gloomy for our tastes, though.

Ultra-wide Camera low-light photos

The ultrawide camera uses automatic night mode a lot more frequently than the main camera, which is likely at least partially why its images are so much better than the main camera’s. Although not precisely true to life, the colors appear lively, the handling of the light sources is good, and there is even detail in the shadows.

The ultrawide’s manual night mode doesn’t really do much more than what it does automatically. However, you can achieve a little bit more sharpness and better management of light sources.

Selfie Camera

A 32MP selfie camera is present on the ThinkPhone, however it is not a Moto Edge 30 Fusion replacement. It makes use of a separate sensor, and despite some contradictory information we’ve discovered online, it lacks autofocus.

The camera produces 8MP still images by default using a Quad Bayer pixel layout. There are two zoom levels on the selfie camera.

Overall, we think the selfies are fairly attractive in terms of quality. Details abound. The hues are lovely and authentic. Skin tones and texture are extremely well visible. Overall, we are satisfied.

portrait mode

For portrait pictures, the ThinkPhone has three different zoom levels. Portraits are always taken with the main camera even though it has the ability to autofocus with both its main and ultrawide cameras.

Getting the subject in focus can be a little tricky, but once you’ve mastered it, portraits look excellent, with outstanding subject detection and separation and fantastic background blur. The quality of the skin might be improved. Given that we had turned off all in-camera beautification filters or tweaks, it appears too smooth.

Even though it can be more difficult, getting the focus correct for photographs of non-human subjects nevertheless looks nice.

Video recording

The primary camera on the ThinkPhone has a maximum resolution of 8K@30fps for video recording. Videos are automatically saved in the h.264 format with an AVC video stream (about 50 Mbps for 4K and 130 Mbps for 8K) and a stereo AAC audio track (256 kbps, 48 kHz) inside an MP4 container. The camera options also include an option for H.265 (HEVC) encoding.

Videos in 8K don’t look that great. They have a soft quality, and the colors are a little too subdued in our opinion.

Our Verdict

It is quite challenging to accurately summarize the ThinkPhone’s many subtleties. It is unquestionably not your typical smartphone; rather, it is a distinctive and extremely particular product, both in terms of its core features and intended use. Though technically available for end users to purchase, the ThinkPhone is primarily a business-to-business corporate product. Corporate standards, demands, agreements, and services operate somewhat differently than how they do on the open market. Therefore, determining the ThinkPhone’s actual value and pricing competitiveness is a difficult task.

The ThinkPhone has a lot going for it, starting with its superb construction out of materials like aluminum, aramid fiber, and Gorilla Glass Victus. Obtaining an IP68 and MIL-STD-810H grade for the phone. Even though appearance is somewhat subjective, we think the ThinkPhone is lovely. Its overall aesthetic is recognizable and oozes classy business appeal.

Additionally, the ThinkPhone delivers a superb all-around display with remarkable performance, dynamic high refresh rate handling, and cohesion. Additionally, it has a long battery life and charges fairly quickly. The sleek Android OS, which is loaded with a ton of extra features like the Motorola-provided “ready for” platform and some cutting-edge security, onboarding, and remote administration tools, is undoubtedly the actual icing on the cake. the kind of things that the corporate IT department will enjoy.

But the ThinkPhone is far from ideal. We were disappointed in its camera arrangement in particular. The stereo speaker configuration is the same. Since the ThinkPhone costs EUR 1000, it is difficult for us to recommend it as a consumer purchase on the open market today. It merely fails in a few crucial areas. Having said that, the ThinkPhone might be a good choice if you find up with one through your job or are wanting to buy a fleet of devices for your company in the appropriate situations.

Pro’s & Con’s