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Every so often, Motorola updates its camera app with bug fixes and maybe a couple of new features. This latest Moto Camera update is rather hefty, adding several new features. Highlights include a selfie portrait mode for all Motorola devices now, AR stickers for the Moto Z3 and Z3 Play, and a nifty watermarking feature.
Remember the Moto G5S Plus, the strangely-named almost-flagship that debuted about nine months ago? We haven't heard much about it for a while, but according to Motorola's support page, it's now receiving its Android 8.1 Oreo update. That means that it's skipping 8.0 Oreo, which comes as something of a surprise given Lenovorola's update reputation.
All manufacturers are required by the GPL to release the kernel source code whenever there's a change to it, which usually happens when a major update is pushed. The Moto G5S Plus, codenamed 'sanders,' has been waiting for its Oreo update for quite a while now, but with news of a soak test occurring in Brazil and this 8.1 Oreo source code's release, it looks like it may be coming soon.
Motorola has quite a few discounts going on through its official site. Most of them concern Moto Mods, which nobody really cares about these days, but two new ones have just gone live: $100 off the Moto X4, $100 off the 64GB Moto G5S Plus, and $50 off the 32GB Moto G5S Plus.
B&H is running a massive year-end sale right now, fittingly named the 'Mega Deal Zone.' We already covered some of the offerings here, but there are also seven Motorola phones on sale. That includes the Moto G5S Plus, Moto G4, and last year's Moto Z Play.
Motorola's flagship phones are a bit of a tough sell with all the pricey Moto Mods, but its budget lineup is compelling. It's even more compelling today with a sale on the Moto G5S Plus. That phone usually starts at $280, but it's $50-75 less today.
It's been a few years since the Motorola that we knew and loved was replaced by what I like to call Lenovorola. Gone are the quick updates, Moto Maker, and a lot of other things that made Motorola great; instead, we now have a ton of different models, super slow (or potentially nonexistent) updates, and strange-looking camera bumps.
Motorola went ahead and befuddled everyone last month when it announced a small upgrade to its G5/G5 Plus with the newer G5S and G5S Plus, then revealed there were two versions: one for the US without NFC and one for Europe with NFC, and then clarified that only the Plus would come to the US. Now that day has come and the G5S Plus is up for pre-order in the US on several sites.
Just yesterday, Motorola uploaded the Moto Z2 Play's source code to GitHub. It seems like the Lenovo-owned company has been working hard on getting these kernel sources out, as it today released the source code for the Moto G5S Plus, which has the odd code name of "sanders."
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- Motorola has published a blog post confirming all the devices above, along with the as of yet unreleased Moto X4. We also forgot about the Moto Z Play Droid - whoops. We've added both to the list above.
Back in the days when the Moto X could be used with one hand and Moto Maker was a cool new thing, Motorola was one of the best manufacturers with software updates. Since their skin is so minimal, anything else would be disappointing. But Motorola is not what it once was, and it's fallen behind in terms of software support. The Lenovo-owned company has just released its update roadmap for Android 8.0 Oreo.
Motorola used to have a very simple product lineup, but this is no longer the case. In fact, the G-series is becoming downright convoluted with all the slight variations. The G5S Plus popped up on the US Motorola site earlier today, and now the G5S Plus and G5S are official in Europe. They'll both come to the US later this year, but in slightly different forms.
Moto is still on a mission to confuse everyone with a multitude of devices that differ ever so slightly in specs and nomenclature. The latest is the Moto G5S Plus, a bigger version of the current Moto G5 Plus, which is a bigger version of the regular G5. See? Simple. We first heard about the G5S Plus last month when specs of the device leaked, but now it's official.
The Moto G5 Plus is already a good budget phone - so good, in fact, that we declared it "the king of budget phones" in our review. However, Lenovorola isn't stopping there; famed leaker Evan Blass of VentureBeat has looked at marketing materials for the G5S Plus, which state that the upcoming smartphone will be larger, better-built, and have superior cameras when compared to the current G5 Plus.