Motorola may have finally quit the business of making flagship phones

Motorola released the Moto Z4 two days ago. The device, while a solid offering by most metrics, has received some stick for its high price. It comes with a price tag of US$500, which is undoubtedly excessive f what it brings to the table. Fans of the company may have overlooked the Z4 in hopes of upcoming Moto Z phones but the company has confirmed that no other Moto Z phones will be coming this year.

Last year, Motorola released the Moto Z3 and Z3 Play. The Moto Z and Z Force lines are the company's premium series but the Z3 featured a last-gen SoC, the Snapdragon 835, while there was no Z3 Force at all. This year, the Z4 doesn't even use a last-gen SoC like the Snapdragon 845 but instead opts for the mid-range Snapdragon 675. That, and the lack of certain other features, ensure that the Moto Z4 is in no way an actual flagship.

Motorola doesn't have any plans of releasing a proper Snapdragon 855-powered phone this year, either. In fact, the last Motorola phone with a current-gen flagship processor was the Moto Z2 Force, back in 2017. It's safe to say that, at this point, Motorola has given up on the flagship scene. 

That's a bit sad, we must admit, but the company has been entirely uninspiring in the market for a while now and it's hard to say that Moto flagships will be missed. The company's G series is its current bread and butter, and it makes sense from a business perspective to focus on the mid-range.