Discover the Motorola ThinkPhone, where style seamlessly meets business efficiency.

Price when reviewed: $397.42 | Check price at Amazon

The Motorola ThinkPhone is something you may have foreseen back in 2014. That year, Lenovo purchased Motorola. Lenovo’s iconic laptop brand is Thinkpad. Motorola was, and arguably still is, an iconic phone brand on its own. What happens when you put the two together? This phone, allegedly. It’s a business-oriented phone that uses far more advanced technology than the majority of Motorola phones I encounter.

A stunningly thin and powerful phone with some fantastic business tool capabilities. We wish it was cheaper, had eSIMs, and a MicroSD card port, but in practically every other way, it serves a job and is likely worth the asking price.

Motorola ThinkPhone KEY FEATURES

It’s always refreshing to see a new face on the market. Or, in this case, a few old favorites spreading out into the smartphone world. The iconic ThinkPad notebook brand dates back to IBM and the 1990s. In 2005, Lenovo purchased it as part of IBM’s personal computer business. The second important name engaged in the development of the ThinkPhone is Motorola Mobility, another iconic corporation that was acquired by Google in 2011 and later joined Lenovo’s ranks in 2014. This is, of course, an oversimplification of the timeframe and depth of the many acquisition events, but the Motorola ThinkPhone is unquestionably one of the culminations of this illustrious history.

Expensive, but the gear justifies some of the price. Thin and stylish, but powerful and waterproof. Security has been strengthened, the pOLED screen is amazing, the camera can capture 8K video, and it is dual SIM, but there is no MicroSD card slot. Blows most benchmarks out of the water, and it is incredibly fast. This camera includes a 50MP sensor and supports HDR, HDR10, 8K, and 8K video, as well as slow motion. Not a large battery, but adequate for a few days. A phone that most owners will adore, but it is more than some are prepared to spend right now.

MOTOROLA THINKPHONE UNBOXING

The ThinkPhone arrives in a packaging made entirely of recycled cardboard. Motorola chose a natural brownish tint and printed with soy ink. The two-piece box is nevertheless quite strong. The phone has a small cardboard cradle, as does the charger. There is sufficient protection to ensure survival during shipment while remaining environmentally friendly.

Our evaluation unit came with what we consider a reasonable accessory package by modern standards. Specifically, the bundle includes a 68W PD “TurboPower” charger and a USB Type-C to Type-C adapter. According to the press material, certain markets will also receive a USB Type-C headset, a protective case, and a protective film for the display in the package, or a combination of these. You should check with your local merchant for further information.

CAMERA

With so many cameras employing the Samsung HM2 108MP sensor, it’s great to find one that opts for fewer pixels while delivering high-quality photos and video.

The HM2’s greatest video resolution is 4K, but the ThinkPhone’s sensor (which we believe is an Omnivision OV50A) supports 8K at 30fps, 4K at 60fps, and slow-motion video at up to 960 fps for 1080p clips. It also has gyro-EIS stabilization to help you obtain those smooth photos.

For portraits, the camera can employ phase detection autofocus (PDAF) to maintain the goal in focus while blurring the background. There is also a continuous shooting option, which is great for capturing athletic events or comparable scenes.

Even without the extra modes, which are plentiful, the camera produces outstanding images almost regardless of lighting conditions.

The output is almost probably the product of a four-way pixel binning method that decreases chromatic aberrations and clarity while still producing photos of reasonable quality.

It also allows you to photograph in RAW mode for the best effects.

Overall, the ThinkPhone’s camera is great, and the picture program, with a few minor exclusions, includes all of the extra settings and manual controls for those who use them.

DESIGN AND SCREEN

The Motorola ThinkPhone combines well with the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon. They have a similar finish on the rear that is supposed to resemble carbon fiber.

In both cases, the plastic is strengthened, but this does not imply that it is inexpensive to manufacture. While some laptops employ a carbon fiber weave for this type of finish, the ThinkPhone uses an “aramid” layer. A bit of research indicates that this is pretty close to Kevlar. And it’s a far better material than carbon fiber because it won’t interfere with phone reception or the Motorola ThinkPhone’s wireless charging feature.

When you glide your finger across the phone’s back, it feels like a slightly soft touch of plastic. However, I would recommend simply putting on the slightly harder-feeling plastic case included in the box. It adds far less heft than the standard silicone cases included with 90% of Motorola phones.

When it comes to size, this phone falls somewhere in the middle. Not huge. Not little. And the slim casing retains its crowd-pleaser form.

It also lacks the built-in screen protector that Motorola usually includes on its phones. My understanding is that Motorola believes a plastic shield will degrade the perception of quality slightly, and glass protectors frequently conflict with in-screen fingerprint scanners. The Motorola ThinkPhone has one. It’s quick and responsive.

There is also a red emphasized shortcut button on the side. This, thankfully, does not simply activate Google Assistant. You can select an app to load with a single or double press or make it play/pause music.

The Motorola ThinkPhone, like most phones in its class, lacks a headphone jack. However, its stereo speakers are solid. Maximum volume is adequate, and the tone is not thin; nonetheless, the very best have stronger bass.

The Motorola ThinkPhone boasts a 1080p OLED screen with practically all of the features you’d expect from a high-end phone screen bar, including a curved panel, as found on some phones in this price range. Furthermore, that style may not be appropriate for a business phone.

The color is excellent, and the contrast is as expected from an OLED phone. Its maximum refresh rate is also higher than many high-end phones, at 144Hz.

However, you will not see the top refresh rate unless you actively pick it. By default, the Motorola ThinkPhone operates in Auto mode, which alternates between 60Hz, 90Hz, and 120Hz depending on what is on-screen. Based on the read-out available in Android developer mode, I have not seen it drop below 60Hz.

This is an LG Display screen, which is a P-OLED. When viewed from an angle, these can occasionally take on a tiny blue color, but this is rare.

Maximum brightness is also an excellent option. The Motorola ThinkPhone’s maximum brightness indoors is 480 nits, although the high brightness setting can reach 900 nits. The greatest brightness I measured while playing back HDR video was 923 nits. It falls well short of the stated 1200 nits, however it is conceivable if the display is not completely white.

For your money, you can obtain a far higher resolution screen. The OnePlus 11 costs £170 less but packs significantly more pixels into its display. They aren’t especially significant pixels, but they do raise questions about the ThinkPhone’s worth.

HOW’S THE PERFORMANCE?

When an SoC fails to run a test, it is normally due to a missing feature; however, with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, several of our standard benchmarks refused to execute because they were ‘Maxed Out’. When attempting to run Slingshot and Wild Life on 3DMark, the benchmark stated that “Your Motorola ThinkPhone is too powerful for this test”. And the only 3DMark bench we were able to run correctly was Wild Life Extreme.

As a result of these shortcomings, we’ve included a selection of GFXBench results that better represent the ThinkPhone’s performance envelope.

This phone strongly argues that we need a whole new set of phone testing tools because the performance of the latest Snapdragon SoCs is off the charts.

Qualcomm does, however, have the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 with its Adreno 740 GPU, which was previously seen in the Samsung Galaxy S23 and Xiaomi 13. Testing on those smartphones reveals that the Gen 2 and Adreno 740 chip is slightly faster than the Gen 1 and Adreno 730 combination.

Unless you currently own a Samsung S23 or an iPhone 14, the ThinkPhone’s speed and power will impress you.

Buy it if...

• Premium construction, IP68, MIL-STD-810H, Gorilla Glass Victus, aramid fiber, and an iconic design.
• Bright, smooth 144Hz display with simple and dynamic HRR handling.
• Excellent battery life.
• Quick charging using typical USB Power Delivery peripherals.
• Clean Android 12 UI, Moto special bits,’ ready for’ PC-like functionality, robust security, and remote/fleet management software.

Don't buy it if…

• The main camera’s performance is subpar, both in images and videos.
• There’s no telephoto camera.
• Stereo speakers are mediocre.

FULL SPECIFICATION