The Moto X4 has been delayed and won’t launch next week as was originally planned, one industry insider said on Saturday, adding that the Lenovo-owned original equipment manufacturer (OEM) may still “mention” the Moto Z2 on Friday, June 30. The source implied that Qualcomm may be to blame for the delay of the Moto X4, suggesting that the San Diego, California-based semiconductor manufacturer is currently struggling to meet the demand for the Snapdragon 660, its latest mid-range system-on-chip (SoC) that’s said to be powering the Moto X4 and a wide variety of other Android smartphones that are scheduled to be released by the end of the year.
It’s currently unclear whether Motorola Mobility is planning to launch the Moto Z2 to compensate for the delay of the Moto X4 that was previously expected to be introduced next week or if the phone maker will simply tease its upcoming flagship before officially introducing it in July. Regardless of what may be the case, June 30 will also see the official release of the Moto E4 Plus in the United States, the firm’s latest entry-level smartphone that’s aimed at consumers looking for maximum value for money. The Moto Z2 that’s now reportedly getting teased or launched next week is meant to be a high-end alternative to the mid-range Moto Z2 Play that officially debuted earlier this month. According to previous reports, the unannounced device is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 SoC and 4GB of RAM, in addition to featuring 64GB of internal storage space expandable via a microSD card slot by up to 256GB. The handset is also said to sport a 5.5-inch display panel with a QHD (2560 x 1440) resolution protected by 2.5D glass, as well as a 12-megapixel rear camera and a 5-megapixel front one.
The Moto Z2 will likely run Android 7.1.1 Nougat out of the box that will be similar to the vanilla version of Google’s operating system and should be updated to Android 8.0 O by early 2018. Apart from the Moto X4 and Z2, the Lenovo-owned OEM should release several other handsets by the end of the year, with an update on its hardware endeavors expected to follow shortly.