Why Motorola’s ThinkPhone 25 is being unveiled breaks my heart

I have never had an experience that moved me to tears Motorola’s press release announcing the ThinkPhone 25. Moto took my favorite phone from last year and turned it into a mid-range phone. As if that wasn’t bad enough, things got worse by announcing that the nerfed ThinkPhone 25 wouldn’t be available in the United States.

It’s unfair to say that the ThinkPhone 25 will be a bad phone. Still, I’m disappointed that Motorola took it in a different direction than the original. Instead of making a run at devices like the Google Pixel 9 and Samsung Galaxy S24FEMotorola seems content with relegating the ThinkPhone to niche status when there could have been much more.

What made the original ThinkPhone great?

Powerful performance and value

I didn’t think Motorola would sell the ThinkPhone to non-business customers. When I saw it go live on Moto’s site for purchase, I was excited for a few reasons. The Motorola ThinkPhone offered all the power we reasonably needed in a simple package with excellent battery life. But Motorola could sell the ThinkPhone for $700 by cutting out the fluff, an exceptional value considering everything we received.

The Motorola ThinkPhone offered all the power we reasonably needed in a simple package with excellent battery life.

It wasn’t as flashy as Samsung and Google’s flagship offerings, but it packed a lot of features to love. The display was a fantastic 6.6-inch P-OLED 1080p panel, refreshing at 144Hz. It was snappy and responsive, with enough brightness to be visible outdoors. The ThinkPhone was powered by a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, which had more than enough power for whatever we needed to do at the time, paired with 8GB of RAM.

A big part of the ThinkPhone’s appeal was its build quality. I loved how it felt with a woven aramid fiber backing and an aluminum frame. It passes military drop test and has an IP68 rating, giving it superior durability to other high-performance phones. I never rocked my ThinkPhone with a case because I thought the phone would protect the case and not the other way around. It was also light, weighing 188 grams thanks to the lack of rear glass.

Phones aimed at business customers are only good if the battery lasts. The ThinkPhone had a 5,000mAh cell, and I typically got eight to nine hours of screen-on time without breaking a sweat. When it was time to charge, I was able to use TurboPower, which delivers 68W wired charging. Motorola made sure ThinkPad 68W charging cords would work on the ThinkPhone, meaning you only had to remember one charger on a trip. This was a nice gesture.

The software was also a strong point of the ThinkPhone. Moto’s Ready For (since rebranded as Smart Connect) is great Samsung DeX competitor, allowing connectivity between a phone and a PC. I could use my ThinkPhone as a webcam or run apps on a larger screen. It was a fantastic experience.

Motorola is going in a different direction with the ThinkPhone 25

Slower specs and lower price

On paper, I don’t have many complaints about the ThinkPhone 25. Motorola goes with a Dimensity 7300 chipset, which I’m happy with on other devices. It also plans to keep the rugged build just in a smaller form factor as the ThinkPhone 25 will have a 6.36-inch P-OLED display. A compact chassis means a smaller battery size. Still, I don’t think battery life will be negatively affected, given the ThinkPhone 25’s smaller screen and mid-range chipset.

I’m more disappointed that Motorola is abandoning some of the buyers who want a more powerful phone and a more durable build, but don’t need all the bells and whistles of expensive flagships. We don’t see many no-nonsense phones released.

I don’t think a $500 price point makes sense for the ThinkPhone 25. It will face the same problems as the overpriced Moto Edge (2024), which struggles to find a home on a busy street. middle class market.

Motorola let a winner walk away

The ThinkPhone deserved a chance to come back with a clear marketing strategy and presence in carrier stores as a valuable alternative to the wallet-draining behemoths we get from Google and Samsung. If Motorola had stayed the course, there would have been tremendous competition between the Google Pixel 9. Samsung Galaxy S25and ThinkPhone 25. Instead, the ThinkPhone 25 won’t make it to stateside, and I’m left with the dream of what could have been and slightly misty-eyed.