Motorola will bring Qualcomm 800-series "experiences" to its popular Moto G phones and introduce new TV-friendly and desktop computing modes on its smartphones, according to a video released at Qualcomm's Snapdragon Summit.
"2021 will mark the 10th generation of Moto G, and nothing would make us prouder than bringing 800-series experiences to this family," said Motorola Mobility president Sergio Bunac.
This is a wild announcement because Motorola's G-series phones, like the Moto G Power, typically retail at $200-$300—less than half of what most Americans expect to pay for a phone with one of Qualcomm's highest-end 800-series chipsets. The G series typically rely on the 600-series chipsets, two notches down.
Now, there's a weasel word in there—"experiences." Bunac could just be saying that newer 600-series chips would enable formerly premium experiences. He could also be developing a Moto G phone with an older 800-series chip, such as the 845. Or there could be a thunderingly expensive Moto G phone in the works. That said, it's quite an announcement.
In the short video, Bunac showed a Motorola phone running two new software experiences: a mode that looks a lot like a dedicated TV streaming box; and a desktop mode that's very similar to Google's extremely under-used Android desktop mode or Samsung's Dex mode.
Motorola was a very early adopter of phone-desktop-mode experiences. Back in 2011 when it released the Moto Atrix 4G, which snapped into a dock to become the brains of a laptop, I said that was "how we'll likely be using our mobile devices in the year 2020." I was completely wrong there, but it looks like Motorola is giving it another try.
Releasing the video at the Snapdragon Summit, Qualcomm's event for introducing its new flagship chipset, implies that Motorola will also have a flagship phone with the new Snapdragon 888 processor, although Bunac didn't say that explicitly. Qualcomm announced some basic details of the Snapdragon 888 today, and we expect to hear more tomorrow.