Technologies

My Favorite Motorola Phone in 2023 Is on Sale for $400

Commentary: The Lenovo ThinkPhone surprised me with its elegant design and top-notch hardware. It’s a steal at $300 off.

If you want a phone for less than $500 that isn’t used or refurbished, there are two main options.

The first is to consider a phone that was made to be affordable, of which there are plenty from the likes of Samsung, Motorola, OnePlus and Google. These phones typically have a lot to offer for their price, such as great battery life, 5G support and a processor that isn’t the fastest but is still powerful enough for mundane daily tasks (i.e. scrolling through social media, texting, video chats, etc.). But to keep the price down, these cheaper phones come with compromises including lower-resolution screens that aren’t very bright, cameras that take just OK photos and plastic designs.

Read more: Best Phones of 2024

The other option is to find a more expensive phone that came out last year, or even two years ago, for a discount. The Lenovo ThinkPhone by Motorola, currently priced at $400, is a great example. I can almost hear you asking: “Wait, Lenovo makes phones?” They did this year, and it’s one of my favorite phones I tested in 2023.

The ThinkPhone was a good deal at its original price of $700, but it’s definitely worth buying with a $300 discount.

As the name suggests, the ThinkPhone is a collaboration between Motorola and its parent company, Lenovo. It has a similar design as Lenovo’s popular ThinkPad laptop lineup, right down to the signature red hardware button for triggering software shortcuts. It has impressive hardware for $400 that includes 256GB of storage (most sub-$500 phones only have half that capacity), a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Plus processor (two generations old but still powerful) and a lovely 6.6-inch 144Hz display (a higher refresh rate than most phones).

It also supports 68-watt fast charging and ships with the required wall plug. That alone makes the ThinkPhone stand out; phones from Samsung and Apple take longer to charge and don’t include the power adapter in the box. In my tests, the ThinkPhone went from an empty battery to 92% in 30 minutes, making it one of the fastest-charging phones sold in the US. For perspective, the $799 iPhone 15 only added 53% in the same amount of time.

But it’s the ThinkPhone’s harmonious design that made it stand out in 2023. Smartphone hardware, especially in the sub-$500 range, has moved away from being an expression of style and design and has instead become an aluminum or plastic housing for a rectangular glass screen. A phone’s color and camera bump shape are usually their most distinctive aspects.

The ThinkPhone’s design is a bit more ambitious. It’s refined and mature, replicating the ThinkPad’s buttoned-down corporate look. The diagonal aramid fiber weave inlay on the back gives it a sophisticated finish and feels great to the touch. The hardware and lightly customized Android 13 software feel like a single cohesive design. It’s the kind of thing a lot of reviewers, including myself, usually credit Apple with. I should note that Motorola and Lenovo commit to three years of major OS updates and four years of security updates.

The ThinkPhone by Motorola badge on the back of the phone

I spoke with Sudhir Chadaga, global lead of Motorola for business, about the ThinkPhone this past summer. He said the phone’s design took time to find.

“We wanted to make a statement that the ThinkPhone should be the best companion to your PC,” said Chadaga on a video call. “It’s not just that they need to look like each other; they need to work well together.”

Besides being a solid Android phone, the ThinkPhone has a number of nifty shortcuts and cross-platform utilities with Windows. The cross functionality isn’t limited to Lenovo ThinkPads; the ThinkPhone can work with most recent Windows computers.

ThinkPhone by Motorola next to a ThinkPad laptop

You can connect it to PCs, monitors and TVs. For example, I copied and pasted text and photos from the phone to a PC laptop and used the ThinkPhone’s 50-megapixel main rear camera for a video call I took on the ThinkPad. The video quality looked much clearer than the laptop’s built-in webcam.

Those integrations between Android and Windows are the result of customers, and even Lenovo staff, wanting a better experience between their laptops and phones. Chadaga tells me many of his employees frequently file expenses on the road, which can be a clunky experience that often involves emailed photos of receipts. He wondered if there was an easier way.

“Android and Windows haven’t always played well together,” said Jerry Paradise, vice president of global commercial portfolio and product management at Lenovo. “Customers were always saying, ‘You guys really need to do a ThinkPhone.'”

Clearly, the ThinkPhone made a good impression on me. But I should mention some of the drawbacks, and the first are the cameras. For $700, these cameras take decent photos, but they struggle in low light. If you’re buying this for $400, the ThinkPhone’s cameras are good compared with most other cheap phones.

The interconnectivity between the phone and PCs worked well most of the time, but there were times (such as when I had the ThinkPhone’s screen on a ThinkPad display) when I experienced an occasional lag.

In terms of software support, Motorola and Lenovo still fall behind Samsung, which offers four years of major OS updates, and Google, which offers seven years for the new Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro.

While Chadaga and Paradise praised the ThinkPhone for business-minded users, it’s also a splendid Android phone. You may not care about having a phone that syncs to your PC or lets you use Microsoft Teams at the press of a button. But the ThinkPhone’s speedy charging, iconic design and otherwise high-quality hardware still makes it a worthwhile phone.

With its $300 discount, the ThinkPhone is the best $400 phone you can buy right now. The question now: How long will it remain at this price?

Technologies

Trump Maintains US‑Iran Negotiations Continue Amid Tehran’s Denials of Duplicity

President Trump insists that US‑Iran talks are ongoing despite Tehran’s denial of any negotiation plans, while warning that only a deal or total surrender will allow passage through the Strait of Hormuz. Conflicting statements from both sides have heightened uncertainty as the conflict enters its sixth month.

On Monday, President Donald Trump asserted that negotiations between the United States and Iran are still taking place, even after Tehran stated it has no intention of engaging in direct talks with Washington.

In a fiery Truth Social post, Trump labeled Iran’s leaders “unbelievably duplicitous,” claiming they are lying about ongoing peace talks “whether Iran wants to admit it or not.” He repeated his assertion that the United States completely controls the Strait of Hormuz, despite maritime traffic through the crucial route lingering at only a small fraction of pre‑conflict levels.

He wrote, “Nothing reaches Iran unless we allow it, and nothing will pass unless a deal—or total surrender—is achieved.”

Earlier that day, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei told reporters there is no imminent plan for U.S.–Iran negotiations, contradicting Trump’s earlier comment that talks would resume Monday afternoon. Baghaei added that Iran’s only current discussions are with Oman concerning the Strait of Hormuz.

The conflicting statements have heightened uncertainty over the peace‑talk process and the broader conflict, now in its sixth month.

Trump’s assertion about new negotiations came a day after he said on Truth Social that he had agreed to cancel a massive strike against Iran “subject to being able to rapidly make a DEAL.” He said in the same post that Iran and other Middle Eastern countries had asked him to hold off on that attack because “the perimeters of a deal has been agreed to.”

Trump has claimed dozens of times throughout the more‑than‑five‑month‑long war that a deal is at hand. No permanent deal has been signed, and a temporary ceasefire reached in June has fallen apart.

Trump has also repeatedly threatened to launch devastating strikes against Iran before backing off. After the latest example, oil prices on Monday fell and stocks surged.

BMI, a research unit of Fitch Solutions, said in a note Monday that a broader diplomatic understanding on reopening the Strait of Hormuz is still achievable this quarter, while raising the probability of its escalation scenario to 35% from 25%, citing mounting military, diplomatic and economic signs of rising U.S.-Iran tensions.

“Diplomatic progress is likely to be punctuated by periodic military flare-ups, while miscalculation by either side could trigger a renewed escalation,” BMI analysts wrote in a note. The firm said the key issue to watch is the future governance of the strait, as the Iran-Oman talks — potentially backed by Gulf states, China and the U.S. — point to efforts to build a post-conflict shipping framework.

Shipping risks persist even as diplomacy appears to be advancing. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Centre said it received a report of an incident 20 nautical miles (23 miles) northeast of Khasab, Oman — at the mouth of the strait — with a tanker’s master reporting an explosion in close proximity to the vessel at about 20:37 UTC Sunday (4:37 pm ET). The vessel and crew were safe and authorities are investigating, UKMTO said, advising ships to transit with caution.

The proposal Trump announced over the weekend calls for the U.S. and Iran to return to negotiations and continue ironing out some of the thorny issues that had derailed diplomatic efforts, according to The Associated Press, citing a regional official involved in the mediation efforts.

The official said the proposal also includes a reopening of the Hormuz Strait and halting attacks across the region, including by Iranian-backed militias in Iraq on the Arab Gulf countries and Jordan.

The U.S., for its part, will end its naval blockade on Iran and allow Tehran to export its oil, the official said, adding that no deal has been reached, although the mediation efforts remained underway.

Trump’s weekend reversal has lowered the temperature after days of escalating attacks across the Gulf. Kuwait said Saturday that Iranian forces launched a wave of drones within its airspace, with its military destroying multiple aircraft after Iran targeted critical infrastructure in the country’s north.

A parallel track with Muscat is also advancing. Iranian diplomats said Tehran was close to reaching a new arrangement with Oman to manage shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a deal critical to preventing the war from escalating further, according to the Financial Times.

Iranian officials said negotiations over future management of the Hormuz Strait with Oman, which sits on the opposite shore of the waterway, are in their final stages. The agreed shipping route would be different from those used before, according to Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Baghaei, adding that the new route was separate from the issue of the strait’s reopening or continued closure.

Technologies

Oil Prices Slide as Trump Halts Planned Iran Strike

Oil prices dropped after Trump cancelled a planned strike on Iran, with WTI down about 5% and Brent near 5% lower. He said the move followed requests from Tehran and regional allies for a pause while a deal shaping the Strait of Hormuz and Iran’s nuclear program is negotiated.

Oil prices fell on Monday after President Donald Trump announced he had cancelled a planned strike on Iran. WTI futures dropped roughly 5% to $80.34 a barrel, while Brent slipped about 4.7% to $83.77 a barrel.

Trump said early Sunday he called off the strike after Iran and several Middle Eastern nations asked him to hold off, noting that the outlines of a deal had been agreed upon. He added that the prospective accord would entail the immediate, full opening of the Strait of Hormuz and an end to Iran’s nuclear ambitions, according to his Truth Social post.

The president had been considering another round of strikes as diplomatic hopes waned since the conflict began on February 28. He said the U.S. and Iran would meet for talks on Monday, but Iran denied any scheduled negotiations with Washington, citing PressTV. Iran’s foreign‑ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei clarified that Tehran was only discussing shipping routes through the Strait of Hormuz with Oman. In a follow‑up Truth Social message, Trump insisted that, regardless of Iran’s acknowledgment, the United States is indeed discussing a solution to a long‑standing problem created by Iran.

Technologies

Oil Prices Drop as Trump Cancels Planned Attack on Iran

Oil prices fell sharply after President Trump announced the cancellation of a planned strike on Iran, citing a new deal that would open the Hormuz Strait and end Iran’s nuclear threat.

Oil prices fell sharply on Monday after President Donald Trump announced that he had called off a planned strike on Iran.

West Texas Intermediate futures, the U.S. benchmark, slipped roughly 5% to close at $80.34 per barrel, while Brent crude, the international benchmark, declined 4.7% to settle at $83.77 a barrel.

Trump made the announcement early Sunday, saying he had canceled the strike following requests from Tehran and other Middle Eastern countries.

In a Truth Social post, he wrote: “We have just been asked by Iran, and other Middle Eastern Countries, to hold off any attack in that the perimeters of a deal has been agreed to.”

The president indicated that the proposed agreement would include the immediate, complete, and total opening of the Hormuz Strait, as well as an end to Iran’s nuclear threat.

Trump had been weighing additional strikes amid diminishing prospects for a diplomatic resolution to the conflict that began on Feb. 28. He stated that the U.S. and Iran would hold negotiations on Monday.

Tehran denied that talks were planned with Washington, according to state news outlet PressTV.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said Tehran was only holding talks with Oman regarding the routes ships can use through the Strait of Hormuz.

In a subsequent Truth Social post, Trump added that whether “Iran wants to admit it or not, we are, in fact, talking of a solution to a problem that they have caused for decades.”