Moto Z2 Play Review: Mid Range Smartphone with Modularity

Moto Z2 Play 3

Lenovo released the second version of its first modular Z series smartphones, Moto Z2 and Z2 Play. Both of the smartphones looks just the same as their predecessors, and all that changed is the performance in both of them. Here we have the Moto Z2 Play for review in Lunar Gray color; Moto Z2 Play is also compatible with the upcoming Moto Mods. Keeping the mods aside, is Moto Z2 Play is a perfect competitor at Rs. 27,999? Let’s find out in this review.

Check out the moto z Play review

Design

Moto Z2 Play looks exactly like its predecessor; the Moto Z2 Play. There are some slight changes in the design which is so tiny and almost invisible to eyes. Moto Z2 Play is lighter, slimmer and has a better screen to body ratio than Moto Z Play but most of the hardware specifications are same.

The phone is made of all metal design and feels like a slab with almost no (minimal) curves on the edges, and the back of the phone is perfectly flat. The front has a 5.5 inches Super AMOLED display and a fingerprint sensor below it. The selfie camera is above the screen with the dual LED dual tone flash and the primary mic is placed just beside the fingerprint sensor. Also, there is no dedicated loudspeaker in this smartphone; the earpiece works as the loudspeaker.

The left edge of the Moto Z2 Play is empty, the power button and volume rocker are on the right side. The top edge got the SIM card tray slot and a secondary microphone, and bottom edge got the USB Type-C port and 3.5 mm audio port.

The back of the phone is perfectly flat, and it is satisfying (for me at least), the camera hump is bigger than what you usually see on other smartphones. Below the camera hump is the Motorola logo and the Moto Mods connectors are on the bottom half part. Overall the design of the smartphone is perfect but feels a bit slippery in hands. If you are a fan of slab design, then you will like the design of this smartphone.

Display

The display of Moto Z2 Play is 5.5 inches Super AMOLED with Full HD resolution which is the best display for the smartphone in this price range. This screen is bright and crisp, the color contrast is amazing, and this display works better in sunlight. The phone supports 4K resolution content, and it looks great on this Super AMOLED display.

Operating System

The Moto Z2 Play comes running on Android 7.1 Nougat with the stock user interface and pixel launcher. There are two apps from Moto; “Moto” for gesture control and “Moto Mods” for mods setting tweaks. The icons are a bit different from the stock interface, and the quick settings panel is also a bit tweaked for icons and usability.

Google Assistant is built right in and can be triggered using the fingerprint sensor or using the home button on the on-screen navigation bar. The fingerprint sensor supports gestures, so you can remove the on-screen navigation bar and use the fingerprint sensor for navigation. There are lots of predefined gestures and motion controls which you can control using the Moto app.

Camera

The Moto Z2 Play is equipped with good camera specs; 12MP primary shooter with f/1.7 aperture and laser autofocus and 5MP front facing the camera with f/2.2 aperture. The dual LED dual tone flash is placed for both cameras, primary and secondary. The rear camera is capable of shooting 4K videos at 30 frames per second and Full HD at 60 frames per second.

The camera app is similar to the stock Android 7.1 Nougat camera app, just slight changes to the icons and settings. The pictures come out great, and the color contrast is also good in the pictures. The colors are great and bright even in artificial or low light conditions. However, the pictures taken indoors lacks details in them, and are full of grains and starts to degrade as we zoom in.

The selfie camera also failed to impress us even with a dual tone dual LED flash; the pictures are too grainy and with minor details than the rear camera. It supports 4K video recording at 30 frames per second and Full HD at 60 frames per second. It lacks any stabilization, so the videos come out shaky, but the quality is satisfactory. Overall the best part about the camera is the fast autofocus because of the laser autofocus feature and the shutter speed which is very fast.

Performance

Moto Z2 Play comes with Qualcomm Snapdragon 626 SoC which is the best processor right now for mid ranged smartphones, and it’s all eight cores are clocked at 2.2 GHz, and the graphics processor is also the latest one from Qualcomm; Adreno 506 which is further coupled with 4GB RAM (3GB variant also available). The internal memory is 64GB which is expandable to 256 GB using dedicated SD card slot in SIM tray; you don’t have to give up one SIM card slot for that.

If we talk about numbers, the AnTuTu benchmark awarded 68609 Score, and Geekbench awarded 890 For single core and 4474 for multi core performance. More detailed screenshots are provided below if you want more details on performance.

The overall performance of this smartphone is at par; you can do almost everything on this smartphone with snappy speeds. Launching apps, playing games or multitasking, everything is perfect and run smoothly without a single lag or stutter. The phone heats up a little while gaming intensely or multitasking with more than four to five apps.

The fingerprint sensor is very accurate and unlocks the phone quickly, and the fingerprint sensor also supports locking the smartphone by holding on to it. The earpiece cum loudspeaker output is crisp clear but not as loud as a speaker in a smartphone should be (the placement is perfect though).

The battery backup is amazing; it comes with large 3000 mAh battery and Turbo charge technology which charges the smartphone amazingly fast. I am a gamer and usually play games to pass my free time, and even after playing intense graphic games on Moto Z2 Play for long, I got more than 40 percent battery at the end of the day.

Moto Mods

Moto Z smartphones support Moto Mods which is the first ever attempt from Motorola for modular smartphones. The modules which we call “Moto Mods” sold separately and you can buy them from Moto Stores or from online stores. The mods include speakers, projector, battery pack and style mods. Moto Mods are limited to one mod at a time but the best part is that the mods come with their own battery. Motorola is working on more Moto Mods which will be coming on stores in a couple of months.

Pros

  • Very sleek and sturdy design
  • Splash proof (water repellent nano coating)
  • Excellent performance in mid range

Cons

  • Camera lacks details and stabilization
  • Moto Mods are very expensive

Verdict

Motorola Z2 Play is a great smartphone for someone who wants to try Moto Mods without spending lots of money. Although, one has to pay a lot for Moto Mods already. But when it comes to price, most of the people will lose their interest because of the hardware which Motorola used on this device.

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About the author

amit rahi

Amit Rahi

He is a tech worm who always keeps an eye on the latest tech news. He is a master at Android and Windows “how to” articles. He knows every single bit of Android OS. You will always find him playing PC games, reading tech news, flashing custom ROMs to Android phones and blogging most of the time. At PC-Tablet, he is responsible to update the readers with latest tips, tricks, & hacks to take the most out of their gadgets.