Moto Z2 Play review – Features, specs, price and more

• Tweet
• Pin It

Motorola, which is owned by Lenovo has recently announced the launch of its upcoming smartphone, Moto Z2 Play for the Indian market. It is the better and upgraded version of Moto Z Play which was known for good performance and brilliant battery life. The Moto Z2 Play is priced at Rs 27,999 and it will be available from 15 June exclusively on Flipkart. The smartphone is leaner and flashier than its predecessor and supports all Moto Mods made till date. Motorola intends to build on the success of  ‘modular’ Moto Mod ecosystem which was introduced last year with the launch of Z Play.

DESIGN

The new Moto Z2 Play is incredibly thin and light which gives its design a sleek look. The design of Z2 Play more polished and refined and is not very different from Z Play. To make sure that the Mods launched last year are compatible with the upcoming smartphone, the company has retained the same height and width as of Z Play. The connector pins are placed in the same location.

Moto Z2 Play sports a metallic look.

Moto has made minor improvements in the hardware department. The Moto Z2 Play is thinner than its predecessor. Moto Z Play was 6.99 mm thick and Z2 Play beats it by shedding a millimeter off it. Its thickness is 5.99 mm. When you hold the phone in your hands you can feel the difference it makes almost immediately. However, this super thin feeling comes at the cost of its battery life which was one of the most important features of Z Play. The battery has come down from 3510mAh to 3000mAh.

Z2 Play is also lighter and weighs jus 145 grams.

Moto Z2 Play camera.

The glass back is replaced by more attractive and durable metallic finish. The frame of Moto Z2 Play is made of aluminum, which makes the phone look premium. Moto has given the antenna line all around the body of the phone, which is a unique feature of work. The phone has the power and volume buttons on the right side while the top side has a SIM tray which can be used for two MicroSD cards along with two Nano SIM cards. Z2 Play has a USB Type-C port at the bottom and it can also be used as a loudspeaker.

DISPLAY

Moto Z2 Play comes with a traditional 5.5-inch Full HD (1080×1920 pixels) Super AMOLED display with a Corning Gorilla Glass 3 for protection. The AMOLED screen comes with a 401 PPI (Pixels Per Inch) pixel density and a 70.1 percent screen-to-body ratio. The viewing angles are quite good and the display is bright and vibrant. Although it is not the brightest screen available it is sharp enough. It does its job quite well without any faults.

Moto Action has given the user a choice of traditional three-button Android navigation. Users can use fingerprint sensors as gestures which give space for more content on the screen. To go back you can swipe left on the fingerprint sensor while swiping to the right to launch the app switcher. If you want to lock the phone then you can long press the fingerprint sensor.

CAMERA

Motorola has made a significant improvement in this department. Moto Z2 Play comes with a 12 MP (megapixel) camera along with an aperture of f/1.7 which enables it to click better pictures in low light conditions. It also gets dual autofocus by adding laser detection and face detection. In addition to it, there is also dual tone dual-LED flash for sharper and improved focus. The lens and focusing system are very fast and the images are clicked almost immediately.

Moto Z2 Plus has made a significant improvement in camera.

The front camera is quite good with 5 megapixels which come with a dual-tone LED flash. The beautification mode enhances the quality of selfies and makes them look better.

Moto Z2 Play rear camera is 12 megapixel.

SPECIFICATIONS

Moto has really tried to improve on what is hidden under the hardware. Yes, we are talking about features and specifications here. Z2 Play is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 626 octa-core processor which is clocked at 2.2GHz. It is an updated version of the Snapdragon 625. The RAM is quite satisfactory with 4GB and the same can be said about the internal memory with 64 GB which is expandable up to 256 GB. Z2 Play isn’t a lightning fast smartphone like some other high-end phones but it doesn’t have any performance issues either.

Z2 Play is coupled with an Adreno 506 GPU which enables it to handle any graphically intensive tasks on the smartphone.

Also read: Samsung Galaxy S8 smartphone with Infinity Display

 
It is one of the few smartphones which runs on latest version of Android Nougat 7.1.1 while other smartphones are still using Android Nougat 7.0.

Other specifications include a 4G-enabled Dual Nano-SIM slot, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth v4.2 A2DP,  FM Radio, Wi-Fi Direct, Hotspot, Moto Mod connector pins etc.

FEATURES

When it comes to software, Motorola has always followed a simple path i.e take Google’s Android and make just a few enhancements here and there. Z2 Play offers a few useful gestures such as a double karate chop to turn on the flashlight or a double twist action to launch the camera. Whenever you pick up the phone or wave your hand over it, the Moto display feature will show the time and notifications. There is an also a battery meter available and you can take actions on notifications without having the need to unlock your phone. The Moto display feature allows you to reply to a message through text or your own voice.

Whenever you pick up the phone or wave your hand over it, the Moto display feature will show the time and notifications. There is an also a battery meter available and you can take actions on notifications without having the need to unlock your phone. The Moto display feature allows you to reply to a message through text or your own voice.

There are a lot of smartphones which use the feature of voice commands and Motorola is no exception. In fact, they have taken it a step further.  Earlier with an “OK Google” command, you were able to wake up your phone and now Motorola has added a “show me” command to it. It enables you to do many things directly by using this command without unlocking the phone. For example, if you want to launch an app then all you need to do it say ““show me Chrome” and the app will automatically launch. However, its uses are quite basic and limited.

BATTERY

The battery was one of the prominent features of Z Play as it boasted a long battery life. However, the slimmer and lighter design of Z2 has forced the makers to compromise with the battery. However, the battery life still remains excellent even if it is slightly inferior to its predecessor. It comes with a 3,000 mAh non-removable Lithium-Ion battery along with Turbo-Charge which can last for a day.

OUR VERDICT

Moto Z2 Play is a smartphone which does a fine job and fulfills most of your expectations. It is a better evolution of Z Play and offers some unique features. We enjoyed using the phone and it is worth a try. The fingerprint scanner is accurate and fast and we did not experience any lag or stutter while multitasking. The price tag of Rs 27,999 might be a bit high as there are other phones in the market with similar features and competitive price but if you are looking for an entirely modular smartphone then you should go for it.

OVERVIEW

• Tweet
• Pin It