Motorola’s new Moto Z Play is cheaper, but not compromised
Well, that was fast. It’s been just over a month since the Moto Z and Moto Z Force landed in the US and Motorola has already cooked up another phone to go with them. The new Moto Z Play is the last and least expensive member of the Moto Z Family, and you’ll be able to nab one for yourself in the US starting on September 8. Sounds all well and good, but here’s the big question: How does Motorola’s modular vision scale down to more modest smartphones? Pretty well, actually.
But first, a quick note. The Z Play will set you back $408 when it launches or $17 a month if you’re cool with installment plans. Unfortunately, Z Play is still going to be a Verizon exclusive in the US for at least a month or so. After that, you’ll be able to buy a fully unlocked version of the original, svelte Moto Z and the Z Play in October. One word: finally.
Moving on, the Moto Z Play packs an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 and 3GB of RAM. It’s a decidedly mid-range chip compared to the high-powered 820 Moto Z fans are used to, but it was still more than enough to keep things moving briskly. Swiping through apps, playing a few games, snapping on MotoMods all willy-nilly — none of this threw the Z Play for a loop.
Meanwhile, the 16-megapixel camera around the back churned out better shots than expected. For those of you keeping count, that’s actually a higher resolution than the super-slim Moto Z can shoot at, but I prefer the latter’s detail a little more. Shots taken with the Z Play were bright and had nicely rendered colors, though there were a few occasions where I got some strangely soft edges even in broad daylight. On the plus side, the camera packs a dual-focus system that leans both on phase detection and a laser-focusing module to quickly acquire targets.
The software situation was what you’d expect. As usual, Motorola gave us a mostly stock version of Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow festooned with its intelligent gesture tricks — think twisting the phone to launch the camera and waving your hand over the screen to see the time and your notifications. I didn’t notice any major differences in performance between the Z Play and the either of the other Moto Zs I had lying around — a testament to the power you can squeeze out of an ostensibly mid-range chip. And since it’s a Verizon device, expect plenty of bloatware to greet you: I counted 14 pre-loaded apps I wanted nothing to do with. (The Amazon and Audible apps are here as well, but at least they’re useful.)
Anyway, toss all that into a glass-and-metal body and throw in a bright 5.2-inch screen running at 1080p and you’ve got the Moto Z Play in a nutshell. It’s familiar, it’s cheap and — believe it or not — it’s a little more special than you’d think.
Its battery life is pretty insane, for one. The combination of the power-sipping Snapdragon 625, Marshmallow’s Doze feature and a 3,510mAh battery means the Z Play often stuck around for more than two days of pretty consistent mixed usage. If you’re an especially light user, expect to see it last for closer to four full days before needing a charge. Not bad at all. The battery here is actually a little bigger than the one in the US-only Moto Z Force, making it one of the biggest batteries Motorola has ever produced in a phone (only the earlier Moto X Force tops it, at 3,760mAh). Oh, and there’s another thing.
It has a headphone jack.
Some facepalmed when Motorola removed that classic port from the Moto Z and Moto Z Force, but the company remained steadfast. It’s the way of the future, they claimed, and other players would follow suit. (Hint: Motorola was talking about Apple). Motorola might be right about this sea change in audio interfaces, and to be fair, the USB Type-C dongles they included with those earlier Moto Zs worked just fine. Still, I had to ask: Doesn’t this look like Motorola’s trying to bounce back from a controversy? To hear Motorola’s spokespeople tell it, there’s a headphone jack here simply because the design of the Z Play’s logic board had room for it. That’s it. Motorola wasn’t compromising on its vision or responding to a backlash — spokespeople say the company saw an opportunity and went for it. Sounds like spin to me, but whatever, we’ve got a headphone jack again!
For now, the Z Play seems to strike a commendable balance between price and performance — stay tuned as we see if that first impression holds up.
We’re live all week from Berlin, Germany, for IFA 2016. Click here to catch up on all the news from the show.
What to expect from Lenovo’s Tech World event this week
Lenovo is pulling out all the stops this year. While it’s no stranger to big launch events, this company is hosting a Tech World keynote on June 9th that promises a little bit of everything, including Motorola’s latest flagship phones and the first commercially available device using Google’s Project Tango mapping technology. But exactly are we going to see? And are there any wild cards in store? We’ve rounded up the leaks and rumors to give you a good idea of what to expect when Lenovo and Moto take the stage in San Francisco this Thursday.
Moto Z
This is the main reason why you’re here, isn’t it? You’re probably wondering how Motorola will follow up the Moto X Pure Edition, especially now that Lenovo is putting more of its mark on the iconic phone brand.
From all indications, the answer is to drop the Moto X name completely… along with some of the things you associate with Motorola’s top-of-the-line smartphone. You might instead see the Moto Z Play and Style, a pair of 5.5-inch devices that would focus on personalization even more than you’ve seen with past Moto phones. You’ll reportedly get modular backplates (MotoMods) that let you change the functionality of the phone — JBL speakers, a projector and even a Hasselblad-branded camera would be just a quick swap away. However, you’d lose the curvy back that made the Moto X so easy to grip, and a fingerprint reader on the front would do away with Motorola’s historically compact front bezels.
If the rumors are accurate, Lenovo would repeat the split between high- and low-end models. The Moto Z Style, like the Moto X Pure/Style, would be the star of the show with its quad HD display, 32GB of storage, 3GB or 4GB of RAM and an 0.2-inch thick body. It’s likely to pack a speedier Snapdragon 820 processor, too. The Moto Z Play, meanwhile, would be for the budget crowd with a 1080p screen and choices of either 16GB of storage and 2GB RAM or 32GB of space and 3GB of RAM. Verizon is expected to have at least one Droid-branded variant, although it’s not clear what you’ll get besides flashier designs (metallic hues may be the main theme) and lots of carrier branding.
Lenovo’s Project Tango phone
In a sense, the other high-end device due at Tech World is no mystery at all: Lenovo already promised to formally launch its Project Tango-powered smartphone at the event. The large (under 6.5 inches) device will revolve around Tango’s signature 3D mapping tech, which should both measure your environment and bring augmented reality worlds to your screen. The exact nature of what you get might be up in the air, however. Lenovo has promised a sub-$500 price, a summer release and a Snapdragon processor, but the finished design and performance haven’t been nailed down. We’d expect at least a few changes to the prototype Tango phone teased back in January.
Don’t expect a RAZR comeback
Sorry to dash your hopes, but one of the biggest stories for Tech World is what isn’t happening. Despite Lenovo and Motorola fueling expectations of a RAZR revival at the show, they warn that they’re “not re-releasing” the iconic clamshell. That video really exists to remind you of Motorola’s ability to change the cellular landscape, apparently.
Not that this comes as a total shock. Outside of Japan and the occasional smart flip phone, the RAZR’s form factor doesn’t have a huge following in 2016. The once ubiquitous name doesn’t mean that much in the 12 years following its launch (even the Droid-branded models didn’t last long), and Lenovo isn’t in a financial position to gamble on cellular nostalgia. The Motorola team may need to sort out its future before it dwells on the past.
Wild cards
What else? Lenovo has promised “freshly minted concepts” from its labs, so you should see some out-there technology that grabs headlines. Whether or not the tech translates to shipping products is another matter, but Lenovo is no stranger to bringing clever ideas to fruition.
Besides that, it’s hard to know what’s coming. We wouldn’t count on smartwatches when the second-generation Moto 360 is less than a year old. Lenovo might use this mid-year media gathering as an opportunity to announce new PCs, although the phone focus makes that seem less probable. The one certainty is that you can’t rule out a surprise or two: Lenovo is fond of pulling rabbits out of its hat.
[Image credits: HellomotoHK, Lenovo, Justin Chin/Bloomberg via Getty Images]
Lenovo’s new Droids might be shiny and metallic
See those phones above? They might be three versions of the Droid Lenovo’s launching in an upcoming event in June. Evan Blass (aka evleaks), well-known source of device leaks, has posted the photo on Twitter, and people seem to have anointed the black-and-bronze model as the Beyoncé of this trio. While the image only shows the Motorola and the Droid logos, the phone will likely have Verizon’s branding somewhere, since the line’s exclusive to the carrier.
Blass also tweeted out an image of three swappable backplates called MotoMods, which could be compatible with the upcoming handset. He said the three backplates have different features: one has a projector, another has JBL speakers and the third one has a Hasselblad camera. Those backplates will definitely make the phone more interesting than comparable competitors, but we won’t know for sure until the company launches them on June 9th.
The DROIDs you’re looking for? pic.twitter.com/j5zqq73Zh2
— Evan Blass (@evleaks) May 25, 2016
By the way, these are (from L to R) the projector, JBL speakers, and Hasselblad camera. https://t.co/7FIk9wA8zx
— Evan Blass (@evleaks) May 26, 2016
Via: The Verge
Source: Evan Blass (Twitter)
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