Lenovo-owned Motorola Mobility’s premium Moto Z line up of devices made quick waves in the country last year with its magnetic snap-on accessories. Contrary to LG G5 that came with swappable components, Moto Z series’ modularity offered convenience to users.
In June, Motorola Moto Z2 Play, a successor to Moto Z Play. Priced at Rs 27,999, Moto Z2 Play is a slight bump up in the specifications as compared to its predecessor but houses smaller battery. The device supports customisation via Moto Mods that lets you to turn your device into a boombox for weekend plans or into a video projector.
Design
Measuring 5.99mm in thinness, Moto Z2 Play is a sleek, well-built and sturdy device but looks awkward without any accessories. The camera protrudes out on the back and the 16 magnetic pogo pins also seem to look for a companion.
As the device is modular, other physical aspects of the device including height and width are unchanged so as to fit the existing Mods that were launched last year.
There is also no headphone jack, instead it comes with a USB Type-C port along with a headphone adaptor so as to make wired headphones work. The downside to this is you will not be able to listen to music while charging and vice versa.
The chassis of Moto Z2 Play is metal as compared to the glass back of its predecessor and the power, volume buttons are placed slightly higher than what we had witnessed in recent smartphones, and if you have small hands, you had to stretch your thumbs to press them.
Performance
The smartphone comes with a 5.5-inch Super AMOLED display with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 on top to prevent it from accidental scratches. The display is bright and vibrant but looks over saturated. To solve this, the company has included 'Standard' mode that makes things look more natural.
For average user, Moto Z2 Play’s 2.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 626 processor works smoothly and swiftly. The camera app launches quickly with a flick of the wrist and the additional 1GB of RAM from Moto Z Play allows to seamlessly switch between the apps.
Medium to heavy graphic games --- Candy Crush Saga, Subway Surfers, Asphalt 8: Airborne ran smoothly without dropping a frame.
Overall, Moto Z2 Play is not a fast smartphone, but is capable of delivering optimised performance. Everyday tasks such as note taking, multi-tabbed web browsing and split-screen were seamless. And yes, when we pushed the smartphone to its limits it was a bit slower.
The handset runs Google Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow and you will be greeted with the usual line-up of Google apps and there is no bloatware.
Similar to other Moto devices, Moto Z2 Play also comes with proprietary software features like twisting wrist to launch the camera app and a wave gesture to show missed notifications, even when the device is sleeping.
Moto Z2 Play packs 3,000mAh battery which is smaller than the 3,510mAh battery of its predecessor. Despite being reduced in size, Z2 Play's battery lasted a full day on a single charge on moderate use which for me includes voice calls, streaming music, playing games all while the device is connected to a 4G/Wi-Fi network.
The handset's 12MP rear camera has quick auto-focus speed and takes decent quality photos. However, at times, the camera just couldn't get the right colours. However, noise was observed in low-light conditions. Selfies from the 5MP front camera are just enough to keep you going.
Conclusion
When using in conjunction with the Moto Mods, Z2 Play offers a modular ecosystem turning your phone into a camera with 10x optical zoom, impromptu movie projector or into a portable boombox. And of course, you need to shell out additional money for these Moto Mods.
When not taking Moto Mods into account, the Motorola Moto Z2 Play is just another mid-range smartphone.
