Motorola Moto Z2 Play

Motorola Moto Z2 Play is one among the few spectacular modular phones present in the market. Priced at Rs. 12,634, it is good though not an impressive upgrade to the predecessor Moto Z Play.

As a mid-range phone, Moto Z2 phone does not provide any unique feature to praise. It has a 5.5-inch AMOLED screen which produces sharp images and a thin design that makes the phone look good. Otherwise, it provides a mediocre performance, poor captured images and a moderate battery. It is for people with a tight budget who wants to enjoy the benefits of a rare modular piece.

The chief feature of Moto Z2 Play is its modular design. It means that Motorola allows you to add different features to your phone via accessories which they call Moto mods, and customise the phone according to your liking. The Mod connector is at the bottom of the back of the phone and looks quite nextgen. Moto Z2 Play is a thin and light phone when no mods are attached to it. It can get chunky with attached mods. It features a premium metal design with brushed edges which feels good in the hand. However, it discards the glass used in Moto Z Play and could seem slippery to some people. The small fingerprint scanner at the bottom of the phone is snappy and easy to reach. Moto Z2 Play retains the headphone jack, unlike Moto Z, which is an excellent addition for the mainstream audience. However, the downside is that Moto Z2 Play is not waterproof. While it is splash-proof, do not dunk it in water.

Moto Z2 Play has a 5.5-inch AMOLED display with FullHD and has 401 pixels per inch which make the display colourful and sharp. The colours are well-calibrated, and it reaches a good peak brightness of 400 nits, much higher than OnePlus 5’s 384 nits. However, Moto G5 Plus’ whopping 591 nits offers about 50% brighter display. The AMOLED screen makes the colour look deep and vibrant producing 208% colour gamut, though it can be easily beaten by OnePlus 5’s 220%. On the whole, the colour and sharpness hit a good HD level as promised by the phone.

Moto Z2 Play is powered by a mid-range Qualcomm Snapdragon 626 processor which is typical for similar flagship rivals. The same chipset was used before in phones like Samsung Galaxy C7 Pro. It ran apps smoothly and could multitask passably but introducing a bit of intense gaming or app tasks will make the phone lag. JavaScript test found that Z2 Play scored 33.74, a tad bit higher than  G5 Plus’ 30.5 but it went a lot lower than the Snapdragon 835 chipset-powered OnePlus 5, which scored a whopping 70.19. Graphics test found the Z2 Play score 13,977, which is a little higher than G5 Plus’ 13,862 and much lower OnePlus 5 with a power of 39,576. For a mid-range phone at this age, Moto Z2 is just adequate.

The camera of Moto Z2 Play is impressive but is one of the weakest areas of this smartphone model. The 12MP rear camera is a downgrade from the 16MP of Moto Z Play, which deteriorates the comparative quality. It is the same specs as G5 Plus, and take almost similar shots with better white balance and less of yellow hue. Pixels are bigger on this phone, drawing more light to produce better image quality.

However, the images are not well-defined, and OnePlus 5’s camera does a much better job in reproducing colour and capturing sharper images.

The front 5Mp selfie camera produced less sharp pictures and washed out details coming out with worse results than the rear camera. OnePlus 5 does a much better job with white balance and sharpness.

It does not come with image stabilisation which is shocking for a mid-range phone, with most of its competitors improving on the camera quality and providing better features. However, with an expensive mod, the optical zoom can be enhanced to 10x and make up for a better camera.

Moto Z2 Play is equipped with a 3,000 mAh battery and as advertised, lasts easily for one day with almost intense use. However, it is a considerable downgrade from the original Z2 Play’s giant 3,510 mAh battery. A 90-minute, FullHD video at maxed out brightness only depleted 10% of the battery from full power. However, continuous web browsing made it last for 9 hours 34 minutes while G5 Plus lasted almost 2 hours longer and Z Play a whopping extra 4 hours. Fortunately, Moto Z2 Play charges fast, getting its juice replenished from 0% to 50% in half an hour.

Moto Z2 Play’s key highlight is its modularity. It’s an exciting feature for innovators who want to customise their phone and is not present in many high-end phones like iPhone 7 and Samsung Galaxy S8. Attachment of mods can easily transform it into a higher mid-range flagship product. However, if mods do not please you, this is just a solid mid-range phone which can handle your day-to-day applications properly with satisfactory performance and one-day battery life. Honor 9 and OnePlus 5 come at a similar price range and offer better performance and camera features without the modular design.