Monday, 9 November 2015
Introduction
The Moto X Play is the balancing act between the Moto G and Moto X Style with a tendency to aim high instead of settle for less. At 5.5 inches in diagonal its display still puts it in phablet territory, leaving the Moto G (3rd gen) to cater to compact phone lovers. It's a FullHD panel too, striking the obvious reasonable compromise between sharpness and battery life.
And battery life is one area, where the Moto X Play should excel - it has a huge 3,630mAh cell, with support for fast charging too, though a TurboCharger has sadly been omitted from the bundle.
The Moto X Play comes with the much-hyped new 21MP camera from the flagship, complete with phase detection autofocus and a dual-LED flash too. What it lacks is 4K video capture - the Snapdragon 615 that powers the Play caps recording at 1080p. Qualcomm's ubiquitous midrange chip is coupled with 2GB of RAM and 16GB or 32GB of built-in storage - run-of-the-mill specs in the segment.
One of the coolest features of the Moto X Play is customizability. You can choose from close to 200 color combinations between the front panel, back cover, frame and camera accent, and sport the look that best fits your style. That is, if you're in one of the few lucky countries where the Motomaker is available.
Motorola Moto X Play key features
- Dual SIM model also available
- 5.5" IPS display with FullHD (1920 x 1080 pixels) resolution, 403 ppi density, Gorilla Glass 3
- 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 chipset; quad-core 1.7 GHz Cortex-A53 & quad-core 1.1 GHz Cortex-A53 CPU; Adreno 405 GPU; 2GB of LPDDR3 RAM
- 16/32GB of built-in memory; microSD card slot (up to 128GB)
- Stock Android 5.1.1 Lollipop with no bloatware, planned upgrade to v6.0 Marshmallow
- 21 MP main camera with f/2.0 aperture; phase detect autofocus; dual-tone LED flesh; gesture controls
- 1080p video capture @ 30fps; slow-motion video capture
- 5MP front-facing camera with f/2.0 aperture
- Cat. 4 LTE support; dual-band 802.11a/g/b/n Wi-Fi; Bluetooth 4.0 LE; NFC; GPS
- FM radio with RDS, front-facing speaker
- 3,630 mAh battery; TurboPower quick charging
- Customizable polycarbonate body
- Internals with water repellent nano-coating
- Attractive price with no contract
Main disadvantages
- Non-removable battery
- No stereo speakers
It's an odd decision by Motorola not to bundle a fast charger with the Moto X Play. With such battery capacity, support for fast charging and advertised 48-hour battery endurance, the lack of a proper charger leaves you feeling a little cheated.
Motorola Moto X Play press images
That said, it's hard not to like the Moto X Play. Motorola has struck all the right notes with the Moto X Play and is offering a comprehensive package at an affordable price. There's plenty of capable competition in the midrange though, and while customizability plays a major role here, the phone also needs to perform. The Moto X Play takes on esteemed rivals on the following pages, but we'll kick off with the usual unboxing and hardware overview.
Retail package - victim to budget cuts
The Motorola Moto S Play arrives in a plain box made of thin cardboard. Other than the phone, you'll find a USB-to-microUSB cable and an AC adapter and... that's it. There's no headset, but the more expensive Moto X Style model didn't come with one either, so it's hardly a surprise.
Basic retail package
We have mixed feelings about the supplied AC adapter. The smartphone supports fast charging, which would be great for topping up that huge 3,630mAh battery. However, the bundled unit outputs a modest 1,150mA.
On a more positive note, it has a pair of USB ports for charging a couple of devices at once, but then it would take ages since they have to share the current. We're guessing this adapter is perhaps specifically tailored to simultaneous overnight charging of a Moto X Play and a Moto 360 smartwatch.
Bear in mind that the retail package contents would most probably differ from market to market.
Motorola Moto X Play 360-degree spin
The Moto X Play measures 148 x 75 x 10.9mm which makes for a reasonably compact footprint. The OnePlus 2 and Asus Zenfone 2 ZE551ML are both 3-4mm taller. Actually even the premium-built Samsung Galaxy A7 is taller, and only the LG G3 is a couple of millimeters shorter.
Not so with thickness. At 10.9mm the Moto X Play is one of the thickest smartphones of late. Sure, that's the maximum number and it gets slimmer towards the edges, but it's still a pretty chunky device. Coincidentally, the aforementioned Zenfone 2 is the same thickness, but the OnePlus 2 is a millimeter thinner.
The Moto X Play weighs 169g, which is more or less the same as the Asus and OnePlus models. Higher-end smartphones like the LG G3/G4 hover in the 150s, while the Galaxy A7 is even lighter at 141g.
Hardware overview, controls, handling
The Motorola Moto X Play is a device for the budget-conscious and that means they had to use a polycarbonate body. Of course, that's not necessarily a bad thing and many users will favor it over a more fragile glass construction or a heavier metal one.
The plastic body has a shiny frame that goes around the sides. It's light gray on the black model and silver on the white model. It's supposed to look like metal but doesn't quite succeed in doing that and looks quite chintzy, especially on the white model.
Motorola is big on looks customization and in the case of the Moto X Play that's led to a peculiar decision. The back cover is removable, and removing it gives access to... nothing in particular.
Polycarbonate body with removable back
On the Moto G (3rd gen) at least the card slots are tucked underneath, but the Moto X Play has them in a dedicated tray up top, accessible independently from the cover. Depending on where you look at, reactions could range from "whatever" to "best feature ever" as it doesn't get in the way of anything, but affords the option of customizability post purchase.
The fact that it's removable doesn't make it easy on the internals in terms of water and dust ingress. Motorola advertises the device as having a water repellent nano-coating. Spills, splashes and light rain shouldn't be an issue, Motorola says, so long as you don't submerge the whole thing in water.
Now, we admit we're guilty of splashing a few water droplets on our review unit (all in the good cause of snapping this nice image above) and a few hours later we found water droplets sitting under the back cover. The phone lived through just fine, but the back panel clearly won't keep any liquids away from the internals. Let's hope the nano-coating on the internals can hold its own as advertised. Just to make it crystal clear, Motorola explicitly states that this phone is not waterproof.
The cover itself is made of soft rubbery plastic and has a gentle weave, which adds character much appreciated for our otherwise nondescript black handset. Obviously the Motomaker (where available) will give you countless punchier options for the color combination of frame, cover and camera insert that best suits your taste. Or advertises its absence.
That camera insert is one of the main features of Motorola's design language this year and accents the back of all three models. It surrounds the lens and dual LED flash and ends further down with a Motorola M logo. The logo sits in a gently lowered circle and it draws the tip of your index finger like a magnet - we just couldn't stop caressing it. Ok, some of us.
Patterned cover • camera accent • recessed lens
The camera module is a good millimeter or more recessed into the insert, which is two-fold. On the positive side it should keep that lens nice and safe, but being only about 5mm in diameter, the crater of sorts has to be cleaned with more care, when it does get dirty. We do appreciate the safety-first approach, though.
The facade is also shared between the three, in principle. It's only the Moto X Style that has actual stereo speakers, on the Moto G and Moto X Play the top slit is earpiece only, the bottom is the loudspeaker. It may be a single one, but is front-firing nonetheless - always a good thing.
We're more excited about a very subtle engineering decision on Motorola's part. The top and bottom edges of the frame create an ever so slightly raised lip. It should keep the (otherwise Gorilla Glass 3-covered) display at a distance from whatever flat surface you choose to rest the phone on face-down. The flipside is that the gap between the glass and the frame may be prone to accumulating dirt. Compromises.
Earpice and sensors above the display • loudspeaker below • a look from the left revealing the raised edges
The glass gets marginally thinner towards the side edges though it's not as pronounced an effect as, say, the iPhone 6/6s. If we bend the 2.5D term, coined for such panels, to match the magnitude of the Moto X Play's case, it would be something like 2.3D. Also, the outer frame is not raised on the sides as it is top and bottom, making the whole swiping experience very pleasing.
On the top you'll find the 3.5mm headphone jack smack in the middle and the SIM/microSD card slot to the side. Mind you, there's just one tray, which accommodates a nano SIM card on one side and microSD on the other, we've just shown both sides in the same photo.
The secondary mic is actually on the back. It gets a half-circle cutout on the frame and the gap between the frame and the cover does the rest.
Top plate with 3.5mm jack and card slot
The microUSB port is the only thing on the bottom of the phone, the mic is housed behind the loudspeaker slit.
microUSB port on the bottom
On the right side you'll find the volume rocker and power button above it. The latter is ribbed so you'll instantly know what you're touching without needing to look. However, both buttons have a lot of play in all directions and don't exactly scream "quality". There's nothing on the left.
Volume rocker and power button on the right
In the hand the Moto X Play feels lighter than expected, largely because the bulk of it creates a wrong first impression. Actually the thickness is nowhere near being a burden - the curvature of the back makes for a very natural grasp of the handset. The soft textured back provides plenty of grip, too.
Motorola Moto X Play in the hand
5.5 inches of IPS goodness
The Motorola Moto X Play comes with a 5.5-inch IPS display with a 1080p resolution that makes up a pixel density of 403ppi. The company has gone for a LCD panel for this year's Moto Xs instead of AMOLED and on paper that looked like a step back for the series.
In reality, the Moto X Play is equipped with a seriously impressive screen. The maximum display brightness of the Moto X Play of 620 nits is excellent, but when you enable the automatic brightness control the phone is able to push the screen even higher (up to 760nits) in direct sunlight. When it comes to contrast ratio, it posted excellent typical usage results as well (1504:1).
While the maximum brightness is impressive, the minimum brightness is still too high, which means the phone can be excessively bright in a completely dark room even when set to minimum brightness, not ideal when you are staring at your phone's screen at night (the large display size doesn't help either).
| Display test | 50% brightness | 100% brightness | ||||
| Black, cd/m2 | White, cd/m2 | Black, cd/m2 | White, cd/m2 | |||
| 0.23 | 343 | 1498 | 0.41 | 620 | 1520 | |
| - | - | - | 0.53 | 539 | 1017 | |
| 0.23 | 225 | 1000 | 0.43 | 430 | 1009 | |
| 0.16 | 180 | 1139 | 0.30 | 399 | 1334 | |
| 0.13 | 107 | 796 | 0.44 | 390 | 879 | |
| 0.00 | 175 | ∞ | 0.00 | 349 | ∞ | |
| 0.14 | 109 | 763 | 0.72 | 570 | 789 | |
| 0.00 | 152 | ∞ | 0.00 | 398 | ∞ | |
| - | - | - | 0.65 | 866 | 1333 | |
| - | - | - | 0.68 | 789 | 1158 | |
| 0.14 | 205 | 1435 | 0.29 | 487 | 1657 | |
| 0.30 | 347 | 1174 | 0.53 | 635 | 1192 | |
| 0.18 | 219 | 1203 | 0.37 | 422 | 1144 | |
| 0.17 | 176 | 1012 | 0.74 | 828 | 1115 | |
Color rendering is seriously accurate (Avg deltaE 3.8 for the primary colors plus black and white). The highest single deviation was in the whites (deltaE of 8.5), which is perfectly tolerable as well. They are rendered just a bit on the colder bluish side as they usually are with most phones, but you would hardly notice that unless you get some sort of a reference to compare it side by side.
The available Vibrant mode is quite good as well, saturating colors a bit without affecting that much the measured color accuracy (Avg Delta E - 4). Overall, an excellent result from Motorola.
As usual, display colors are a matter of personal taste and perception, but even if you are demanding about color accuracy, you will probably be quite happy with the color rendition on the Moto X Play.
The Moto X Play performed excellently in our sunlight legibility test, too. Posting a very high value for a non-AMOLED panel, the Moto X Play ranks higher than the iPhone 6 Plus.
Sunlight contrast ratio
Connectivity
The Motorola Moto X Play has a wide range of connectivity options. It supports quad-band 2G, penta-band 3G and a host of 4G frequencies, which vary by version. Cat. 4 LTE is supported for theoretical speeds of 150Mbps down and 50Mbps up. The phone is available in single or dual SIM variant depending upon the market.
The Moto X Play has Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n in the 2.4GHz and 5GHz spectrums and hotspot support, but no 802.11ac. There is a GPS receiver, Bluetooth is of the 4.0 iteration, there's NFC, as well as an FM radio receiver.
The microUSB 2.0 port supports USB on-the-go to let you attach peripherals. A standard 3.5mm jack completes the wired connectivity package.
Motorola Moto X Play battery life
On the Moto X Play Motorola has been very generous in terms of battery. The smartphone packs up to 3,630mAh worth of juice, but the battery itself is not user-replaceable, despite the removable back cover.
The smartphone supports the company's TurboPower fast charging, but you'll need to get a compatible charger separately for $35/£25. The included one is a regular 1.15A piece and is good for overnight charging, but not hasty last-minute top-ups. A nice touch is that it has a pair of USB ports, so you can charge a couple of devices simultaneously, if even slower.
The Snapdragon 615 isn't exactly power-sipping, but the FullHD resolution and vast battery capacity promised chart-topping results. The end results aren't the absolute best, but the Moto X Play still posted excellent numbers.
The phone is good for 26.5 hours of 3G voice calls, a very good result. In our video playback test, the Moto X Play dies after a hair more than 12 hours, and Wi-Fi web browsing longevity is nearly as long. All that works out to a proprietary endurance rating of 83 hours.
Both the Asus Zenfone 2 ZE551ML and OnePlus 2 post ratings around the 60-hour mark with both web browsing and video playback hovering around the 8-9h mark. So the Moto X Play outlasts them by a good 50% in both screen-on tests. The Alcatel Idol 3 (5.5) is more or less in the same league as the Zenfone 2 and the OnePlus 2.
Our proprietary score also includes a standby battery draw test, which is not featured in our test scorecard but is calculated in the total endurance rating.
The battery testing procedure is described in detail in case you're interested in the nitty-gritties. You can also check out our complete battery test table, where you can see how all of the smartphones we've tested will compare under your own typical use.
Vanilla 5.1.1 Lollipop
Motorola doesn't like to deviate much from stock Android and that's exactly the case with the Moto X Play. Material design all over, there are few in-house software customizations on top and there's virtually no pre-installed apps, aside from the Google package.
The lockscreen is the usual affair - it shows missed notifications. Swiping left or right will fire up the dialer or the camera. You can either choose from default Moto Display lockscreen or the Ambient Display mode in Android. The phone lacks an LED notification light so you might want to enable at least one of these.
The lockscreen
Homescreens are standard-issue as well. You have support for folders and widgets and a dock with a default set of five shortcuts, app drawer in the middle.
The homescreen
The vertically scrollable stock app drawer has gotten a useful row of four shortcuts to the latest used apps. There's also a search box, which doesn't work all that well - in our experience "bench" doesn't find GFXBench. The experience is essentially the same as on the Google Launcher, which can be freely downloaded on any Android smartphone.
App drawer with latest-used four apps
The notification area is Android Lollipop by the book summoned by a downwards swipe anywhere on the homescreen. An additional swipe or a two-finger swipe reveals quick toggles that include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Airplane mode, screen auto-rotate, flashlight, location on/off, and the option to cast the screen. Of course, you can also adjust the brightness of the screen and go into the settings menu too. Unfortunately, you still can't edit or rearrange the shortcuts here or bring down the notification using a single finger from the right hand corner, like on some devices.
The notification area
The app switcher has a neat card interface that allows you to select the app you need by swiping up or down. You can close apps by swiping left or right, but there's no "Kill all" button. Each Chrome tab now can optionally appear as a card, too (Chrome settings).
The task switcher
Moto is Motorola's take on a system-wide manager and personal assistant. It learns as you go, takes voice commands, and can automate daily tasks.
Moto Assist can adjust settings depending on time and location, keeping the device quiet when you're sleeping for example. Moto Voice is the actual personal assistant and perhaps the coolest part about it is that you can setup a custom launch phrase like "yo, dawg" instead of being limited to just "hey, Siri".
Moto personal assistant
Moto Display can show notifications on an alternative black lockscreen, which you can handle with swipes in different directions. The funny thing is that the different levels of shown content is either all or none. There's no "hide sensitive content" option. You can, however, block entire apps from posting notifications.
Moto Display
Synthetic benchmarks
The Motorola Moto X Play is part of the middle tier of Motorola's 2015 lineup. As most such phones this year it means a Snapdragon 615 chipset. It features a dual quad-core CPU with the one cluster of Cortex-A53 cores clocked at up to 1.65GHz, the other at 1.11GHz. Adreno 405 is in charge of graphics and there's 2GB of RAM on board.
Qualcomm's chip in the upper midrange is so ubiquitous and we've seen it so many times that we didn't expect any surprises. The octa-core CPU is in the middle of the bunch of similarly equipped devices - the Oppo R7 Plus leads the way, with the Galaxy A7 also ahead of the Moto X Play. The Xiaomi Mi 4i and vivo X5Max are trailing in this test.
GeekBench 3
Higher is better
Overall performance in Antutu, on the other hand, is towards the top of the Snapdragon 615 bunch. The R7 Plus is an inch ahead of the Moto X Play, both comfortably in front of the Mi 4i. The Galaxy A7 scores noticeably lower here. The Atom-powered Zenfone 2 ZE551ML posts a higher score and the Xperias C4 and C5 Ultra perform even better.
AnTuTu 5
Higher is better
Not quite the same results in Basemark II 2.0, though. The overall score of the Moto X Play is on par with the Galaxy A7, but both show modest numbers. Mediatek-powered Xperias are a notch higher in the charts, and the Oppo R7 shows that the Snapdragon 615 is capable of more than the Moto X Play delivers.
The CPU parts of the benchmark see the Moto X Play post some better numbers. In single-core performance it's tied with the Oppo, somewhat behind the selfie-obsessed Xperias. The Galaxy A7 trails here too. All eight cores thrown into battle, the Moto X Play climbs higher, but differences between the S615 devices are minimal. The Zenfone 2 with just four cores is understandably weaker in this test.
Basemark OS 2.0
Higher is better
Basemark OS 2.0 (single-core)
Higher is better
Basemark OS 2.0 (multi-core)
Higher is better
The Adreno 405 is no graphics powerhouse, and is a lot better suited to 720p displays. If you're not into demanding 3D gaming on your mobile though, it does just fine with 1080p screens. In Basemark X, S615-equipped smartphones are spaced pretty tightly in the 4800-5000 range, though the X Play is towards the top. Only the Oppo R7 Plus shows a meaningful advantage.
The Zenfone 2 ZE551ML with its PowerVR G6430 scores markedly higher, as do the assorted higher-end Adrenos in the 800-series Snapdragons.
Basemark X
Higher is better
There's a very obvious divide between the various chipsets in the results of GFXBench. The Moto X Play is in the lower tier with the rest of the S615s and amongst them it's decidedly average. The Zenfone 2, Meizu MX5 (with a different PowerVR GPU), and Moto X Pure/Style (Adreno 418) occupy the middle ground, and the S810 with the Adreno 430 is on top. Oddly, the ZUK Z1 with the older gen S801 and Adreno 330 rules the intense Manhattan benchmark.
GFX 2.7 T-Rex (1080p offscreen)
Higher is better
GFX 2.7 T-Rex (onscreen)
Higher is better
GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)
Higher is better
GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)
Higher is better
The Kraken 1.1 benchmark examines JavaScript performance and the Moto X Play does OK. It's on par with the Galaxy A7, but also the same as the Moto G (3rd gen), which has an inferior chipset. It's not so much about the SoC this one though, since the Alcatel Idol 3 does a substantially worse job, despite rocking a Snapdragon 615 ship itself.
Kraken 1.1
Lower is better
Compound web browsing benchmark Browsermark 2.1 puts the Moto X Play on par with the Zenfone 2. The Galaxy A7 flies the S615 flag in this test, where the otherwise strong Oppo R7 Plus underdelivers. The Xperias are clearly not liking either of the browsing tests.
BrowserMark 2.1
Higher is better
The Motorola Moto X Play does well within the confines of its hardware. It rarely shines, but also never lets you down. The Snapdragon 615 isn't known for its trailblazing performance but for what it's worth, Motorola's implementation is quite good and coupled with the relatively lightweight UI the overall performance of the device, whether in applications or in games, is quite adequate. And it manages to do that without overheating, something some other 615 equipped devices are known to do.
With a Snapdragon 808 inside, the Moto X Pure/Style is, of course the more powerful proposition, but within its price range the Moto X Play does the job quite well.
Telephony and messaging
The contacts manager features a tabbed interface, which displays all contacts and the favorites. You can sync with multiple accounts including Google and Exchange. A button to add a new contact is constantly present in the bottom right corner - you can choose which account to sync the new addition with.
Contacts app
The phone app comes with a tabbed interface for speed dial, recent calls and all contacts. The dialer is invoked by taping on its dedicated key and supports smart dialing.
Dialer app
The Moto X Play doesn't have the Style's stereo speakers, unfortunately. It has a single one, located behind the slit below the display. The smartphone scored a Good rating in our loudspeaker test. It's not as loud as the Moto G (3rd gen), but it's still fairly certain you won't be missing calls or notifications in all but the loudest environments.
| Speakerphone test | Voice, dB | Ringing | Overall score | |
| 65.7 | 62.2 | 66.2 | Below Average | |
| 67.5 | 60.7 | 69.0 | Below Average | |
| 66.5 | 66.2 | 66.3 | Below Average | |
| 66.5 | 65.8 | 70.5 | Average | |
| 65.2 | 62.1 | 75.7 | Average | |
| 64.8 | 66.3 | 73.5 | Average | |
| 65.9 | 66.7 | 75.7 | Good | |
| 67.7 | 66.2 | 75.7 | Good | |
| 69.8 | 66.6 | 75.7 | Good | |
| 70.2 | 66.6 | 80.2 | Good | |
| 75.7 | 69.6 | 75.9 | Very Good | |
| 71.1 | 70.5 | 79.9 | Very Good | |
| 73.7 | 72.8 | 79.9 | Very Good | |
| 75.7 | 73.5 | 79.5 | Excellent | |
| 75.7 | 73.5 | 80.7 | Excellent | |
| 76.9 | 73.6 | 82.7 | Excellent |
Messaging is pretty much as straightforward an affair as on every other droid out there. The generic Email app is being decommissioned in favor of the Gmail app. If you tap on its icon, it will tell you the Gmail app is the client that will handle all your emails from now on. As expected, the default Google keyboard is on board as well.
Messages app • Google Keyboard • Email takes you to Gmail
Multimedia
There's a Gallery app on board, which is the stock AOSP gallery, modified by Motorola. You're greeted with a grid view of your albums, and you can easily create a new one. Inside the album the images are displayed two-a-row, and no pinch gesture is going to change that.
The editor, on the other hand, is a bit more powerful. It offers the obvious cropping, rotation and mirroring, color filters and picture frames, but also more serious editing like curves adjustment.
The Gallery app • viewing and editing images
There's no dedicated video player, the task is handled from within the gallery. It doesn't do a terribly good job and refuses to play DivX, WMV and MOV files. MP4 and XviD videos player fine, but you'd be needing a third-party app, if you do any video watching on the Moto X Play.
Watching a video
Finally, Google Play Music is the default player for your tunes on the Moto X Play. The app has been treated to the new material design, though it functionality remains unchanged - it can play your local files, as well as stream music from the cloud.
Google Play Music
The Moto X Play has an FM radio receiver and one of the nicer apps to go with it. It supports RDS for automatic station naming, you can create favorites, and it could also play without headphones attached, though it didn't quite work as reception was terrible at our location. There's a sleep feature, too.
FM radio
Audio output impresses with loudness, clarity
The Motorola Moto X Play may not be a proper flagship, but its audio output is certainly worthy of one. The smartphone did flawlessly in the active external amplifier test, posting excellent scores top to bottom and garnishing them with super high volume levels.
More impressively, the volume doesn't drop even one bit when you plug in a pair of headphones and the overall clarity is barely affected. Outside of a moderate jump in stereo crosstalk, there are no detectable differences between the two testing scenarios - that's certainly better than many $500+ smartphones can offer.
And here go the results.
| Test | Frequency response | Noise level | Dynamic range | THD | IMD + Noise | Stereo crosstalk |
| Motorola Moto X Play | +0.03, -0.04 | -93.8 | 93.5 | 0.0035 | 0.0085 | -95.2 |
| +0.05, -0.03 | -93.5 | 93.1 | 0.011 | 0.070 | -59.4 | |
| LG G Flex2 | +0.01, -0.06 | -92.5 | 92.5 | 0.0031 | 0.012 | -91.5 |
| LG G Flex2 (headphones attached) | +0.03, -0.10 | -92.6 | 92.1 | 0.0027 | 0.387 | -60.1 |
| +0.02, -0.08 | -99.4 | 98.9 | 0.0016 | 0.035 | -100.0 | |
| +0.02, -0.09 | -93.7 | 93.3 | 0.0060 | 0.032 | -78.5 | |
| Oppo Find 7 | +0.04, -0.10 | -93.8 | 93.1 | 0.0053 | 0.177 | -94.4 |
| Oppo Find 7 (headphones attached) | +0.70, -0.20 | -93.7 | 91.5 | 0.013 | 0.446 | -52.6 |
| Motorola Nexus 6 | +0.03, -0.14 | -95.6 | 93.1 | 0.0028 | 1.076 | -96.6 |
| Motorola Nexus 6 (headphones attached) | +0.01, -0.10 | -95.3 | 91.2 | 0.0052 | 0.015 | -56.9 |
You can learn more about the tested parameters and the whole testing process here.
Excellent 21MP shooter
The Moto X Play comes with the same camera setup as the top-end Moto X Style. A 21MP Sony sensor sits behind an f/2.0 lens, and there's phase detection autofocus. There's a dual-tone flash, which should supposedly adjust the color of the flash light to produce more natural results.
You can launch the camera with a natural twisting movement from your wrist. It works while the device is locked, but can also fire up the camera from the homescreen or when you're inside other apps - basically a universal camera shortcut. A second double twist now switches between rear and front camera.
The camera app is a decidedly minimalist affair with nothing but a video capture button and a rear/front camera toggle. There's no shutter button, you tap anywhere on the screen to take a shot. Dragging upwards zooms in (digitally, of course), dragging down zooms out, simple as that.
Long pressing on the other hand activates the burst mode - it took roughly 115 full-res shots in 30 seconds, resulting in an impressive frame rate of nearly 4fps. It can apparently shoot indefinitely too, provided you have the storage.
There is, after all, a settings menu, evoked with a swipe in from the left. This pulls a wheel with commonly used settings like HDR and flash mode, stills and video resolution, panorama, the lot.
One of these settings lets you have control on focusing point and exposure and once you get used to it, you figure out how ingenious it is. You get a circle, which indicates where you want to focus and you can touch and drag it around the frame. You don't tap though, tapping is reserved for actually taking the shot.
Along with the focus selector you get an exposure compensation ring where you can adjust exposure continuously, though neither the range, nor current setting is displayed in number of stops. It vibes well with the overall simplistic design of the app.
For example you get only two choices for still image resolution - 21MP in 4:3 ratio, and 16MP in 16:9. Same for video, it's either 1080p/30fps or 540p slo-mo. Some settings like Panorama mode are just on/off toggles, others like HD and flash mode pop a list of choices, but all takes two taps at the most. Overall, it's a well thought app and snappy, too.
Overall, we find the Motorola app somewhat unpleasant to use, which is a rare thing these days. It lacks most manual options, and the tap anywhere to shoot can be aggravating at times. Even when the focus ring is enabled, you have to drag it around to lock focus and exposure and can't just tap, which can be frustrating.
Also, with the controls positioned on the left, they are impossible to access with your right hand in landscape mode. The only good thing about the software experience is how quickly you can launch it and how intuitive the gesture is.
Camera app interface
Image quality is superb. Detail levels are high on pixel level, and everything is nice and sharp all the way to the corners. You can see noise in areas of uniform color, but it's handled with care and produces a nice grain, instead of ugly-looking artefacts.
Motorola's processing algorithm is almost on point in this generation of devices. Motorola seems to have found a good balance between noise reduction, sharpening and keeping the natural details.
Colors are great too, not over the top, but not dull either. Daylight images come out looking exceptionally clear and naturally sharp. You can trust the auto exposure too, it gets it right every time and doesn't produce different images in consecutive shots, one thing we're seeing all too often on other phones. Dynamic range is above average, highlights are well preserved, but on the shadow end, images come out just that one bit darker than perfect.
The hybrid phase detection autofocus works remarkably well in daylight but gets noticeably slow in low light and can occasionally miss focus.
The dual LED flash doesn't seem to make a pronounced difference, as far as the color temperature goes.
Motorola Moto X Play camera samples
HDR mode pulls some more detail from out of there. It works conservatively, and resulting images can pass for a regular shot if you don't have the actual one for immediate comparison.
Moto X Play HDR off/on • off/on
We also shot some side-by-side images with the Sony Xperia Z5 we had at the office for a while (hint, review coming soon). The idea was to see how Sony's custom sensor in its own smartphone compares to the best the company offers other manufacturers. And how other manufacturers handle the data said sensors capture.
It's not an obvious choice between the two. While Sony's new camera is a serious leap compared to older generations, pitted next to the Moto X Play it shows certain flaws. True, there's plenty of detail in Sony's images too, but we're not real fans of the over-sharpened look.
In the first comparison shot, the Xperia's rendition has left almost the entire sky clipped to white, while the Moto X Play has managed to salvage more color. Sony's take on noise reduction leaves unpleasant artefacts in the sky too, which you can see in the second shot. Mind you, it's pixel-peeping territory, where we're observing all that.
All in all, there are some differences in the two companies' approaches, but both Sony-equipped cameras produce high-quality images. The best part about the Moto X Play is that it does so at less than half the Z5's price.
Moto X Play (left) vs Sony Xperia Z5
We took a few close-up shots and the take out is that the Moto X Play isn't too keen to focus very near. Our knight in shining armor could fit his entire sword in the frame and even then it's debatable whether the camera locked focus, in this case on the sword itself. Shooting flowers yields very pleasant results, though.
Moto X Play close-up samples
Unfortunately, the Moto X Play doesn't do a good job shooting panoramas. The images are very low in resolution - less than 1,000px tall, and there's very little detail. The fact that exposure is even across the frame doesn't make the panoramas any more usable.
Motorola Moto X Play panorama sample shot in portrait
The front camera is a 5MP unit, shooting images up to 5MP in 4:3 or 3.7MP in 16.9. While the Moto X Style has a front flash, the Play doesn't. There are also no fancy beautification features, not that they will be missed.
The front camera is surprisingly good and shoots great images with plenty of detail and pleasant skin tones.
Selfie camera sample
Naturally, we shot our test posters with the Motorola Moto X Play and here's how it fared next to the Samsung Galaxy A7 and OnePlus 2. Of course, our tool allows you to compare it against any other smartphone that we've shot with.
Motorola Moto X Play in our photo compare tool
Decent 1080p video
The Moto X Play can shoot regular-speed 1080p video at 30fps and slow motion 540p footage at 120fps, effectively resulting in quarter speed videos.
The 1080p videos are recorded with a bitrate around 17Mbps and stereo audio at 128Kbps. They have an overall good quality to them with accurate colors and steady exposure. Detail is only about average though.
The slow motion video is shot at 540p only, so it's obviously pretty low on resolution, but there's not much detail even when that's accounted for. A very irritating focus hunting is also observed.
And here is an untouched 1080p@30fps video sample for you to download.
And finally, you can check out our video comparison tool to see how the 1080p videos differ in resolution, color rendition and more. You can also compare the Motorola to any of the numerous phones and tablets we've tested.
Motorola Moto X Play in our video compare tool
Web browser and other apps
Google Chrome is unsurprisingly the default browser in the new Moto X Play. Its design matches the material look and feel of Android Lollipop.
Google Chrome
One of the Chrome's strengths is its ability to seamlessly sync with the desktop version, using nothing but your Google account. This allows you to open an article on your PC and finish reading it on your mobile phone. It also syncs your bookmarks and favorite sites.
The usual organizing tools are present as well - there is the massively capable Google Calendar, a neat Calculator, and Clock (alarms, world clock, timer, stopwatch). Oddly, there's no file manager app on board you'd have to get one yourself.
Calendar • Calculator • Clock
Google's highly capable Office package of Docs, Sheets and Slides comes preinstalled, as well as Keep and Google Maps and Navigation.
Google Docs and Sheets
Connect is a tool that helps you stay in charge of whatever Motorola accessories you have paired to the phone, and the list includes a Moto 360 smartwatch, headphones, the Keylink, and a powerbank.
Motorola Connect
Final words
All things considered, the Motorola Moto X Play turned out as compelling in reality as it is on paper. The midranger with some flagship aspirations has a lot to offer for just $300. And you would think some serious compromises must have been made, but in fact the Moto X Play has no area where it really disappoints.
It all starts when you fire up that wonderful display. It's all it takes to quit mourning Motorola's choice to abandon AMOLED and go for an IPS display. The FullHD 5.5-inch panel is sharp enough, has accurate color rendition and is bright on its own, and even brighter when the sun shines into it.
One of its main selling points is battery. The 3,630mAh powerpack provides long hours of use and supports quick charging, too.
There's a great camera on board too. The images from the new 21MP Sony-made unit are high on detail, with true-to-life colors and the camera is very fast at taking shots. The 4fps burst mode at full resolution is mighty impressive too. Motion capture is less impressive - the Moto X Play can't shoot 4K video, and 1080p output isn't the most detailed either, but it's usable.
We like the minimalist software package. Google's apps offer all the necessary features and Chrome and Gmail are the de facto standards for their respective tasks so why add bulk? And whatever you find missing you can always download off the Play Store - beats having to hide and/or disable preinstalled apps. Not to mention the potential for timely updates, afforded by using near stock Android.
Motorola Moto X Play key test findings:
- Tight-fitting polycarbonate body, removable back cover, dozens of color combinations
- Bright display with high contrast and accurate colors
- Excellent battery life, 83-hour endurance rating, 12 hours in both our screen-on tests; we did, however, expect a bit more out of the 3,630mAh battery
- Near stock Android 5.1.1 Lollipop with subtle Moto touches, should get timely OS updates
- Benchmark performance is typical for the chipset/resolution pairing - midrange all the way
- Loudspeaker achieved a Good rating
- Gallery app is basic, but there's a powerful editor; videos are played from within the gallery, there's no dedicated app, and codec support is limited; music playback is handled by Google Play Music
- Audio quality is consistently stellar both with an external amplifier and headphones, which is a rare sight
- Superb 21MP camera output, detailed images with accurate colors and exposure, dynamic range is less than ideal; in burst mode it can shoot at 4fps indefinitely
- 1080p videos are just okay, colors and exposure are good, but detail is average only; 540p slow motion videos exhibit strong focus hunting
- 5MP front camera takes detailed selfies
- Software experience is a Google-standard affair - Chrome is the browser, Gmail is the email client, Calendar... you get the point
If you're shopping for a phablet around the $300 mark, you're faced with plenty of options. You can, for example, get a Nexus 6, the old one, made by Motorola too. Its prices have been slashed, thanks to the launch of the new generation and you can now get the 6-inch QHD screen, Snapdragon 805 and 4K-shooting camera for about the same price as the Moto X Play. You'd have to be able to live with its sheer size though, and 4K or not its camera is only 13MP.
Motorola Nexus 6
LG has a lot to offer in the price range. Both the G3 and the G Flex2 are 5.5-inchers, and both are true flagships, unlike the Moto X Play. If 4K recording is important to you, both these devices will deliver unlike the similarly priced Play. Their cameras are also stabilized, but only shoot 13MP stills. The G3 will also give you a sharper QHD display, while the G Flex2 has a fancy curved P-OLED panel, and plenty of wow factor.
LG G3 • LG G Flex2
There's a pair of Sony models to choose from, too. The Xperia C4 and C5 Ultra both have a front-facing flash for selfies in complete darkness, but their primary cameras are only 13MP. Neither Xperia can come anywhere near the Moto X Play in terms of battery life, though. The C5 Ultra has a 6-inch display for added screen estate, but is more expensive than the Moto X Play regardless of where you are in the world. The Xperia C4, on the other hand, could be had for less in some places, though it's more expensive elsewhere.
Sony Xperia C4 • Sony Xperia C5 Ultra
A Zenfone 2 ZE551CL is well within the budget, and we're talking a near top-specced model with 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage and the more powerful Atom Z3580 chip. In other places you may need to settle for 32GB to make the Moto X Play's budget, but it's still a top offer. The Zenfone 2's camera is nowhere nearly as good as the one in the Moto X Play, and it's also hard to match it battery endurance.
Asus Zenfone 2 ZE551ML
If you're willing to stretch a little, you could also grab a Samsung Galaxy A7. You'd be getting a superior build, and a much lighter device. Camera is only 13MP, though, and the Galaxy A7 lasts a good 2 hours less in on-screen tests.
Samsung Galaxy A7
A wonderful display, solid battery longevity, and a great camera make for arguably the best possible trifecta one could hope for in a smartphone. Add to that a near stock Android with no bloatware and a promise for timely updates. And then build your own, personally specced shell around it. And pay only $300. Now, there are rivals, but show us the one, which can beat all of the above?
content courtesy:gsmarena.com
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