The new Moto X Play is here, although people were more excited about the Moto X Style. But the Moto X Play does have its own charm, you have a humongous 3630 mAh battery here, a full-HD display and a Snapdragon 615 octa-core processor which although doesn’t sap that much power, delivers on performance.
So is the Play worthy of the flagship Moto X name? How does it fare in general use and what about customization, Moto Maker? Read on to find out answers to some of these questions in our hands-on review of the Moto X Play. You can also watch our video unboxing below.
Moto X Play is a mid-range device through and through. But as we have seen with the Moto G 2015, its not all about the specs but understanding user experience. Motorola has packed the Moto X Play with a 5.5-inch 1080p full-HD display up front which is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3. The display has excellent color reproduction, although the company didn’t reveal the display tech on the device.
It seemed like an IPS panel but with better color reproduction and very wide viewing angles. Blacks looked dark and greys were distinguishable, meaning the contrast levels of the display should be good. The front glass slightly curves to the sides making the touch-screen a bit easier to use with gestures and swipes.
Above the display you’ll find the main earpiece, proximity and light sensors as well as the 5MP front-camera with wide-angle lens. There is no notification Led, but Moto Display takes care of that, more on this later. Motorola has again gone with on-screen buttons for the Moto X Play with a single speaker just below the display. The speaker is loud and given that it’s in the front gets a lot of brownie points from us.
Both the power button and volume rocker can be seen on the right. The power button is textured so that you don’t have to hunt for it. The buttons have good tactile response and aren’t that mushy. They seem to be made of metal as does the frame. But the frame is made of plastic as is the back-housing the camera module.
At the top you have the 3.5mm audio jack along with the SIM tray. You have two nano-SIM card slots alongwith a separate microSD card slot to expand storage up to 128GB. Both SIM Slots support 4G LTE networks in India. The sides and bottom of the device are relative cleaner with nothing on the left and only the micro-USB port at the bottom. Motorola is again going with its symmetric, balanced design with two speaker slots in the front (only bottom one is the speakerphone) and the center mounted camera with its flash at the back.
The back-cover has a very interesting woven texture which increases your grip on the device. It has a rubber material on top of plastic which again feels better in-hand. The back-cover on the Moto X Play is a bit difficult to open but it is quite sturdy.
Doesn’t bend or flex that easily, especially when its on the phone. Hiding inside the back-cover is a non-removable 3630mAh battery which according to Motorola should give 2 days of usage. It is equipped with Motorola’s Turbo Charging which is capable of giving 8 hours of usage with just 15 minutes of charging. But the Turbo Charger will not be available within the box, you’d need to buy it separately for about Rs. 1000.
You will also find the new 21MP camera at the back with Sony Sensor, capable of recording 1080p videos. Motorola has put its Color Correcting flash on the Play which should give better white balance and skin tones. We liked the camera on the Moto G 2015, and Motorola claims this is even better, not just in terms of resolution but also color accuracy, contrast and focusing time.
We tested both the cameras for a while and the rear-camera does look quite promising. Even in low light the shots did come out evenly exposed with good color reproduction an very little noise. Macro shots also looked good, but we would reserve judgement till our camera review. You can have a look at some of the camera samples below.
The phone is really built like a tank, it seems that the Moto X Play can literally withstand anything you throw at it and would survive even if it’s the phone being thrown. We saw the same sturdy built with the Moto G 3rd-gen 2015 as well. It is also IP52 rated for limited resistance against dust and water sprays.
As we have come to expect of Motorola, the Moto X Play too runs on almost stock Android 5.1.1 Lollipop with some Motorola additions like Moto Actions, Assist Display and Voice. It has 3 microphones to get Moto Voice working even without touching the device. Moto Display shows notifications directly on the display. You can double-twist to open the camera app quickly and use Moto Assist to change your phone’s sound profile based on location. You can also make the Moto X Play read text messages automatically when you are driving or at a specific location.
Performance was smooth, apps opened quickly and even with 2GB RAM multitasking with one game running in the background was quite fast. You can get the Moto X Play in two storage options, 16GB for Rs. 18,499 or 32GB for Rs. 19,999. I would suggest going for the 32GB variant even though storage is expandable as for just Rs. 1500 you are getting double the internal storage. We checked out the 32GB variant at the event which had about 20GB free although there were some games and apps installed on it. If you were wondering, USB OTG is also supported here.
Web-browsing was also smooth as was pinch-to-zoom. The display has good touch-response and moving your fingers on it feels fluid, which is aided by the slick feeling OS. Moto X Play just zooms through menus, apps and transitions. Its flagship performance at half the price. But the Snapdragon 615 has a penchant for over-heating, although during our time spent with the device it didn’t materialize. We will get back to you on this when we get the final retail unit for review.
There is a lot of customization in store for you with the new Moto X Play. There will be several cases, covers available in many colors. You have back-covers in purple, pink, green, yellow and aqua colors and a similar range for flip covers will be on offer as well. At present Motorola hasn’t disclosed the pricing or availability apart from saying that these would be available soon. You can watch our video on various cover options, customization available for the Moto X Play below.
Motorola also plans to make the Moto X Play in India as they have already started with the Moto E (2nd Gen). At present though they will be imported to be sold exclusively on Flipkart starting tonight.
So this is where we stand with the Moto X Play, it performs great, stock Android makes for a great user experience, and the humongous 3630 mAh battery, 21MP camera look very promising. Moreover, Motorola has priced it very aggressively giving it a leg up in the competition against the Xiaomi Mi 4 and OnePlus One, both of which are single-SIM devices and have non-expandable storage. With lots of customization, good build and fast software updates, the Moto X Play is one smartphone to keep a look-out for.
