Moto Z Play review: flagship younger brother
Hello friends! Today we decided to tell you about the Moto Z Play smartphone. This is a very nice "middling" of glass and metal, which is really impressive for its excellent autonomy. Gadget without any problems is able to last up to 2 days without recharging, and this is confirmed not only by us, but also by many observers of the Russian and foreign media.
However, good autonomy is not the only advantage of the device. Read all the details under the cut. And at the very end of the material is a bonus: instructions on how to buy Moto Z Play and get a gift worth 3,990 rubles.
Moto Z Play is definitely a gadget for fans of big smartphones. The frames on the sides are relatively small, but the margins above and below are quite large. This approach made it possible to place a flash on the upper part of the front panel, and a square fingerprint scanner on the lower one.
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In addition, Moto Z and Moto Z Play are modular smartphones. On the back of both gadgets there is a special magnetic contact through which you can connect all sorts of useful things that we call the word "mods". One of them turns smartphones into a full-fledged compact camera with a tenfold optical zoom, and in this case, indents at the top and bottom become convenient platforms for placing thumbs.
Along the perimeter, the smartphone leads around an aluminum frame with a matte surface. Looks beautiful, touching such material is very nice.
The back panel is almost entirely covered with glass. In addition to the contact for "mods" there is a camera lens with a double flash. It protrudes slightly from the body. This is necessary in order for the element to become the second point for fixing Moto mod's on the body of the smartphone along with the magnetic platform.
The device is available in two colors - black and white. In the first case, the frame will be silver, in the second - golden.
A replacement panel is included with the Moto Z Play package. It is attached to the same magnetic connector - literally with one flick of the wrist.
Holds the panel tightly, and the appearance of the gadget with it becomes even more noble. In addition, this cover additionally protects the glass back panel and camera lens from accidental damage.
The volume buttons and the power button are located on the top of the right end. To distinguish them from each other by touch is easy - the most important key with notches. It seems to be a trifle, but in practice it is incredibly convenient!
A pull-out card tray is located on the top panel. It is noteworthy that you can install not only two nanoSIMs in it, but also microSD. For the latter there is a separate slot. A rare feature even for flagship devices.
Finish the story about the appearance of a few words about the fingerprint scanner. Let its small size not scare you: the sensor works quickly and accurately, all colleagues using the smartphone are satisfied. It is also very convenient that using a scanner you can not only unlock, but also lock the device. The algorithm is exactly the same: we put the finger when the Z Play screen is on, wait a second, and the system immediately goes into sleep mode.
The screen of the Moto Z Play is 5.5 inches, it is based on an AMOLED matrix. From here are all the advantages arising from this, the most important of which are lower power consumption compared to IPS and a deep, true black color.
Given the resolution of 1920x1080 pixels, we obtain a density of more than 400 dpi. As a result, the effect of PenTile is noticeable only with the closest consideration. If you keep your smartphone at a normal distance of 10-15 or more centimeters from the nose, then there is not even any hint of pixelation.
The oversaturation of colors on AMOLED is, in our opinion, also a myth, a thing of the past. Years go by, and with them the matrices are getting better. But just in case there are two shades display modes in the settings.
The tempered glass of Gorilla Glass 3 with an excellent oleophobic coating protects the matrix from damage. Multitouch recognizes up to 10 simultaneous clicks.
Moto Z Play runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor: it has 8 Cortex-A53 cores with a frequency of 2 GHz and an integrated graphics accelerator Adreno 506. This is not the most productive chip from the middle class, but very reliable: stable and cold. The body of the smartphone, even with the most serious tests, heats up very slightly. The amount of RAM - 3 GB. There is also an additional low-power Hexagon 546 signal processor for speech processing and contextual computing. Performing its functions in sleep mode, it consumes very little energy.
In the overall performance test system AnTuTu Moto Z Play gaining more than 60,000 points. This is exactly the level from which you can safely talk about absolutely comfortable working with the system and almost any applications. Only the most demanding games like World of Tank Blitz can make you slightly lower the graphics settings - from maximum to medium.
In the test of the graphics subsystem 3DMark Sling Shot we get 831 points or 462 points in Extreme mode. In Geekbench 4 processor tests, the following indicators are: 750 points in single-core and 2350 points in multi-core tests.
You can, of course, complain that there are not 150,000 “parrots” like anywhere else, but the existing level of performance is enough for the vast majority of tasks. The interface is smooth, the video even in 4K is recorded without problems.
On Moto Z Play out of the box, Android 6.0 is installed without any third-party shells. The process of distributing updates to Android 7.0 is already running - the turn will come to Russian users.
The internal memory in the gadget is 32 GB, and this should be enough to install all the necessary applications. But photos and videos are best stored on a memory card, since the place for the second nanoSIM is not “eaten” - we already spoke about a separate slot above. The maximum supported microSD capacity is 200 GB.
There are no third-party shells in Moto Z Play, but there are unique functions despite the “bare” Android. This was made possible thanks to a special pre-installed program. It is called simply and succinctly: Moto. The menu has three tabs - “Actions”, “Voice” and “Display”.
In the first you can enable or disable several convenient actions:
The second menu item is needed to set up voice commands. Well, “Moto Display” is a unique alternative to Always On widely advertised among our respected competitors. If you want to view the notifications on the locked screen, you need to palm over him, and they will immediately appear. Convenient, and no additional consumption of 2-3% battery charge per hour.
The main Moto Z Play camera consists of a matrix with a resolution of 16 MP and a lens with aperture of F / 2.0. Taking photos on it during the day or indoors is a pleasure. Automation is not prone to make mistakes with the white balance and almost always exactly exposes the exposure. If you suddenly need a minimal adjustment, then it is easy to do without switching to manual mode.
The autofocus system combines three methods at once: phase, contrast and laser. So, in addition to high speed and good accuracy, we also get the opportunity to bring the smartphone close to the subjects. The result is interesting macrophotography.
In the night shots, of course, there are noticeable noises, but this disadvantage can be compensated for: switch to the manual mode and select the optimal settings on your own based on the minimum ISO possible for your scene.
The originals of all photos can be viewed at this link .
Front camera resolution - 5 MP, aperture ratio - F / 2.2. Self-portraits, though not the best in the class, but quite good. If there is a lack of lighting, flash will help: selfies can be done both in the dark and with backlit.
Video can be recorded in 4K resolution at 30 frames per second. Happy detailing is great, and the power of the 625th Snapdragon is enough to keep the rollers without jerks and slowdowns.
Amazing autonomy - one of the greatest strengths of Moto Z Play. The combination of an economical processor, AMOLED-screen and good system optimization works wonders.
If you turn on the video in Full HD on the phone at maximum brightness and do not touch the smartphone until the battery is exhausted, you will have to wait a long time: more than a day! In simple mobile games, the results are more modest, but also impressive - on average, we have 6-8 hours of non-stop mobile entertainment. Also, by the way, at full brightness.
In the mixed mode of operation, even among the most active users, the smartphone is unlikely to discharge in the evening. We usually get about 1.5 days of work on one charge. If you save - turn off the wireless modules when they are not needed, reduce the brightness of the screen, then you can easily "squeeze" all two days. And this is by no means an extreme battery capacity of 3510 mAh.
For charging, use the USB Type-C port. Many users get upset when they don’t see the good old microUSB, but the industry is confidently heading for the new connector. In 2017, it’s time to move on and get new cords for charging.
Speaking of charging. The package includes an adapter TurboPower, which fully charges Moto Z Play in just 1.5 hours. Well, with such vitality even 30 minutes at the outlet will be enough to use the smartphone for 5-6 hours, and not worry about the battery.
Finally, a couple of words about Moto mods, which can be connected to Moto Z and Z Play. At the moment there are four of them:
We already managed to tell about the fourth mod on the pages of Geektimes, and very soon the material about the other three accessories will be released. At the exhibition Mobile World ongress already showed new new mod concepts - soon there will be even more.
Moto Z Play went on sale in the fourth quarter of last year, so that over time, we even managed to lower prices on it a little. At the start there were 34,990 rubles, and now the gadget costs 29,990 rubles .
If you like the device, then now is the time to order it in our online store shop.lenovo.ru . Why? Because then you will get a cool Moto mod as a bonus almost for free.
We are talking about an external battery Incipio offGRID with a capacity of 2220 mAh, which separately costs 3990 rubles. The device connects to the Moto Z magnetic connector, provides up to 22 additional hours of battery life and charges with the smartphone.
Getting a gift is easy: we create an order for Moto Z Play at shop.lenovo.ru , and an external battery for 1 ruble will automatically be added to the basket. Validity of the action - until March 10. Important point: the number of bonus mods is limited, so until the last day it is better not to pull.
Thank you for your attention and see you soon!
However, good autonomy is not the only advantage of the device. Read all the details under the cut. And at the very end of the material is a bonus: instructions on how to buy Moto Z Play and get a gift worth 3,990 rubles.
Appearance
Moto Z Play is definitely a gadget for fans of big smartphones. The frames on the sides are relatively small, but the margins above and below are quite large. This approach made it possible to place a flash on the upper part of the front panel, and a square fingerprint scanner on the lower one.
')
In addition, Moto Z and Moto Z Play are modular smartphones. On the back of both gadgets there is a special magnetic contact through which you can connect all sorts of useful things that we call the word "mods". One of them turns smartphones into a full-fledged compact camera with a tenfold optical zoom, and in this case, indents at the top and bottom become convenient platforms for placing thumbs.
Along the perimeter, the smartphone leads around an aluminum frame with a matte surface. Looks beautiful, touching such material is very nice.
The back panel is almost entirely covered with glass. In addition to the contact for "mods" there is a camera lens with a double flash. It protrudes slightly from the body. This is necessary in order for the element to become the second point for fixing Moto mod's on the body of the smartphone along with the magnetic platform.
The device is available in two colors - black and white. In the first case, the frame will be silver, in the second - golden.
A replacement panel is included with the Moto Z Play package. It is attached to the same magnetic connector - literally with one flick of the wrist.
Holds the panel tightly, and the appearance of the gadget with it becomes even more noble. In addition, this cover additionally protects the glass back panel and camera lens from accidental damage.
The volume buttons and the power button are located on the top of the right end. To distinguish them from each other by touch is easy - the most important key with notches. It seems to be a trifle, but in practice it is incredibly convenient!
A pull-out card tray is located on the top panel. It is noteworthy that you can install not only two nanoSIMs in it, but also microSD. For the latter there is a separate slot. A rare feature even for flagship devices.
Finish the story about the appearance of a few words about the fingerprint scanner. Let its small size not scare you: the sensor works quickly and accurately, all colleagues using the smartphone are satisfied. It is also very convenient that using a scanner you can not only unlock, but also lock the device. The algorithm is exactly the same: we put the finger when the Z Play screen is on, wait a second, and the system immediately goes into sleep mode.
Display
The screen of the Moto Z Play is 5.5 inches, it is based on an AMOLED matrix. From here are all the advantages arising from this, the most important of which are lower power consumption compared to IPS and a deep, true black color.
Given the resolution of 1920x1080 pixels, we obtain a density of more than 400 dpi. As a result, the effect of PenTile is noticeable only with the closest consideration. If you keep your smartphone at a normal distance of 10-15 or more centimeters from the nose, then there is not even any hint of pixelation.
The oversaturation of colors on AMOLED is, in our opinion, also a myth, a thing of the past. Years go by, and with them the matrices are getting better. But just in case there are two shades display modes in the settings.
The tempered glass of Gorilla Glass 3 with an excellent oleophobic coating protects the matrix from damage. Multitouch recognizes up to 10 simultaneous clicks.
Hardware component and system
Moto Z Play runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor: it has 8 Cortex-A53 cores with a frequency of 2 GHz and an integrated graphics accelerator Adreno 506. This is not the most productive chip from the middle class, but very reliable: stable and cold. The body of the smartphone, even with the most serious tests, heats up very slightly. The amount of RAM - 3 GB. There is also an additional low-power Hexagon 546 signal processor for speech processing and contextual computing. Performing its functions in sleep mode, it consumes very little energy.
In the overall performance test system AnTuTu Moto Z Play gaining more than 60,000 points. This is exactly the level from which you can safely talk about absolutely comfortable working with the system and almost any applications. Only the most demanding games like World of Tank Blitz can make you slightly lower the graphics settings - from maximum to medium.
In the test of the graphics subsystem 3DMark Sling Shot we get 831 points or 462 points in Extreme mode. In Geekbench 4 processor tests, the following indicators are: 750 points in single-core and 2350 points in multi-core tests.
You can, of course, complain that there are not 150,000 “parrots” like anywhere else, but the existing level of performance is enough for the vast majority of tasks. The interface is smooth, the video even in 4K is recorded without problems.
On Moto Z Play out of the box, Android 6.0 is installed without any third-party shells. The process of distributing updates to Android 7.0 is already running - the turn will come to Russian users.
The internal memory in the gadget is 32 GB, and this should be enough to install all the necessary applications. But photos and videos are best stored on a memory card, since the place for the second nanoSIM is not “eaten” - we already spoke about a separate slot above. The maximum supported microSD capacity is 200 GB.
Moto Assistant
There are no third-party shells in Moto Z Play, but there are unique functions despite the “bare” Android. This was made possible thanks to a special pre-installed program. It is called simply and succinctly: Moto. The menu has three tabs - “Actions”, “Voice” and “Display”.
In the first you can enable or disable several convenient actions:
- Do not want to answer the call, but too lazy to reach for the volume buttons? Just turn over the gadget, and the sound disappears. An alternative option is to pick up the phone in your hand, if you nevertheless decide to talk with the caller, the sound will also subside.
- Did you need a flashlight in a dark staircase or in a forest? It is necessary to sharply shake the smartphone twice, and the flash diodes will immediately turn on.
- Need to quickly type SMS on the go? Swipe your finger across the screen from bottom to top, and the work area will be reduced for more comfortable control with one hand.
- Urgently need to make a cool shot and do not have time to look for the icon of the Camera application? Two quick circular motions with the wrist that holds the smartphone, and the camera is already on!
The second menu item is needed to set up voice commands. Well, “Moto Display” is a unique alternative to Always On widely advertised among our respected competitors. If you want to view the notifications on the locked screen, you need to palm over him, and they will immediately appear. Convenient, and no additional consumption of 2-3% battery charge per hour.
Camera
The main Moto Z Play camera consists of a matrix with a resolution of 16 MP and a lens with aperture of F / 2.0. Taking photos on it during the day or indoors is a pleasure. Automation is not prone to make mistakes with the white balance and almost always exactly exposes the exposure. If you suddenly need a minimal adjustment, then it is easy to do without switching to manual mode.
The autofocus system combines three methods at once: phase, contrast and laser. So, in addition to high speed and good accuracy, we also get the opportunity to bring the smartphone close to the subjects. The result is interesting macrophotography.
In the night shots, of course, there are noticeable noises, but this disadvantage can be compensated for: switch to the manual mode and select the optimal settings on your own based on the minimum ISO possible for your scene.
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Front camera resolution - 5 MP, aperture ratio - F / 2.2. Self-portraits, though not the best in the class, but quite good. If there is a lack of lighting, flash will help: selfies can be done both in the dark and with backlit.
Video can be recorded in 4K resolution at 30 frames per second. Happy detailing is great, and the power of the 625th Snapdragon is enough to keep the rollers without jerks and slowdowns.
Working hours
Amazing autonomy - one of the greatest strengths of Moto Z Play. The combination of an economical processor, AMOLED-screen and good system optimization works wonders.
If you turn on the video in Full HD on the phone at maximum brightness and do not touch the smartphone until the battery is exhausted, you will have to wait a long time: more than a day! In simple mobile games, the results are more modest, but also impressive - on average, we have 6-8 hours of non-stop mobile entertainment. Also, by the way, at full brightness.
In the mixed mode of operation, even among the most active users, the smartphone is unlikely to discharge in the evening. We usually get about 1.5 days of work on one charge. If you save - turn off the wireless modules when they are not needed, reduce the brightness of the screen, then you can easily "squeeze" all two days. And this is by no means an extreme battery capacity of 3510 mAh.
For charging, use the USB Type-C port. Many users get upset when they don’t see the good old microUSB, but the industry is confidently heading for the new connector. In 2017, it’s time to move on and get new cords for charging.
Speaking of charging. The package includes an adapter TurboPower, which fully charges Moto Z Play in just 1.5 hours. Well, with such vitality even 30 minutes at the outlet will be enough to use the smartphone for 5-6 hours, and not worry about the battery.
Moto Z Play and Modules
Finally, a couple of words about Moto mods, which can be connected to Moto Z and Z Play. At the moment there are four of them:
- JBL Soundboost Speaker System - Turns Your Smartphone into a Powerful Speaker
- Incipio offGRID charger - plus 2220 mAh to an already long-lasting battery
- Insta-Share - a projector with an extra battery and a brightness of 50 lm
- Hasselblad True Zoom - smartphone becomes a camera with 10x optical zoom
We already managed to tell about the fourth mod on the pages of Geektimes, and very soon the material about the other three accessories will be released. At the exhibition Mobile World ongress already showed new new mod concepts - soon there will be even more.
How much and where to buy?
Moto Z Play went on sale in the fourth quarter of last year, so that over time, we even managed to lower prices on it a little. At the start there were 34,990 rubles, and now the gadget costs 29,990 rubles .
If you like the device, then now is the time to order it in our online store shop.lenovo.ru . Why? Because then you will get a cool Moto mod as a bonus almost for free.
We are talking about an external battery Incipio offGRID with a capacity of 2220 mAh, which separately costs 3990 rubles. The device connects to the Moto Z magnetic connector, provides up to 22 additional hours of battery life and charges with the smartphone.
Getting a gift is easy: we create an order for Moto Z Play at shop.lenovo.ru , and an external battery for 1 ruble will automatically be added to the basket. Validity of the action - until March 10. Important point: the number of bonus mods is limited, so until the last day it is better not to pull.
Thank you for your attention and see you soon!
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/401819/
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