[rwp-review id=”0″]
Mid-range smartphones are fast becoming as impressive as flagship devices and while Motorola’s Moto X range has certainly delivered in the past, the competition is even fiercer for its latest smartphones.
Last month, the company announced the new Moto G (2015) and alongside it, two entrants to the Moto X range; the mid-range Moto X Play and the flagship Moto X Style. Does the Moto X Play deliver or are there other devices that are more worthy of your money?
Design
The Moto X Play pretty much follows Motorola’s smartphone design philosophy and although it has a few interesting new design tweaks, it is immediately recognisable as a Motorola smartphone.
The front features a near edge-to-edge 5.5-inch display with a front facing speaker at the bottom and a speakerphone plus camera above it. Clean, simple and gorgeous, just like most Motorola smartphones. A key change from previous Motorola flagship devices is the trims, with the Moto X Play featuring a plastic finish like the new Moto G.
Our review unit is all black with a silver accent but through Moto Maker (where available), you can choose between a black and white front, several different colours for the back and eight different accent colours. The beauty of replaceable back covers – which come with a textured finish that provides grip, are easy to pop off and feel very sturdy – is that you can order additional covers and change the colour of your Moto X Play to suit your particular mood.
The Moto X Play is IP57 rated, which means it can survive being used in the rain or if you happen to spill liquid on it. However, it cannot be submerged like the Moto G can and while it’s a shame that this waterproof rating didn’t make it to the Moto X Play, it’s by no means a deal breaker.
The left side of the handset is free of any ports or buttons while the right side features the power and volume keys; the buttons are plastic and easy to press and a really neat touch is the different texture on the power button, which ensures you don’t press it by accident. Up top, the headphone jack is in the middle with the SIM and memory card tray next to it while the bottom sees the USB port also in the centre.
At 7.9mm thick, the Moto X Play is certainly not the slimmest smartphone on the market but the curved rear makes it quite pleasant to hold. The handset is sturdy in the hand and doesn’t show any visible signs of stress when you try and bend it. The simple design certainly won’t win any awards but it gets the job done and overall, the Moto X Play is a well built nicely designed smartphone.
Display
The Moto X Play is arguably the biggest disappointment with the smartphone, as at its price tag, the screen isn’t the best on the market. The 5.5-inch Full HD LCD panel doesn’t offer the vibrancy and colours of past AMOLED panels used by Motorola but the switch may be a good thing as the annoying yellow tint at low light on previous AMOLED devices has also disappeared.
The display does offer good viewing angles but the low 403 pixels per inch density makes the experience feel a little less premium and the screen is quite reflective, making it almost impossible to see in direct sunlight, even with the brightness on full. One good thing is that it does come with the ability to tweak display settings and create custom calibrations from within the settings menu.
Software
One thing that Motorola have done very well since they were part of the Google family is software and the Moto X Play is no different, boasting an almost stock-like interface with a few useful additions. If you’ve used any stock Android smartphone or previous Motorola flagship devices, the experience will certainly feel very familiar to you.
Key to the unique features is the Moto App, which acts as a central home for all the various smart features that Motorola have built into the handset. The app lets you configure gestures and motion controls or set a hotword, that allows you to control the Moto X Play using your voice.
Like the Moto G, you can set particular shortcuts to the front or rear cameras using motion control but the somewhat suspect shortcut to the torch is nowhere to be seen. You’ll definitely find the Moto App is key to the Moto X Play experience and the feature set definitely seems to deliver.
The Moto X Play runs on Android 5.1.1 and one of the biggest changes with the addition of the Moto App is that the various settings to customise gestures and Moto features have been moved from the Settings menu to the Moto App. There are virtually no preloaded apps or bloatware on the handset, which contributes to the stock-like experience and just like other stock devices, we’d expect the Moto X Play to get the Android 6.0 Marshmallow update sooner rather than later.
Performance & Battery
Under the hood, the Moto X Play is powered by an octa-core 64-bit Snapdragon 615 processor with 2GB RAM and 16GB or 32GB storage (our unit is the 16GB version with the additional storage a paid option in Moto Maker). The CPU features four Cortex A53 cores clocked at 1.7GHz and four more clocked at 1.0GHz and if anything, this definitely shows in the performance.
A key part of previous Motorola devices was the super smooth performance that emulated Nexus devices but the Moto X Play fails to deliver on this. It’s unclear exactly why performance issues such as random freezes and reboots occurs but it could be due to the Snapdragon 615 processor, which certainly appears to be underpowered for the job
While some reviews have reported that performance is smooth and without issues, others have reported similar issues to ours and it does seem like this could be related to a particular build of the handset. We have of course reached out to Motorola and we’ll let you know when we have more information about this.
A highlight of the Moto X Play is the 3630mAh battery, which is certainly much larger than rival devices at this price point. A Full HD display means the power demands aren’t that high and the battery on the Moto X Play should certainly be a big draw for any user who needs long battery life.
Does the large battery deliver? In actual fact, it does: Motorola claim it can last two days and while it would take very light usage to achieve this, you can easily expect it to last a full day unless you’re gaming heavily or streaming/watching a lot of video.
For the average user, with social networking, camera usage, apps syncing and phone calls, you can expect the battery to last around 28 hours but with heavier gaming and streaming, it is possible to drain it completely in around 9 hours. For most users, you’ll find that it should suffice to serve a full day and with Motorola’s turbo charger, you can charge it fully in just over two hours or get up to eight hours’ worth of battery life in just 15 minutes.
Camera
The camera is a key area that Motorola have sought to improve with their new devices and the Moto X Play comes with a new 21MP Sony-made sensor. The camera doesn’t come with OIS or Phase detection autofocus but it is quite good at reproducing colours. While the in-camera interface is clean, we’d definitely like an option to turn on touch focus, as the handset takes a picture whenever you tap the display.
Beneath the sensor is a dual tone LED flash that captures softer skin tones and more accurate colours without blow-outs. The camera comes with f/2.0 aperture that should help improve low light photos while the X Play captures 1080p video. Images produced are impressive in good lighting but poor when either the phone or the subject is moving.
When you get down to low light, the camera itself is shocking and the lack of OIS really begins to show here. Chances are, if you need something that’s good in low light, the Moto X Play will definitely disappoint you and while the two-tone flash does help somewhat, you’re likely to use it only sparingly.
Price & Final Thoughts
Unlike the Moto X Style and the Moto G, the Moto X Play is only being offered in a handful of countries and will appeal to anyone who wants a solid-yet-unspectacular smartphone at an affordable price tag (£279 in the UK, no word on UAE pricing and availability yet).
The phone features mostly mid-range specs and while it’s positive on the whole, the performance does make us question whether this is worthy of your money. The battery and camera do not quite match up to Motorola’s claims but again, they are better than other devices at the price.
If you are looking for an affordable mid-range smartphone that’s simple and uncluttered, the Moto X Play will definitely appeal to you but unlike previous years, it’s not such a clear-cut race. The mid-range is now firmly the most fiercely contested space and with so many rivals offering better specs or value for money, you might want to shop around before deciding to take the plunge.
