Review: Motorola Moto X Play
Thursday, August 20, 2015 at 1:56PM 
By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla
The Moto X Play felt as fast and responsive as last year’s model and matched the performance of a more expensive Samsung Galaxy Note 4, it exceeded both of these in battery life, easily edging into two and a half days of mixed use.
The latest and most advanced Moto X smartphone (at least for Canadians) is the Moto X Play, which fits in as a nice middle model between the stellar Moto G (3rd Gen) and the Moto X Pure/Style coming to other countries.
The Moto X Play takes many of the renowned features and styling of the the Moto X (2014) and actually improves on them. We have a larger 1080p HD display at 5.5-inches (403 ppi) and no longer using the AMOLED technology but a more even-coloured LCD technology. This isn’t a jaw-droppingly stunning display, but it is clear, readable, and reflection free and is more energy efficient which plays into the device’s overall superb battery life.
The Moto X Play is one of the most robust smartphones to come from Motorola. I was fooled into believing that the Moto X Play had a metal frame, it does not (as was pointed to me by contributor Alex Davies). The gunmetal painted plastic frame gives the appearance of metal which is only used for the camera and flash bezel and the power and volume buttons. A ruggedized rubber backplate (easily removable and replaceable) gives the Play the customization potential of other Moto devices.
A neat new combination nanoSIM card and microSD slot at the top makes it possible to plug in more storage, a first of any Moto X device.
My review unit came with 16GB of storage and only 11GB was actually available for use, I plugged in a 64GB Samsung microSD card and was good to go. I tested a 128GB microSD card as well and this worked without any issue. It is very liberating to be able to go from a meagre 16GB to over 128GB without breaking the bank.
While rivals like Samsung are actually taking away microSD expansion (for no valid reason) from their flagship devices, Motorola is generously offering this option across the Moto E, Moto G and Moto X lines.
The four infra-red sensors from last year’s Moto X are gone, which means waving off calls and checking on notifications without touching the phone is no longer possible. You do get the phone to wake the moment you pick it up and most of the Moto Active Display features are available.
What the Moto X Play does bring is a louder handsfree speaker, FM radio capability and a whopping 3630 mAh battery rated for mixed usage up to 48 hours. The Moto X Play also receives water resistance, which means it may survive unexpected spills and rain but is nowhere as waterproof as the Moto G (3rd Generation) which can be dunked in water.
The size and build of the Moto X Play is very good, it can be used in one hand and feels reassuringly sturdy. While using it to navigate in a car last week, it accidentally slid off and fell. While there was a slight scratch at the top corner of the phone's glass it didn’t crack or shatter. So, sturdy yes, but I will still be ordering a case to help protect it more.
Powered by a 1.7GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 octa-core CPU, Adreno 405 running at 550 MHz GPU, a Natural Language Processor for voice commands, and a Contextual Computing Processor for motion and geolocation, the Moto X Play is substantially powerful. It also has 2GB of RAM which is ample for power users slicing through various apps and functions.
I used it heavily for Google Maps navigation and did notice that it heated up quite a lot (it was also an insanely hot day), the Moto X Play cooled off shortly after but heat is one thing I am keeping my eyes on.
The Moto X Play felt as fast and responsive as last year’s model and matched the performance of a more expensive Samsung Galaxy Note 4, it exceeded both of these in battery life, easily edging into two and a half days of mixed use.
This places the Moto X Play beyond the threshold of larger phablets which are usually preferred because of longer battery life. The larger battery is one great feature, but the Turbo Charging capability, which makes it possible to get 8-hours of use in just under 20 minutes of charging, is nothing short of revolutionary and propels the Moto X Play to the very top choice as an Android device for heavy users or anyone who does not relish having to use external chargers to keep juiced up.
Voice quality is excellent, even in noisy surroundings. I used the Moto X Play on T-Mobile in the US, TELUS in Canada as well as using Facebook Messenger and Google Hangouts which provided generally loud and clear communications. HD voice is supported and works quite well. The loudspeaker is also another revelation. I took the Moto X Play to the beach and forgot to bring along speakers but was happy to discover that it played my Spotify playlists at a reasonably high volume without sounding distorted.
The 21-megapixel camera is a huge feature and does make the Moto X Play one of the few devices that can shoot large and detailed photographs. Like previous Moto X devices, a simple shake deploys the camera and an intuitive slide-out menu brings up a variety of controls.
Motorola has opted for simplicity, speed and ease of use. As such, the range of controls are quite straightforward and easy for anyone to master but more sophisticated users will probably want more granular control over photos and videos, specially with such a large megapixel capability at their disposal.
The Moto X Play doesn’t take pictures nearly as fast as the iPhone 6 or Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge, but it does capture stunning detail and great 1080p HD video. I used the Moto X Play as my main camera during my recent Californian vacation and also my sole camera for my cousin’s wedding.
It was a big thing for me, an avowed camera nut, to leave my Sony and Fujifilm cameras and lenses at home and entrust everything to the Moto X Play, but I am glad I did. Save for very detailed close ups, the Moto X Play made some great images of that event which were good enough to print out and share.
While focusing speed could have been a bit faster, the Moto X Play’s 21-megapixel camera performed admirably in most conditions. The fact that it was a 'tap the screen to shoot affair' made it easy for anyone to grab the phone and take pictures with minimum instruction.
Taking great zoomed-in photos of the newlyweds and wedding party as well as snapping guests and various points of the wedding was easy. What I liked most about the Moto X Play as a camera is that it is a phone, and thus friendly and non-threatening but it packs a solid F/2.0 aperture and 21-Megapixel sensor.
The beauty of a 21-megapixel sensor is that it can capture a ton of detail. This makes it possible to get great prints and also to 'zoom-in' after the fact and still get a lot of stunning detail. This photo here is in full resolution and shows a large amount of detail of jellyfish and surrounding sand.
Short of offering RAW image capture, the Moto X Play, with some careful attention paid to settings and a steady hand, can outperform older standalone point-and-shoot cameras and yield great images that can be printed out in rather large format.
Video was similarly impressive with good sound and image quality, although I did notice that the focus seemed to waver when using the video feature (see below), could be the subject It was focusing on (waves on the shore). The Moto X Play lacks optical image stabilization (OIS), this is a feature that Motorola reserved for the higher-end Moto X Style/Pure.
On a hot and sunny day around Stanford University, I managed to snap various photos that captured a vast amount of detail that may have not stood out on the phone’s display, but which looked great when viewed on my Mac's display.
If 21-megapixels is too big for you, you can opt to shoot at 16-megapixel resolution, which is still double the amount offered on the current iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus and the ceiling we're seeing not just on smartphones but also on Micro Four Thirds cameras. I wish there was an option to go even smaller, like 5 megapixels, specially since the onboard storage is limited to 16GB and many users might not want to spend extra on storage.
The verdict on the camera is that is is much improved from previous models. I expect a few software updates will be coming to make focusing a bit faster and which can help speed things up even more.
Best of all, microSD card expansion makes it possible for anyone to take a bunch of videos and images at the highest possible resolution which will please many avid photographers.
Conclusion
An entirely new fork in the Moto X line, the mid-range Moto X Play brings smart features and oodles of practicality to the market. Exquisitely designed, relatively tough, with a long lasting battery life, quick-charging capability and power to match more expensive flagships, it is one of the best bets for an Android device today.
The Moto X Play comes to Canada on August 21st through Bell Mobility, Koodo, TELUS, Videotron and SaskTel. It will be available at WIND in the coming weeks. In Canada, the Moto X Play will cost about $400. Please check with individual carriers on specific pricing.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Reader Comments (4)
Hi Gadjo,
I sincerely want to thank you, because this is absolutely the very first real review I have found on the web since I first heard about the Moto X Play, and I have been searching essentially daily for reviews around... without any luck until today.
More than this, I think your review is the best kind of reviews anyone can imagine, detailed but not nit-picking, for the general user but with some special attentions for power users. Bravo!
Nonetheless, I have a question for you: even if my hands aren't little at all, from your experience do you think that coming from a LG G2 (whose amazing battery life has been ruined by the LollipOOp upgrade) I might feel uncomfortable with the increased size? [i.e. do you think it will stay in the pockets, can be handled, etc., more or less in the same way, after a little time for getting used to it?]
Many thanks ^_^
Many thanks for your kind and encouraging words, Francesco. I was using an LG G4 right before testing the Moto X Play and didn't really feel much of a difference in size. The way Motorola contoured the Moto X Play as well as the grippy rear backplate help with this. With regards to pockets, it does pop out a bit on my shirt pocket but is pretty unobtrusive in my front or rear jeans pockets. You shouldn't have any issues handling it but, as with most things, it is best to try it out first hand before you make your decision.
Let me know if you have any more questions, I'd be very happy to answer as best I Can. Cheers!
G
Hi,
Did you by any chance run a geekbench test on the unit? Keen to see how the latest SP615 chips are performing and whether overheating is taking place.
Cheers
Hi again and thanks for your fast reply.
I am actually puzzled by the review on AndroidPIT , which claims that (in essence) the battery of the Moto X Play isn't that good after all ... What do you think about that?
As battery life is quite a soft spot of mine, would you tell what are - more or less - a couple of SoT measurements and total times that you got with your usage, please?
Other than this, it's a quite solid device indeed, and I will follow your suggestion and try it out first hand before making my decision :-)