Moto Z3 Play Review: Priced into a Predicament

The showrunner is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 636, and it operates exactly how I assumed it would. In the Snapdragon 600 series, you get middle-of-the-road performance. Though not as lightning-quick as a Snapdragon 800 series chip, the Snapdragon 636 on the Moto Z3 Play moves at an average pace with rare hiccups.

Motorola’s always done a fabulous job keeping its non-flagships smooth and snappy under normal use. The Moto Z3 Play didn’t get hot on me, and really I saw nothing that indicated its 4GB of RAM was ever stressed out.

If you typically push your phone to the limit, I can’t imagine the Moto Z3 Play will stumble along. Motorola and Qualcomm succeeded in optimizing the hardware-software combination.

Back in 2016, Motorola made quite the buzz after releasing the Moto Z Play. The mid-range device wasn’t blazing fast, but it did ship with unrivaled battery life. People were getting multiple days of use from the 3510mAh unit. Because of its watered-down specifications, that battery meant the Moto Z Play could keep going the extra mile on a single charge.

Motorola ditched that last year, though. Inside the Moto Z2 Play, there was a 3000mAh unit. And that same battery has returned in 2018. The result is battery life that doesn’t impress nor disappoint. Yet you can find that on a variety of phones.

The battery life does improve if you attach Motorola’s Power Pack. Paired with that Moto Mod, the Moto Z3 Play should run for up to 40 hours. Is that an accurate estimate? Seems like it, because I got 1.5 days before needing a wall outlet. Still, it’s so sad that you need a Moto Mod when the original Moto Z Play went ~2 days on its own.

Also, the Power Pack doesn’t have a dedicated charging port. You need to have it connected to the Moto Z3 Play and charge them together. That may be fine since it makes the Moto Z3 Play much more comfortable to hold.

The inclusion of a dual-camera setup isn’t going to shock anyone. Multiple lenses are common, especially among high-end and mid-range devices. The Moto Z3 Play puts together a 12MP low light sensor and a 5MP depth sensor. It’s not all that different than what the Moto G6 features.

Motorola lacks an algorithm on the software-side that elevates photos and videos, but the Moto Z3 Play pulls off okay shots. It only feels underwhelming because you want a lot more for $500. There’s no question that the OnePlus 6, which starts at $530, has much better skills here.

Regardless, Motorola’s phones have never been spectacular at photography. So this doesn’t deserve disappointment as it does an eye roll.

Motorola’s Camera app is easy to understand. For those who like some extra pizzazz, the company also threw in the ability to take portraits and cinemagraphs. The latter is like a photo and GIF blended into one where part of the scene expresses movement. Once you have a photo, you can go in and choose single colors while muting the rest or swapping entire backgrounds.

The Moto Z3 Play will give you access to deeper camera settings — ISO, shutter speed, focal length, white balance, and exposure. Even if you do use them, the lenses are the phone still net ho-home results. Motorola needs to resolve this out already.

Article source: https://www.technobuffalo.com/reviews/moto-z3-play-review/