Motorola today unveiled the Moto Z2 Play, successor to one of the most underrated mid-range smartphones of last year, the Moto Z. The original Moto Z was known for its beefy 3500mAh battery and power efficient Snapdragon 625 chipset that combined to offer a stellar mix of battery life and performance.
This year though, Motorola has taken a slightly different approach with the Z2 Play. The handset is now only 5.99mm thin but to achieve that thinness, Motorola has had to sacrifice the 3510mAh battery of the handset in favor of a smaller 3000mAh battery, though unlike the Moto Z, the Z2 Play still has a headphone jack. Other specs of the handset remain the same as its predecessor with only some slight improvements thrown in. There is now a more efficient and slightly faster Snapdragon 626 chipset, 4GB RAM, and 64GB of storage. At the rear, the phone borrows the same camera setup that is found on the Moto G5 Plus. This means we are looking at a 12MP Dual Autofocus sensor with 1.4um pixels and an f/1.7 aperture. The front features a 5MP wide-angle selfie shooter. The display remains the same 5.5-inch 1080p AMOLED panel found on its predecessor, with an oblong shaped fingerprint scanner located below it.
On the software front, the Moto Z2 Play runs on Android 7.1.1 Nougat with Moto Display, One button Nav, and other Moto enhancements that we saw on the Moto G5 Plus earlier this year thrown in. The phone also continues with Motorola’s modular approach and features support for Moto Mods. Alongside the phone, Motorola also announced some new mods including a $79.99 GamePad Moto Mod, an updated JBL SoundBoost 2 with 10-hour battery life, and a Moto Style Shell with wireless charging support. The Moto Z2 Play is initially being launched as a Verizon exclusive in the US. It will be available from July, though an unlocked version of the handset will also be sold through Motorola.com later this summer for $499.
