Moto G Play: All You Need To Know

An above-average phone under $200

Moto G Play: All You Need To Know

Moto G Play Positives:

• Up to date design
• Great battery life
• Good display
• Extremely affordable

Moto G Play Negatives:

• Mediocre camera
• Limited software support
• Average performance

Moto G Play Specs Summary:

Display	6.5-inch IPS LCD 20:9 aspect ratio HD+ (1,600 x 720) 269ppi
RAM	3GB
Storage	32GB
MicroSD	microSD slot (supports up to 512GB)
Battery	5,000mAh battery 10W wired charging No wireless charging
Camera	Rear: 13MP wide (ƒ/2.0, 1.12μm) 2MP depth sensor (ƒ/2.4, 1.75μm) Front: 5MP wide (ƒ/2.2, 1.12μm)
Operating System	Android 10
Color	Misty Blue, Flash Gray

 

The Motorola Moto G Play is the cheapest of the three new devices in the G series. If you look at the price tag, the device is ideal for people who perform light tasks on their phones constantly throughout the day. This variant should get you through two years of use, given the plastic build. It is not water-resistant so you will have to be careful and you should expect the phone to become extremely slow after its two-year run.

At a glance, the phone seems fine considering the price. It has a huge 5,000mAh battery, a fairly modern design, and basic features. Keep reading and find it out if this is the phone for you.

Design and Display

The price tag should give you an idea about the design. Since it is a relatively inexpensive phone, the design is nothing extraordinary. The phone has a modern enough feel to it in an era of full-screen displays. The hole-punch found on the pricier Moto G devices is not present instead a small teardrop notch can be found. This variant in the G series has a larger chin as well. There are no major flaws but the cutbacks do give it a less premium look.

At the back of the device, there is a dual-sensor camera and a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor; they seem to work accurately in our testing. The camera bump on this device is quite small, and. centered as well. While around the edge of the device, there is a standard volume button, power button, and USB-C port and you even get a headphone jack.

Additionally, Moto G Play has a 6.5-inch 720p LCD but the colors are not that vibrant, and there’s no high refresh rate here, but for things like scrolling Twitter and reading emails, it’s a perfect fit. On a positive note, the display can get quite bright which is helpful in direct sunlight and bright environments.

Performance and Battery Life

Moto G Play is equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 460 processor, along with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. This is a significant downgrade from the other devices in the Moto G series. The limiting storage is not an issue since there is a MicroSD card slot hence you can increase storage space if you want. Even though it is a subpar processor, the phone works just fine. It can handle day-to-day tasks such as emailing, browsing social media, and even some multitasking but gets a bit slower with complex functions such as gaming and content transfer.

This device has a robust 5,000mAh battery, and given the lower resolution display, it’s able to last two days of even heavy use. Overall, it has a good battery life but there is no wireless charging.

Camera

The device has a dual-camera system at the back, with one 13-megapixel main camera with an f/2.0 aperture, and one 2MP depth sensor. Unfortunately, there is no ultra-wide or telephoto camera on the Moto G Play. It is safe to say that the camera on the device is underwhelming.

In excellent lighting conditions, you can take shots that are just average. They’re not especially vibrant or detailed, but they’ll do the trick. If you add a little complexity to the shot, however, and you won’t get much. Low-light photos are either overblown, super blurry, or both, and backlit scenes have little to no dynamic range

Software and features

Moto G Play comes with Motorola’s My UX built on Android 10 and it’s quite adequate. While the interface is easy to navigate. The phone has in-built the Moto app, which enables some handy gesture controls — like the ability to take a screenshot by touching the display with three fingers or flipping the phone upside down for Do Not Disturb. Other features, like Gametime, tweak things like notification settings while you’re gaming A major positive is that you can easily disable or enable these apps according to your preference.

This device came with Android 10 and is expected to update to Android 11 even though Motorola has been vague on the when. Android 11 will likely be the last update for Moto G Play.

Verdict

The Moto G Play misses perfect by a long shot however it is a fair deal considering the price. The camera is subpar but the overall performance is acceptable for everyday tasks but if you are looking for a gaming phone, this is not it.  However, if you are looking for a device to carry out the basic task and have a limited budget then this is the ideal phone for you. This phone is a testament to the fact that you can get a decent phone at a low price.

 

 

Author

Zainab is a content creator & a passionate blogger. She is a professional tech blogger & an avid reader by soul. She loves to explore topics related to news / technology, particularly SMS backup & restore. In her free time, she enjoys penning down her thoughts with a cup of coffee.