A capable smartphone that won’t break the bank
The Moto X was launched two years ago as an affordable mid-range smartphone. Last year it was reinvented as an upmarket metal option with a big screen. Now it’s got an even bigger screen, but it’s reasonably priced again. Oh, and there are two versions of it. Make your mind up, Motorola.
The alternative to the Moto X Play we’re looking at here is the Moto X Style, which will cost about £360 and has the biggest screen of all, at 5.7in. Its camera adds 4K video, quadrupling the usual Full HD resolution. But the slightly smaller Moto X Play offers a specification that’s nearly as good, for quite a bit less. The only catch is that the name sounds like something you’d feel awkward asking for in Boots.
In general, phones have been getting thinner and thinner, but this year the tide seems to have turned and the focus is more on convenience and comfort. The Moto X Play measures 10.9mm at its thickest and almost feels as if it’s already in a case, thanks to the rubbery back panel. You can swap this for different colours or customise the phone by ordering it direct from Motorola, with design tweaks starting at £9 extra (www.snipca.com/17935). Unlike the cheaper Moto G, which we reviewed last month, the Moto X Play isn’t fully waterproof, but it will survive spills.
With an eight-core processor and 2GB of memory, Android 5.1.1 runs smoothly and games aren’t a problem, although some websites still judder. The handy Moto app makes everyday features more accessible. Battery life is good, too, lasting us just over 13 hours of video playback.
If you’re not trying to save power, turning the screen brightness right up makes it easily visible in sunshine. It’s a plain LCD rather than one of the vivid AMOLED panels Motorola sometimes uses, but the display showed good contrast and colour range in our tests and colours were well balanced, so photos and films looked lovely.
The 21-megapixel rear camera also handles colour well. Our test shots sometimes looked a bit dark, but we’ll forgive that as an attempt to avoid over-exposing, which can often leave empty white areas in phone camera pictures. HDR mode brightened things up, and indoor shots with slightly softer light weren’t too grainy.
The Moto X Play doesn’t have the finest build quality or fancy extras like fingerprint recognition. But it feels good to use and its features go one better than many rivals, so at this price, we’d buy it.
VERDICT
There’s strong competition in this price range, but the Moto X Play gets everything right.
SPECIFICATIONS
5.5in 1920x1080-pixel screen • 21-megapixel rear camera • 5-megapixel front camera • 16GB flash storage • microSD card slot • 802.11n Wi-Fi • Bluetooth 4.0 • G/4G • 148x75x8.9mm (HxWxD) • 169g • One-year warranty