Motorola's mid-range X plays it by the book

Motorola’s rebirthing phase under Google witnessed the American cell phone maker dramatically simplify its line-up - at one stage they had just three phones on offer in India. Now that the Moto E, G and X have established a strong foothold in the market, Motorola – now under Chinese ownership – is looking to diversify its product portfolio. The 2nd generation Moto X has spawned two successors – the mid-range Play and the high-end Style, and the former is the first to arrive on Indian shores. It packs an obscenely large battery and attempts to address the complaints about the under-par cameras that have plagued previous generation devices of the X series.

The Moto X Play is an aberration in the age of anorexic smartphones. While most manufacturers have been studiously shaving the millimeters, the Play looks like it swallowed another phone for breakfast. But there is a perfectly logical reason for its girth, which we will get to momentarily.

The Play features a metallic-looking frame with a rear cover made of plastic with a rubbery finish and features a pattern reminiscent of wire mesh. It is removable, but what purpose that serves is unclear since the battery isn’t accessible and the dual SIM card and microSD slots are tucked away in a pinhole tray on top of the device. Unlike the Moto G which is entirely water resistant, the Play comes with the IP52 certification, meaning that is merely water repellent. It sounds similar, but the difference is that the Moto G can survive total immersion, while its more expensive sibling is only protected against accidental spills and light rain.

The display is a HD-capable 5.5-incher that is flanked by the large speaker slots that have become hallmarks of Motorola smartphones. The panel has a pixel density of 401 ppi, which translates to excellent clarity and colour reproduction; viewing angles and brightness are sufficient even for outdoor use.

The materials used on the Play don’t exactly feel premium, but its girth and hardy construction come together to give it the appearance of a device designed to take a beating and live to tell the tale.

In response to user criticism of previous X series cameras, Motorola has massively cranked up the megapixel count on the new Play. The new 21MP sensor is an absolute delight in brightly lit conditions. It has excellent dynamic range and detail, although it might be a tad slow to focus. A laser autofocus, which is all the rage right now, might have helped in mitigating the focus delay.

The dual-tone flash tries hard, but the drop in quality of imaging under low light is immediately apparent.

In poorly lit conditions, grain is everywhere and colour reproduction is quite hit and miss. And night mode only makes matters worse by dropping image quality in favour of a boost in brightness.

However, most of these drawbacks apply to all smartphone cameras and in comparative terms, the Moto X Play is about as good as it gets in its class.

The other big feature that Motorola is touting with the Play is its battery life. The company claims the 3630 mAh lithium ion unit is good for two days of continuous use on a full charge. The massive battery capacity is also the reason for the conspicuous bulge in the device’s rear.

Over a week of usage, we were only able to achieve the rated uptime once, with the phone usually thirsting for juice about halfway through the second day. With about 12 hours of uptime and overnight charging being the norm for most smartphones, battery life is a massive advantage for the Motorola. The added advantage of quick charging means that a battery pack will be a quaint oddity to anyone who owns a Play.

The hardware specifications of the Moto X Play rarely deviate from the norm for a mid-range device. It is powered by an octa-core Snapdragon 615 from Qualcomm that is paired with Adreno 405 graphics and 2 GB of RAM. Storage space varies depending on the variant you buy, with the 32GB version we tested costing about ₹1500 more than the 16 GB unit.

We at Technophile have seen a number of phones with specs identical to the Play in the recent past, and performance levels on the Motorola were within the expected parameters. Operating system lag is unheard of, and most 3D games run smoothly even with the most demanding settings. With the other test device on our test bench this week being an Android gamepad, we put the Play through several extensive gaming sessions and it did not disappoint.

The phone runs a near stock version of Android Lollipop 5.1.1 with a few added extras from Motorola. Since all of Motorola’s software additions are carryovers from the previous generation that are already well documented, we won’t go over them again here.

The Moto X Play is the opposite of a flashy phone. It is functional to a fault and built to last. There are several phones that replicate the Moto X Play’s performance levels at cheaper price points, which means that the enthusiast crowd will probably look down on it.But with its top notch build quality, massive battery and much improved camera, Motorola’s new mid-range offering could well be a big hit with the no-nonsense crowd who couldn’t care less about clock speeds and transistor counts as long as their phone gets all the basics right. And the Play certainly does that.

Price: ₹18,499 (16 GB) ₹19,999 (32GB)

Love: Battery life, build quality

Hate: Bulky dimensions