Motorola Moto Z4 Play smartphone - advantages and disadvantages

In 2019, it is hard to imagine that popular brands in the mobile industry will cede their leadership positions to unknown companies. However, it is enough to recall the incredible success of Motorola push-button phones to understand that in the modern world everything is decided by technology, and most of the buyers do not care who will come up with the "very" novelty. An example of this is the avalanche-like jump in the popularity of Chinese technology and the entry of manufacturers from Asia into the world market.

Now Motorola is far enough from the Olympus of the world phone market, however, the Motorola Moto Z4 Play smartphone, the advantages and disadvantages of which will be described in detail below, has every chance of commercial success and will definitely not leave the fans of the series indifferent.

Loyal to tradition

Perhaps another extremely interesting feature in the history of an American company (in addition to the incredible rise and crushing fall) is the ability to go against the tide. So, any, even the most unpopular manufacturer invests huge resources in design development. And this decision is justified, because the more unique the product is, the more buyers are interested in it. But Motorola has its own vision, and it is radically different from the others - it became known that the new product will retain the dimensions of the previous models, which means that there is no need to expect any special changes in the appearance of the device.

True, it is worth noting that such a decision is not a consequence of savings or lack of ideas among the company's engineers, but a necessity. After all, thanks to the preservation of the original dimensions, the new device will be able to support the previously released Moto Mod. Although this feature could not find a large number of fans, Motorola has implemented it much better than its competitors. Perhaps in the future, the technology will develop, which will entail an increase in the number of modules (at the moment there are 4 of them) and attract a variety of manufacturers, but so far it looks impractical.

Old design with new touches

Although there are no reliable photos of the novelty yet (a wide variety of "merged" pictures are circulating on the network, which are radically different from each other), at least one innovation is already known. They will be a teardrop-shaped cutout of the front camera, which in turn will be located in the center. As you can see, companies are not alien to global trends, so we can assume that there will be other features.

The body itself will not differ much from its predecessors. The front camera will be located in front, the frames and chin will become quite narrow. On the sides there will be a place for volume control buttons (the first photos made some confusion, because instead of the standard two buttons, one rocker is depicted on them) and power. The back cover will immediately attract attention with contacts for connecting modules, as well as a large enough, but single main camera, just below which is the company logo (it is likely that this is where the fingerprint scanner will be located).

Of the features, it is worth highlighting the presence on the bottom edge of the Jack 3.5 connector (next to the USB connector), which they actively began to get rid of. But there is no exact information about the colors (we can assume that one of the options will be black, as in the photo).

A little about cameras

The characteristics of the main camera caused quite a lively debate between netizens. So, the manufacturer inserted a single camera into the new product for $ 500, while other brands insert at least dual cameras. The choice of resolution is also interesting, because 48 megapixels clearly hint at the desire of developers to follow popular trends.

But we can talk about the quality of the photo right now, because the main sensor, contrary to all expectations, will not be Sony, but Samsung. It cannot be called a significant disadvantage, but better quality components were expected for this amount. For comparison, how it takes pictures at night (during the day, at dusk, in the sun), you can draw an analogy with the popular Chinese camera Redmi note 7, because it has the same sensor, which is much cheaper. However, the quality of the camera software also plays an important role, so it is likely that the Moto Z4 Play will be able to please its owners with good pictures.

The front camera will receive a 16-megapixel matrix, as well as the ability to make high-quality videos in 1080p resolution with a frame rate of 30fps.

As a result, we can say that Motorola made a rather risky decision, equipping the new Z-series with a single module. True, knowing the company's love of experimentation, we can assume that this innovation will be successful, given the vast experience and the number of similar solutions.

Hardware for games

Despite the fact that the main percentage of the company's sales falls on budget models, the Z series smartphones also find their fans. And since the name of the novelty contains the promising word "Play", it is worthwhile to carefully study the hardware and understand whether the device really matches it.

Performance

Inside the Moto Z4 Play is a powerful and energy efficient eight-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 675 processor with a core frequency of 2 × 2.0 GHz Kryo 460 Gold & 6 × 1.7 GHz Kryo 460 Silver. The well-proven Adreno 612 acts as a graphics processor. The amount of RAM is also quite acceptable for 2019, and is 6 GB. So all smartphone owners will be able to count on good frame rates at high and medium graphics settings.

Perhaps for some, these characteristics will seem insufficient (especially in comparison with the incredible performance of some devices providing over 10 GB of RAM), but it is important to understand that at the moment and in the foreseeable future they will be enough for any active games. And given how rapidly technology is developing, it becomes clear that "super-smartphones" will become trite by the time their potential can be realized in practice.

Vault

The best manufacturers have long understood that it is profitable to create models with different amounts of RAM and ROM. Motorola did not lag behind in this regard, providing its customers with two options to choose from:

• 128 GB of internal memory + 6 GB of RAM;
• 64 GB of internal memory + 4 GB of RAM.

Many more users will be pleased with the fact that the novelty has retained the feature of previous models, namely support for an external microSD memory card (in this case, up to 256 GB) and at the same time makes it possible to use two SIM cards in the Nano-SIM format, dual stand-by ...

operating system

As you know, software quality depends no less than hardware. That is why people around the world in 2019 are trying to choose a model with the newest version of the operating system, and Motorola did not disappoint in this regard: the buyers of the gadget in the stock version are waiting for the brand new Android 9.0 Pie. But how things will be with the release of updates is still unknown.

Screen

A lot depends on the quality of the display, because it directly affects the usability (hardly anyone likes glare or insufficiently low / high screen brightness indicators). Moto received a Super AMOLED matrix with a resolution of 1080 by 2340, with a diagonal of 6.22 inches. In general, the device fits comfortably in the hand (it can already be argued, because it is a copy of previous versions) and has a nice design. Therefore, if the question is how to choose a smartphone for watching movies, based on the rating of quality devices, Z4 Play can be an excellent option.

Autonomy

Users are almost always dissatisfied with the battery life of their battery.And the trouble is that this problem does not go away when buying more expensive phones, but only slightly recedes. The Motorola engineers also failed to radically solve the problem, because with the active use of a 3600 mAh battery, it still makes sense to use a power bank. And you can't say with certainty how many hours the battery will last, because not a single test has been carried out yet.

Technologies, communication standards, dimensions

These characteristics are usually the same for devices of the same class, but it is still worth studying them:

• Wireless technologies: Wi-Fi 802.11 a / b / g / n / ac, LTE-A (2CA) Cat12 600/50 Mbps, Bluetooth v5.0;
• Network and Internet: GSM, CDMA, HSPA, LTE;
• Navigation: A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS;
• Sensors: Fingerprint, accelerometer, gyroscope, proximity, compass;
• Dimensions: 158 x 75 x 7.25mm (approx);
• Optional: USB 2.0, Type-C 1.0, Jack 3.5.

Verdict

If you focus on the published specifications, then Motorola has every chance to create a high-quality and quite distinctive mobile phone. However, the company's desire to fulfill its promise (to release three generations of Z-series devices, compatible with any modules, which, by the way, has already been fulfilled) has brought unpleasant results - namely, the obsession with one design option for four years. Of course, the brand has its own style, its own developments and tricks, and its products are distinguished by excellent characteristics in the modern market. However, in order to regain at least some of its former popularity, the owners should think about changing policies, because without innovation there will be no success, which can be clearly seen in the example of successful Chinese developers.

• Decent characteristics;
• Support for external flash memory;
• The presence of a mini jack 3.5 mm;
• Possibility to connect modules;
• Autonomy;
• Quality of materials;
• Convenience.

• Price;
• The main camera (this drawback may scare away users, but it's better not to jump to conclusions and wait for the first tests).

In conclusion, I would like to say that Motorola is still capable of producing high-quality new items, despite the loss of leadership positions. However, some caution in relation to global trends, and the reluctance to develop a unique design leads the company to conservatism, which is truly dangerous for any modern manufacturer of smartphones or other electronic equipment. As for the rest, starting with quality, thoughtfulness and implementation, everything remains at a very high level and gives hope for the revival of the legendary brand.