Motorola Moto X Play now official – the "no-compromise" midranger

The Moto X Play will be a step down from the Style in terms of hardware – it will rock a 64-bit, 1.7 GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 – a midrange SoC, which we've found to be quite adequate in our experience. The phone is equipped with 2 GB of RAM and has 16 GB / 32 GB storage variants. Both are expandable via microSD of up to 128 GB. The display has a 5.5” diagonal with a resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels and the Play doesn't have the stereo speakers, which adorn the front of the Style. The battery that keeps the lights on has an impressive capacity of 3,630 mAh and Motorola promises up to 48 hours of “mixed usage” and turbo charging.

In terms of camera, the device packs impressive specs – its main snapper rocks a 21 MP sensor with F2.0 aperture and a dual-tone LED flash, while the frontal cam has a 5 MP sensor. The phone supports the same Quick Capture gestures as the Moto X Style and Moto G – flick your wrist to activate camera app, flick again for selfie shot.

User Interface

Motorola's UI philosophy is along the lines of “the lighter – the better”. Moto X and Moto G phones have always packed almost-stock Android, with only a few user experience-enhancing features added – such as the Moto Voice, which will make an appearance on the Moto X Play in its full glory. That being said, the midranger comes with Android 5.1.1 installed out-of-the-box and offers it in its vanilla form.

Price and availability

The Moto X Play should launch some time in August. The only pointer we have right now for price is “$300 - $400 less than competitors' flagships”, which should mean a price-tag of around $300 – we assume it depends on the level of customization and the internal storage variant you pick.

What do you think of the Moto X Play?