Smartphone Motorola Moto Z4 Play - advantages and disadvantages

In 2019, it's hard to imagine that popular brands in the mobile industry will give up 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 for the majority of buyers, it doesn’t matter who exactly comes up with “that 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 quite far 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 as much detail as possible below, has every chance of commercial success and will definitely not leave fans of the series indifferent.

True to tradition

Perhaps another extremely interesting feature in the history of the American company (in addition to the incredible rise and crushing fall) is the ability to go against the flow. So, any, even the most unpopular manufacturer, invests huge resources in design development. And this decision is justified, because the more unique the product, the greater the interest of buyers in it. But Motorola has its own vision, and it is radically different from the rest - it became known that the new product will retain the dimensions of previous models, which means that you should not 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 a 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 previously released Moto Mod. And although this feature could not find a large number of fans, Motorola 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 will 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 walking on the network, which are radically different from each other), at least one innovation is already known. They will be a drop-shaped cutout of the front camera, which in turn will be placed in the center. As you can see, the company is not alien to succumb to global trends, so we can assume that there will be other features.

The case 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 they will find a place for the volume control buttons (the first photos made some ambiguity, because instead of the standard two buttons they show one rocker) and power. The back cover will immediately attract attention with contacts for connecting modules, as well as a fairly large, 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 of the Jack 3.5 connector (next to the USB connector), which they began to actively 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 novelty 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 already now, because the main sensor, contrary to all expectations, will not be Sony, but Samsung. It is impossible to call this a significant minus, but better components were expected for such an amount. For comparison, how he photographs 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 costs an order of magnitude 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 shots.

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 by equipping the novelty of the Z series with a single module. True, knowing the company's love for experiments, we can assume that this innovation will also be successful, given the vast experience and the number of similar decisions.

Iron 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 there is a promising word “Play” in the name of the novelty, you should carefully study the hardware and understand whether the device really matches it.

Performance

Inside the Moto Z4 Play is a powerful and energy-efficient Qualcomm Snapdragon 675 octa-core processor with a core frequency of 2×2.0 GHz Kryo 460 Gold & 6×1.7 GHz Kryo 460 Silver. The well-established 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 can count on good frame rates per second at high and medium graphics settings.

Perhaps, these characteristics will seem insufficient to someone (especially in comparison with the incredible performance of some devices providing more than 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 develops, it becomes clear that “super-smartphones” will become outdated by the time their potential can be realized in practice.

storage

The best manufacturers have long understood that it is beneficial to create models with different amounts of RAM and ROM. Motorola has not lagged 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, no less depends on the quality of software than on hardware. That is why people around the world in 2019 are trying to choose a model with the latest version of the operating system, and Motorola did not disappoint in this regard: the new Android 9.0 Pie is waiting for buyers of the gadget in the stock version. 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). 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 (we can already say, 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

Almost always, users are unhappy with the battery life of their battery. And the trouble is that this problem does not go away with the purchase of more expensive phones, but only recedes a little. 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 it’s impossible to say with certainty how many hours the battery will last, because not a single test has been conducted yet.

Technologies, communication standards, dimensions

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

• 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 × 75 × 7.25 mm (approx.);
• Optional: USB 2.0, Type-C 1.0, Jack 3.5.

Verdict

If we focus on the published characteristics, then Motorola has every chance to create a high-quality and quite original 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, obsession with one design option for four years. Of course, the brand has its own style, its own developments and chips, and its products are distinguished by excellent characteristics in the conditions of the modern market. However, in order to regain at least some of the former popularity, the owners should think about changing the policy, because without innovation there will be no success, which is clearly seen in the example of successful Chinese developers.

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

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

In conclusion, I would like to say that Motorola is still able to produce high-quality new products, despite the loss of leadership positions. However, a certain caution in relation to global trends, and unwillingness to develop a unique design leads the company to conservatism, which is really dangerous for any modern manufacturer of smartphones or other electronic equipment. Otherwise, starting from quality, thoughtfulness and implementation, everything remains at a very high level and gives hope for the revival of the legendary brand.