The Moto G6 Play is a less expensive different to the Moto G6 and Moto G6 Plus. It trades away superior options like 1080p decision and a glass again to knock the SIM-free worth all the way down to a degree extra of us are snug with.
It prices $199 / £169 / AU$320, making it one of many least expensive 18:9 display screen telephones you should purchase.
What do you lose? The Motorola Moto G6 Play doesn’t take nice pictures at night time and the fingerprint scanner is slower than most. Nonetheless, it’s nonetheless gorgeous worth and can be one of many best-looking telephones on this class.
Key options
- A giant four,000mAh battery
- 32GB of storage and a microSD card slot
- Quick charging
There are two vital areas to cowl within the Moto G6 Play’s options. We have to try what we miss shopping for this as an alternative of a Moto G6, and respect the neat extras Motorola has managed to slot in on the worth.
Let’s begin with the components that deserve some applause. The Moto G6 Play has 32GB of storage, which is superb for the worth. There’s a reminiscence card slot if that’s not sufficient, however there’s loads of room for a few of your favourite video games and 1000’s of pictures.
Battery life is the actual standout right here, although. A four,000mAh unit lets the Motorola Moto G6 Play plough on by means of a full day of intensive use, together with, for instance, an hour of YouTube streaming together with the same old messaging, shopping and digicam use.
The Moto G6 Play can be one of many cheaper telephones to have true quick charging. It’s an enormous promoting level if you’d like a low-maintenance telephone. Its 13MP rear digicam takes very nice photographs in daylight too.
The lacking components? It has a micro USB cost socket reasonably than the newer USB-C and whereas the again appears to be like quite a bit like that of the Moto G6, it’s made from plastic reasonably than glass. It can choose up mild scratches in your pocket rapidly in the event you’re not cautious. That stated, Motorola features a protecting cowl within the field.
Display decision takes a step down from the Moto G5’s 1080p too. It’s a 720 x 1440 display screen, though we’re pleasantly shocked by how nicely it holds up subsequent to its costlier brothers.
The chipset can be the identical as that of final yr’s Moto G5, a Snapdragon 430. It’s not a super-powerful chipset however does get you more-than-acceptable efficiency in all areas, together with high-end gaming.
Design
- A plastic again with reflective parts
- Surprisingly compact and straightforward to deal with
This newest era of Moto G telephones marks the primary time Motorola has used glass on this sequence. Properly, apart from the entrance panel, which has been glass because the very first Moto G.
The Moto G6 and G6 Plus have curved Gorilla Glass rear panels. Within the step all the way down to the Moto G6 Play you lose this glass. It’s changed by plastic. Nonetheless, we’re pleasantly shocked by how shut it appears to be like and feels to the higher-end design. It’s simply barely tackier and doesn’t get that cool-to-the-touch really feel of glass or aluminum.
There are just a few vital parts that make the plastic appear fairly stylish. First, the Moto G6 Play’s again doesn’t perceptibly flex underneath hand strain. And it has the identical reflective parts underneath the highest layer because the costlier fashions on this vary.
Once they catch the sunshine, you’ll see a stunning S-shaped sample of vivid blue snaking throughout the rear. It appears to be like nice.
It’s additionally a lot subtler than it might seem in a few of our pictures, as a result of we’ve intentionally used mild to carry out the impact. Use it indoors and the Moto G6 Play simply appears to be like like a really darkish blue glass-backed telephone.
It’s not all-plastic, both. The perimeters are aluminum, though they’re coated to maintain the end constant.
Measurement is one different vital facet you’ll have to get your head round. From the spec checklist alone, you may think the Moto G6 Play is big. It has a 5.7-inch display screen. Nonetheless, it isn’t large.
Width is the primary factor that determines how giant a telephone feels. And at 72.2mm, the Moto G6 Play is definitely much less huge than the 73mm Moto G5. It’s straightforward to deal with, and whereas round a centimeter longer than the Moto G5, that is due to its considerably taller display screen.
Classier than the Honor 7A and extra reasonably priced than the Honor 9 Lite, the Moto G6 Play is likely one of the most nice telephones you’ll discover on the worth.
There are just a few compromises, although. It doesn’t have the water repelling nano coating of the higher-end Moto G6 fashions and there’s a micro USB on the underside, not a USB-C.
The distinction? As we get quick charging anyway, it’s all concerning the ease of placing within the cost cable. USB-Cs will be jammed in both manner, micro USBs can’t.
It has a, hallelujah, headphone jack, too. This sits on the highest edge. All of the Moto G6 fashions have one, although, so it’s not a cause to choose this cheaper mannequin. Decrease price is.
There’s a fingerprint scanner on the again too. Motorola advised us it lives right here as a result of it’s cheaper to implement a rear sensor than a entrance one, as seen within the Moto G6 and G6 Plus, particularly in a telephone with pretty slender surrounds like this.
The scanner works superb however is much from the quickest round. Huawei’s P9 Lite is faster, and the Motorola Moto G6 Play is a bit more choosy than most about your finger place. Nonetheless, it’s price highlighting what the actual distinction is.
You’re a standby to house display screen time of about one second (or slightly below), the place the quickest take about zero.three seconds. It’s slower, however nonetheless faster than utilizing a passcode.
Display
- 5.7-inch 18:9 display screen offers you a lot of house
- 720 x 1440 decision is decrease than the remainder of the G6 vary
The display screen exhibits off each the Moto G6 Play’s most vital improve, and one in all its notable funds compromises. It’s a 5.7-inch 18:9 facet display screen. Till late final yr all reasonably priced telephones had much less ‘tall’ 16:9 facet screens. This telephone proves such a show is not only for costlier mobiles.
Advantages embrace more room in your fingers whereas taking part in console-style panorama orientation video games and extra strains of textual content on-screen if you learn an article. You’ll discover this all of the extra when the on-screen keyboard pops-up. It takes lots of a 16:9 telephone’s display screen. Not so with an 18:9’er just like the Moto G6 Play.
Decision is the compromise. 720 x 1440 pixels could sound like rather a lot nonetheless, however that is only a stretched tackle 720p. The Moto G4 Play is final time we noticed a Moto G telephone with this class of decision, again in 2016.
In case you presently have a 1080p telephone, you’ll in all probability discover the telephone isn’t fairly as sharp inside the first jiffy. Nonetheless, we have been fairly shocked by how rapidly our eyes bedded in.
Android makes use of font aliasing (smoothing) lately, and there’s no ‘display screen door’ impact, which is the place pixel density is so low you may see the sunshine gaps between pixels. The Motorola Moto G6 Play nonetheless has a 282ppi pixel density, in any case, which isn’t unhealthy.
Shade efficiency is simply very barely worse than the Moto G6 too. Vivid reds look only a trace much less saturated when utilizing the Vivid mode.
You’ll be able to select between this mode and ‘customary’, which is meant to look extra pure but in addition loses some richness. Shade temperature is customizable too. There are heat, impartial and funky settings.
Use ‘vivid’ shade and ‘heat’ temperature and the Moto G6 Play appears to be like nice, extra inviting and luxuriant than the Honor 7A. This can be a very good display screen for the worth, though the upper pixel density of the Moto G6 does get you nearer to the look of an ultra-high-end telephone because of its smoother fonts.
Out on a sunny day, the Moto G6 Play holds up about in addition to the Moto G6, with sufficient brightness to make the show contents comfortably seen.