(upbeat music)
- [Michael] Right out the gate,
it seems to me that few people
are likely to buy the Moto Z3 Play.
I mean the design is pretty but forgettable
and instead of launching on the biggest carrier in America,
like it's forerunners,
it's debuting on Sprint and U.S. Cellular.
Sure you can snap it up unlocked too
but priced the way it is?
It's basically going head to head
with the OnePlus 6 and that's not a great place
to be for anyone.
So, what does this phone have going for it?
Well, legacy.
See, back in 2016 Motorola promised
that it's new modular smartphone accessories
would work with three generations of Moto Z
and this phone is the first of that third generation.
From speakers to batteries to game pads,
you can pick up any Moto mod from any generation
and slap it onto any Moto Z from any generation.
That kept promise is actually pretty rare
in consumer tech and well it means a lot
for those who have invested in this ecosystem.
There's other good news in the Moto mod department,
but I'll come back to that in a second.
First, let's visit the new camera around the back
and don't let the dual lenses full you.
I think I've said that before.
See unlike, say, the Moto X4,
this second one is not for something fun like wide angle.
It's just a depth center for portrait mode.
At the briefing, Motorola had this nice backdrop
setup for us to take portrait photos
and the city skyline and studio lighting
do a nice job of covering up
for the inevitable edge detection errors,
but they're there just like on every phone ever.
I'm obligated to say these were shot
with pre-production devices,
but honestly I've never been truly satisfied
with any phone's portrait mode
and I doubt the Moto Z3 Play will change that.
I am happy to see the native cinemagraph mode though.
See, you can selectively animate portions of a photo
while leaving other sections static
which makes for some trippy fun that you can share.
It's not really new.
We were doing this on Window's phones back in 2013,
but it's a cool enough feature
that I'm really glad it's built right into the camera now.
Motorola's good at that on the whole
including tweaks people actually find useful
and taking the knife to old features
that are either unpopular or redundant.
So, some old favorites,
those physical shortcuts of twist to camera
and chop to flashlight and those controls remain.
You can still switch out buttons for gestures
which Motorola does very well.
And Moto display is still the best
always on screen I've used on a phone.
In more peculiar developments,
we now have a fingerprint sensor
on the side of the phone, Sony style,
and it doesn't double as a power button.
Instead, Motorola took everyone's least favorite
BlackBerry feature and brought it over here
with a power button on the left side of the phone.
So, there's that.
Let me toss up a spec sheet here
so you can see what we're working with.
I'm not too worried about the Snapdragon 636
because the last two generations
of Moto Z Play were plenty snappy on a 62X
and this one's supposed to be 30% faster
with more LTE capabilities too.
I am a little annoyed they made the phone thicker
without making the battery any bigger,
but last year's phone had great staying power,
so I'm expecting the same here.
You should know that the headphone jack is gone
and I'm not a big fan of the regression
to a glass rear plate,
but here's where the good news
comes back on that Moto mod front.
If you buy the phone unlocked,
you'll get a 2000 MiLi power battery mod
for free in the box.
No rebates, no six to eight weeks before delivery.
Right there when you buy it.
If you ask me, it's what the company should
of been doing from the beginning.
Frankly at this point, I'm still doubtful
of whether any of that
will make people care about this device.
At 4.99 unlocked, it's a tough sale
when you've got competition like OnePlus for 30 bucks more
and Motorola's own G6 giving
you three quarters as much for half the price.
But let's close things out with a look to the past.
Motorola wrapped up our briefing
with a little fact toy that I found interesting.
Maybe you will too.
The Moto Z2 Play, that's last years,
has the highest consumer sentiment rating
of the entire Motorola portfolio.
And it's sold 30% better than the first Moto Z Play did.
So, well, even without Verizon Wireless onboard,
maybe there's hope for this phone yet.
Full review is coming soon, folks.
Please subscribe to theMrMobile on Youtube,
so you don't miss it and let me know your top reasons
for taking this phone home
or for giving it a pass, sound off in the comments below.
'Til next time, thanks for watching
and stay mobile, my friends.