Motorola - Moto Z3 Play with 64GB Memory Cell Phone (Unlocked) with battery Moto Mod - Deep Indigo

If there is a phone out there, I've had it. It's taken me a while to nail down what I need in a phone vs what I want in a phone. If what you need is: Great price, though a little cheaper would have been nice ($399-$429) - Still, it's only half of $1000!! Latest android version 8.1 Oreo 4gb RAM w/ 64gb internal storage AND Micro SD (up to 512gb) Super AMOLED display that is beautiful Fingerprint sensor (FAST and side placement is AWESOME and natural) Facial recognition (works like a charm, though not as fast as the OP6, it's accurate and close) Different color phone (not gray, gold, black, UGH!!!) Great upper mid-range processor and modem Superb battery life (I'm a moderate user, 2 days for me) Fast Battery Charge, I'm getting about 45-48% in 30 mins Excellent camera (f1.7, 1.4um, dual pixel auto-focus + 5mp depth sensing camera and some other fun tools) Dual Band Wi-Fi, with Bluetooth 5.0 And, while Moto Mods are great, they're not really for me ...Then this is your phone. The Indigo Blue / Glass is gorgeous and I've received numerous compliments already. If what you want is: Better, top of the range processor (intense gaming and multi-tasking) OIS, or other more purposeful 2nd cameras (wide-angle, telephoto, B&W, etc) More timely, monthly security updates 2k/4k higher resolution display Headphone jack ...Then you should look elsewhere. For most people, this phone kills it. It's not perfect, no phone is ... but you won't be sorry.

Haven’t owned a Motorola product in a while I’m satisfied!

When this phone was announced and initially reviewed, there was consensus that the worst thing about this phone was its price. Having used a Moto X4 for about a year, I was skeptical whether the Z3 Play would be a sufficient upgrade. Necessity forced me to buy this phone, and it didn't hurt that it has finally gone on sale. Overall, I would have been happy even if I'd paid full price. Moto Z3 Play has a Snapdragon 636, 4 GB of RAM, and 64 GB of storage, so on paper, it doesn't sound like much more than the Moto X4, and it costs a lot more. I think the main justification for the higher price is the AMOLED screen. This is a huge improvement over LCD. The camera is also considerably better and faster than the X4, and overall the phone feels snappier. The fingerprinter scanner on the side works very well, but the position takes some getting used to. I don't mind the power button on the left, but I will often accidently wake the phone up when putting it in my pocket because my index finger brushes the fingerprint scanner. There is only one speaker, but it's much, much louder than the Moto X4. I want to try the JBL Soundboost 2 Moto Mod, but it's perfectly fine for calls on speakerphone as is. Speaking of Moto Mods, the included battery mod seems to work fine. It adds too much heft for me to leave it on all the time, but I think it will be a great accessory for travelling or other periods where Wi-Fi is not available. If you're on the fence about this phone because of the price vs specs, try it out! It maintains everything good about Motorola's implementation of Android and has no downsides compared to previous models.

I bought this handset today, so this review might be a bit premature, but if anything significant changes, I'll return to update. Full disclosure: I love Motorola. The Moto X Pure is my favorite phone I've ever owned. For the last two years, I've been using a ZTE Axon 7, which was a fine phone in a lot of ways, but had some problems and lacked the polish of the Moto X. Some of my positive impressions of this phone might be from the familiar Motorola ecosystem, so take my review with a grain of salt. I like this phone very much. There were a few hardware choices that gave me some reservations about buying this, so I'll address those first. The display has been updated to a 18:9 aspect ratio, which makes the front of the phone look very sleek; however, that decision meant that the fingerprint sensor was moved to the right side of the phone (since Moto mods would block a sensor on the back). I've only ever seen this on Sony phones before, and Sony has abandoned that practice, so I was worried about the sensor, but it actually isn't that bad. The sensor is located where a power button would be on most phones, so it is easily accessible with the thumb of the right hand, and the sensor is accurate and reasonably fast. If you hold the phone with your left hand, the sensor might be very inconvenient. The sensor does not function as a power button, so the power button is located on the left side of the phone. For me, the power button placement is a bigger problem than the fingerprint sensor, as it is the only way to power off the screen, but hopefully I'll adjust. One thing that I'm quite annoyed by though is that the phone is thick enough to accommodate a 3.5mm headphone jack, but it is not included. If there are any ambitious Moto mod developers reading, I'd definitely buy a mod with a back fingerprint sensor and headphone jack. Another issue is the camera: the Z3 Play has dual rear cameras. The main camera is a 12 MP shooter, which is fine, but the secondary camera is a 5 MP lens that functions only to gather depth of field information for bokeh effect. This is okay but portrait mode implementation (particularly edge detection) is really difficult, so I'd rather see something like a monochrome or ultra-wide angle lens as the secondary shooter, as I would get more utility out of either those options than the depth of field lens. I have not taken too many photos yet, but the camera is fine so far, especially if they will be processed and filtered through a social media app. Now on to the stuff that I love. Motorola does my favorite version of Android! Software experience here is great. The software is pretty much stock Android, which means the OS is really clean. Motorola integrates Google apps as their default apps, so there is no bloatware, which is great. Motorola adds some really nice features: there always-on display is the best passive display I've seen, and the kinesthetic shortcuts for the camera and flashlight are super convenient. The display looks great. It is an AMOLED panel, so the colors are vibrant, the blacks are really black, and the contrast is great. It is a 1080p panel rather than a 1440p, so I was a little worried I'd notice the difference, but I can only tell the lower resolution if I'm looking at the phone from about six inches away, so no worries there. The brightness is impressive as well. One thing I've noticed in comparison to the Axon is a more accurate white point (you can also adjust the color temperature in the settings app). The phone comes in the box with a 2220 mh battery moto mod. When combined with the 3000 mh internal battery, the phone gives you over 5200 mh of power, so I anticipate this handset being a battery champ, and that is really important to me. The camera app is solid. It has full manual controls, along with some fun modes, like an option to make your own gifs, 1080p 60fps video, panoramic mode, and others. The specs are decidedly midrange, which may be off putting to some consumers, as this phone priced very closely to the OnePlus 6, which offers flagship specs for just thirty dollars more. The Samsung Galaxy S8 is also on sale for the same price at Best Buy (on sale, I believe), so if pure performance is what you are in the market for, then there are likely better value propositions on the market for you. The phone feels quite fast when navigating the OS though, as the software is not heavily skinned and seems to be well optimized to the hardware. You'll notice the difference in photography, with the imaging processing and in graphic intensive games. The phone should have no problem with most normal usage. Also, the speaker is fine. The X Pure and Axon 7 both had stereo front facing speakers which were very good. The speaker on the Z3 is not as good as either of those, but it is front facing, which means it will provide a better experience than any phone with bottom firing speakers. Motorola could have supplemented the front facing speaker with a bottom firing speaker to improve the audio quality, since the narrow chin no longer accommodates a second front facing speaker, but most people use headphones anyway, so the single speaker might be a measure to keep the price under $500. Despite the issues I have with it, I'm rating the phone five stars. That certainly doesn't mean its a perfect phone, but it does all the things that important to me well. The phone has adequate storage, a great looking AMOLED panel, the best software experience on an Android phone, and long battery life. If these things are important to you as well, then I think this would be a wise purchase. If you are interested in more performance intensive tasks, like gaming, VR, of having an elite smartphone camera, you might be better served with something else.

I wasn’t expecting much from a phone out of this price point. I’m used to using the flagship phones from Samsung (Galaxy S8/Note8) and Apple (iPhone 8/X). Surprisingly, the Moro Z3 Play has fast enough speed to really not notice any lag for most functionality. It has basic Motorola apps, but otherwise pretty stripped down. With the capability of using mods to enhance its core features, such as speakers and the camera, it will allowing you to have a phone with some of the best battery life, and POTENTIALLY better camera and speaker features than your flagship phones, if you’re willing to pay for the mods. It has some functionality such as the gestures that I couldn’t careless for, like placing three fingers down to take a screenshot or selfie or whatever they have it set for. But for the price, it’s a great purchase for somebody who wants to upgrade from the entry level phone like the Samsung Galaxy J3 or Moto G6. Yes, for the size, you would think they’d be able to fit in a headphone jack, but most of my headphones or earbuds are Bluetooth anyway.

The Unlocked MOTO Z3 Play experience far exceeded expectations for the following reasons: Excellent phone and data reception/transmission radio performance in weak signal areas. Among the most capable unlocked Android devices for connecting Carriers and MVNOs because it includes an exceptional number of Band/Frequency for compatible radio reception/transmission. Hotspot output easily handles several devices streaming data and covers whole house with 5 bar signal strength. Phone is very efficient, combined with external Moto Mod Battery it runs cool and provides excellent battery life while streaming data via hotspot to several devices, sometimes over 18 hours a day. Excellent display resolution, color and brightness capability. Stout metal frame with Gorilla 3 glass. No thin, curved, soft, scratch prone, Gorilla 5 or 6 glass. Speaker could be a little louder but there are several Moto Mods that address and also provide stereo capability. Camera's are very good for a mobile phone. Per my experience, Motorola Moto Z3 Play designs are very efficient and well shielded from extraneous noise and from inducing unwanted noise into the circuits as demonstrated by the high number of compatible radio Bands/Frequencies included, excellent performance in weak Carrier signal strength areas, low operating temperatures, and exceptional battery life performance. Therefore, I consider this a high quality product of exceptional value, and now own two of these.

The Moto Z3 Play is an all around excellent device (as the title states). I don't personally use the Moto Mods (except for the included Battery Pack Mod occasionally) so I can't speak on that subject much. The battery life on this higher end device (even without the Battery Pack Moto Mod) is incredible. The device uses Google's new(ish) A/B seamless updates which makes installing updates much safer and easier because there is no downtime except for a reboot when finished. The device comes with Android 8.1.0 and is fully Treble enabled which also makes future updates promising. The device is expected to get Android 9.0 any time now which brings a lot more cool features and should make the experience even better! I've personally only owned the Moto "G" Series devices (G4+, G5S+, G6) until now and I must say I'm impressed and think I will stick with the Moto "Z" Series from now on :)

For the price I paid this is a great little phone. It has moto mod capability which allows you to add different attachments to it. Mine came with the extra battery which allows the phone to last quite awhile. I also purchased the jbl speaker which is decent and the instashare projector which for what it is it does a pretty good job. Its not high def and you can notice a little pixelation but most people won't or care. Pair it with a Bluetooth speaker and have a movie night anywhere. The phone itself is fairly fast and responsive. I bought mine unlocked and had issues at first getting it to work correctly with Sprint but it all wound up being my fault because I was using it as a wifi device for about a month before activating it and I had done some updates that needed to be completed while it was activated and not how I had done it. I had to do a factory reset which wasn't to big a desl because I hadn't saved to much to the phone yet. Once I did that and ran all the updates it was able to connect to Sprints networks just fine. So make sure you activate it before you really start using it so you don't have to do setup and things twice. That's my families favorite pastime though so it was par for the course for me. This phone had already been out for a year when I bought it but while I was on my last phone things changed and subsidys went away so this was the first phone I've had to purchase really for more than a dollar and activation fee. I typically like to have the high end phones but that wasn't an option this go around but this phone is still comparable to my last LG phone so I haven't noticed much difference. This one doesn't have a built in headphone jack but does come with an adaptor that plugs into tbe charging port. This should work fine as long as you have a good amount of battery. This phond doesn't have a user servicable battery although I'm sure there are ways to take the phone apart and replace it possibly but I'm not certain. If you have protection plan that may not be an issue. It does have an SD slot and I'm running a 128GB and It can handle quite a bit more. I think it said it can do 2TB which I don't think even exist yet. The camera is ok in daylight and has a number of resolutions you can pick. It's not so great in low light. I don't shoot a ton of pics with my phone though so I don't care. If you are an amateur phone photographer you would probably be happier with something else. Apple, Samsung, and LG have the cameras you are looking for. Nice results can be achieved with this one though with some tweaking. Overall I'm pretty happy with this phone. I'm on it constantly and it doesn't get hot as far as I can tell but I have the battery mod on most of the time so it creates a buffer. As far as a case you will just want to get one of the bumper style that just goes around the edge if you plan to use mods all the time. I also put a screen protector on. It says it has a really sturdy screen but you know how that goes. I attached a holder thingy to the battery mod to help hang onto it because with the mod attached it can get a little heavy in the hand. I don't know if I would recommend this for women or those with smaller hands as it is somewhat bulky. I also have a Verizon prepaid Moto G6 Play I bought on clearance to use as a wifi device to stream music and I like it quite a bit as well it even came with a case. I bought a few more to use in my older vehicles to use as dashcams and streaming devices either connected to my phone hotspot or my Sprintdrive device. Well that's about it. I imagine this phone will only be getting cheaper and will probably even clearance out before to long. I will probably buy another when it does to have for a backup or to use someway in another capacity. I wish you all good luck in your mobile choices and you can't go wrong with this one for basic use. Have a good one!