I’m actually quite excited about the Moto concept. The idea that you can throw a new backplane on your smartphone and instantly upgrade it is brilliant, and Moto has shown that they can get it to work.
The so-called Moto Mods come in a wide variety of disguises, and I will also touch one of the latest in this review, namely the Polaroid Insta-Share Printer. More about that leter, now we will have a little closer look to the Moto Z3 Play.
A significant upgrade
If I look solely at the Moto Z3 compared to last year’s Z2 model, there has been a significant upgrade, both when it comes to monitor, processor and camera.
But there are also things on the mobile that have not changed – and the design and the concept of Moto Mods make it difficult to change, let’s just start there.
Motorola brag that the Moto Z3 is only 6.75 mm thick, and therefore one of the thinnest smartphones on the market. It would also be true if it’s not because the camera protrudes several millimeters, and it’s not just a small bump, but it’s a big round dimming that takes up a lot of space.
The camera is nicely packed away when you throw a MOD on, but dear Motorola dont say that the mobile is only 6.75 mm thick when it’s lens is closer to 9mm.
I would also like to say that if you do not have a MOD on your phone or a backpane on, the camera is constantly getting caught on stuff.
At the same time, it is strange that the copper contacts that make a connection between the modem and the smartphone are exposed when there is no backpane or MOD on the Z3 Play.
Then that’s the thing with your fingerprint scanner …
The entire Moto Mod concept makes it impossible to place the fingerprint scanner on the back of the mobile, and Motorola has in their infinite wisdom decided to place it on the side of the phone.
They write that it makes it easy to use it, but it’s a bit of a BS. It makes it quite difficult to use it. It’s hard to get to, I prefer to completely refrain from using it.
Own voice recognition
If we look away from the above, Z3 Play has a pretty nice design. Round edges and a screen that goes fairly far out. There is a bezel, but it is clearly among the smaller ones.
The Moto Z3 Play operating system itself is an almost pure Android, with quite a few Moto modifications. One of them is the navigation where you can replace the normal three buttons, home, back and switch between apps, or an elongate button that does the same by clicking, holding or swip on it.
There are also some Moto features, Moto Actions, Moto Display and Moto Voice.
The first one is smart, because here you can decide what the phone should do when you pick it up, how to take three-finger screens, turn on the flashlight by picking up the phone twice and several other smart features. That feature I was quite excited about.
With Moto Display, you can choose to turn on the night shift automatically in the evening, make sure the display is turned on for as long as you look at it, and you can get notifications to look on the “all ways on” screen, even when the phone is off.
Finally, there is Motorola’s version of Siri, Google Assistant and Bixby-Moto Voice.
Here you can control the phone with commands – but only if you have chosen to install the mobile in English, French, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish or German. And if you choose to do that, you’ll get a poor version of Google Assistant.
I do not get why Samsung and now also Motorola choose to make their own voice recognition that can operate the mobile when Google already has one that works – and even (almost) works in Danish.
Upgraded camera
On the hardware side, the Motorola Z3 Play features a dual camera system, with a 12MP and 5MP lens on the back and an 8MP on the front. It may not sound of much, but consider that the camera is cheap, so it’s actually a very excellent system that Motorola has equipped with the camera.
But even more exciting are the features that the camera has built into the software. Here are some fun and cool solutions that I have not seen yet from other manufacturers.
The “Clip” feature is one that I really love. When you use it, you can take a picture of a thing or person, then the software lets you cut the background and replace it with another – either from Motorola’s gallery or you can use one of your own images as the new background.
Of course, the function is not perfect, but it actually works surprisingly well and I think it’s fun to take a picture of my daughter in the garden, and then replace my garden with the pyramids.
Another bold feature I really dig is “Cinemagraph”. Use this feature when you want to take a picture of, for example, the girlfriend in the wind. With this feature you can then decide on certain items to be allowed to move, such as her hair. The image is an intermediate between an image and an animated gif, and it’s a really cool feature.
There is also a feature where you can connect your smartphone directly to YouTube so you can make live videos on YouTube directly from Z3 Play.
There are more fun features in the camera, but these ones really stand out from all the other cameras.
In terms of quality, it is clear that the camera is in the low end of the resolution compared to, for example, Huawei and Samsung. But you pay significantly less for this smartphone, so it’s no wonder.
Personally, I really like the camera in Z3 Play, the pictures are great and have a nice color saturation without overdoing it and firing too much up under the color cannon. Of course, there are limits to how much you can zoom in on the pictures, but I still think that for the most part, the resolution is more than good enough.
Round up
In fact, I really like the Moto Z3 Play. It’s a nice touch that comes with an extra battery, so you have up to 40 hours of operation on the phone and I’m crazy about the Mod principle, it just keeps.
That there are certain mods that just are not ok is something completely different. On my mobile, I got the new Polaroid Insta-Share Printer MOD, and that’s probably a strange idea. First, takes up way to much space, the phone gets quite heavy, you need some special zinc paper and the prints are just not very good.
Oh and sometimes the mod is too cold, and it means you just have to wait until it’s hot enough for the printer to work. So much for the “insta” part of this MOD.
But the MOD-idea itself is smart and, for example, JBL’s speaker-mode is just supreme.
So if you want a mobile with exciting features in the camera and the ability to connect a lot of exciting mods, then Z3 Play is not so bad.
- Product Name: Moto Z3 Play
- Manufacturer: Motorola
- Screen: 6.1 “Full HD + (2.160 x 1.080), with Corning Gorilla Glass 3
- Cpu: Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 processor with 1.8 GHz octa-core CPU and 850 MHz Adreno 509 GPU
- Connectivity: 802.11 a / ac / b / g / n 2.4 GHz + 5 GHz. Bluetooth 5.0, usb type c.
- Rear camera: 12 MP, f1.7, 1.4um + 5 MP depth, Dual Autofocus Pixel
- Front camera: 8 MP, F2.0, 1.12um, wide-angle 84 ° lens, screen flash
- Battery: 3,000 mAh
- Memory: 4GB RAM + 64GB room, expandable to 2TB
- Dimensions: 76.5 x 156.5 x 6.75 mm
- Weight: 156 grams
- Price: Set to 3,000 kroner
- See more at Motorola
Overall Rating 75%
A pretty nice mobile, with a very exciting camera and supporting MOTs from Motorola. I’m crazy about the extra battery included, where you get up to 40 hours of battery life.
However, I’m not to excited about the design – because if you do not have a MOD or a backpane on your phone, the camera is too far out and it’s frustrating. At the same time, the mods make the phone much thicker, thus eliminating the slim design that it otherwise boasts.
But for 3,000 kroner it’s a beautiful mobile phone.
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