Moto Z Play review: Playmodo

Telephony

It depends on the region, but the Moto Z Play comes in single and dual-SIM versions. We have a dual-SIM model for testing and it seems to be the most commonly found variety currently out there. Since it has a dedicated microSD card slot, you might as well get that one, as you never have to sacrifice the extra slot for memory expansion. We definitely count that as a plus with all the hybrid tray solutions floating around.

The dialer should be quite familiar. It's split into three tabs - favorites (with big thumbnails), call log and all contacts. There's no mention of Wi-Fi calling, however (even though previous Motos supported it), there's only SIP calling.

Favorite contacts • Call log • All contacts

Loudspeaker

The Moto Z Play only has a single speaker to work with. It is in the top part of the handset, above the display and thus front-firing. This is theoretically one step better than a bottom or rear mounting position. At least for media consumption, that is. The speaker is decently strong and got a Good mark.

Speakerphone test	Voice, dB	Pink noise/ Music, dB	Ringing phone, dB	Overall score
Huawei Mate 8 BG	67.8	65.8	66.6	Below Average
Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime	63.1	67.3	71.3	Average
Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016)	64.5	71.0	68.9	Average
nubia Z11	64.3	70.7	71.2	Average
Moto G4 Plus	64.0	70.4	73.0	Average
Lenovo Moto G4	64.7	70.8	72.8	Good
Nokia C7	66.6	65.8	75.9	Good
OnePlus 3T	61.0	69.3	78.3	Good
Xiaomi Redmi Pro	68.1	71.8	69.4	Good
Meizu MX6	65.7	71.7	72.5	Good
Moto Z Play	62.9	70.3	77.0	Good
Asus Zenfone 3 ZE552KL (outdoor)	68.8	70.8	71.4	Good
Oppo R9s	64.3	71.5	76.1	Good
Lenovo Moto Z Droid	64.5	66.2	81.8	Good
LG G5	68.7	70.9	73.5	Good
Huawei P9 Plus (stereo)	66.9	70.0	76.9	Good
Xiaomi Mi 5s	64.2	70.0	84.9	Very Good
Huawei Honor 8	70.5	70.5	78.2	Very Good
LeEco Le Max 2	74.9	69.3	77.2	Very Good
ZTE Axon 7	66.4	72.2	84.1	Very Good
Meizu Pro 6	64.0	71.5	89.1	Very Good

Messaging and text input

The Moto Z Play comes with Google Messenger pre-installed (it's the default SMS app) as well as Hangouts. Messenger behaves a lot like a modern IM app. You can snap a photo and send it in seconds or send short audio recordings, emojis and so on.

Google Messenger

However, unlike Hangouts it does not support Gmail chat or voice calling, video calling or anything that doesn't fit into MMS. Also, Google now has Allo and Duo for texting/video chats so figuring out which Google app you're supposed to use is a puzzle.

Text input, naturally, is handled by the Google keyboard. It's fast, it's accurate, it's reliable and it has plenty of configuration options. You can enable one-handed mode by long-pressing the comma key, adjust the keyboard height, the layout (e.g. you may want QWERTZ), enable additional symbols on long-press and change the theme. Typing, swiping and voice dictation are available.

Google keyboard • Swype input

Other apps

Since a near-stock Android experience is what Motorola has typically been after for some time now, there aren't many other pre-installed apps to speak of. You do get a calculator and Google's calendar app. But the latter is technically part of the standard Google app suite anyway.

Calculator • Google Calendar

Among other things, the same suite also brings things like Google Docs and Spreadsheets to the table. So, you generally have your document needs covered out of the box.

Google documents suite

However, Motorola arguably took things a bit too far in its strive to maintain a clutter-free experience. Then again, it might be sort of Google's fault for not having a standard Android file manager app to offer. Regardless, there is no real solution for outright browsing your files on the Moto Z Play. Sure, Google Photos is there and it has access to your local storage, but that is limited to images and videos alone. Furthermore, the Photos app seems to have trouble with quite a few video and audio codecs. But more on that later.

So, back to the point, Photos might have that part of the multimedia browsing covered and Google Play music has you covered for audio files. However, if you want to manage other file types, you'd have to download a third-party file browser.