While the Moto Z and its tougher ‘Force’ variant are starting to make waves in the US market under a temporary Verizon exclusivity, the Moto Z Play, the cheapest of the bunch, is a bit late to the party. Having just passed through TENAA, the Moto Z Play is close at hand, but not close enough to be immune to leaks. This newest one shows off the upcoming device from a few different angles, giving us a little bit of insight to just how it will differ from its more expensive cousins, cosmetically.
The phone on show here looks to be mostly the same as the Moto Z from the front, save for the rearrangement of the front camera and flash; both are now to the left of the speaker grille. A round white Moto logo is seen on the left corner, but this may simply be part of the protective front film. Taking to the back of the device, we find a single panel of what appears to be glass, as opposed to the glass top and bottom with a metal center found on the normal Moto Z. Rather than floating free, the MotoMod pins have been sequestered to an island of sorts. The Moto logo on the back is now white, a very slight change from the premium faded black logo etched into the metal of the stock Moto Z. On the sides, the button layout is the same as the normal Moto Z. The device is just slightly thicker than the thinnest of the three, but not as thick as the Moto Z Force. In the leaked photos, the camera hump seems to be missing, but since the TENAA photos have one, that’s likely down to the angle of the shot. The photos just barely show the bottom of the device, where you’ll find a 3.5 mm headphone jack alongside the USB Type-C port.
Compatible with the same MotoMods and only a bit thicker, the Moto Z Play is mostly a great imitation of Moto’s newest flagship. The key differences are on the inside; the Play sports a Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 paired up with 3GB of RAM. The screen is a 1920 x 1080 unit, a slight step down from the Moto Z. The same 64GB of expandable, blazing-fast storage is on board. The cameras are 16-megapixels on the back and 5-megapixels on the front, and the whole thing is kept alive by a battery that falls between 3,300 mAh and 3,510 mAh, according to TENAA. The Moto Z Play won’t just be a budget model of the Moto Z, it will take on a life of its own with what promises to be longer battery life and a slightly more durable frame.
