Moto Z2 Play and New Moto Mods Launched: Price, Release Date, Specifications, and More

Moto Z2 Play, successor to last year's Moto Z Play with Moto Mods, was launched in US and a few other markets on Thursday. The newest Moto in town runs on Android 7.1 Nougat, comes with a Moto Voice Assistant, and like its predecessor, supports Moto Mods. The unlocked Moto Z2 Play will be priced at $499 (roughly Rs. 32,200) in the US, where it will go on sale this summer. There's no word on India launch/ release date yet, though with a Moto event scheduled next week, it's possible the Moto Z2 Play could make an appearance there.

The smartphone now has a sleek metal unibody design, instead of the glass back seen on the Moto Z Play, but the connecting pins for the Moto Mods still sit at the back of the phone. The smartphone will be made available in Lunar Grey and Fine Gold colour variants. The rear camera is still situated inside the round camera bump ring at the back, and the fingerprint scanner on the Moto Z2 Play is underneath the Home Button in the front, which now has a slightly circular shape.

Moto Z2 Play specifications

As for specifications, the Moto Z2 Play runs on Android 7.1.1 Nougat and has a 5.5-inch full-HD (1080x1920 pixels) Super AMOLED display with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection and a pixel density of 401ppi. The smartphone is powered by a 2.2GHz Snapdragon 626 octa-core processor paired with two bundle options – 3GB RAM/ 32GB storage and 4GB RAM/ 64GB storage. There’s also a microSD card slot for further expansion of storage (up to 2TB). It sports a 3.5mm jack and comes with USB Type-C 

Coming to the camera, the Moto Z2 Play sports a 12-megapixel rear camera with a 1.4-micron pixel sensor, an aperture of f/1.7, a colour correlated temperature (CCT) dual-LED flash, as well as laser and dual autofocus lens (laser autofocus with expanded range up to 5 metres and 3 million dual autofocus pixels), At the front, there is a 5-megapixel selfie camera with an f/2.2 aperture, wide-angle lens, and a dual-LED CCT flash. As rumoured, the smartphone packs a 3000mAh battery, a major downgrade from 3510mAh battery seen on the predecessor Moto Z Play, but Lenovo claims the new, more efficient chipset will compensate for the loss. The included TurboPower charger provides 50 percent charge in just 30 minutes, and the battery is rated to deliver up to 30 hours of mixed usage.

Connectivity options on the Moto Z2 Play include 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/g/b/n (2.4GHz and 5GHz), Bluetooth 4.2, USB Type-C (3.1), a 3.5mm headphone jack, NFC, FM radio, and GPS/ A-GPS. Sensors on board include accelerometer, ambient light sensor, gyroscope, magnetometer, and proximity sensor. It weighs 145 grams, and measures 156.2x76.2x5.99mm.

Moto Z2 Play and new Moto Mods

The Moto Z2 Play is also water repellent with nano-coating and is only 5.99m thick. The smartphone, as mentioned brings Moto Mods support. It will support all the old Moto Mods, as well as the new ones that have been launched alongside. The new Moto Mods include a Moto Power Pack that brings additional 2200mAh battery. This accessory weighs only 72grams more, comes in black and white colour options, and brings up to 16 hours of more power on board. In the US, it is priced at $49.99 (roughly Rs. 3,200).

There’s also a Turbo Power Pack Moto Mod which brings a 3490mAh additional battery on board with fast charging support. It supports up to 30W TurboPower and is rated to charge up to 50 percent in just 20 minutes. It adds almost a day’s worth of power on the smartphone and weighs only 95 grams. In the US, the TurboPower Pack is priced at $79.99 (roughly Rs. 5,100).

Additionally, Moto has also launched a Wireless Charging Style Shell that lets you do exactly as the name suggests for the price of $39.99 (roughly Rs. 2,500) There’s also the introduction of the JBL SoundBoost 2 Moto Mod that comes with a kickstand, and is splash proof. It is priced at $79.99 (roughly Rs. 5,100), and come in black, red, and blue colour variants.

There’s also a Moto GamePad that will work with all games that support physical controllers. Instead of connecting to your smartphone via Bluetooth, it will use the Moto Mods connector to talk to your Moto Z2 Play and other compatible smartphones. It comes with a 1000mAh battery that can power the GamePad for up to 8 hours. The Moto GamePad, which packs a USB Type-C port for charging and a 3.5mm headphone jack as well, is priced at a $79.99 (approximately Rs. 5,150).