Motorola is holding a launch event today in Brazil, where the Lenovo-owned company is expected to unveil the Moto Z3 Play. The Z series smartphone from Motorola will succeed the Moto Z2 Play from last year and will be the company’s first 2018 mid-range offering. While previous rumors had suggested the smartphone will be powered…
Motorola is holding a launch event today in Brazil, where the Lenovo-owned company is expected to unveil the Moto Z3 Play. The Z series smartphone from Motorola will succeed the Moto Z2 Play from last year and will be the company’s first 2018 mid-range offering. While previous rumors had suggested the smartphone will be powered by a Snapdragon 636 chipset under the hood, it was recently spotted on Geekbench with a more powerful SoC under the hood.
Motorola’s new G series models all feature 18:9 aspect ratio displays with a higher screen-to-body ratio than their predecessors. The Moto Z3 Play is expected to be no different. If rumors are to be believed, the Moto Z3 Play will feature a 6-inch AMOLED display with 1080 x 2160 Full HD+ resolution. Under the hood, the Moto Z3 Play is expected to be powered by a powerful Snapdragon 660 octa-core processor. However, previous rumors had claimed the Moto Z3 Play will be powered by a Snapdragon 636 chipset. Apart from a Snapdragon 660 chipset, the Moto Z3 Play listing on Geekbench had also revealed the handset will come with 4GB of RAM. In terms of storage, the Moto Z3 Play is rumored to be available in 32GB and 64GB storage variants. For further expansion, we expect to see a microSD card slot as well.
As you would expect from a 2018 mid-range smartphone, the Moto Z3 Play will have a dual-camera setup at the rear. However, the specifications of the two sensors haven’t been leaked yet. Rumors have only revealed that the primary sensor will be a 16MP unit. On the front of the handset will be an 8-megapixel snapper for selfies. Apart from letting you take selfies, the front-facing camera will also come with Face Unlock support. Unlike the Moto Z2 Play, the Moto Z3 Play will not feature a front-mounted fingerprint sensor. Instead, the fingerprint sensor has reportedly moved to the side. We haven’t seen a Motorola smartphone with a side-mounted fingerprint sensor so far, so the Moto Z3 Play will actually be the company’s first smartphone to come with a side-mounted fingerprint sensor.
In terms of battery life, the Moto Z3 Play isn’t expected to be best-in-class, thanks to a 3200mAh capacity battery. While the battery size may not be very impressive, it will offer fast charging support. On the connectivity front, we expect the Moto Z3 Play to support Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac dual-band, Bluetooth 5.0 Low Energy, GPS with A-GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, NFC, and 4G VoLTE. In terms of software, we expect the smartphone to ship with the latest Android 8.1 Oreo operating system out of the box.
In addition to the Moto Z3 Play, Motorola could possibly introduce a few new Moto Mods as well at the launch event in Brazil today. A recent leak had revealed an upcoming Moto Mod that will be able to add 5G network support to the Moto Z3 Play and other Moto Z series smartphones. Motorola is also reportedly planning to offer four bundles – Moto Z “Power” Edition with the bundled battery Moto Mod, Moto Z “Style” Edition with a bundled style shell, Moto Z “Gamepad” Edition with bundled Gamepad Moto Mod, and Moto Z “Projection” Edition with a 70-inch projector Moto Mod.
The smartphone’s predecessor, the Moto Z2 Play, was priced at Rs.27,999 at launch in India last year. We expect the Moto Z3 Play to be priced at a slight premium compared to the Moto Z2 Play, although it should still be priced under the Rs.30,000 mark. The smartphone is likely to be launched in India by the end of this month or early next month.
