User Opinions?

[Morty2264]

Hi, everyone!

I saw the Z2 Play in a carrier store on Monday, and fell in love with it! I may consider a Motorola phone for my next upgrade. How is everyone enjoying the Z2 Play? Any long-term reviews or opinions on things like battery life and screen quality, etc?

Thank you!

 

[ratsttam]

I've been using it for several months. I have the Tumi 2200mah battery mod on it almost exclusively. I between that and the abnormally long battery life, I get well over 48hrs with what I would consider heavy usage (streaming music in the car, hotspot to my laptop and tablet, and well over 3hrs of screen on time per day). The lowest I've seen it was the external battery flat and the internal at 40%, and that was after working a 12hr shift, not realizing my charger was unplugged, and going another day after that.

Screen: It's 1080p, and rather responsive. It's not as "colorful" as my fiance's S8, but its not meant to be. It does ramp up to be readable in bright light. I lose some fidelity with my "anti-glare" screen protector.

The fingerprint sensor is super responsive. I have it set to act as the home button, with the "swipe" to act as as the back/switch app buttons. They never appear on my screen.

When I picked it up, I got the JBL speaker mod free. It doesn't hold up to the "bigger" bluetooth speakers, but it's absolutely perfect when I'm kicking around the yard to hear my music.

Don't let the "mid range phone" specs put you off. Side by side with her S8, it's in most cases more responsive.

 

[Morty2264]

I've been using it for several months. I have the Tumi 2200mah battery mod on it almost exclusively. I between that and the abnormally long battery life, I get well over 48hrs with what I would consider heavy usage (streaming music in the car, hotspot to my laptop and tablet, and well over 3hrs of screen on time per day). The lowest I've seen it was the external battery flat and the internal at 40%, and that was after working a 12hr shift, not realizing my charger was unplugged, and going another day after that.

Screen: It's 1080p, and rather responsive. It's not as "colorful" as my fiance's S8, but its not meant to be. It does ramp up to be readable in bright light. I lose some fidelity with my "anti-glare" screen protector.

The fingerprint sensor is super responsive. I have it set to act as the home button, with the "swipe" to act as as the back/switch app buttons. They never appear on my screen.

When I picked it up, I got the JBL speaker mod free. It doesn't hold up to the "bigger" bluetooth speakers, but it's absolutely perfect when I'm kicking around the yard to hear my music.

Don't let the "mid range phone" specs put you off. Side by side with her S8, it's in most cases more responsive.

Thank you so much for your review, I really appreciate it! Is the battery module you use super big? I feel like I'd buy it if I did indeed purchase the Z2 Play.

 

[ratsttam]

Thank you so much for your review, I really appreciate it! Is the battery module you use super big? I feel like I'd buy it if I did indeed purchase the Z2 Play.

Well, it doesn't feel too thick to me...
But my prior phones were a Kyocera duraforce pro, and a note 5 with a huge protective case. So I may not be the best person to answer that. That said, naked it felt way too thin and hard to hold. The battery made it feel much better. I also put the bumper case that works with mods on it too.

 

[Morty2264]

Well, it doesn't feel too thick to me...
But my prior phones were a Kyocera duraforce pro, and a note 5 with a huge protective case. So I may not be the best person to answer that. That said, naked it felt way too thin and hard to hold. The battery made it feel much better. I also put the bumper case that works with mods on it too.

Thank you, that's great to know! I always put cases on my phones - I feel like they are too thin without one!

 

[gordol]

I've had one for a couple weeks now. I had to get the battery mod (2200 mAh, Moto branded), as this phone does not handle poor connections as well as my prior phone (iPhone 7+) and will drain out twice as fast. Note: The root cause of that is not the phone, it's my location. Where I have a decent connection, it's fine. (NOTE: not asking for help on that, I know of the setting to avoid bad wifi connections.)

The display is the same size in inches as my last phone, but the resolution is less. And I do not notice the difference at this screen size. The higher resolution requires more power and a faster processor, so compared to the Z2 Force, I do have better battery life, and roughly the same overall system responsiveness.

Sound quality on the device could be better. The is no separate speaker from the earpiece for speakerphone / media / alerts, so those may be muted depending on how you hold or carry the phone. Via BT, it's as good or slightly better than other phones I've used.

I wish I had finer grain control over alert/alarm tones. For example, while I can set mp3 files for phone ringers, I cannot for voicemail, txt/sms, email, etc, alerts. This is my first Android in 5 years, so I do not know if this is a limitation of Motorola specifically or Android in general.

 

[Morty2264]

I've had one for a couple weeks now. I had to get the battery mod (2200 mAh, Moto branded), as this phone does not handle poor connections as well as my prior phone (iPhone 7+) and will drain out twice as fast. Note: The root cause of that is not the phone, it's my location. Where I have a decent connection, it's fine. (NOTE: not asking for help on that, I know of the setting to avoid bad wifi connections.)

The display is the same size in inches as my last phone, but the resolution is less. And I do not notice the difference at this screen size. The higher resolution requires more power and a faster processor, so compared to the Z2 Force, I do have better battery life, and roughly the same overall system responsiveness.

Sound quality on the device could be better. The is no separate speaker from the earpiece for speakerphone / media / alerts, so those may be muted depending on how you hold or carry the phone. Via BT, it's as good or slightly better than other phones I've used.

I wish I had finer grain control over alert/alarm tones. For example, while I can set mp3 files for phone ringers, I cannot for voicemail, txt/sms, email, etc, alerts. This is my first Android in 5 years, so I do not know if this is a limitation of Motorola specifically or Android in general.

Thank you so much for your review! With regards to the notification sounds, I feel like there should be a setting (within Sound Settings, most likely?) that should enable you to set a different notification for, say, emails versus SMS. Also, you could download a third-party app like Textra; which could give you different tones for different contacts.

 

[Ry]

I wish I had finer grain control over alert/alarm tones. For example, while I can set mp3 files for phone ringers, I cannot for voicemail, txt/sms, email, etc, alerts. This is my first Android in 5 years, so I do not know if this is a limitation of Motorola specifically or Android in general.

You need to put sound files into an "alerts" or "notification" folder. That should get you new alert tones.

 

[gordol]

Thank you so much for your review! With regards to the notification sounds, I feel like there should be a setting (within Sound Settings, most likely?) that should enable you to set a different notification for, say, emails versus SMS. Also, you could download a third-party app like Textra; which could give you different tones for different contacts.

You don't need extra software to set individual tones for contacts. Just edit, and in the edit screen tap the 3 dots icon at the top right.

 

[gordol]

You need to put sound files into an "alerts" or "notification" folder. That should get you new alert tones.

Thanks!

Same works for "Alarms"

 

[Morty2264]

How are users enjoying the camera experience on the Z2 Play?

 

[ryanidcomm]

I've had the play2 for about a month...

Camera is pretty bad.. Worst Motorola camera I've had to date... But it takes pictures I guess. I need to use a filter on every picture...

The screen kinda sucks.. You can definitely tell of your downgrading screen resolution from you're last phone.. But it helps give the phone amazing battery life.

Most apps run well enough.. except snapchat... If you are a heavy snapchat user do not get this phone.. Go for the Z force...

Overall this phone is good enough but I am already looking to replace it within the year.

 

[Morty2264]

I've had the play2 for about a month...

Camera is pretty bad.. Worst Motorola camera I've had to date... But it takes pictures I guess. I need to use a filter on every picture...

The screen kinda sucks.. You can definitely tell of your downgrading screen resolution from you're last phone.. But it helps give the phone amazing battery life.

Most apps run well enough.. except snapchat... If you are a heavy snapchat user do not get this phone.. Go for the Z force...

Overall this phone is good enough but I am already looking to replace it within the year.

Thank you for your honesty about the camera! I'm kind of looking for specs equal to or greater than my current phone (Honor 8, which did spoil me in terms of dual cameras); so that seems to be one of the things I've run into with researching the Z2 Play as far as a minus goes.

 

[pizza_pablo]

I am not much concerned about camera specifics as long as it functions.
My recent phones have been a Moto X Pure Edition and a Nexus 6P.
The Z2 Plus has provided much better battery life, when used in the same manner as the other two.
I am really enjoying the Z2 Play! I have been using the ONE BUTTON NAVIGATION feature and am liking it, very much.
Motorola phones have always seemed to have better reception, that other brands and tho I was skeptical that Lenovo would maintain that practice, I believe the Z2 Play provides great service connection. After-all, the main purpose of the device is communication and that's more important to me than camera quality.

 

[gordol]

I've had the play2 for about a month...

Camera is pretty bad.. Worst Motorola camera I've had to date... But it takes pictures I guess. I need to use a filter on every picture...

The screen kinda sucks.. You can definitely tell of your downgrading screen resolution from you're last phone.. But it helps give the phone amazing battery life.

Most apps run well enough.. except snapchat... If you are a heavy snapchat user do not get this phone.. Go for the Z force...

Overall this phone is good enough but I am already looking to replace it within the year.

You must have a "bad copy" of the phone. The camera on my Z2 Play is pretty good. It's not stellar, but then again I don't expect stellar photography from a dinky little cellphone camera. Over all, at least from my usage so far, I'd put it on par with the standard camera on an iPhone 7 (7+ has a slight edge with the dual-lens setup).

If you can tell the resolution difference of the screen, you must have great eyesight. I looked at the Z2 Play and Z2 Force side by side, and other than a little difference in color clarity mostly due to the display technology differences, I saw no resolution difference between the two. 5.5in is just too small a display for 4K or quad-HD to make that much of a difference.

Which in turn, means that the Z2 Play can get away with a slightly slower CPU, because it's not needing to drive an absurdly high density display. Which also means that the same size battery can last longer, or a smaller battery can be used for the same amount of time, because it's not powering that absurdly high density screen nor does it need to power a higher power CPU.

I have no comment on Snapchat...