We received for testing a budget Android smartphone manufactured by Motorola, called the Moto G6 Play. The company sells it for less than 200 US dollars and promises to offer a large screen, a quality design and a massive battery of 4000 mAh. For all of that to fit in your budget, the smartphone has made a few compromises like using a 720p resolution display, a plastic body, and an entry-level processor. However, if your budget is tight, it could be a good option for your next smartphone. After using it and testing it for a week, here is our opinion about Moto G6 Play:

Motorola Moto G6 Play: Who is it good for?

The Motorola Moto G6 Play is an excellent choice for people:

• With a limited budget to spend on their next smartphone
• Who want an Android smartphone with a larger than average display
• Who desire a good-looking smartphone that does not look cheap (although it is) 🙂

Pros and cons

We have good things to say about the Motorola Moto G6 Play:

• It is an inexpensive device which cost only 200 US dollars
• Reliable build quality, even if the materials used on it are not fashionable
• It comes with Android 8 Oreo
• It has a fingerprint reader
• It has a Dual SIM version
• Its battery is massive and can last you for more than a day
• There is no crapware preinstalled on this smartphone

On the other hand:

• The camera is rather weak, although it can take decent photos in good lighting conditions
• The graphics chip is underwhelming and can run games only at low visual details and low framerates
• The fingerprint reader has a high error rate
• The display is large, but its resolution is not, and the pixels are noticeable
• No headphones included

Verdict

The Motorola Moto G6 Play managed to impress us with its battery, sound design, and crapware-free user experience. If you also take into consideration the small asking price, we believe it is a good deal. There are better smartphones on the market, but they tend to cost just a bit more. We recommend Motorola Moto G6 Play only for users on a tight budget, who want the latest Android 8 Oreo experience, a large screen, and a big battery.

Unboxing the Motorola Moto G6 Play

The Motorola Moto G6 Play comes in a cardboard box colored in shades of green and gray. On its upper side, you can see the Motorola name and logo, and the name of the smartphone: Moto G6 Play.

The rear sides and the bottom of the box show you more details about the smartphone. For instance, you can find out right from the start that the Motorola Moto G6 Play has a 4000 mAh battery, a 5.7-inch screen, a 13 MP camera and an octa-core 1.4 GHz processor.

Open the box, and you get to see your new Motorola Moto G6 Play, together with its bundled accessories and documents. You get a USB power adapter and a detachable micro USB cable, a SIM tray needle, a soft silicon case for protection, the user guide, and warranty card. Unfortunately, there are no headphones in the package.

The unboxing experience for the Motorola Moto G6 Play is pleasant. The bundle includes the essentials, but unfortunately, you do not get any headphones with it.

Design and build quality

Depending on the part of the world you live in, you can buy the Motorola Moto G6 Play in different color variations: Deep Indigo, Silver, Flash Gray, and Gold. The one that we tested is the Deep Indigo, which is also the only color you can get in the United States of America.

The Motorola Moto G6 Play is a smartphone that looks nice. Like any other smartphone, it has a rectangle shape but with rounded corners and edges.

The back of the smartphone is made of plastic, but it is not conventional plastic. It has some reflective properties that make it resemble glass, and it feels solid. It does not bend, and it does not make any sound when you press it.

The front of the Motorola Moto G6 Play is home to a large display, 5.7 inches in diagonal. The display has noticeable bezels on its sides, but when it is turned off, you do not notice them at all. On the top of the screen, are the front camera, the ear speaker and a flash, which should please selfie lovers.

On the bottom of the screen, there are no buttons or anything else except a Motorola logo to fill the space.

There is a 3.5 mm audio jack and a small microphone hole on the top edge, a micro USB port and another microphone hole on the bottom edge, and all the physical buttons are found on the right. The power button has a rugged texture, while the volume rocker does not. It is easy to identify which is which even if you do not look at them. Unfortunately, the volume rocker is positioned too far away on the smartphone to be easy to reach by someone without long fingers.

On the left side of the Motorola Moto G6 Play, the only thing you find is the SIM tray. You can take it out using the ejector pin from the smartphone's box, or by using any regular paper clip.

The back of the smartphone is home to the camera and its flash, which are both found inside a central circular area that is slightly protruding. Near them, there is a circular M (from Motorola) logo that is the smartphone's fingerprint reader. It is good that you can easily find the fingerprint reader without having to look at it because it is slightly sunken inside the case.

The Motorola Moto G6 Play seems well built, and the company says it has a water-repellent coating, so it should be protected from water splashes or light rain. However, you should know that this smartphone has no IP certifications against water or dust damage. Also, although the company does not specify this on their website, it looks like the Moto G6 Play uses tempered glass on its screen, but not Gorilla Glass.

The Motorola Moto G6 Play is a smartphone that looks nice. We like the reflections on its back and the positioning of the fingerprint reader. However, the volume rocker could have been placed in a more reachable position. Although the smartphone does not have any IP certification, the Moto G6 Play promises to withstand accidental water splashes, which is good. Even if the glass on its display is not Gorilla Glass, it should be able to resist dust and superficial scratches.

Hardware specifications

The Motorola Moto G6 Play features a 5.7 inch IPS LCD with a resolution of 720 x 1440 pixels at 282 ppi pixel density. The screen uses tempered glass which, although it is not Gorilla Glass, should provide some protection against scratches.

A Qualcomm MSM8920 Snapdragon 427 chipset powers the smartphone if you buy it in the USA, or a Qualcomm MSM8937 Snapdragon 430 if you buy it from anywhere else in the world. The Snapdragon 427 chipset features a quad-core 1.4 GHz Cortex A53 processor and the Snapdragon 430 features an octa-core 1.4 GHz Cortex A53 processor.

As for the video, the smartphone uses a Qualcomm Adreno 308 graphics processing unit for the American version and an Adreno 505 for the rest of the world. According to Wikipedia, the Adreno 308 supports OpenGL ES 3.0, OpenGL 3.1, OpenCL 1.1 and DirectX 11, while the Adreno 505 supports OpenGL ES 3.2, OpenGL 3.1, OpenCL 2.0, DirectX 11, and Vulkan 1.0. We tested the European version.

The Motorola Moto G6 Play comes with 32GB of internal storage space and 3GB of RAM, or with 16GB of internal storage and 2GB of RAM. The model that we tested was equipped with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal flash memory. If you want to expand the storage space, you can also add a MicroSD card of up to 128GB, using the dedicated card slot.

The autonomy of the Motorola Moto G6 Play is provided by a non-removable Li-Ion 4000mAh battery that the company says it can last for up to 36 hours on a charge.

On its back, the Motorola Moto G6 Play features its main camera with 13 megapixels and f/2.0 aperture. It has phase detection autofocus, and an LED flash. On its front side, it comes with a 5 megapixels camera on the American version of the smartphone, and with 8 megapixels in the rest of the world.

Regarding connectivity, the Motorola Moto G6 Play is available in a Single-SIM configuration or a Dual SIM one. Either way, it uses only Nano-SIM cards. The Dual-SIM version uses a Dual SIM Dual Standby implementation, which means that even if both SIM cards are active when you are not using them, once you take a call on one of them, the other becomes inactive. The Motorola Moto G6 Play has a USB 2.0 port with a micro USB connector, Bluetooth 4.2, and NFC (in the European version only). The American version of the smartphone offers dual-band wireless support for the 802.11 a/b/g/n 2.4 GHz and 5GHz networks. The versions sold in the other parts of the world also offer support for Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n but only on the 2.4GHz networks.

The smartphone also benefits from the information it gathers from the built-in sensors: fingerprint (on the back of the phone), accelerometer, gyro, and proximity sensor.

The Motorola Moto G6 Play is a large smartphone, but it is also relatively light: 6.08 inches in length (154.4 mm), 2.84 inches in width (72.2mm), 0.35 inches in thickness (9 mm), and it weighs about 6.17 ounces (175 grams).

For more details about Motorola Moto G6 Play's hardware specifications and features, visit its official webpage: Motorola Moto G6 Play Specs.

The Motorola Moto G6 Play is a smartphone that costs less than 200 US dollars, and for this price, its hardware specifications look solid.

Check the next page to find out more about the smartphone experience offered by the Motorola Moto G6 Play, its cameras, bundled apps, and performance in benchmarks.