Motorola diversifies flagship line with new Moto X Play

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

London - The third generation Motorola Moto X was unveiled at an event here in London and it comes in two variants. The flagship is the Moto X Style and a mid-range model with similar specs but featuring a different processor is the Moto X Play. 

Moto X Play comes to Canada this August on Bell Mobility, Koodo, TELUS, Videotron and Wind Mobile. In Canada, Moto X Play will cost about $400 off contract. Hit jump for more details.

The Moto X Play has three major features. A 21 Megapixel camera with an F/2.0 aperture and improved lens and sensor, the fastest turbo charger performance which can get users 8 hours of use on a 15 minute charge (with the Motorola Turbo Charger), and a 3630 mAh battery that is rated for two days of use.

The Moto X Play now has a removable backplate which can be replaced. It has a microSD port which will enable expansion of the base 16GB storage.

Powering the Moto X Play is a 1.7GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon  615 Octa-core CPU, Adreno 405 running at  550 MHz GPU a natural Language Processor and Contextual Computing Processor. It has 2GB of RAM and a 5.5” HD screen with 1080p resolution.

" We saw clear swim lane for a fourth phone between the G and the X. Specific to a certain price point," Explained Adrienne Hayes, head of marketing at Motorola. "we didn't want to move Moto G up."

The Moto X burst into the market two years ago and while it didn't feature all the specs expected from a flagship Android device at the time, it did focus on various innovative features and was celebrated for its wide range of customization via the Moto Maker software as well as features like shake to capture (gesture enabled camera) and intuitive Assist mode which could discern if the Moto X was in a moving car and adjust settings to limit distractions. Motorola Assist could also be set to silence the device during meetings or when the user was sleeping.

Motorola's Adrienne Hayes: " We saw clear swim lane for a fourth phone between the G and the X."

Generation 2 of the Moto X was launched just 10 months ago and brought a larger 5-inch display as well as a higher-end metal frame and both bamboo and leather finish options, features that have since been copied by competitors like OnePlus and LG for their flagship devices.

The Moto X Play now gives users an even more affordable device with flagship specs, a powerful new camera and superior battery life to the market. "The Moto X franchise is our flagship," Hayes points out, "and we wanted to make it more broadly accessible."