Motorola Moto G6 Play review: Plans | Pricing | Specs

The Motorola Moto G6 Play mixes budget compromises with surprisingly great battery life to help it stand out from the pack.

Motorola's crop of Moto G series phones for 2018 still targets the affordable/budget space that the brand has been best known for in recent years, with the Moto G6 Play taking the bottom-of-the-ladder spot in terms of price and features. While that invites some compromises that aren't as evident in the fancier Motorola Moto G6 or Motorola Moto G6 Plus, it's still a fine handset in its own right.

Design

• Pleasing design
• Plastic finish
• MicroUSB charging is old school

• Read more on the Motorola Moto G6 Play design

  
  Your initial reaction to the Moto G6 Play is likely to be one of appreciation because it has a smooth simple style that looks a little better than you might expect on a cheap handset. I'm something of a sucker for reflective blue handsets, which is what the review sample provided was, but your mileage may vary.

  What won't vary is how quickly you will work out that Motorola has still built the Moto G6 Play to a budget. Its bigger brothers feature fancy glass backs, but the Moto G6 Play is plastic all the way, and it shows as it quickly picks up fingerprints and feels cheap under the hand. At 175g, it's reasonably light in the hand. A simple clear plastic case is provided in the box to keep it safe from scratches.

  While premium flagships are all about dropping ports and looking to the future, the Motorola Moto G6 Play is positively retro in its approach, with both benefits and drawbacks. On the plus side, you do get a proper headphone jack for headphones.

  On the minus side, charging and data is via the older microUSB connection, which means a fiddly experience when plugging it in compared to the newer USB connection. The other members of the Moto G family for 2018 have fully reversible USB C charging, but if you want to save a few bucks, you've got to put up with a few compromises along the way.

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Camera

• Definitely a budget camera, rather than a great one

• Read more on the Motorola Moto G6 Play camera

  

  Compromise is also where the Motorola Moto G6 Play's camera sits. Anyone expecting flagship performance out of a budget handset is fooling themselves, but we've seen performance out of Motorola in previous G-series phones that pushed harder than you might expect in this price bracket previously.

  However, that's not the Motorola Moto G6 Play's way. It comes with a single rear 13MP f/2.0 lens and a front 8MP selfie shooter to play with. Motorola's camera app is simple enough to use, and like most phone cameras these days, if you're shooting in decent sunlight, you can get decent enough images for web use. However, push it hard in any way at all and the cracks show, especially in low-light situations where you'll get lots of noise and lost detail:

  

  For its price range, the Moto G6 Play offers adequate photo performance, but that's all you're getting.

  Motorola Moto G6 Play Sample Photos

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Performance

• Ordinary app performance
• Only a 720p screen rather than Full HD

• Read more on the Motorola Moto G6 Play performance

  

  The Motorola Moto G6 Play has the lowest specification processor of this year's Moto G family, featuring the older Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 SoC with just 3GB of RAM. While that's an obviously price-limited processor, you do get something back in storage with 32GB of onboard storage where many competitor devices make do with 16GB. If that's not enough for you, the Motorola Moto G6 Play does allow for microSD storage expansion.

  Still, that Snapdragon 430 isn't a powerhouse, and this is reflected both in real-world performance and benchmark results. Here's how it compares against a range of more affordable handsets using Geekbench 4's CPU test:

  And here's how it performs under 3DMark's Slingshot Extreme test:

  It's the same story in actual usage, although it's not all bad. It's simply average for its class, which means that you will be left waiting with some apps. If you like heavier duty applications and especially games, despite its name, you may have to wait some time to play.

  All of Motorola's 2018 phones feature 18:9 aspect ratio displays, and while that does afford the Motorola Moto G6 Play more screen real estate to play with, it's notable that it only features a 720p display. Compare it against a full HD phone – and there are some within its price bracket that offer that – and you'll see the difference, although in day-to-day usage, there's not too much that you'll be particularly worried about.

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Battery life

• 4,000mAh battery is exceptional in this price range
• Good battery life

• Read more on the Motorola Moto G6 Play battery life

  

  The one area where Motorola hasn't compromised on the Moto G6 Play is in the battery capacity. The Moto G6 Play has a hefty 4,000mAh battery to draw from, and when you combine that with a relatively weak but low-power processor, you typically see very good battery life. Anecdotally, that's absolutely true, with the Motorola Moto G6 Play's battery easily lasting a full day and two days seeming quite feasible if you were a lighter user.

  It's also reflected in Geekbench 4's rather more linear battery test. That puts a steady workload on the Motorola Moto G6 Play, which isn't something you're likely to do in real life, but it does provide a good metric for comparison of overall battery endurance.

  The Motorola Moto G6 Play has very good battery endurance, although that lower battery score does rather show off how it's not a processing powerhouse because it wasn't working all that hard while benchmarking.

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Verdict

• Good phone, but the Moto G6 or Moto G6 Plus are much better

• Read our full Motorola Moto G6 Play verdict

  

  There's little doubt that the Motorola Moto G6 Play is built to a very specific budget and with its own set of compromises along the way. Its battery life is a distinct highlight, and as long as you're happy with a somewhat slow phone, it's a good buy within its class. If you're specifically keen on Motorola's phones, the jump to the regular Moto G6 or Moto G6 Plus will give you a lot more processing power for your money.

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Pricing and availability

Motorola Moto G6 Play

Motorola's playful Moto G6 Play

The Motorola Moto G6 Play keeps the price low, but with an exceptional battery.

• The Motorola Moto G6 Play sells in Australia outright for $329.