so the last smartphone that I reviewed was the Google pixel 8 in fact I'll leave a link down below if you're interested in checking it out and right after that I switched to the Galaxy s24 Ultra I'm currently working on the long-term review for this Smartphone so expect that sometime in the next few months but as I was testing this phone I realized man I'm actually holding something that costs almost $2,000 Canadian like this thing is $12.99 us which is roughly $1800 Canadian which is a lot of money for a smartphone I was actually doing
some research and I came across plus this the Motorola G Play It's currently priced at $150 Canadian which roughly translates to $100 US which is actually a pretty sweet deal for a smartphone but I really wanted to see for myself if it's actually worth anything in 2024 it just feels like navigating through amaz here at Costco absolutely I don't even know where this phone is I think I found it wonderful thank you so much appreciate it start it all right let's quickly unbox this thing and the first thing I noticed is that this phone comes
with a charger in the box which surprised me by a long shot considering the whole package only cost me 150 bucks my s24 ultra just came with a phone and a cable not even a fast charger in the box which is crazy considering the price at I think I jumped the gun a little too early on this one because I ended up picking the 2023 model of the Moto G play but instead there's actually a 2024 model uh for about the same price with better specs and it's available on Best Buy not Costco so what
I have to do is go to Best Buy pick up the newer phone transfer all the content from the older phone uh and go back to Costco get a refund for this one this is what happens when you just are impatient and you decide to do things that was pretty straightforward I got the phone it's completely unlocked didn't have to go through any restrictions or unlocking process um the lady of Best Buy was super nice but now that we have the 2024 gep play let's go back to the studio and do unboxing round two okay
so here we go again the unboxing experience feels pretty similar from last year with one major difference this time around Motorola decided to not include the power adapter in the Box which honestly is a bit of a let down now I've spent a week playing around with this phone and I've got to say I'm really impressed with what $150 can get you the first thing that St out to me was the form factor it's almost the same size as the Galaxy s24 Ultra now despite its plastic construction it's polished to Perfection especially in this gorgeous
sapphire blue color it has a really nice Sheen to it and from a distance it looks like a premium smartphone I also appreciate the minimal camera bump it's a pleasure to hold in my hands plus no more rocking on the table it's also lightweight considering the materials used here surprisingly build quality exceeded my expectations with tactile buttons and a fast accurate fingerprint sensor that's cleverly integrated into the power button it's a refreshing departure from the trend of indisplay readers it even comes with a headphone jack you see seeing this on a modern smartphone after years
feels like reconnecting with an old friend it's a nostalgic reminder of simplicity and convenience in a tech world that's always chasing the next big thing uh this phone is also water repellent uh not waterproof U so I wouldn't recommend fully submerging it in water it can withstand light rain and splashes without any issues question why is it so cold in here well I got new coolers installed turns out they're a little too good they're meant for computers you know that right I got them in every room the price is just too good I guess the
large vrm fans help with cooling yeah plus the pivoting connection hoses are wonderful I do love the Styles and different sizes too the new Arctic freezer 3 aios please use on CPUs only they are specifically optimized for LGA 1700 and a54 check them out below all right have fun with your freezer let's talk about this display real quick it's not going to blow your socks off or anything it's just a 6.5 in IPS HD screen with a 90 HZ refresh rate nothing too fancy in terms of specs but you know what that's all right because
it's all about without achieving the balance here the colors they're pretty solid not too flashy but they get the job done it's not going to offer vibrant and Inky black levels of performance like an Ola display but that's okay you don't need it and the text is sharp enough for reading without squinting which is again all you need even though it's only a 720p resolution uh it packs in more pixels per inch than some cheap desktop monitors that you see around when it comes to watching YouTube or binging on Netflix it's a smooth sailing I
mean playback is smooth and the bigger screen actually provides a more immersive experience you can also take it outside on a sunny day and still see what's happening on the screen just fine thanks to the peak brightness setting of around 500 nits you find two speakers on this phone one at the bottom and one at the top which also functions as a earpiece together these actually create a nice Stereo Sound Stage especially highlighting the higher tones although the base response isn't as strong and qu quality is pretty solid and the reception was pretty strong now
keep in mind that this phone doesn't support 5G but you know what that's okay too because I was still able to get around using Google Maps checking email and killing time on Instagram using LTE just fine so from a physical standpoint I think it's safe to say that the Moto G check marks all the basics that you would look for in a smartphone but what about performance because that's an important factor to tie in with the user experience I'm not talking about having the fastest chip with wicked fast buttery smooth animations and having 25 apps
running in the background remember this is a $150 smartphone so what can you realistically expect well I'm actually kind of glad I picked up last year's Moto G play in the first place to begin with because when I tested out this phone I mean it really tasted my patience I frequently had UI freezes and it was impossible to actually use the smartphone it took a few seconds for the keyboard to pop up I honestly didn't enjoy that much because it only had a mediatech G37 CPU with GB of RAM and 32 GB of storage which
let's face it isn't enough storage to store all of my apps and data I actually ended up deleting a lot of my photo editing apps like Photoshop Fitbit Kijiji Lightroom LinkedIn and a bunch of other apps just to make some space on this phone uh to hopefully increase performance but that didn't really do that much the 2024 model is an absolute GameChanger I mean it's kind of crazy the kind of performance you can get within just a span of a year first off it's equipped with qualcomm's Snapdragon 684 G CPU boasting 4 GB of RAM
and 64 GB of storage which is a pretty big upgrade now with the addition of RAM boost utilizing the internal storage to cach infrequently used data this combination of a faster chip and increased Ram just really elevates the phone's performance I haven't experienced any UI freezes albe it sometimes there are occasional hiccups with apps like YouTube and Instagram becoming unresponsive to touch inputs but a quick close and reopen usually does a trick it does take a few seconds to open an app but once you're in it runs pretty smooth now there are certain steps that
I would recommend to make the phone run just a bit faster um firstly I would get rid of all the Fancy Widgets running on the home screen since that does consume memory would also switch to a static wallpaper instead of dynamic options that come pre-installed on the phone this just eliminates the stress on the GPU I also learned another tip from Reddit where you can set background processing limits which can also help boost performance slightly you can also set the animation speed from 1X to 5x which I think is the first thing that you should
do with any smartphone it just significantly enhances how the elements on the screen react to your touch input now 64 gigs of storage is a pretty generous upgrade for storing all of your photos and videos but if that isn't enough this phone actually comes with a built-in micro SD card slot that enables you to expand your storage up to a terabyte in fact I found this 256 Gig micro SD card for less than 30 bucks on Amazon so that's a quick and cheap option to offset some of your data now keep in mind that you
can't install apps on this SD card but for the majority of consumers who just need the basics it's a pretty sweet setup when it comes to gaming performance now let's set the expectations straight this is a $150 smartphone so it won't rival a $1,000 Flagship but the reality is it actually handles popular games like Monopoly go Subway Surfers robber loocks and FIFA mobile surprisingly well now while it may not achieve the fastest frame rates for gaming enthusiasts for everyday users enjoying mainstream titles during their downtime I mean this thing is a solid win in my
books now the software experience on the Moto G play has a lot of similarities to my Google pixel 8 just by looking at the lock screen and the home screen layout the Quick Settings drawer also looks very similar as well so the transition was pretty seamless for me there are some apps pre-loaded onto the phone from Motorola and you also get some other apps like Tik Tok Facebook pre-installed now some of these apps from Motorola featured tutorials on how to personalize the phone as well as learn all the gestures that come with it there is
a moto secure app that lets you add secure folders and a bunch of other privacy enticing features it's there if you need it if you don't need it you can leave it alone honestly uh I'm really glad that Motorola win with a minimalistic approach here they're not throwing a bunch of features of the wall to see which one would stick uh you can respond to emails navigate Google Maps listen to music on Spotify look it does 90% of the things that a $1,000 smartphone can do but there is one big problem you see this phone
is running on Android 13 an operating system that's 2 years old Motorola hasn't made any commitments to update this to version 14 anytime soon and I'm doubtful they will now while you may receive occasional security patches the reality is we're living in a digital era where security is critical and I can't shake the feeling that this phone could become vulnerable to security threats later in the future there might also be compatibility issues with apps later down the line and performance could also suffer without any updates we're witnessing many smartphone manufacturers like Samsung OnePlus and Google
promising over 5 years of Android updates for their premium Flagship devices but I can't help but think why can't the more affordable models receive similar attention I mean just look at Apple even their cheapest iPhone a 4-year-old model still supports their latest operating system it seems like there's a need for change here now on the contrary battery life on this phone is truly exceptional and I think most of you saw that coming since the Snapdragon s so barely sips power I mean the standby time is incredible motorol has been generous to uh pack this phone
with 5,000 Mah hours which can easily provide me 6 to 7 hours of screen on time I mean I can recall my iPhone lasting that long now I intentionally tested this phone with various demanding tasks like using Google Maps to get around the city um playing YouTube for several hours extended browsing sessions and social media engagement for the channel and it handles all of them effortlessly now for more basic functions like text messaging making phone calls and email I'm actually confident that this phone can last even longer now while wireless charging isn't included which is
totally understandable at this price point the wi charging speeds top out at 15 watts it just sucks that they didn't include the power adapter in the box so I guess the last thing to cover here is camera performance notice I said camera and not cameras because unlike the major competitors this phone prioritizes a stream streamlined experience over cramming in countless features into its camera software nowadays it seems like half of the product announcements are centered around software features with cameras and AI stuff whereas here you're just greeted with a single 50 megapixel f1.8 sensor now
don't be fooled by the Dual lens housing to the back while it may appear to have two sensors from a distance one of them houses the actual sensor and the other is an LED flashlight it's a sneaky move motor up now out of the box the photos captured by this camera are downscaled to 12.5 megapixels now this is done to conserve storage space but it's nothing new a lot of Flagship smartphones do the same thing too now under really good lighting conditions the images bu pretty good detail albeit with some noticeable post-processing enhancements for instance
if you take a look at this image over here you can easily discern the license plate and the details around that yet the wet roads exhibit an overly smooth appearance as if somebody took some Vaseline and just applied all over it now I can get super technical about the camera performance but honestly guys I don't think it's going to do any justice especially for what you're getting for just $150 this camera isn't tailored for photography enthusiasts but rather it caters for those seeking a simple point and shoot experience it's low light performance leaves something to
be desired with potential for noise and sometimes it can throw off white balance in extreme conditions the video quality is also commendable while it's only limited to shooting at 1080p at 30 frames per second it's more than capable of capturing ing you know those precious moments shared with your friends and family you see the Moto G play embodies the essence of practicality and affordability it's not the best at everything that you would expect from a $1,000 smartphone but instead it offers a reliable experience now sure it's not going to feel like a piece of jewelry
in your hand but most people who tend to put a case on their phone won't even notice it the display is good enough for all the essential tasks the performance is commendable the battery life is outstanding and the cameras are pretty decent I could still tend text messages make phone calls I mean it covers 90% of the tasks one would expect from a flagship smartphone with the remaining 10% compromising mostly of unnecessary fluff that many users won't utilize I mean a good example is the s24 ultra I mean how many of you actually use the
th000 or 100x space Zoom feature on their cameras or even the stylus I mean I don't think I've even used the stylus I think this is probably the first time I'm pulling have the phone after testing it or while testing it it's things like these that it's sure it's nice to have but you don't necessarily need it if you want to get a little bit more out of a SmartPhone by all means you can spend 501 $150 more to get a faster device and perhaps a better camera setup but this phone is a great starting
point for anyone looking for Gateway to the digital world it's not just a phone it's basically a ticket for Limitless possibilities with without breaking the bank and I want to hear from you guys do you think phones like the Moto G play still have relevance in today's fast-paced world chat in the comments down below I'm Eber with how ronu thanks so much for watching and I will talk to you guys in the next one and don't forget to spend responsibly
