Motorola (a Lenovo company) announced today the successor to their popular midrange device, the Moto Z Play – and they are calling it the Moto Z2 Play.  While I personally think this is the incorrect nomenclature (Z Play 2, anyone?) the announcement also came with a bit of drama, as the major selling point of the last Moto Z device was its great battery life due to a combination of large battery and great processor.  The new Z2 Play changes one of those features to the disappointment of some.

Coming in July 2017, the spec sheet of the Z2 Play are solid, and on paper its a nice upgrade in many ways from the previous generation.

The biggest concern with the sacrifice of battery capacity from the pervious version, down from 3510mah to 3000mah in order to make the device a bit thinner.  As someone who counted the Z Play as a “best value” in its class based on the price point AND spectacular battery life, this is a bit of a bummer. Some reviews (like the Verge’s Dan Seifert) are still indicating that they can get 5-6 hours of screen on time and light usage of 2 days off of a single charge, but these numbers are much more pedestrian than the Z Play’s “2 days even with heavy usage” and near 10 hours of screen on time life.

Only time and more reviewing and testing from multiple sources will tell if the Z2 Play will be as loved by tech enthusiasts as is predecessor was.  But one thing is sure – at a $499 starting price point, Moto will have a lot of competition in the form of the OnePlus 5 and the HTC U11 (both of which will likely be within $100 of the Z2 Play’s cost, but with higher end specs) and that might cost them some potential buyers in the summer.

See the Moto Z2 Play page for more info here

Check out the new list of Moto Mods here