motorola Moto G Play | 2024 | Unlocked | Made for US 4/64GB | 50MP Camera | Sapphire Blue

As an owner of previous Motorola devices, I'm a little disappointed in this model. I know its a budget phone, but Motorola's build quality and QC process missed the mark on this model. I'll start with the positives and then bring up the areas of improvement. PROS -Price: This is a budget friendly Android phone. It will not break the bank. -Performance: Piggybacking off of the fact this phone is a budget model, I will still say that this phone is still speedy *enough* for everyday basic tasks. This device has a Snapdragon 680 4G SoC (more on the 4G part later). It also comes with just 4gb of RAM, though you can sort of "expand" virtually it with phone device storage up to a total of 8gb of RAM. Social Media, Texting, Media Consumption (Music/Videos/etc) & phone calls are all something that can be dealt with easily with the Moto G Play 2024. Even light gaming would be okay on this device. I'm not talking Genshin or anything...maybe Pokémon Go or lighter. -Color: Not gonna lie, this metallic blue looks *awesome* IMO. I'm a big fan of it. This phone is also all plastic. From the rear to the mid and even up to near the front of the phone. Though I will say the rear has a matte finish and doesn't slip from your hands, and doesn't look too cheap on the whole. -Battery: 5000mah battery in this phone coupled with a lower power SoC means you should get some decent battery life out of it. -Audio Options: Again, for a budget phone, this thing isn't bad. Headphone jack, and the down firing speaker sounds pretty good. Also has Dolby Atmos options. -Expandable Storage: Now, the base storage of 64gb is a little paltry in today's world of 128gb base models, but you do have the ability to slip in a MicroSD card and expand upon it. And you'll definitely want to consider that as 64 can fill up pretty quickly. CONS: -Screen: The screen is a slight letdown. It is not very bright (500 nits max), and it is an LCD panel as well. I can give the LCD panel a pass on such a budget model, but that low of a brightness is not fun when you're outdoors. The refresh rate maxes out at 90hz, which is okay. The bezels are pretty chunky, especially the bottom/chin of the device. Another saving grace is the glass screen is Corning Gorilla Glass 3, which is nice to have a name-brand glass piece on the front. There is also no fingerprint reader under the screen on this model (though some people may prefer that). Instead, it will be on your power button on the right. -Camera: The camera(s) are a slight letdown to me. While most Moto devices have 2 cameras, our G Play '24 here only has one. While the rear may look like it has two camera punchouts, Motorola did a sneaky and slipped the flash into the bottom punchout. There is also no OIS (Optical Image Stabilization) which means you need to stay pretty calm and level when taking pictures or videos. On the up side, the main (only?) rear camera is 50MP, which bins down to about 12.5MP. Still, the quality isn't exceptional. But, this is a budget phone. The front facing camera is only 8MP, and for some reason it does *not* support face unlock, so you're stuck with either typing in your PIN or using the fingerprint reader on the power button. -OS/Updates: One of the bigger cons on almost any Motorola device is the OS Support and Security Updates. You'll get one. One. Major. OS. Update. This device started on Android 13, and has already had its Android 14 update dropped. You shouldn't be seeing any other major update now, just security updates for another 2 years. This is easily surpassed by...anyone really. Also, the MUX is slightly inferior to the new Hello UI that Motorola has installed on newer Moto devices IMO. Still, it boasts nice customization options, and things look nice. -Network Compatibility: This particular device does *not* have a 5G radio installed. The Moto G Play '24 is limited to 4G LTE networks. Granted 4G LTE is a mature network with good coverage, you won't be seeing any of the 5G bands on here. But, I don't see this as a deal-breaker when it comes to the phone. *BIGGEST ISSUE* -Build Quality/QC- My biggest gripe of all here is the build quality. As seen in the photos, the rear panel does not meet the mid frame properly on the left side of the phone. There is a slight bump where the mid frame doesn't properly mate to the back panel. As far as I can tell, there's no easy fix as the back is plastic and is glued in place. While I *could* return my phone, there is no replacement option. Instead, I would have to have a full refund issued and re-buy the device. This is slightly aggravating to me. So, I'll suck it up and throw a case on it so I don't see the poor build quality. I know this is a budget device, but this is just sloppy. *BOTTOM LINE/TL;DR* So overall, I can't complain *too* much about the Motorola G Play 2024. It checks a fair amount of boxes for such a budget phone. The only *real* concern/issue I have with it is the build quality that occurred on my particular unit. When it comes to a recommendation, that's a hard one. There are quite a few compromises made to make this model so inexpensive. And for a few more dollars you can get something more feature-rich. I'd say pick this up if you are on a strict budget, or you need a secondary phone to use when you go somewhere you'd worry about damaging your daily driver phone (concert, theme park, etc).

TLDR: This phone is reliable enough, but there's definitely a reason it's inexpensive. If you just need a smartphone for the most basic of tasks and don't really use social media or watch videos on your phone, this may do it for you. It doesn't get the greatest reception, but it has never failed to make or receive a call or text. If you're someone who has any hint of enjoying tech devices or watches lots of videos or cares about the camera in the slightest, take my advice and pick a higher end device if at all possible. After having a few Motorola phones, yes, maybe I'm a bit of a fan. When I bought a Moto X Pure and it had the manufacturer option of being engraved and kept up with phones of the time for way less cost, I loved having spent half the cost of some of my friends and my phone performing just as well. The same experience was had with my Moto G Stylus 5G 2021. It's honestly awesome to have someone ask what phone you have and then see the surprise when you tell them that it cost half as much as they expected and performs notably on par. Again, it is reliable enough. Battery lasts me all day, usually finding myself with about 20% left at the end of the day, and I browse social media a fair bit and watch about an hour of YouTube on my phone each day. The fingerprint reader is trouble free and seems to nearly instantly make the phone react whether I'm unlocking the phone or logging in to a biometrics-enabled account. It was awesome to be able to add in a MicroSD card for way more storage.. That's where anything notable ends I'm afraid. The first thing I noticed: wow the screen is just barely acceptable. The screen doesn't get very bright and I can now only have 4 columns of apps on the screen rather than the 5 I'm accustomed to. YouTube videos do not look particularly good on it either. I then was showing a friend a video in an area I normally would not think twice about but now we could barely see what was on the screen. This was outside on a cloudy day and I know my previous phone screen would have been bright enough to compensate. Sharing the video was when I noticed the second thing. The built in speaker basically may as well not be there at all. It sounded about as loud as when someone is on a call, has their phone against their head, and has the volume all the way up but not on speakerphone. I could deal with the lackluster speaker and screen, I mean after all it is a budget phone and if that's the trade-off to be made I can come to accept it. The largest trade off comes to light after some time, and I should have thought it more likely. This phone has only 4GB of RAM and not a notable processor by any means. I'm not an expert on Android, and honestly part of me wanted to see what a very budget oriented phone, but from a notable manufacturer, was really like. Yes, it lags. If you're just going to be going through contacts and on the phone with them or texting or doing basic web browsing, it's fine. However, if you're scrolling feeds and trying to watch reels or look at pictures, the lag is very noticeable. Sometimes when using it for navigation, after you turn it will freeze up for about 700 feet of travel. 2FA apps can take noticeably longer to open or send notifications. This is just not a fast phone at all. Some of the lag may actually be related to the phone not getting very good reception. I've never been unable to make a call or send a text with it, but even short reels seem to take forever to load sometimes, then I notice that it seems to be indicating a lower signal strength than I remember my last phones having. The camera is not good at all. I expected this to a degree, but despite its claim of 50MP, it feels worse than any other phone I've had in the last 10 years. My previous phone, a Moto G Stylus 5G 2021 and my Razer Phone II from prior to the G Stylus, both had cameras that put this to absolute shame. I think the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 from 2015 had a better camera. I cannot get it to take photos which I would accept for a sale posting (my standards may be a bit high as I like to make sure the photo can be zoomed in to to read serial numbers and such). Being able to take a shot in .5 seems unnecessary until you have a phone that doesn't have the ability to. The bottom line is that this phone is reliable and it does work. If you need an inexpensive phone or know someone who just needs a basic phone, this will work. However, if you have the ability to buy a phone that's a step up, maybe with more RAM and a more full-featured camera, I would suggest you do. I was hoping to be at least happy enough with this very budget friendly phone, hoping for something that could reasonably get me by for a few years, but the thought of putting up with the lag and noticeably subpar reception any longer is a source of frustration during a time when I am urgently needing to lower the stress in my life. I find myself eying the Moto G Stylus 5G 2024 with its 8GB of RAM, much nicer camera, and higher resolution screen.

My kid had a Motorola Moto G7 that was purchased in 2019. It was dependable and had a great battery life. Then it accidentally got dropped into the ocean this year. We replaced it with this one, so I can't speak to anything long-term yet. Like many cell phone manufacturers, Motorola added some apps that I manually removed like Block Blast, Temu, and Monopoly. For some reason, Block Blast tried to reinstall itself which was annoying. More importantly, I had incorrectly assumed that since it was a newer phone, it'd have eSIM capability, but it does not. (My older phone from another manufacturer does have eSIM.) This meant not having a working phone number (and no texting) for a few more days until we could get a physical SIM card from our cell phone carrier. I didn't mind the extended phone break. But had I known that this phone doesn't have eSIM, I would not have bought it. I still probably would've chosen a Motorola phone based on prior experience and because it's a good budget option, but again not this particular one.

I like my phone. I don't like Boost. They locked it without telling me they were going to or asking my permission, and they sent the wrong SIM card. The only problem I'm having with the phone is that some things on it, like the alarm, reset themselves to times I didn't put in, and I don't know why. I'm not talking about snoozing, I'm talking about the alarm goes off at a completely unrelated time to when I set it. I'm not blind or stupid. I didn't set it wrong.

I LOVE this phone! I already had one of them with Tracphone. I discontinued it, and started with another company.. It's really SMARTER than I am..!!! It does almost everything a phone can do. The Price was better than I found anywhere else. It holds a very good Charge .