Motorola literally built the budget smartphone segment from scratch when it introduced the first Moto G. And now with the introduction of the Moto X Play, there seems to be another low-cost flagship segment in the making.

Yes, Nokia coined the term, with its Lumia 830 smartphone, which came with a great camera, but Motorola is indeed up to something here. Not only do the Moto X Play’s specs trump handsets like the OnePlus One, the Mi 4, and the ASUS Zenfone, it obliterates smartphones from better known brands like the Samsung A5.

Apart from the Rs 18,499 price tag, the Motorola Moto X Style has plenty of things going for it:

Camera
The 21 MP camera on both the Motorola Moto X Style and the Play were much talked about at the launch event in the US. The unit is clearly comes from the flagship Moto X Style and had already received accolades from the DxO Mark team at launch. More importantly, Motorola knows that it has been criticised time and again for its smartphone’s poor imaging chops. So this time the company came prepared and no other smartphone in the same segment offers anything better.

Storage
External storage is clearly the sore spot for many smartphones in the mid-range. The OnePlus One lacks it and the same can be said about the Mi 4. While many may argue that better storage options are available, the price also happens to go up along the storage capacity. The Moto X Style, comes with the a 16 GB option at Rs 18,499 and the 32 GB version for Rs 19,999, plus you have room for external storage that goes all the way up to 128 GB.

Battery Life
The Motorola’s 3630 mAh battery is clearly the biggest in the lot. Moreover, Motorola has even optimised its OS (Android 5.1 Lollipop with customisations) to ensure that it goes on for 30 hours without a recharge. Add quick charge (or the Turbo Charger) to the mix and you can get 8 hours of juice in just 15 minutes.

Software
Stock Android is clearly one of the best reasons to go for the Moto X Play. You have updated hardware and a decent 2 GB of RAM that will play nicely with software that runs mostly stock with a few customisations. Also, fewer customisations mean that newer updates arrive faster, as is always with all Motorola smartphones.

All-in-all the Moto X Play is a great addition to the Motorola family and delivers a great smartphone at the right price. Indeed, if you want something more powerful, you will have to wait a bit for the Motorola Moto X Style.

If Motorola prices it as expected (around Rs 25,000), you can expect the Style to break the flagship market and even damage the reputation of brands like OnePlus.

As for the success of the Moto X Play, the 32 GB versions of the smartphone have already sold out since the sale opened this morning. But Motorola has already opened up bookings for the coming stocks, so you better hurry up if you are interested.

Tags : Motorola, Motorola Moto X Play