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As part of the impressive line up of Lenovo products, the Moto Z2 Play is a modular designed handset.  The modular design of this product means that additional features can be added to suit the individual needs of the particular user.  These additional features, or mods as they are referred to, include items such as extra battery life, wireless charging capability and special camera facilities.

The Moto Z2 Play handset is available in a choice of colours that include Fine Gold, Nimbus Blue and the Lunar Gray of the sample kindly provided by Vodafone for the purpose of this review.   Supplied in the box with the Moto Z2 handset are a USB Standard A to Type C lead, three pin adapter plug, attachable back plate, tray opening tool and various documentation including a multi-lingual Read Me booklet.

Featuring a 5.5-inch screen, the handset combines an aluminium body with brushed edges and a glass front.  It has dimensions of 156.2 x 76.2 x 6 mm and weighs 145g.  Protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3, the 5.5-inch Super AMOLED capacitive touch screen can deliver 16M colours.  With a resolution of 1090 x 1920 pixels and a ratio 16:9 ratio, the screen has a ~401ppi density and provides reasonable images in various lighting conditions.

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Located near the top of the handset, on the right side, are the standard volume rocker and power on/off buttons.  Situated flush on the top left of the unit is a slot for inserting a choice of two nano SIMS or a single SIM and a microSD card for adding extra storage capability to the device.  This access point is opened using the tool mentioned earlier.  While the left side of the handset is free from any embellishments, the base of the Moto Z2 Play has a Type C USB port and a socket for attaching a set of head phones for private listening.  Conveniently placed just above the USB port is a depression which acts as the fingerprint reader to provide an additional security feature if you opt to activate this facility.

Positioned above the handset’s screen is a front-mounted 5MP camera.  This camera comes with a dual-LED, dual-tone flash capability.  The camera can capture 1080 content.  The handset’s main camera is located on the rear of the unit.  This primary camera is a 12MP model with a f/1.7 lens.  It has support for phase detection, laser autofocus and dual LED dual tone flash.  You also get support for geo-tagging, touch focus, face detection and panorama captures.  Options are available for video captures at 2160p@30fps,1080p@60fps and 720p@120fps.  Switching between the front and rear cameras is just a matter of implementing a flickering motion with the wrist as if swatting away a fly.

The rear of the handset features four rows of four contact points for use when adding a mod module.  When access to these contact points is not required you are supplied with a shell style fabric back plate that can magnetically attach itself and cover the rear.  This back plate has a micro-ribbed patterned surface that does help when gripping the handset but, perhaps, reduce the visual appeal of the device.

Beating at the heart of the Moto Z2 Play is a Qualcomm MSM 8953-Pro Snapdragon 626 with an Octa-core 2.2 GHz Cortex- A53 CPU and Adreno 506 GPU.  As standard the memory is set at 4GB of RAM and 64GB of ROM.  As usual with the Moto family of handsets, the Z2 Play model comes with the current latest version of the Android operating system.  You get Android 7.1.1 (Nougat) with a planned upgrade to Android 8 (Oreo) when it becomes available.

The Moto Z2 Play comes with numerous features available for the user.  There is support for WiFi 802.11a/b/g/n, WiFi Direct, Bluetooth 4.21, A2 DP, ED8, GPS, NFC and a range of sensors that include Fingerprint, accelerometer, gyro,, proximity and compass,  The Moto Z2 Play comes with a non-removable Li-ion 3000 mAh battery which supports fast battery charging giving 50% in 30 minutes.  Running my usual continuous video playing test, I was able to get 9 hours 10 minutes of viewing time before the handset shut itself down.  I was rather disappointed with the amount of playing time.

This handset is available from Vodafone.  The company has a range of deals covering various data plans depending upon the requirements of the user.  Listed below are details of some of these plans.

http://shop.vodafone.co.uk/shop/contracts-and-deals/motorola-moto-z2-play-bundle/sku90163