The successor to last year’s Moto G Play will have some upgrade options
There has been a lot of buzz about Motorola’s new foldable Razr this year. The phone officially arrived in Europe earlier this week after being available in China for months. As of now, there’s still no word on when and if the flagship will arrive in North America. However, flagships are not the only segment that the Lenovo-owned company focuses on as it has also seen decent success selling budget and mid-range phones across the globe. We are now learning about a new entrant in the company’s portfolio of affordable smartphones in the form of the Moto G Play 2022, thanks to a new leak.
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Yes, there was Moto G Play 2021. No, we don’t think it will look like that – the new intelligence comes courtesy of the famous Evan Blass in an article for 91Mobiles. We’re taking a closer look at the design changes with this year’s Moto G Play, including a rearranged rear camera setup with the sensor now more traditional top-left than the centrally located sensor on its predecessor going into position. The front camera notch is also gone, making its way to the more common hole-punch camera phone
Blass also highlights some of the key specs of the Moto G Play 2022, including a 6.5-inch 1600720 LCD screen and octa-core MediaTek Helio G37 SoC, which is specifically designed for entry-level smartphones, However, we will have to see what difference it can make compared to the older Qualcomm Snapdragon 460. Sadly, that means we’re still stuck on 4G and not moving up to 5G at this price level for Motorola. It will reportedly offer 32GB of internal storage (expandable by microSD) and 3GB of RAM. No other variants were mentioned, so it is possible that the Moto G 2022 will be available in a single memory configuration.
Camera-wise, the smartphone retains the 5MP selfie camera from the 2021 Moto G Play. We’re surprised Motorola didn’t consider an upgrade in this area, but it certainly isn’t a dealbreaker considering the budget price tag. The rearranged rear camera setup includes a 16MP primary camera (up from 13MP), followed by a 2MP camera and a 2MP depth sensor for macro shots.
Rounding out the spec sheet is the 5,000mAh battery pack with a top charge rate of 10W. Considering that this phone is almost identical to its predecessor in every department, it is possible that Motorola will continue to market it as a device that offers three days of battery life. Customers can expect this latest version of the Play to run Android 12, though we won’t hold our breath for frequent software updates based on our experience with its lower-end devices as well as our reporting on the company’s priorities .
The leak did not reveal pricing or launch date for the Moto G Play 2022. But its arrival should not be far off, as we are almost two months from the end of 2022. We’d be surprised if Motorola goes anywhere above $170 for the new device, though, based on launch-day pricing for the Moto G Play 2021.
