The successor to last year’s Moto G Play will feature a few choice upgrades
There’s been boatloads of chatter 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 right now, there’s still no word on when or if the flagship will make its way to North America. Flagships, though, aren’t 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’re now learning about a new entrant to the company’s portfolio of affordable smartphones in the form of the Moto G Play 2022, thanks to a new leak.
Yes, there was a Moto G Play 2021. No, we don’t think it’ll look the same — the new intelligence comes courtesy of the well-known Evan Blass in an article penned for 91Mobiles. We’re getting an up-close look at the design changes accompanying this year’s Moto G Play, including the rearranged rear camera setup with the sensors now moving to the more conventional top-left position as compared to centrally located sensors on its predecessor. The front camera notch is also gone, with the more common hole-punch camera making its way to the phone
Blass sheds light on some of the core specs of the Moto G Play 2022, too, which includes a 6.5-inch 1600 × 720 LCD screen and the octa-core MediaTek Helio G37 SoC, designed specifically for entry-level smartphones though we’ll have to see what difference it can put up against the old Qualcomm Snapdragon 460. Sadly, this means we’re still stuck on 4G and not moving up to 5G at this price tier for Motorola. It will reportedly offer 32GB of internal storage (likely expandable by microSD) and 3GB of RAM. No other variants were mentioned, so it’s plausible 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’s certainly not a dealbreaker considering the budget price tag. The rearranged rear camera setup comprises a 16MP primary camera (up from 13MP) followed by a 2MP camera for macro shots and a 2MP depth sensor.
Rounding out the spec sheet is a 5,000mAh battery pack with a top charge rate of 10W. Given that this phone is similar in almost every department to its predecessor, it’s possible that Motorola will continue to market it as a device that offers a three-day battery life. Customers can expect Android 12 to run on this latest version of the Play, although we wouldn’t hold our breath for frequent software updates based on our experience with its lower-tier devices as well as our reporting on the company’s priorities.
The leak did not offer information on pricing or a launch date for the Moto G Play 2022. But its arrival shouldn’t be far away given that we’re just around two months from the end of 2022. We would be surprised if Motorola goes anywhere above $170 for the new device, though, based on the Moto G Play 2021’s launch-day pricing.
