Cameras have never been the strong aspect of Motorola phones, but the Moto X Play seems set to change that.
Motorola's latest, and perhaps its greatest, brings something that the company hasn’t quite been able to master till now. The Moto X Play has a 21MP camera, which unlike Motorola’s earlier devices, is actually good. While the company is no stranger to large megapixel counts, the Moto Turbo, which also had a 21MP camera, didn’t really match up to its competitors. Of course, that phone obviously had to compete with the Galaxy Notes and Xperia Zs of the world.
So, just how good is the Moto X Play’s camera? This camera test will tell you just that!
The gallery here contains the original images taken using the Moto X Play.
This gallery shows the full size images taken by the Xiaomi Mi 4.
Full size images from the OnePlus One
Outdoor normal light (the sun isn’t very bright in these photos)
Under the light conditions mentioned above, the Moto X Play takes really sharp and well detailed pictures. What we really like though is that the images are really close to the source. These are things that phones like the Moto X (2nd Gen) and others from Motorola have never been able to accomplish.
OnePlus One (Left) vs Moto X Play (Right)
What’s even more satisfying is that the Moto X Play easily surpasses the OnePlus One. In addition, when compared to the Xiaomi Mi 4, the Play provides a more true to source image than the Mi 4, which gives quite warm images. While that doesn’t make the camera quality of the Mi 4 bad, the Moto X Play is the one we would pick.
Yellow light
This is one of the conditions in which we’ve seen most phones do quite well, but even phones like the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge and iPhone 6 tend to completely remove the effect of the yellow light. The Moto X Play on the other hand brings it out quite well and once again comes out ahead of the OnePlus One and the Xiaomi Mi 4. The pictures are sharp, well detailed and the colours are really good.
OnePlus One (Top) vs Moto X Play (Bottom)
Indoor Fluorescent lights
Here again the Moto X Play’s camera outperforms the others two, providing better colours than both the Xiaomi Mi 4 and the OnePlus One. The Mi 4 as before, is closer to the Moto X Play than the OnePlus One. The image taken by the Play does seem a little dull, but it still works pretty well.
Xiaomi Mi 4 (Left) vs Moto X Play (Right)
Low light
Under low light, the Moto X Play once again edges out the OnePlus One, but can’t surpass the 16MP Xiaomi Mi 4. While the Play does a very good job, the Xiaomi Mi 4 gives just a slightly brighter image, which gives it the edge. For regular conditions though, you’ll know the difference only when the two images are compared side by side.
Xiaomi Mi 4 (Left) vs Moto X Play (Right)
Bottomline
The Moto X Play has the one thing that Motorola phones have never had, and that is a really good camera. While the ZTE Nubia Z9 Mini is still better than this one, in a conversation about the top cameras in the sub-20k segment, the Moto X Play would find a place, and that’s something we haven’t been able to say about Motorola phones till now.
Follow Us
Prasid Banerjee
Trying to explain technology to my parents. Failing miserably. View Full Profile
