It’s been a wonderful year so far, with many flagship devices and budget-friendly devices announced through out the year and at IFA. Where Motorola unveiled their Moto X Play, which has just been announced in India. Around the same price range, OnePlus Two is also available. So, which one should YOU buy? Let’s break it down spec-per-spec and feature-per-feature.
Moto X Play Vs OnePlus Two
Design & Hardware
The Moto X Play comes in at a hefty 170g (Grams), with the dimensions coming in at 150 x 75mm, with the thickest part of the phone (center) at 10.9mm and the slimmest part of the phone (edges) at 8.9mm. The phone has a curve on the back for a more comfortable grip.
The OnePlus Two weighs in at a slightly heavier 175g with the dimensions being 152 x 75 x 10mm. The OnePlus two is a little bigger, and a little heavier, and slightly thinner than the Moto X Play.
Both the OnePlus Two and the Moto X Play look great in terms of the design, but the OnePlus Two is a more premium looking and manufactured with premium materials as well, which is not a huge surprise given the price of the phone compared to the Play. The Moto X Play carried over the Motorola’s famous Dimple inside a bar on the back, which also contains the Camera lens and the LED flash.
The OnePlus Two has an Aluminum ally frame with brushed steel accents, which adds to the look of the phone. The OnePlus Two does offer one customization feature, StyleSwap, which will give option to change out the back with different material and texture backs available directly from OnePlus. Motorola also offers Moto Maker, which enables unlimited customization options; But, unfortunately it’s not yet available in India as of now.
Taking a physical overview of the OnePlus Two, it has a Home Button, which also acts a fingerprint reader for security features like locking the device, making payments, etc. Additionally the OnePlus Two also adds the all new reversible USB-C connector port for charging and data transfer.
So, who is the winner? Strictly speaking one-to-one, without any personal opinion, OnePlus Two wins this round for sure.
Display: Comparable
The Moto X Play has a 5.5″ display, which is an ever so slight improvement from the previous Moto X. The resolution is however, is 1080p, at 403ppi.
The OnePlus Two also has a 5.5″ FHD IPS LCD Unit, with a 401PPI, however, with this being an IPS display, it has great viewing angles and very good direct sunlight visibility.
Both the displays are very similar in spec, so to ultimately decide, you have to try it out personally. We have to conclude this round a draw.
Cameras: Pixel perfect
The OnePlus Two has a 5MP Front Facing camera, and a 13MP rear facing camera. OnePlus has added Optical Image Stabilization, and laser autofocus which could focus on a subject in just 0.3ms. The camera module also has larger pixels, which makes it better in low light.
Even with all the additional bling the OnePlus Two doesn’t even come close to the Moto X Play’s 21MP camera and a 5MP front camera, with front facing flash.
The Moto X Play wins this round out-right. However, you have to keep in mind that there are only a handful sets which have 21MP camera modules or even a front facing flash.
Winner : Moto X Play
Specs: Flagship with problems?
The Moto X Play sports the SnapDragon 615 64-Bit SOC from Qualcomm which has 2GB RAM, and 16/32GB internal storage. There is also a Micro-SD expansion slot which accepts upto 128GB SD Cards and there is also support for Dual-SIM on the Moto X Play. All of this is backed by a 3,630mAh battery.
On the other hand, the OnePlus two takes the center stage with it’s 64-Bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 810, a flagship processor, with the Adreno 430 Graphics chip, and 4GB RAM. All of this is backed by a huge 3,300mAh battery. The OnePlus Two is available in 16 and 64GB variants, with the 16GB version with only 3GB RAM and the 64GB model with 4GB RAM. The OnePlus Two also sports Dual-SIM.
OnePlus Two is a clear-cut winner for this round. However, the Snapdragon 810 has been known to have heating issues, which we have to test out when we have both the devices with us.
Software: Pure vs Functionality
Motorola ships every phone with Stock Android, which is an awesome thing. There are only a few Motorola specific apps installed like Motorola Migrate etc, which only add to the over-all experience. The Moto X Play will ship with Android 5.1.1 Lollipop out of the box, with only a handful of Motorola’s apps like the new Moto App, which will allow you to send voice commands and more. Other apps like Motorola Migrate, Moto Camera etc will also be installed. However, as mentioned, these apps only add to the over all experience.
OnePlus, while providing specs which give flagship phones a run for their money, doesn’t follow the traditional path of Stock Android. The OnePlus Two runs the company’s own OxygenOS which is based on Android 5.1 Lollipop. OxygenOS doesn’t change the whole UI like some UI’s such as MIUI etc, it adds to the stock android experience, with features like off-screen gestures, theme support, switch between on-screen and off-screen buttons etc. OxygenOS will also be filled with its own custom apps like Camera, Audio Tuner and File Manager.
Since both Stock Android and OxygenOS have their own tricks up the sleeve, we have to make this round a draw.
Conclusion: It all comes down to this
Just based on the Specs on Paper, the OnePlus Two clearly has an upper hand over the Moto X Play. It also beats the X Play in design and Build, while the X Play leaves the OnePlus Two in the dust in terms of camera. Both the phone have a comparable display and software UI’s.
The Moto X Play does make a lot of improvements over its predecissor, and leaves the Moto G in the dust. But it all comes down to price. The Moto X Play costs a INR 21,000, but it has support for MicroSD which the OnePlus Two doesn’t. The OnePlus Two on the other hand has a Fingerprint scanner and USB-C, and the 64GB version with 4GB RAM costs a slightly higher INR 26,000.
The question you should be asking is, whether you want a flagship smartphone, with or without spending more. While both the devices are affordable and only slightly differ in cost, we think that the OnePlus Two will deliver a more ‘flagship’ like experience, for the price.