Moto Z Play vs. Moto X Pure during promotion

General Discussions
#1

My daughter needs a new phone, so I bought her a Moto X Pure on sale from Best Buy for roughly $235 after tax (the 32GB version). I was pretty satisfied with that. She is currently on the $10 a month talk/text legacy plan with a Moto X 2014, which will rise to about $18 a month with the new phone.

Then I see Republic is offering the Moto Z Play for $349 with 6 months of free service (the 1 GB play) from Dec. 7-12. Even if you assume the value of the Republic service at the $18 a month level that she will pay by activating the X Pure, I am wondering if I would be better to return the X Pure when it arrives and go with the Z Play. (This is a Christmas gift, so no telling.) The value of 6 months free service is about $108., so that puts the overall cost of the Z Play in the ballpark of the X Pure.

This is why I am asking for your thoughts: The specs of the two phones are strikingly similar, at least to me. The Z Play supposedly has much better battery life, but the X Pure has a higher resolution screen. Should I keep the X Pure, or go with the Z Play when the special is on?

What do you think?

#2

Hi @davidr.o1a7nb

That is a tough call for sure, (but not a bad dilemma to have).

Since this will be a gift, I guess asking your daughter her preference is out of the question. Here is a nice article (albeit slightly dated) that may help you make your decision…

Lenovo Moto Z vs. Moto X Pure: Does Lenovo’s new flagship stand up to last year’s champ?

I have a X Pure that is waiting (hoping) for Sprint 3.0 so I cannot really give much advice as to it’s performance, but with the Free service bonus, the Moto Z is certainly tempting.

That said, even with the better specs, the Z’s real advantage is the Moto Mods,(IMHO). Unfortunately, they come at a premium price. If I had a need for any of the current *Mods *(I’m a photographer, a power-user, or just wanted a cool option to project things) there would be no decision to make, I would choose the Z hands down!. But alas, I really just need a good cellphone and the Pure certainly fits that bill.

Just wanted to share my thoughts as I have considered this option myself. Good luck and let us know how it works out.

#3

Here is a nice article (albeit slightly dated) that may help you make your decision…

Lenovo Moto Z vs. Moto X Pure: Does Lenovo’s new flagship stand up to last year’s champ?

Z Play specs are bit of a downgrade from the Z specs in that article.

X Pure specs are.on par or better considering it’s camera IMO.

Z Play is a GSM only phone and wouldn’t be able to be used on the future RW 3.0 CDMA plans if might be desired or needed.

#4

I think that’s an important point. The Moto Z is a GSM ONLY phone. If the possibility of using your phone later on Sprint, when launched is important, it makes the Pure the only choice.

#5

The Z Play does have an AMOLED display in its’ favor. The X Pure is a great phone but IPS on a flagship is rather unforgivable.

#6

Agreed and that’s the primary reason I stopped using the X. I LOVE Moto Active Display but it is far from satisfactory on an IPS display.

#7

The only Moto Z Play variant with hardware compatibility for CDMA is the Moto Z Play DROID and that’s a Verizon exclusive. I don’t expect we’ll ever see the Moto Z for CDMA on Republic or anywhere else other than Verizon.

#8

I don’t mind the IPS display. Just my opinion. I know there is the potential battery hit, but that hasn’t me to much.

#9

I haven’t found a meaningful battery difference, it’s more about how the IPS display looks in a dark environment with active display. The light leakage makes me nuts.

#10

I don’t mind the light leakage, but I leave my phone face down on my night stand at night regardless of AMOLED or IPS.

#11

I noticed a large difference from my X1 display when first using a G3 with a IPS LCD. Find the Pure display far superior to both of those phones as most likely would. But then again I don’t spend time in the dark watching movies, TV or videos. @davidr.o1a7nb and others should know the Pure’s display is a high quality “Quad HD” LCD not a run of the mill IPS LCD. As mentioned the Pure was a flagship phone versus a downgrade and IMO a newer product is not necessarily better. Pure also has front mounted stereo speakers that rock pretty well for a phone. Having Micro USB has the advantage of usually having more chargers available for use. The Zs may have some physical attributes that some might find attractive.

If the opportunity exists to going a brick-n-mortar store and comparing them may be helpful. If not a surprise gift take your daughter if possible and let her help choose.

#12

williamo.vkbg0s wrote:

Here is a nice article (albeit slightly dated) that may help you make your decision…

Lenovo Moto Z vs. Moto X Pure: Does Lenovo’s new flagship stand up to last year’s champ?

Z Play specs are bit of a downgrade from the Z specs in that article.

X Pure specs are.on par or better considering it’s camera IMO.

Z Play is a GSM only phone and wouldn’t be able to be used on the future RW 3.0 CDMA plans if might be desired or needed.

I am still trying to understand the differences between CDMA/GSM and how they relate to LTE. I read this article - ExtremeTech explains: What is LTE? - and it makes it seem like this designation is not that important as everything transitions to LTE.

Excerpt… "An operator may choose to deploy LTE in a smaller bandwidth and grow it to a larger one as it transitions subscribers off of its legacy networks (GSM, CDMA, etc.)."

What am I missing? TIA.

#13

Let’s leave LTE off for a minute.

GSM and CDMA are two network technologies that the traditional cellular voice/data networks were deployed under. Sprint and Verizon deployed CDMA and T-Mobile & AT&T deployed GSM. These technologies impact the way the phone connects to the voice and 2G/3G data networks.

Then LTE came along. It is based on the GSM standard, but is deployed on top of the existing GSM/CDMA network. All four major networks have deployed LTE as their 4G network technology.

Now, it gets complicated.

In some cases, the phone can always remain on LTE, no matter the underlying technology if VoLTE (Voice over LTE) is deployed by the carrier. This happens often with T-Mobile, sometimes with Verizon and almost never with AT&T and Sprint. What this means, is that when making a call the phone MUST “fall back” to the traditional voice channel, which for Sprint/Verizon is CDMA and for T-Mobile/AT&T is GSM.

Is that confusing enough?

#14

I have a similar (yet different) question.

My son had a Moto x pure on republic. That broke (his fault) so he bought an unlocked Moto z play. He really needs the long lasting battery since he drives often for work.

Question is, can he just swap out the SIM card from the X pure and put it in the z play? Or will he need to order a new SIM card?

#15

The answer is maybe. If the X Pure is GSM activated then the SIM can be moved. You can check this by looking at the SIM card. Is the word Republic in all gray? If yes, then the phone is CDMA activated and your son will need a new SIM card from here: Bring your own phone to Republic! | Republic Wireless or here: https://www.amazon.com/Republic-Wireless-Starter-Prepaid-Carrier/dp/B01J63NYAO

Is the word Republic in Grey and Green? Then this is a GSM SIM card and can be moved.

And if you get the Z Play from Republic, it will come with the SIM he needs.

#16

Thank you!

#17
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