This comparison is a peculiar one in many ways. Lenovo owns Motorola so this comparison is between parent and child companies. Secondly, both these phones are targeted at road-warriors: users who are adamant on getting more off of every single charge of their smartphone. Hence, it only makes sense that we pit these two phones in a head-on comparison. First, lets start with the pros and cons of each phone.
Moto X Play
Pros:
- Good build quality
- Expected Timely Software Updates
- Ergonomic Build
- Good Camera
- Good colour gamut and colour reproduction
Cons:
- 3 GB RAM should have been available
- Storage starts at a meagre 16GB
Lenovo Vibe P1
Pros:
- Excellent value for money
- Good camera
- Storage starts at 32 GB
- Premium build with a metal enclosure
Cons:
- Might not see timely software updates
- Lack of third party accessories
- Screen might not be as vivid, comparatively.
Camera
Let’s start our comparison of these two battery-behemoths by comparing what might easily be the most important feature in smartphones as we progress forward- the camera. While the Lenovo features Phase Detection Autofocus, a technology that helps the phone lock on to focus faster, the Moto X Play is packing the higher number of pixels in its implementation. While the more pixels doesn’t guarantee better photographs, our quick impressions of both the phones lead us to believe the Moto X Play serves as a better camera out of the two. If you’re interested to judge the outputs of the two phones yourself, you can head over to our quick camera reviews of the P1 camera and the Moto X Play camera.
As for the front facing cameras, they’re both capturing pictures in the same resolution but the Moto X Play takes the edge here too- a very small one, at that. Samples from the front shooters are present in the links above as well.
Performance: Software skins make a difference
The only difference between the Lenovo Vibe P1 and the Moto X Play is that the Moto X Play is clocked 200 MHz(0.2 GHz) higher than the Lenovo. While this does mean the Moto edges out the Lenovo, the difference is so minuscule that anything except synthetic benchmarks will not be able to notice the difference. The amount of RAM present in these phones is the same as well; although, since we have no data on the type of RAM used, we will work with the assumption that both phones have similar RAM performance figures.
The question, now, falls back to how heavily the UI on these phones is skinned? The Moto offers a stock-Android build whereas the Lenovo does offer additional software. Hence, any stutter on the Lenovo you might encounter is purely due to a heavy software workload and not a lack of powerful hardware.
Battery
The Lenovo has the Motorola beat in this metric, by a long shot. Its 5000 mAh battery is simply gargantuan compared to the Moto and, since the hardware sipping on that power is the same on both these phones, the Vibe P1 will easily outshine the Play, which didn’t have a battery to scoff at to begin with. Expect a couple of days worth of usage out of the Motorola and about a day more from the Lenovo. Both phones also support fast charging but keep in mind, a smaller battery also means lesser time taken to top up.
Screen
While the screens too, might look similar on paper(5.5-inch FHD screens), we think the Motorola takes the upper hand here, by providing a more color-accurate, vivd panel.
Miscellaneous
Motorola’s Moto X Play supports a wider range of LTE bands when compared to Lenovo’s LTE support, allowing you to harness LTE on the Moto in other countries too(the Lenovo allows you LTE usage in India, find out more about LTE bands here). Lenovo, on the other hand, provides you with a choice to setup dual-SIMs on your phone which, if you use dual-SIMs, will force you to give up the microSD expansion- you can either have microSD expansion or dual SIMs, not both.
Conclusion
By now, you must have got the hang of things- these two phones have a lot in common. The conclusion still remains fairly simple though. Pick the Motorola only if you have the cash to spend, want to go all out on a good camera and want timely software updates. On the other hand, the Lenovo Vibe P1 provides almost everything the Motorola has to offer and, considering the benefits of the Moto aren’t drastic and the huge battery, the Vibe P1 proves to offer a solid value for your money. Let us know which one would you pick in the comments.
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