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Moto Z3 Play renders, FCC listing paint an intriguing picture

The Moto Z3 Play has several major differences compared to its predecessor.
By
April 2, 2018
A Moto Z3 Play render

Lenovo’s Moto Z Play range isn’t the cheapest around, but it certainly offers plenty of bang for your buck. And it looks like the Moto Z3 Play isn’t far away, making a stop at the FCC recently.

The telecom listing, spotted by Trusted Reviews, shows a phone with the model number XT1929, as well as variants for the USA, Verizon, Brazil, Latin America and APAC/EMEA.

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More importantly, the FCC listing also shows some specs, and it looks like we’ve got a Snapdragon 636 chipset, 4GB of RAM and 32GB or 64GB of storage. The 32GB model is set to appear in Canada and on Verizon, while everyone else gets double the storage.

The Snapdragon 636/4GB RAM combo means we shouldn’t quite expect flagship power, but it’s a notable step up from the Snapdragon 625 and 630. In fact, Qualcomm claims that the Kryo 260 CPU in the Snapdragon 636 packs “up to 40% higher performance than Snapdragon 630”.

Moto Z3 Play FCC filing

The phone will also be available in a dual-SIM flavor, the FCC listing reads, albeit in Latin America (excluding Argentina), APAC and EMEA markets. Sorry, North America.

What will the Moto Z3 Play look like?

So we have an idea of what to expect under the hood, but what will the hood itself look like? OnLeaks and Killer Features have shown off apparent 3D renders and a 360-degree video.

The first big change appears to be a shift to a dual-camera setup, albeit in a similar camera housing to previous models. Keep looking at the back and you’ll find the contacts for Moto Mods, though they are slightly tweaked compared to its predecessor. So if you bought a few add-ons before, you can expect these to work on the new handset.

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Look closely and you’ll see two other noteworthy moves, in the form of a Sony-style side-mounted fingerprint scanner and no 3.5mm audio jack. The latter is somewhat disappointing for the Z3 Play, but Lenovo is no stranger to ditching audio jacks. In fact, the original Moto Z beat Apple to the punch in removing the 3.5mm jack.

Other than these changes, the other noteworthy tweak is the move to a taller screen instead of the traditional 16:9 screen ratio.

Moto Z3 Play TVC-Mall render

Are these renders legitimate though? Well, online retailer TVC-Mall has also published renders of a Moto Z3 Play case (seen above), complete with a virtually identical phone in said case.

Much like the OnLeaks/Killer Features images, the retailer’s own renders show a side-mounted fingerprint scanner, dual camera setup and no headphone jack. In any event, the Z2 Play launched in June last year, so we’re expecting a similar launch window for the Moto Z3 Play.