This brand new smartphone for sale in 2024 is
just $149. Either someone hasn't told Motorola that everything is supposed to be more expensive
these days or something is majorly wrong with this phone. With a supposed 90 HZ display, 5,000
mAh battery, and 1 Terabytes worth of expandable storage. Not to mention 6.5 in inches of screen
real estate a headphone jack and water resistance, there's got to be something going on. Hello moto.
Huge thanks to Chime for sponsoring this video, more on them later. The first thing I noticed,
after the strangely seductive introduction, is that even though our screen refresh rate
might be 90 HZ, the screen brightness only reaches 500 nits. Which is quite a bit lower
than most flagships. Even OnePlus or Apple peak at about 2,000, but while it is dimmer than
most it is still visible , so let's not grab our pitch forks just yet. At $149 I might
expect the screen to be made from plastic, but according to the Mohs scale of hardness we
see scratch resistance past levels 2 or three, and the screen gives us protection all the way up
to scratches at level six with deeper grooves at a level 7. The 2024 Moto G play is using Gorilla
Glass 3, so far so good. That same slab of glass is protecting the front-facing 8 megapixel
camera, and there is a razor thin earpiece slit between the glass and what I assume is a
black plastic frame. The reason I assume it's plastic is because this extremely lightweight
phone appears to be made in the same style that every phone was made with back in 2015. Almost
a decade ago. Plastic body, plastic buttons, and plastic bezel holding the glass screen. The
top of the Moto G Play has a headphone jack. Also similar to how things were 10 years ago, but hey
if it works, it works. One incredible thing that this $149 phone offers is an expandable storage
tray that can utilize a 1 Terabyte SD card. Could you imagine the Utopia if every Flagship allowed
us this privilege? With how lightweight the phone feels I was kind of expecting the back panel to
be made from plastic, and judging by the damage inflicted by my razor blade, my hypothesis was
correct. The back plastic panel is a very unique shiny shade of blue that reminds me of a bright
summer sky. Most people would erroneously think that clouds are fluffy harmless pillows, but in
reality a single mile long cloud in the sky can have more than a million pounds of water inside.
A million pounds worth of cloud just floating around up there overhead, to me personally,
doesn't sound very fluffy, or harmless. So, I'll just continue staying inside... where was
I... Oh yeah, Motorola stuck their camera flash inside a camera ring Circle to make it look like
there's more than one camera back here, but there is most assuredly only one camera, I counted.
It's a 50 megapixel Honker though so hopefully it can hold its own I'll leave the camera quality
to other reviewers. For our intents and purposes, it's sufficient to know that it's protected with
glass. The display of the G Play is a tad above 720p, and judging by the 9 seconds it lasted under
the heat from my lighter, before the pixels turned off, the 6.5 inch screen is an LCD. Which we
haven't seen in a while and apparently, even at this price, Motorola has included a built-in power
button fingerprint scanner. Which doesn't work all that great since I already scratched it, but you
know these durability quirks are what we are here to find. The biggest question though is how does
a plastic frame and plastic back hold up to a bend test? The 2024 Moto G play has an unnerving amount
of flex when bent from the front, and again an unnerving amount of flex when bent from the back.
But there are no creeks, cracks, bends, or damage anywhere to be seen. All $149 worth of Hardware is
solidly safe from catastrophe. Stage one complete, but can it also survive the tear down? We're
going to see if the Moto G has any balls inside the speaker, how big camera sensors are, and of
course how thermal dissipation works on a plastic phone. You know what's better than $149 though?
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these 19 screws, you can sign up for Chime in just minutes. Join the millions of other Chime
members at Chime.com/jerryrig, and I'll leave a link down in the video description. Huge thanks
to Chime for discounting another wave of my offer Road wheelchairs by $1,000 each. Which is pretty
awesome. With the screws gone the hardest part of separating the plastic back from the screen was
me remembering to remove the SIM card tray. Which apparently is super important. With the frame and
back plastics gone it's interesting to see how incredibly simple Motorola has built this G Play.
A penny saved is a penny earned, and Motorola has saved as many pennies as possible. For example,
the lower loudspeaker, while having a speaker box enclosure, is missing the back half, and it
also doesn't have any balls. The charging port does seem to be watertight enough with its thick
black gasket. And the vibrator is an eccentric rotating Mass motor. Also probably from 2015,
but hey, it's inexpensive and does vibrate, and that's all it needs to do. I'll unplug the screen
ribbon cable and pop out the motherboard from the mid-frame and it looks like that motherboard is
using the remaining portions of the phone as a heat sink. Since the mid-frame is made for metal
the front 8 megapixel selfie camera is the tiniest little guy we ever did see. The headphone jack is
soldered onto the motherboard with the same black waterproofing gasket that we saw around the USBC
Port. The Flash is also soldered directly to the motherboard. The main 50 megapixel camera has a
much smaller footprint than we're used to seeing, and it also does not include ois or Optical
image stabilization. Which is a pretty big deal and something to consider. The biggest deal
however, is that while attempting to save cost, Motorola has declined to include pull tabs
for the battery. Instead opting for incredible clingy adhesive that rivals even the craziest of
girlfriends. The adhesive requires not just one round of isopropyl alcohol, nor two rounds
of isopropyl alcohol, but three full rounds of alcohol to finally get the 5,000 mAh battery
free from the phone. Permanently glued batteries make recycling incredibly difficult, and I would
suggest a Motorola to spend a few extra pennies to make recycling easier. Especially since this
phone only has 3 years worth of software updates. Every phone hits end of life eventually, and we
should plan for it. And by we, I mean Motorola. The last thing to point out is that while Motorola
does call this phone water resistant, and some of the holes are indeed protected. The main speaker
opening does not include any waterproofing mesh, and it relies on the speaker itself to keep the
water out. Which isn't ideal so I would strongly recommend not getting this phone anywhere near
water. To be honest not everyone needs a $1,300 Flagship. A $149 smartphone would work perfectly
for the non social media addicted portion of the population. As small as that group may be, and I'm
glad Motorola is out here making smartphones for the financially intelligent. With the excess
alcohol cleaned off the gold contacts for the power button. The 2024 Moto G play turns
back on and functions like normal. Yeah, it does look like it got hit with a million
pounds worth of cloud, but it did indeed survive my durability test and tear down. So, I'll give it
a thumbs up for that. Hit that subscribe button if you haven't already. Chime is in the description
and thanks a ton for watching I'll see you around.
