The Moto Z2 Play won’t include the most popular feature of its predecessor

The Moto Z Play, by many accounts, was one of the best budget phones for 2016, as it offered a near stock experience, Moto Mod compatibility, and an outstanding battery. Packed into the Z Play was a 3,510mAh battery which was rated as being able to last for up to 50 hours.

Image courtesy of TechnoBuffalo

This huge battery gave potential buyers something that they have been clamoring for years for, but it seems the device’s successor won’t be following suit. In the render above, you can see a much slimmer device, as the Moto Z2 Play resembles the original Moto Z with its slim form factor.

According to Evan Blass of VentureBeat, the Z2 Play will include a 3,000mAh battery – substantially smaller than that of the original Z Play. This new battery will be rated at being able to last up to just 30 hours, which will not make many folks happy.

As for the rest of the device, Blass was able to obtain the specifications for the Z2 Play. The Z2 Play will be powered by the Snapdragon 626 SoC, while seeing a bump to 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage.

It seems the rest of the Z2 Play will be extremely similar to its predecessor, as the same 5.5-inch Super AMOLED display returns with a resolution of 1920 x 1080. The front facing camera will come in at 5MP, while the rear camera will feature a 12MP sensor with “dual autofocus pixels”.

There’s no mention as to when we can expect to see the Moto Z2 Play launched, but Blass expects it to be one of the first devices launched from Motorola in 2017. This would, of course, be after the Moto Z2 and Moto Z2 Force.

Let us know what you think about these rumored changes to the Moto Z2 Play and if you’ll be looking elsewhere for a budget device.

[VentureBeat]