The Motorola Moto X Play is available for Rs 18,499. Meanwhile Asus launched its Zenfone 2 Laser ZE601KL just recently at Rs 17,999. So, keeping the similar prices in mind, we decided to take these two head to head. Read on to find out more.
Design
Both the phones are thicker, curvier, heavier than their peers. They are also quite distinct from each other and from smartphones of other companies.
The Asus Zenfone 2 Laser ZE601KL borrows its design and looks from its Zenfone 2 peers. The handset has a curved back panel with the bulk of the weight in the middle, thus giving great grip and is comfortable to hold. A highlight of the phone is that its volume rocker is placed in the back panel just under the rear camera while the power key is at the top. Hence while holding it you don’t need to worry about accidentally pressing any key. It also comes in attractive gold, grey and red colours. Note that the back panel is removable but not its battery.
The Motorola Moto X Play too comes with removable back panel but with a non-removable battery. You can thus replace the default black/white back panel with colourful panels (you have to buy these separately). The rear cover is made of plastic and comes in pattern design-4. Its just a bit slippery but overall is quite okay. Most importantly, it does not look cheap.
In the Moto X Play, the treatment to rear camera panel is also quite distinct. Instead of a horizontal panel, the rear camera panel comes as a vertical unit – first the camera unit, below which lies the flash light and below that lies the Motorola logo.
In terms of figures, the Asus Zenfone 2 Laser ZE601KL measures 164.55 x 84 x 10.55 mm and weighs 190 grams. The Motorola Moto X Play measures 148 x 75 x 10.9 mm and weighs 169 grams.
Display
The Motorola Moto X Play has a 5.5 inch full HD (1080 x 1920) IPS display. Thus it offers superb pixel density of 403 ppi. The display is also protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3.
Asus Zenfone 2 Laser ZE601KL has a 6 inch full HD (1080 x 1920) IPS display. The display is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 4.
A 5.5 inch display is quite big but there are some people who do like even bigger phones. So largely its a personal choice. If you are comfortable with a 6 inch device, then go for the Asus smartphone otherwise Moto X Play should be in your list vis-a-vis the display.
Processor and Memory
The Asus Zenfone 2 Laser ZE601KL runs an octa-core 1.7 GHz Snapdragon 616 Processor which runs the phone with 3 GB of RAM. Its Internal Memory stands at 32 GB to which you can add another 128 GB via a micro SD card.
The Motorola Moto X Play is armed with an octa-core Snapdragon 615 which is clocked at 1.7 GHZ. The phone has 2 GB of RAM, and 16 GB of internal storage, to which you can add another 128 GB via a microSD card.
The Asus Zenfone 2 Laser ZE601KL is the winner in this round thanks to the extra one GB of RAM and the the advanced processor.
Software
The Motorola Moto X Play runs Android Lollipop but Android M update for this phone has already been announced. The Android experience on Motorola phones is very close to the stock experience.
The Asus Zenfone 2 Laser ZE601KL comes with Android Lollipop, and has Asus’ Zen UI interface on top of that. There is no announcement from Asus as of now about the Android Marshmallow update for this phone.
Battery
The Asus Zenfone 2 Laser ZE601KL has a non-removable battery of 3000 mAh. The Motorola Moto X Play too has a non-removable battery, but with 3630 mAh.
As we said in its review as well, the Moto X Play offers decent battery back up. Even heavy users could easily sail through the day.
Asus has not revealed the battery back up of ZE601KL but with a smaller battery, bigger display and slightly powerful processor (than the Moto X Play), it is expected to offer lesser talktime.
Camera
Asus Zenfone 2 Laser ZE601KL has a 13 megapixel primary camera that comes with auto focus, F2.0 aperture, 5-element lens and LED flash. Its front 5 megapixel snapper is a fixed focus unit and comes with F2.0 Aperture too.
The Motorola Moto X Play is armed with a 21 megapixel rear camera that is armed with phase detection auto focus, slow motion video, burst mode, auto HDR and panorama features. It has dual LED flash light as well. The Moto X Play also offers a 5 megapixel selfie shooter.
The Moto X Play is the winner of this round, thanks to its superior hardware.
Connectivity
Both the phones offer dual-SIM, 4G, GPS (A-GPS), Bluetooth 4.0, and WiFi. The Motorola Moto X Play has NFC too.
Wrapping Up
The Moto X Play has a far superior camera and a slightly bigger battery. In terms of processing power and storage, the Asus Zenfone 2 Laser ZE601KL looks a much better device. But everything boils down to the size of the display; with a 6 inch display, this Asus smartphone definitely is not meant for everyone.
Meanwhile, you can check our review of Motorola Moto X Play here.