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The Moto Z Play will reportedly ditch a sleeker profile in favor of a headphone jack

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Love the Moto Z but don’t yet want to ditch the headphone jack? It looks like you may not have to. While the new Moto Z and Moto Z Force don’t have a headphone jack, the Moto Z Play reportedly will indeed include one, allowing all you old-school folks to still enjoy your wired music.

The news is certainly interesting, and shows that Lenovo, the company behind the Moto phones, may not be as committed to a headphone jack-less future as previously thought.

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The report begs the question: Is the headphone jack still a necessary component of the smartphone? On the one hand, it’s a little frustrating to have to change to only Bluetooth headphones, but on the other hand, wireless devices are the future — and that includes wireless headphones. Not only that, but you can still use wired headphones with a USB-C to 1/8″ adapter, ensuring that not all your headphones are immediately unusable with a headphone jack-free phone.

Apart from the headphone jack, the device is also rumored to sport a Snapdragon 625 octa-core processor, 32GB of storage, a 16MP rear-facing camera, and a 5MP front-facing camera. It will ship with Android Marshmallow, although it will likely be upgradeable to Android Nougat reasonably quick.

Of course, with the headphone jack, the device will need to be a little thicker than its non-headphone jack sibling, the Moto Z. Some leaks have shown up on Twitter showing what seems to be the thickness of the phone, and while it’s not an overly thick phone, it’s certainly not the sleek and stylish device that the standard Moto Z is.

#Lenovo The clearest image of #MotoZ Play
Via @techdroider pic.twitter.com/vwHidrWk4B

— The Malignant (@the_malignant) July 20, 2016

Unfortunately, we don’t have any details on pricing or availability just yet, but that will likely change in the near future. We’ll keep you posted on any new details about the Moto Z Play as they pop up.

Christian de Looper
Christian de Looper is a long-time freelance writer who has covered every facet of the consumer tech and electric vehicle…
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