The version you'll soon be able to buy is $91 more expensive than the aforementioned Verizon variant, but it lacks bloatware and is compatible with all four major U.S. carriers — AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint and, yes, Verizon — making it much more versatile. It also comes with an extra gigabyte of RAM, bringing it to 4GB altogether, along with double the storage at 64GB, making it considerably more future-proofed than the Verizon model.

After nearly two months as a Verizon exclusive, the Moto Z2 Play is soon going to be available unlocked directly from Motorola for $499.

Here's what I said about it back in early June:

I love this phone. I don't even want to go back to my Samsung Galaxy S8 right now because the Moto Z2 Play does everything I need it to, and has the deep (and growing deeper) Moto Mods ecosystem to help do what it can't out of the box. That's great. I am also aware that the phone is probably too expensive, at $499 unlocked.

I still feel that way, even with the announcement and impending release of the at-least-$750 Moto Z2 Force. The Moto Z2 Play is great value at $408 from Verizon, but at $499 it may be too expensive for many people to stomach, since it fits somewhere in the middle of the mid-range and the premium segment. That said, the bulked-up specs must count for something, and the phone shows no signs of slowing down after two months of solid use. It will also be compatible with the new Moto 360 Camera Mod, which is nice.

Interested? It's available in Lunar Gray and Fine Gold variants.

See at Motorola