The Moto G has been selling out like hot cakes though its been months since Motorola released it.Easily one of the best handsets out there in the lower budget spectrum it is packed with the best of features available in both 8GB and 16GB . There may be questions of its longevity in the market but its still the smartphone to have for those who aren’t after the flagship models. We got our hands on the 16GB black version of the phone and here’s whether this low price model come at a cost of performance.
Look and Feel
The first thing that struck us when we laid our hands on, is its sleek design that had a stark resemblance to its elder sibling, and Motorola’s flagship model, the Moto X. Notably the Moto G doesn’t have any branding or logo on the front which is a usual rarity. The phone weighs (143 gm) more than the Moto X (130 gm) but any average buyer in this cost segment wouldn’t care much about the weight.It’s definitely thicker, measuring 129.9×65.9×11.6mm compared to 129.3×65.3×10.4mm for the X.
Next up our eyes were in for a treat with the 4.5-inch “edge-to-edge” LCD display that has a resolution of 720 by 1280 pixels. That comes around 339 ppi(pixels per inch) which is nothing short of great given the phone’s cost. Added to it is the layer of Gorilla Glass 3 which protects the screen from even the lightest of scratches.In descending order, you’ll find the camera lens with the loudspeaker grille to its left above an LED flash, which, in turn, is above a small indentation framing the Motorola logo. That’s where your thumb rests when prying the back panel off, if you follow Motorola’s instructions (and you should). Nothing exciting awaits you under there: just a slot for your micro-SIM.
The device has a 3.5mm jack for headphones on the top side of the device with the lower side having a USB port that could be used for charging and data transfer via a USB cord.
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Build Quality
No human on Earth handles a phone as a phone, it undergoes wear-and-tear everywhere. Phones might even be inside washing machine having their last moments. Motorola ‘s Moto G has a splashproof coating, yes you could pick up your important calls in the rain but a big no to going swimming with it.The device has got an intense black finish and a plastic case behind gives you an add-on advantage changing the back case whenever you want. Almost 19 different back cases are available in colors you wouldn’t even expect.
Removing the back almost gives your nail a new shape and brings in a fear of utter breakage, thank god it never happened this time with us. You will see a beautiful black front, with a shiny glass giving it a rich classy look. The bezel above the screen, meanwhile, is home to a sunken, metal speaker grille, the front-facing camera and a small white notification light. Though the device sat comfortably in our hands it was a messy task to reach its controls diagonally. There are no buttons on the frame of the phone with the home button being controlled by touch. The buttons for switching the power off and controlling the volume are situated at the side and are pretty good to look at.
We got the 16Gb version for reviewing and were quiet surprised to note that there was no SD card slot provided for external storage . Additional storage requirement is satisfied by the 50 GB of Google Drive that comes free for 2 Years from purchase.
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Performance
The Moto G has a 1.2 GHz quad core processor and a 1GB RAM built into it. This was an area that surprised us because of the fact that almost all phones in this price range are lacking in the performance sector. The processor is a less powerful Snapdragon 400 and contents get loaded fairly quickly compared to its competitors. Multitasking though maybe an issue of concern since the 1GB RAM struggles to pick up when a number of apps are running. Listening to music and browsing the web were fine but the responsiveness dwindled as the day went by. The phone also doesn’t run down in performance when playing games and comes as a complete package for the gamers and the developer geeks.
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Camera
Motorola’s weakness with cameras extends with this phone too given the undeniably terrible camera experience. The long shots may be a welcome change compared to those taken with the zoom feature of 4X. The camera definitely lags a long way behind. The 1.3MP front camera is nothing less than the primitive cameras present in phones of the gone by days. Even post Android 4.4-update, which has a touch focus option that’s supposed to improve things, the images can be blurry. An LED flash is present and highly necessary because the lowlight performance is downright terrible. We were never big fans of the Moto X’s camera, but the Moto G shows that things can definitely be worse. It also helps to sometimes use HDR mode to improve results. But at the same time, it hardly makes a difference.
Though the 5Mp camera is a big let down the price makes us compromise with it. Here are the shots taken with the device:
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Software
This Android version, 4.2(Jelly Bean) offers buttery graphics and silky transitions. Switching between apps is a piece of cake. Beginning with the notifications bar the Android 4.4 has disappointed us with the data activating icon which takes us to the settings where data connections can be enabled. This is a big disadvantage compared to the 4.2 version where data can be connected with just a touch.
This version has also deviated from what has emerged to be the trademark of Android that is to have a user friendly device. The theme of the phone can almost never be changed which gives a mundane feeling in general. Also the Google search tab that resides at the top of the home screen cannot be removed which maybe an annoyance for some.
Other features of this variant from Motorola include the “triple touch magnification” that gives a magnified screen on tapping the screen thrice. Every Moto G has a unique device ID that ultimately helps if the device is misplaced or lost. Native and third-party apps use this information. The sound quality for a low range mobile, as this, though is surprisingly good and is a safe bet. With Chrome as the default browser, switching between a number of tabs did not seem as cause for worry.
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Battery
Unlike Google’s Nexus phones the Moto G has a built in 2070mAh battery that rarely runs down even with maximum usage. In comparison with the Moto X this device won the show. As other android devices, the phone gets charged within a maximum of 4 hrs.
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The Verdict
For us, Moto G wasn’t the best of Android devices, but taking in account the price at which it comes, it is definitely recommended to those looking out for a featured phone at an affordable cost. The camera might have been a disappointment to us but the other features stole the show altogether.