Value for money is something that majority of android devices fail to deliver. The budget phones compromise on a number of area in order to keep the price low, whereas for higher end device the manufacturers try to justify the price tag by including features, functions not really used or required by the user. But an exception to this has been Google Nexus lineup and more recently Moto G. It’s very well known fact why Nexus is worth every penny, with Moto G Google has committed a feature rich android device without compromising on specs and at the same time keeping the price to the lower side.
Let’s see why Moto G proves to be a worthy albeit cheaper alternative of Nexus ideology. Read the Motorola Moto G review below to know.
Design Perspective
For android handsets available at Rs. 12,000 mark, you do get to see a lot of plastic make. Although the plastic build in no sense makes any device fragile but it doesn’t feel or look good, to say the least. With Moto G this isn’t the case. Google has done an excellent job with the designing of Moto G. Put together, the device is attractive, comfortable to hold and sports a soft-touch coating on the battery panel. Moto G doesn’t break any records for being the slimmest (129.9 x 65.9 x 11.6 mm) or lightest (143 g) but it looks lean and feels sturdy.
What’s even more interesting is that you get the option of switching the back cover and personalize the device as per your preference! In the boxing you get a black pre-fitted back cover which you can replace with other color varieties viz. Lemon, Royal Blue, Turquoise, White, Vivid Red, etc. Full range of available back colors can be seen at Flipkart (link at the end of article).
About the button placement, the power/screen lock button and volume rocker are placed on the left, the right sideline is clean with no buttons present there, the 3.5 mm audio jack is at the top and the micro-USB port located at the bottom. The silver polish of the button compliment really well with overall design of the device.
Display
The Moto G comes with a 4.5″ inch 720p IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen display with resolution of 720 x 1280 pixels. This computes to approximately 326 ppi pixel density, which in plain words is way way sharper than most of high end devices. And because of this the screen looks bright and sharp with crisp reproduction of textual content. The display performed equally well under the direct sunlight and indoor with aut0-brightness adjusting the settings as and when required.
Barring the insanely high pixel density, Moto G doesn’t have the glory of full HD display or 5″ inch screen size but you should keep in mind that we are talking about a device falling in Rs. 12K bracket.
Glory Of Android
Moto G has been a product of Google. There’s no denying that even though it is being sold under the name of Motorola. This essentially means that you will get the latest update for Android. When I received Moto G for review, it had Android Jelly Bean v 4.3 installed and after a day or so Android v 4.4.2 was pushed to device via OTA update. At a time when hardware manufacturers like Samsung, Sony, HTC have only announced the upgradability of their devices to latest Android version, the Moto G is already running one. Clearly shows how close to heart Moto G is for Google.
Another great advantage is that Moto G is running stock android, you don’t have TouchWiz or other carrier specific applications slowing down the device. Pure android at your disposal. Plus given the fact that Android 4.4.2 portrays beauty through its simplicity, there’s no need for custom skinning.
Connectivity
Moto G offers a host of connectivity options including support for 2G network, 3G network, GPRS, EDGE, Wi-fi, Bluetooth and USB. These are more than enough for what an Indian users would want. The only exception being support for LTE but that technology still has a lot of catching up to do.
Camera Performance
Moto G comes with a 5 MP primary camera with auto-focus and LED Flash and 1.3 MP secondary camera. The secondary camera works very well for making video calls and serves its purpose well. The primary camera, however is mediocre at best. Daytime photography using Moto G produces images good enough for casual sharing, you wouldn’t want to store these images. Night time photography, even though accompanied by LED Flash isn’t respectable for sharing.
Video shooting is also possible using the rear camera. Moto G is capable of capturing videos in 720p resolution at 30 frames per second.
Performance
I will save you some time. Moto G is a performer. It puts to shame other devices at this range or offering similar specifications. Moto G comes with a Qualcomm 1.2 GHz quad-core Snapdragon 400 processor coupled with 1 GB of RAM and Adreno 305 GPU, a combination rarely found at its price. What this means is that you will be able to play resource intensive games like GTA, Asphalt without longing for more RAM or processor power.
Using applications is a breeze, courtesy quad core processor, switching between applications is buttery smooth and 1 GB RAM allows you to run many application in background without slowing down the device. I had no problem whatsoever using my usual suite of applications, including but not limited to WhatsApp, Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Viber, Yahoo Messenger, Hangouts, 6 gmail a/c’s and a yahoo a/c in background sync, LinkedIn, Google+, Twitter and TeamViewer.
Apart from the performance, I’d like to mention one subtle hardware feature of Moto G. It comes with a led notification light, located at the front near the earpiece. A nifty inclusion.
Storage
Moto G comes in 8 GB and 16 GB internal storage versions. The good part is that internal storage is more than enough for majority of users moreover the pre-installed Google Drive comes with an offering of free 50 GB storage (for 2 years), the bad part is there is no option for external sd card. No microSD card for expanding storage capacity.
Battery Longevity
Moto G comes with a non-removable Li-Ion 2070 mAh battery. The battery easily lasted for 13 hours with the applications I used (refer Performance heading), couple of minutes of video calls, 20 minutes of audio playback via bluetooth and 40 minutes of 720p video playback via MXPlayer. With a more judicious use, I believe Moto G would easily last for a day.
Verdict
I have never been clearer in my recommendation for a device. Motorola Moto G is THE device to buy, it easily puts to shame other competing devices and I couldn’t say it more. The only let down (not downright sucky) is camera but for the other things it puts on tablet, it is still a good buy. Moto G is available for Rs. 12,499 (8 GB) and Rs. 13,999 (16 GB) from Flipkart.
Flipkart – Moto G Product Page
Flipkart – Moto G Back Cover Page
Moto G In Pictures
