The entry-level smartphone market is fierce, as most companies end
up selling vastly more cheap phones than expensive ones. A case-in-point
is the Nokia Lumia 520,
which sells for under $100 and occupies the largest chunk of Windows
Phone market share by far. When it comes to Android, there’s
considerably more competition, with various Asian OEMs pushing their
cheap, often unknown devices hard in local markets.
Motorola Moto G - $179 - $199 (unlocked)
- 4.5”, 1280 x 720 LCD display (326 ppi)
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 SoC
- 1.3 GHz quad-core CPU, Adreno 305 GPU, 1GB RAM
- 8 or 16 GB internal storage
- 5 MP camera, 1/4” sensor, f/2.4 lens, 720p video
- 2,070 mAh, 7.87 Wh battery
- HSPA+, Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0
- Stock Android 4.3 ‘Jelly Bean’
- 143 grams, 11.6mm thick
The Moto G is Motorola’s biggest and best effort yet in conquering
the entry-level market. It’s not a handset meant to break records, but
the 4.5-inch 720p display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 SoC and dual-SIM
support (in certain models) will please the right crowds. Plus, at $179
for the 8 GB model and $199 for 16 GB, unlocked and off-contract, it
certainly fits the definition of what an affordable smartphone should
be.
As with most budget oriented Android devices, the question remains as
to whether performance and overall build quality is up to scratch.
We’ve all experienced terrible OS and app performance from cheap, crappy
Android phones in the past, so let’s hope the Moto G doesn’t fall into
this trap.
Design
The Moto G’s frame is built around a 4.5-inch display, so compared to
today’s 5-inch flagship handsets, the device is relatively compact.
It’s not the best looking smartphone I’ve ever used, nor is it the
thinnest or lightest – the Moto G comes in at 11.6mm thick and 143 grams
heavy – but the edges are curved to make it ergonomic.
It’s not surprising to discover that the majority of the Moto G is
made from plastic. The good news is that Motorola hasn’t opted for
glossy, Samsung-style cheap plastic, despite the price point of the
handset. The back panel, which incidentally is removable, is made from
soft-touch, rubberized plastic that feels great to the touch, and the
front panel is covered with smooth Gorilla Glass 3. The Moto G's build
quality is quite good and the device overall feels tough.
The handset’s rear design is reminiscent of its bigger brother, the Moto X.
While you don’t get the same sort of customization options or patterns,
the Moto G’s back is curved in the same fashion, and includes the exact
same indentation that houses the Motorola logo. Above this logo sits
the camera and LED flash, and to the left of these is the rear speaker.
The speaker isn’t hugely powerful, nor is it close to being good
quality, but it fullfills the job.
Like most phones, the Moto G’s front profile is bare and minimalist,
save for the 4.5-inch display that occupies roughly 65% of the total
panel. Aside from the front-facing camera and in-call speaker, the only
interesting thing about the Moto G’s front is the lack of hardware
buttons, opting instead for on-screen buttons. The display is positioned
towards the top, so that the on-screen buttons are easier to press,
which is an ergonomic choice I approve of.
Speaking of ergonomics, Motorola has chosen the perfect position for
the power button, which can be found on the right-hand edge of the Moto
G. When you’re holding the device, the power button is in the exact spot
I would normally place my thumb (if held in my right hand) or
forefinger (if held in my left hand), making it a breeze to turn the
handset on or off. Other features around the edge, including the volume
rocker, microUSB port and 3.5mm headphone jack, are in their usual
positions.
There are no SIM card slots around the edge of the device, and that’s
because they’re located behind the removable rear panel. By pulling up
from the area near the USB port, the surprisingly strong rear cover
comes off without a great deal of effort. There’s no removable battery,
nor a microSD card slot , but you
will find the micro-SIM card slot.
The particular model I reviewed is the dual-SIM variant of the Moto
G, so there are two SIM card slots underneath the back cover: one at the
top right, and one at the bottom left. When there’s two slots to place
somewhere on the device it makes a bit of sense to have the entire back
cover remove, but it’s an unusual choice for the single-SIM variant,
especially as the battery is sealed behind another layer of plastic.
As an entry-level device, the Moto G’s design is ergonomic and
usable. I’m glad Motorola didn’t choose bargain basement materials,
sticking to soft-touch plastic and Gorilla Glass on this relatively
compact device.
Display
On paper, the 4.5-inch 1280 x 720 TFT LCD panel Motorola has chosen
for the Moto G presents great value. While some manufacturers are
bumping their lower-end handsets up to 720p display resolutions, many –
including Nokia for their Lumia 525 – aren’t, instead sticking with
WVGA. This makes the Moto G’s 326 PPI display seem fantastic in
comparison.
I was honestly surprised at just how good the display of the Moto G
is, considering how much the device costs. Sure, it’s not the best
display I’ve ever used, but for a non-IPS (likely TN) panel, color
accuracy and saturation is good. There’s some visible color banding when
viewing smooth gradients, but for the most part images look really good
on this affordable handset.
Some aspects of the Moto G’s display, though, definitely fall behind
those we’ve been accustomed to on top-end smartphones. Maximum
brightness from the backlight is quite good, but the apparently lack of
filter layers can make the Moto G hard to read in strong daylight.
Contrast isn’t terrible, but a noticeable amount of backlight seeps
through, preventing the panel from displaying deep blacks, and hurting
the overall contrast ratio.
As mentioned earlier, the Moto G uses on-screen buttons as opposed to
traditional capacitive hardware buttons. While the screen itself is
4.5-inches large with 55.8 square centimeters of real estate, the
on-screen buttons reduce the usable space to 4.2 inches. Despite this,
I’m a fan of on-screen buttons, as they can change and disappear in
certain applications when necessary. Plus, you get the proper array of
Android buttons in the correct order: back, home, app switcher.
With most high-end smartphones packing 5-inch displays as standard
these days, the Moto G's screen real estate isn't huge, and yet the
iPhone 5s still continues Apple’s small-screen tradition with a 4-inch
panel, making the Moto G’s display larger than Apple’s flagship.
Motorola also has kept the G quite compact, appealing to users who
don’t want a cumbersome large-screen handset, and for all intents and
purposes the Moto G has plenty of screen space for videos and games. I
started using the Moto G right after using the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and Nokia Lumia 1520, which are massive in comparison, but the G is more comfortable to use.
Packing a 1280 x 720 resolution, the Moto G’s display is very sharp
for its class. 1080p panels are all the rage at the moment, and in the
right conditions you can tell the difference, but in regular usage this
720p LCD panel is crisp and great to view. It benefits from a standard
RGB stripe subpixel layout, meaning there’s no PenTile AMOLED artefacts,
so text is largely jaggie-free.
I was expecting a worse display on the Moto G than Motorola actually
delivered, which of course is fantastic to see. The 4.5-inch panel does a
wonderful job for the cost of the handset.
Performance
Inside the Moto G is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 400 SoC, which I’ve
previously used inside the HTC One mini. However there are some notable
differences between the two devices and their SoCs: the One mini uses
the LTE-enabled MSM8930, while the Moto is a budget device, and so uses
the HSPA+ only MSM8226.
The MSM8226 also differs from the MSM8930 on the CPU core
configuration. Instead of the two Krait 200 cores clocked at 1.2 GHz,
the MSM8226 uses four ARM Cortex-A7 cores at 1.2 GHz. The Cortex-A7s
used here aren’t quite as powerful as ARM’s top-end designs – you might
recall A7s are the low-power cores used in the Samsung Exynos 5 Octa
big.LITTLE model – and that’s why we’re seeing four of them in this SoC,
replacing two Krait 200s.
Graphics-wise, the MSM8226 comes loaded with an Adreno 305 GPU
running at 450 MHz, plus an LPDDR2 memory controller, and single-band
Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, A-GPS+GLONASS and 21 Mbps HSPA+
radios. The Snapdragon 400 is paired with 1 GB of RAM and 8 or 16 GB of
internal storage.
I’m going to get one thing out of the way before discussing anything
else: the Android user interface on the Moto G is not laggy. Performance
swiping across home screens, navigating through settings, and using
stock applications is similar to that from a top-end handset. Naturally
it’s not going to be as fast as a Snapdragon 800-powered device, but it
delivers a buttery-smooth hardware accelerated experience 99% of the
time.
You can start to notice a difference between the Moto G and flagship
devices in app loading and multitasking. Where the Nexus 5 will load
applications close to instantly, the Moto G can take a second or so to
produce a usable screen. Multitasking also suffers from the 1 GB of RAM;
after loading 10 or more applications on the Moto G, swapping back to
the oldest application is like loading the app from scratch, where it
would be swapped to instantly on the Nexus 5.
But comparing the Moto G to a high-end device is mostly pointless.
The Moto G delivers performance that's far better than what we used to
see from lower-end Android devices a year or two ago. Even web browsing
is quite acceptable on the Snapdragon 400 SoC, with the quad-core CPU
reflowing text and manipulating images fast enough to not be
frustrating.
The combination of an Adreno 305 GPU and 720p display also seems to
be good enough to run most 3D games at an acceptable frame rate. It
doesn’t deliver the same performance as an Adreno 330, and some games
(such as Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas) are unsupported on the Moto G,
but the device could be perfect for the casual mobile gamer.
When it comes to running synthetic benchmarks on the Moto G, you’ll
be glad to hear that Motorola hasn’t included any dodgy code to
artificially boost the CPU speed while they’re being run. This means
we’ll be getting accurate and fair results in all the tests we run.
In Futuremark Peacekeeper, which I ran in Chrome on the Moto G, the
device performed okay, beating the scores posted from all Windows Phones
(using Internet Explorer) and nearly matching the performance of the
Snapdragon S4 Pro powered Xperia Z. Results from Kraken and Vellamo also
seem to back this up; in these tests the Moto G is slower than a
Snapdragon 600 or 800 device, and just behind S4 Pro smartphones.
Our graphics benchmarks have only been run on newer devices, but they
reveal that the Moto G’s Adreno 305 GPU delivers around one third the
performance of the Adreno 330. In GFXBench, you can see that the GPU is
roughly as capable at rendering to 720p displays as the Adreno 320 (in
the Snapdragon 600) is at rendering at 1080p, which is nothing to scoff
at.
The storage situation on the Moto G isn’t so glowing. I received an 8
GB model to review, and one thing’s for sure: 8 GB is definitely not
enough storage for my regular usage. With just over 5 GB usable out of
the box, I quickly filled the available space and there’s no microSD
card slot for expansion. Even if you don't plan to use a lot of storage
space, I highly recommend spending the extra $20 to pick up the 16 GB
model, which will give you much more freedom to download apps and store
your media.
The internal storage also appears to be quite slow when writing to
it, as I recorded just 9 MB/s when transferring a movie to the device.
This is surprising, considering the read performance approaches that of
other handsets.
As mentioned earlier in this review, the Moto G we received is a
dual-SIM model, designed for people who want a separate number for
business calls and personal calls. Essentially, each time you perform an
action that requires a cellular network, such as make a phone call or
send a text message, you have a choice of which SIM card to use. You can
set certain numbers to always use certain SIMs, and there’s an option
in the settings to set a particular SIM for data usage.
I found the dual-SIM functionality to work well and I couldn’t detect
any performance differences between them. Call quality is great and
depending on your network, data connections are reasonable. There’s no
LTE support in the Moto G, but I achieved good speeds (14 Mbps down)
through HSPA+ down in Australia.
Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 400 really delivers in the Moto G, giving a
smooth user experience and decent performance in apps and games. You do
miss out on top-end features (LTE, dual-band Wi-Fi, NFC, top-level
performance), but this is one of the best-performing budget devices I’ve
used so far.
Software, Camera
Until very recently Motorola was a Google company, and although the
two were largely separate entities, Motorola’s past devices have come
with few changes to stock Android. Out of the box, the Moto G I tested
came with Android 4.3, and I know there’s an Android 4.4.2 update
floating around though unfortunately it hasn’t reached my device yet.
Stock Android on this type of device has a number of benefits: less
bloatware means better performance and battery life, Google’s design
language looks great, and the overall user experience is generally quite
good from vanilla installations. Of course, by going with stock
Android, you miss out on some cool features that some OEM skins do bring
to the table, but I’m not going to complain too much, because most
skins are far too heavy.
Unfortunately touchless control, which is a major selling point of
the Moto X, isn’t included on the Moto G because it would consume too
many resources. Neither is the Google Experience Launcher in the Android
4.4.2 update, nor the improved Caller ID Dialer that we saw in the
Nexus 5.
What is included is a custom camera application that replaces the
terrible stock Android one, and an app called Assist. I was really
hoping this application would be an upgrade to Smart Actions, an app
that was a major feature on past Motorola devices like the Razr HD, but
it doesn’t quite deliver the customizability we had in the past. However
it does provide useful functionality, being able to mute your device
during the night, and also when in meetings as dictated by your
calendar.
Apart from these few additions, there’s not much else to talk about
on the software front. If you’re after a stock Android experience on an
entry-level device, the Moto G may be the smartphone you’re looking for.
Camera
On the back of the Motorola Moto G just slightly above an LED flash
we have the 5-megapixel rear camera which is the primary point of call
for photography on the handset. The sensor is Aptina’s AR0543 1/4” CMOS
with a pixel size of 1.4 μm, paired with a 37mm (effective) f/2.4 lens
unit. On the front you also get an Aptina camera module, although this
one is just 1.3-megapixels with 1.9 μm pixels.
In good conditions, image quality from the rear camera is
surprisingly decent. Overall color saturation and contrast isn’t quite
in the same league as the top smartphone sensors, and white balance can
be inaccurate, but for what it’s worth the Moto G can take a good shot
(especially in scenes dominated with greenery). Dynamic range is
average, but this can be boosted significantly by a fantastic HDR mode
that excels at bringing detail out of the shadows.
The sensor only captures 5-megapixel images, so there’s isn’t a great
deal of room to crop or downscale your photos. Looking at 100% crops
reveals acceptable sharpness at low ISOs, with some artefacts that
largely disappear when you downscale. Bokeh is predictably atrocious,
and the camera can struggle to find the right focus point for
macro-style images (even when you’re using the manual spot
metering/focus point), but this isn’t a huge concern.
It’s actually good to see Motorola implementing a spot metering mode,
where you can drag around a circle over the image preview to have the
camera adjust and focus to that spot accordingly. I tend to prefer a
good matrix metering system, but the spot mode does the job most of the
time, especially where you want to make adjustments. It’s also great to
see a true 4:3 camera preview when you switch from 16:9 to utilize the
full sensor size.
Indoors is where the Moto G’s camera struggles. During my testing I
took a lot of substandard shots in moderate lighting, many of which were
blurry thanks to no stabilization features and long shutter speeds.
Color accuracy and saturation quickly falls away, and automatic exposure
often goes crazy trying to find the right settings and white balance to
use. Shooting at a higher ISO will also produce more artefacts, which
are often visible even in a downscaled image.
Night-time photography is not a strong suit for the Moto G’s camera
either. The sensor’s pixel size is reasonable, but the overall area
occupied by the module, plus a mediocre aperture, makes night-time
images generally terrible unless you use a flash.
The Moto G tops out at 720p video recording at 30 frames per second
and 10 Mbps. Video quality is quite good, as good as you’ll get from
still shots in whatever conditions you’re recording in, but the software
stabilization option appears quite weak. Luckily, the camera is capable
of quick exposure changes and autofocus, plus slow-motion recording
sweetens the deal.
I wouldn’t describe the Moto G’s camera as terrible, nor would I
describe it as fantastic. In good outdoor lighting it’s possible to get
some half-decent shots, but it struggles most of the time while indoors.
Of course, no-one ever expects a fantastic camera experience on an
entry-level smartphone, and the Moto G’s shooter will likely be fine for
those who use their phone for the occasional quick shoot.
Wrap Up: Striking the Right Balance
Inside the Moto G is a 7.87 Wh (2,070 mAh) lithium-ion battery,
which is sealed inside the device and can’t be removed. Initially this
may seem like an issue, but in my usage I found the Moto G’s battery
life to be excellent. Whether I was browsing the web on HSPA+ or Wi-Fi,
checking social media, taking photos, or making phone calls, I was
always left with plenty of juice by the time the day was up.
Unless you’re doing a lot of gaming or CPU intensive tasks on the
Moto G, it could be possible to get two days of light usage out of the
handset. If you are gaming, naturally your expected life will be reduced
to somewhere around four hours, which is a decent but not excellent
result. Also worth mentioning is Motorola’s battery saver mode, which
doesn’t do much apart from restrict mobile data usage when the battery
starts to get low.
In our battery life rundown test, where we loop a 720p video in
airplane mode, at 75% brightness, until the phone dies, the Moto G
achieved an acceptable result of just under eight hours.
Final Thoughts
The Moto G
is a budget Android smartphone done right, finding success in a number
of levels starting with suitable performance across the OS. The
Snapdragon 400 SoC is surprisingly powerful, and when combined with a
skin-free Android build, it was able to deliver a smooth user
experience. Even relatively high-end 3D gaming is possible on the Moto
G, adding to the handset’s versatility.
The display is another major positive: at 4.5-inches with a
resolution of 1280 x 720, it punches well above its weight. It may not
have the latest and greatest technology packed into it, but it does a
great job at displaying images and text. This combined with decent
battery life, you will be able to use the display without having to
micromanage.
No device is ever perfect though – the Moto G’s storage options are
particularly disappointing, topping out at 16 GB without a microSD card
slot – but at this price point ($179-$199)
you can’t expect everything to be top-notch. Where it counts, the Moto G
delivers, making it one of the best budget Android smartphones on the
market today.
[Image Courtesy of 
[Image Courtesy of 
