Motorola is now a Google-owned company and the Moto G comes
at an extremely attractive price: just $203. For this you get a smartphone that
eclipses every other budget handset. It's not going to trouble the flagship smartphones
in our group test on page 74, but it does have a higher specification than
you'd expect from a phone that costs this little.
For a start, there's a nicely sized 4.5in display with a
720p resolution. The pixel density of 326ppi is the same as that of the iPhone
5s, meaning it looks nice and sharp.
Motorola Moto G
A quad-core processor coupled with 1GB of RAM makes the Moto
G speedy, so there's hardly any waiting around for web pages or apps to load
and virtually no lag when scrolling or zooming.
Storage is one area where corners have been cut. Like other
budget handsets, it has just 8GB of internal storage, of which 5GB is
available. There's a 16GB model for $239 - a better choice for most people
since there's no microSD card slot. You do, however, get 50GB of free Google
Drive cloud storage. Add that to the 15GB Google gives you as standard and you
have 65GB in which to store photos, music and documents.
The Moto G has Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS and a Micro-USB
port for charging and synching. You don't get NFC, infrared or 4G LTE. If
you're not planning to pay extra for a 4G data plan, being limited to 3G won't
matter.
The Moto G has
Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS and a Micro-USB port
Pick up the Moto G and it feels reassuringly weighty. The
removable back cover lets you accessorize the phone with a different color
'Moto Shell' or flip cover. This loses some of the 'solid' feel you get with a
Lumia or other one-piece smartphone, but build quality is very good.
Silver power- and volume buttons sit on the side and the two
ports - headphone and Micro-USB - are located at either end of the handset. A
large, central lens on the back covers a 5Mp camera, and there's a 1.3Mp webcam
around the front of the device.
Both cameras perform well enough and you can shoot in burst,
panorama and HDR modes. Video is captured in 720p rather than full HD, but it's
respectable and there's even a slow-motion recording mode.
Both cameras
perform well enough
It doesn't come with Android 4.4 KitKat, but it will be
upgraded by January 2014, according to Motorola. Purchase one before then and
you'll get version 4.3 Jelly Bean, which is ahead of most Android smartphones.
The interface is largely unchanged from the standard Google
version, but there are a handful of additions. Motorola Migrate, for example,
helps transfer your content such as photos, videos and text message history -
as long as your old phone ran Android.
Motorola touts 'all day' battery life for the Moto G and
this proved to be the case in our testing. If you tend to use your smartphone
lightly, then you'll probably get a couple of days' use out of it.
Verdict
Punching well above its weight, the Motorola Moto G is a
real smartphone bargain. If you can live with only 5GB of onboard storage buy
the cheapest version, but otherwise spend the extra $36 on the 16GB model.
The Motorola Moto
G is a real smartphone bargain
|
Specs and
price
·
Price: $203
·
Type: Smartphone
·
Android 4.3 Jelly Bean OS
·
4.5in (720x1280) display, 326ppi
·
1.2GHz Quad-Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 CPU
·
Adreno 305 GPU
·
1GB RAM
·
8/16GB internal storage
·
5Mp rear camera with LED flash
·
1.3Mp front camera
·
video recording at up to 720p
·
Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n
·
Bluetooth 4.0 LE
·
A-GPS;GSM 850/900/1800/ 1900MHz
·
HSDPA 850/900/1900/2100MHz
·
7.7Wh (2070mAh) non-removable battery
·
66x130x11.6mm
·
143g
Rating
·
Build: 4.5/5
·
Features: 4/5
·
Performance: 4/5
·
Value: 5/5
·
Overall: 4.5/5
|
