Motorola has launched launched its last masterpiece under partnership with Google this month named as Moto G. Moto G has created a buzz in Indian Smartphone market (overseas as well) for its high end specifications and much lower price than other smart phones with similar specifications. Moto G has been out of stock several times on Flipkart luckily I got it on time :) . It is arguably the best phone for its price. Let's see what's there in device for us and reach on consensus about the uniqueness of device.
Design
As soon as you hold device in your hand you can feel the premium built of the phone , it is very comfortable to hold with dimensions 129.9x65.9x11.6 mm. On front side there is no hard button, or branding all the focus is on display with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 to protect it from scratches, Front side is dominated by 4.5 inch IPS LCD screen provides bright and consistently vibrant colors which is good enough to view from different angles and in bright sunlight. Size of the screen is also fine for video playback and gaming. Above screen earpiece is located in the middle and front camera is placed left to it. A bright white light blinks close to front camera whenever a new notification is there.
Rear curved panel is made of Soft-touch polycarbonate which makes the grip even more better. Motorola logo is depressed in rear panel which adds to user experience when using phone with single hand making a place holder for your index finger. LED flash light and Camera are right above the Motorola Logo and speaker is placed on left side of camera. Moto G is nano coated which act as light water repellent from both sides though it is not a water proof but still can resist light spill of water.
Only hard buttons are on the right edge viz. power button and volume rocker button. Both these buttons are metallic and easy to use. A 3.5 mm audio jack is placed on top right in middle of the edge and similarly Micro-USB port is placed on the bottom panel in the center of the edge.
Rear cover is removable however battery is not, after removing the cover one can find two slots for SIM which can be utilized by micro sim only. You wont find any SD card slot as Moto G doesn't support one.
Device comes with White color charger and headsets which looks premium.
Tip: There is no opening as such to open rear cover and you may find hard to open it. To open it press in the middle of the rear cover (just below Motorola logo) from one hand, then cover's mouth will open from bottom use your second hand to open up the cover.
Camera
Moto G sports a 5 Megapixel rear camera accompanied by an LED flash and also has 1.3 Megapixels front camera which is fine for selfies and video chatting. Rear camera gives decent pics in well lit conditions however in low light, performance of camera is degraded.
Camera comes with options for HDR, Panorama,burst shot but highlight for the device is its slo(w) motion video recording option. Camera has a circular control panel which comes when swipe on screen from left to right similar to that of other recent Google devices.
There is no hard/soft button to take pics you just need to tap on screen when you are ready to take a snap however we would have liked a physical dedicated button for camera.
Software
Moto G comes with Android Jelly Bean 4.3 out of the box. Kitkat update is also rolled out as promised by Google. Update process is very easy , you have to go to settings > About Phone > System Updates to check for the update. After update you get new dialer, google now, and other updates.
As soon as you hold device in your hand you can feel the premium built of the phone , it is very comfortable to hold with dimensions 129.9x65.9x11.6 mm. On front side there is no hard button, or branding all the focus is on display with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 to protect it from scratches, Front side is dominated by 4.5 inch IPS LCD screen provides bright and consistently vibrant colors which is good enough to view from different angles and in bright sunlight. Size of the screen is also fine for video playback and gaming. Above screen earpiece is located in the middle and front camera is placed left to it. A bright white light blinks close to front camera whenever a new notification is there.
Rear curved panel is made of Soft-touch polycarbonate which makes the grip even more better. Motorola logo is depressed in rear panel which adds to user experience when using phone with single hand making a place holder for your index finger. LED flash light and Camera are right above the Motorola Logo and speaker is placed on left side of camera. Moto G is nano coated which act as light water repellent from both sides though it is not a water proof but still can resist light spill of water.
Only hard buttons are on the right edge viz. power button and volume rocker button. Both these buttons are metallic and easy to use. A 3.5 mm audio jack is placed on top right in middle of the edge and similarly Micro-USB port is placed on the bottom panel in the center of the edge.
Rear cover is removable however battery is not, after removing the cover one can find two slots for SIM which can be utilized by micro sim only. You wont find any SD card slot as Moto G doesn't support one.
Device comes with White color charger and headsets which looks premium.
Tip: There is no opening as such to open rear cover and you may find hard to open it. To open it press in the middle of the rear cover (just below Motorola logo) from one hand, then cover's mouth will open from bottom use your second hand to open up the cover.
Camera
Moto G sports a 5 Megapixel rear camera accompanied by an LED flash and also has 1.3 Megapixels front camera which is fine for selfies and video chatting. Rear camera gives decent pics in well lit conditions however in low light, performance of camera is degraded.
Camera comes with options for HDR, Panorama,burst shot but highlight for the device is its slo(w) motion video recording option. Camera has a circular control panel which comes when swipe on screen from left to right similar to that of other recent Google devices.
There is no hard/soft button to take pics you just need to tap on screen when you are ready to take a snap however we would have liked a physical dedicated button for camera.
Software
Moto G comes with Android Jelly Bean 4.3 out of the box. Kitkat update is also rolled out as promised by Google. Update process is very easy , you have to go to settings > About Phone > System Updates to check for the update. After update you get new dialer, google now, and other updates.
The Moto G offers five customizable homescreens, and lots of widgets and apps classified into preloaded and downloadable categories. Notably, you cannot go beyond five homescreens, unlike with the Nexus 5.
Shortcuts to Dialler, Chrom browser, Application/Home, Messages and Camera remain visible when navigating Home screens or Applications menu.
In home screen all Google applications are placed under one folder for ease of use such as Google Play, Google Search, G+, Maps, Hangouts, People, Drive, Youtube, Playbooks.
Along with Google applications you get Motorola apps such as Motorola Migrate and Assist.
Touch is very responsive and seamless, we didnt found any lag while navigating between applications.
Performance
We didn't found any issues or lag while navigating the applications, opening multiple browsers or watching videos on you tube. Moto G is powered with 1.2 GHz quad core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor with Adreno 305 graphics and 1 GB RAM. Moto G comes in two storage capacities 8 GB and 16 GB. We have 8 GB device with us which has only 5 GB memory left for the user. While other specs are more than expected for this price range, low user memory can be a constraint for many potential buyers who want more storage capacity to keep larger applications and games such as Asphault 8.
Moto G is powered by 2070 mAh strong battery, I used Moto G for couple of days with full day internet usage and playing games such as Temple Run and Polar bit racing. Battery backup was good and still 64% of battery was remaining at the end of the day.
Speaker of phone are loud enough to rock a small room and sound is clear even at highest volume level.
Areas of improvement
1. As we now know there are no capacitive or hard buttons on front panel , still there is a space under display at front panel. Back, home icons are placed at the bottom of the display for which we feel this space could have been utilized.
2. Less user storage in 8 GB variant.
3. No option to set custom ringtone from your music library. (you have to move your chosen ringtone to ringtone folder and then you can set custom ringtone).
4. No USB cable comes with the box. You have to buy one to connect with PC.
5. Camera of Moto G is just average and lacks that wow factor in it for which we were looking for.
Verdict
As I said in starting Moto G is one of the best phones available in market for this price range. Adding to that it is one of few devices that runs on latest Android KitKat version.
In terms of User experience, build quality, performance and battery backup Moto G scores high , however lower user memory and average camera performance are only concern for us which is manageable for the price range and other specs.
Moto G is aimed at large number of customers who are willing to spend around 15K for a decent phone which makes a larger chunk for smartphone market. 8 GB version is available on Flipkart for Rs 12599 and 16 GB version for 13999/-. At this price no other phone comes near to Moto G as of now.
Overall Moto G is a value for money device , if you are aiming to buy one go for 16 GB version its worth to spend extra 1500 bucks and even wait for sometime.
Do comment in comments section below about your thoughts on Moto G.
Moto G is not the last masterpiece of Motorola.
ReplyDeleteMoto X is coming soon to India.
Check:
http://tech.firstpost.com/news-analysis/after-moto-g-success-moto-x-coming-to-india-in-next-few-weeks-219012.html
Yes right, but technically Moto X was launched (and made) earlier than Moto G, so under Google Motorola partnership Moto G is last from Motorola. For India, Moto G is launched earlier than Moto X that is different thing.
DeleteI think Motorola needs some dynamic affirmations and more media attention to get his product as a boost come back for the company. Anyways I think M gonna buy it soon, complete price worthy.
ReplyDelete