The OnePlus has a lot to answer for. It’s ruined us for so-called affordable smartphones, meaning we expect a lot more for spending a lot less. For consumers, it’s a good thing, because phone-makers are upping their game to compete and are offering smartphone users on a budget a lot more than an underpowered, undersized handset.
Remember the days before the iPhone? Motorola phones were everywhere. You could walk into a phone shop and you had several to choose from. Then they all but disappeared. In the meantime, Motorola's phone unit has changed hands a couple of times and is now owned by Lenovo.
Which brings us to 2015. Motorola recently announced the Moto Play X and Style handsets, which should come to Ireland next month. In the meantime, the Moto G is filling that gap between budget and premium smartphone. Available for under €180 on prepay, the third version of the Moto G has had a few improvements. The camera has also been improved, with Motorola using the camera from the Nexus 6 and adding a bit more. It’s also bumped up the chipset to the Snapdragon 410. It keeps the 5in display from the second gen version, which is a nice size for most users and bigger than the iPhone 6 display.
The good
The rear camera on the phone is 13 megapixels, which is more than you’d expect from a phone in this price bracket. But getting good images is more than just about pixel count, and the quality and aperture of the lens also matter. The Moto G steps up nicely here, with the f2.2 that allows you to get quite a bit of light when conditions aren’t the best. There’s also a dual tone LED flash, which helps create more realistic colour in dark pictures. It will also shoot 1080p video at 30 frames per second.
The water resistance is new to the Moto G, but it’s something that should be in more phones, regardless of their price. The Moto G can be submerged in up to a metre of water for 30 minutes with no ill effects. The average user isn’t going to be doing that too often but it’s good to know that the phone will survive the odd ducking.
The not so good
While the screen looks good, it is a slightly disappointing 720p resolution instead of full HD. You won’t notice this in normal use and at first glance the screen looks crisp. It’s only when you get up close that you notice any loss in quality. It also loses a bit in the viewing angles but when compared with similarly priced phones, the Moto G comes out on top every time.
It’s slightly heavier than I would like, but not so much that it’s uncomfortable. It’s also a little chunkier than the super slim phones currently ruling the roost in the smartphone world. But that’s all relative, and if you drop the Moto G, chances are it will survive the trip.
The rest
For a while, many smartphone-makers decided you could have your device in any colour you liked as long as it was black. Then they added white. Then a few accents such as silver and gold. But companies have figured out that some people would like a phone that doesn’t fit into the “understated” category. The Moto G allows you to swap the back covers, and if you’re in an area where Moto Maker, Motorola’s online design studio, is operating, you can personalise the phone with engraving and the choice of accent colours on the rear. Otherwise, you can stock up on a few different colours of cover, which you can change when you like.
The swappable back is also textured, so you can get a good grip on it, which is one area where some phones, with their shiny casing, can fall down. No butter fingers with this phone so far.
The 8GB option has 1GB of Ram, with the 16GB doubling it. Our advice? Go for the 16GB. Although you can expand the phone memory with a removable MicroSD card, there are some things for which you’ll need that extra space on the internal memory.
Verdict
A break from the budget phone, the Moto G is worth its price tag and then some.
