Introduction
Having spent the best part of two years cleaning the Motorola
pipeline of products conceived before the takeover, Google finally has a
shop with its name on it. And it's not afraid to use it to challenge
some of the old habits and experienced players in the smartphone game.
Motorola Moto G official photos
The Moto X was the first to set on a crusade to prove that high-end
smartphones go beyond the number of cores and pixels. Now we have the
Moto G on a mission to let everyone know that affordability doesn't
necessarily imply crippled functionality. The Moto X was unusual enough
to be reasonably successful despite its hefty price tag. The Moto G, on
the other hand, is priced to move quickly and will be keeping the
competition on their toes.
Not that it will get complacent because of it, like most of the
smartphones priced at around the same level do. The Motorola Moto G will
bend over backwards to serve you properly and its list of features
stretches far longer than most in this price range.
Key features
- Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE; quad-band UMTS/HSPA support
- 4.5" 16M-color 720p IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen with 326ppi pixel density; Gorilla Glass 3
- Android OS v4.3 Jelly Bean with Android 4.4 update reportedly coming as soon as January 2014
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 chipset with quad-core 1.2GHz Cortex-A7 CPU; Adreno 305 GPU
- 5 MP autofocus camera with LED flash
- 720p video recording @ 30fps with HDR, continuous autofocus and stereo sound
- 1.3 MP front-facing camera
- Wi-Fi b/g/n; Wi-Fi Hotspot
- GPS with A-GPS; GLONASS
- 8/16GB of built-in storage; 1GB of RAM
- microUSB port with USB host
- Bluetooth v4.0 LE
- Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
- Ambient light; accelerometer; proximity sensors
- Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic
- 50GB of free Google Drive storage
- 2,070 mAh battery
- Excellent speaker loudness
Main disadvantages
- Limited non-expandable storage
- Non user-removable battery
- Questionable camera image quality, limited camera settings
It's abundantly clear that the Motorola Moto G ticks way more boxes
than a smartphone of its standing is expected to. Some might argue that
it's a luxurious strategy that can only be employed because Google will
make profit off software services and not the actual hardware. Well,
from a user's perspective (and that's the only one we care about) this
point is irrelevant as all that matters is what you are getting for your
money. At least on paper, the Moto G is plenty of smartphone for the
price.
Some corners needed to be cut of course, but since Motorola could
afford to give up immediate profits, the hardware didn't take as bad of a
hit as it normally would have. We get a base-level chipset of course,
but it's of the latest Qualcomm lineup and it should do just fine paired
with a 720p screen. And since it requires less power and there's a
smaller screen here, Motorola might easily get away with the smaller
battery. The unmatched body customization options of Moto X are gone
too, but the (very cheaply) replaceable back covers still let you add
your personal touch to the smartphone. A well rounded package indeed.
Or is it? You see, being able to sell subsidized hardware might sound
like a manufacturer's dream, but it's not all roses. Because when you
mostly rely on the software to bring in the profits, you have to make
sure your services are attractive. So the microSD card slot got the axe
in hope that you'll fall back to cloud storage for most of your
multimedia needs. The default skinned Android UI (or launcher, as it's
technically called) also isn't the most functional around, so you might
have to add a feature or two via third party apps.
It's always going to be a matter of trade-offs in this price segment
of the market and we now set out to find out if Motorola did the right
ones. Join us on the next page for the hardware checkup.
Barebone retail package
At this point we've pretty much given up any hope of finding anything
beyond the absolute essentials in the packaging of smartphones and that
includes even flagships. However, the Motorola Moto G goes a bit too
far with its effort to save on production and shipping costs.
The smartphone ships in the tiniest box we have ever seen and the
only accessory you will find inside is a microUSB cable. There're no
headphones and you don't even get an A/C adapter for faster charging.
Granted, at this point you probably have a few of those lying around,
but in case you don't, you should factor in the prices of those if you
decide to go for the Moto G.
Motorola Moto G 360-degree spin
The Motorola Moto G stands at 129.9 x 65.9 x 11.6 mm, which makes it
one of the more compact smartphones in its price range. It's not the
slimmest package around and you can definitely feel the extra thickness
around the waistline but at this size it's not too upsetting.
The weight of 143 g is definitely high for the size, though. It
certainly contributes to the solid feel in hand, but it also means you
won't easily forget that it's in your pocket. In comparison, the Oppo
R819 weighs 110g and that one has a 4.7" screen and mostly identical
internals.
Design, build quality and handling
The styling of the Motorola Moto G is clean and efficient (even
subdued), as if to make a point that it's a device you're going to use,
not show off. Even the vanilla Moto X is quite understated - if you
decide to skip using the customizing powers of the Moto Maker. Overall,
unlike the Motorola smartphones of old, which tended to be overdesigned,
this one bets on simplicity, combining traditional materials and
flowing lines.
The result is quite good though and even the fact that the Moto G
uses two different kinds of plastic for its front and back panels on our
black version doesn't spoil the looks. It's clearly not what you'd call
an attention-grabber, but that's hardly ever an option when shopping in
this price range.
Decent build and acceptable looks are par for the course here and the
Moto G over-delivers on both. It's certainly a well put together phone
that makes no disturbing sounds of any kind when handled and gives the
impression that it will have no trouble keeping it up in the long run.
There's Corning Gorilla Glass 3 over the screen for scratch and shutter
resistance, while the back can easily be replaced if it gets some
damage.
Speaking of replacing the back panel - that's only as far as the Moto
G will go in terms of customization. It's not nearly as impressive as
the Moto Maker for the Motorola Moto X, but it's still an option and it
does have its benefits. The option to replace a scratched back panel
with a fresh new one we already covered, but there's also the feature of
being able to change your mind after you've purchased the phone.
You can customize the Moto X all you like, but once you get it that's
it, whereas you can buy new panels for the Moto G as you please to
freshen up your smartphone. Those are pretty cheap too - can get them
online for about €10 a pop.
As for the handling, despite its less than slender profile and
considerable heft, the Motorola Moto fits nicely in your hand and is not
a problem at all to operate it single-handedly. The curved back with
matte plastic allows for a great grip too, so accidental drops aren't
very likely.
Controls
Above the Motorola Moto G display you get an earpiece, the
front-facing camera, as well as the ambient light and proximity sensors.
With the main controls on the actual screen, the space below the
display is completely bare. The same goes for the left side of the Moto
G.
The mouthpiece has been moved to the bottom, next to the microUSB
port. The port has support for USB host, so if you get yourself an extra
adapter needed, you can attach various peripherals like keyboards and
mice as well as USB memory sticks. However it has no support for MHL or
Slimport, meaning pairing with an HDTV isn't an option (unless the HDTV
supports wireless streaming of content).
On the right we see the only two hardware controls on the Motorola
Moto G. The power key sits slightly above the volume rocker and while
both keys are a bit too thin for our liking, they make up for it with
nicely solid press.
The 3.5mm audio jack is located in the middle of the Moto G's top,
where it's joined by the secondary noise-cancelling microphone.
The 5MP camera lens has the loudspeaker on its side at the back of
the smartphone, while the LED flash sits underneath it.
Opening the back panel is a bit of a hassle, involving pushing you
fingernail in the microUSB slot and pulling with a reasonable amount of
force until you undo the stubs one by one. It does feel like the cover
is about to break at times, but after several changes it's still in one
piece, so the problem was perhaps mostly in our heads.
Underneath the cover you only get the microSIM slot. Disappointingly
enough, the battery isn't user replaceable and there's no microSD card
slot. We could live with the first of those shortcomings but the lack of
expandable storage on a device where 16GB is the most you can get out
of box can be quite the deal breaker for many.
Display
The Motorola Moto G 4.5" 720p display is one of its most potent
weapons in the fight for survival in the overcrowded mid-range. Having a
pixel density og 326ppi, the IPS LCD matches the Apple Retina screens
and is by far the sharpest display in the price range.
It's not just the pixel count either - the Moto G screen also
impresses with very good contrast and nice color rendering. Viewing
angles are also very wide with everything remaining perfectly legible
even when you go to extremes. There is some color shift, but even so the
display is way better than we've come to expect in this price range.
Our only gripe is the white balance, which is a bit on the cold side, but that's nitpicking really.
| Display test |
50% brightness |
100% brightness |
| Black, cd/m2 |
White, cd/m2 |
Contrast ratio |
Black, cd/m2 |
White, cd/m2 |
Contrast ratio |
| Motorola Moto G |
0.35 | 315 | 906 | 0.57 | 550 | 967 |
| Sony Xperia C |
0.18 | 151 | 842 | 0.66 | 639 | 962 |
| Oppo R819 |
0.56 | 607 | 1078 | 0.62 | 754 | 1210 |
| Samsung I9082 Galaxy Grand |
0.37 | 382 | 1040 | 0.62 | 586 | 948 |
| Huawei Ascend P6 |
0.14 | 136 | 986 | 0.62 | 670 | 1080 |
| Apple iPhone 5 |
0.13 | 200 | 1490 | 0.48 | 640 | 1320 |
The front display glass isn't too reflective either, which means the
Motorola Moto G screen also does pretty well in direct sunlight. An
admirable overall performance indeed.
Battery Life
The Moto G features a 2,070 mAh battery, but Motorola didn't specify
how long it is expected to last. The capacity isn't too big, but given
the efficient chipset and relatively small screen we were quite
optimistic about its prospects.
The Moto G duly delivered and posted an endurance score of 54,
meaning it will last for more than two full days if you do an hour of
calls, an hour of video watching and an hour of web browsing each day.
The achievement is also much better than what the Moto X managed, but
that one had the always on voice commands eating into its endurance.
We should even give the Motorola Moto G a few extra points here as
it's notably brighter than most of its competitors at their respective
50% settings
Google Now
Google Now was first introduced back in Jelly Bean 4.1 and is
definitely one of the most interesting aspects of the Android OS. Simply
put, it's Google's version of a personal assistant. Google Now is meant
to be kinda Apple's Siri, but it learns constantly from your daily
routines and it also takes cue from the Google searches you do on your
computer, not just the ones on your smartphone. You can also use to
voice command various aspects of your phone.
Unlike the Moto X, where the A8 chipset was always listening for the
OK Google keywords to prop up Google Now, the Moto G can only access it
by swiping up from the virtual Home key or through the dedicated Google
Search app.
Anyway, Google Now gives you short overviews of information it
believes is relevant to you right now in the form of information cards.
Going to work in the morning? Google Now knows this and lets you know
there's a big traffic jam on your usual way to the office, so it offers
you a re-route.
It can interpret a lot of things from your search history as well. If
you've been searching for, let's say, your favorite football team,
Google Now will prepare a card showing you the next match the team is
playing and will provide you score updates once the game begins.
Google Now, if you allow it, can scan your email for upcoming
flights, deliveries or restaurant reservations and let you know when
they are due. There are also numerous kinds of cards like birthdays
(yours and those of your contacts) and what distance you've walked in a
particular month. The last one could definitely feel creepy for some
users, but it's easily turned off from the Google Now settings menu.
The More section of the customization will update automatically with
topics you can choose from once you've start using Google Now search
capabilities.
You can now set reminders straight from Google Now's UI. Just hit the
bottom left icon (the palm with a stretched index finger). There you
can add reminders or just check all the past, ongoing or upcoming
reminders.
Google has also integrated Voice Actions into Now. They can handle
stuff like sending messages (SMS or email), initiating a voice call,
asking for directions, taking a note or opening a site. Google Now can
also launch apps, check and manage your calendar and look for nearby
places of interest and stuff like movie openings in theaters.
You can now set your default transportation method, you favorite
sports teams, company stocks you are following, places you are
interested to visit and more. Once you add items you want to keep an eye
on Google Now will do this instead of you. It will automatically inform
you for various changes, news and updates.
One big advantage of Google Now is that the voice typing
functionality doesn't require an internet connection to work. You can
enter text by speaking anywhere you can use the on-screen keyboard - be
it the Messaging app or a note taking app - without the need for a data
connection as long as you have pre-downloaded the needed language packs
(and those only take about 20-25MB of your storage per pack).
Making voice typing available offline also made it faster as it's not
dependent on your connection. What's even more impressive is that the
transition hasn't cost it anything in terms of accuracy.
Low-powered quad-core
The Moto G comes with a Snapdragon 400 chipset with four Krait 200,
Cortex-A7, cores clocked at 1.2 GHz and the Adreno 305 graphics
processing unit. The phone makes use of 1 GB of RAM.
The Cortex-A7 processor clocked at 1.2GHz delivers a decent mid-range
performance very close to the Cortex-A9 chips, with the added benefit
of having lower power consumption.
BenchmarkPi focuses on the per-core performance. It evaluates how
fast the processing core is and the Moto G scored just under its sibling
by processor - the Xperia C - and not far behind Cortex-A9 competition.
G-reat phonebook
The Moto G phonebook is the stock Android app People, which hasn't been changed since its major redesign in Ice Cream Sandwich.
It's made up of three tabs that you can switch between with sideways
swipes. The middle tab is the default one, listing all of your contacts.
Contacts are listed with a name and a picture to the right. They can be
sorted by first or last name, and viewed as first name or last name
first.
There's a permanent scroll bar available that you can grab and jump
straight to contacts starting with a certain letter. There's regular
search as you type too.
The quick contacts feature triggers on tapping a contact image to
bring up a tabbed popup window. The tabs are phone and email with a
list of the available numbers or addresses. These tabs can be navigated
with sideways swipes as well.
The single contact view displays the contact's name along with a star
to make a contact favorite and a Settings button that lets you edit,
share or delete a contact, as well assign custom ringtones to them or
set the phone to redirect calls from that contact straight to voice
mail.
Under that is a list of all contact info sorted by category - phone numbers, emails, events, notes and so on.
While editing a contact, you can add new fields of different types to
fill in more info for the contact. You can link contacts too, if you've
added the same person on multiple services.
The contacts that the phonebook displays can be filtered by service
(e.g. hide all Facebook contacts) and even group (so you can hide all
contacts that don't belong in a group, for example).
The other two major tabs in the phonebook are Groups and Favorites.
Groups are listed by service (e.g. your Gmail account), while favorites
are a listed as a grid of large contact photos, which is readily
thumbable.
Telephony is stellar
In-call quality of the Moto G was great. Voices come out loud and clear and the device held on to signal without issue.
The dialer features the neon-blue on black theme, but hasn't grown
any new functionality since the Moto X. There's still no smart dialing,
which is a real shame and frankly getting annoying.
The dialer is the first tab of the phone app, the other two being the
Call log and the Favorites tab (you get the same in the Phonebook). In
the Call log, you can't delete individual entries, which is
mind-boggling.
We ran the Moto G through our dedicated loudspeaker test and it may
be the loudest handset we've tested in our office. It smashed the boards
and was actually almost painful to listen to it up close.
| Speakerphone test | Voice, dB | Pink noise/ Music, dB | Ringing phone, dB | Overal score |
| Sony Xperia Z1 (xLOUD) | 65.5 | 62.0 | 65.8 | Below average |
| Sony Xperia C (xLOUD) | 65.3 | 61.7 | 75.7 | Average |
| HTC Desire 600 dual sim | 66.8 | 64.6 | 75.7 | Average |
| Sony Xperia E dual | 66.6 | 74.4 | 62.3 | Average |
| Huawei Ascend P6 | 64.3 | 66.3 | 75.7 | Average |
| Sony Xperia M | 68.5 | 66.6 | 80.7 | Good |
| Samsung Galaxy Grand | 74.1 | 66.2 | 76.0 | Good |
| Motorola Moto G | 81.6 | 75.7 | 82.7 | Excellent |
All you can eat messaging
The messaging section is business as usual but with some
improvements. All SMS/MMS communication is organized into threads - each
thread consists of all messages between you and one of your contacts. A
cool new feature is that you can select multiple threads to mass delete
them.
Each thread is organized like an IM chat session, the latest message
at the bottom. You can manage individual messages (forward, copy,
delete) and even lock them (to prevent deletion). You can use search to
find a specific message in all conversations.
Quick contacts work here too and there's a call shortcut at the top of the screen when viewing a thread.
You can set the Moto G to delete older messages (by default, it keeps
500 texts and 50 MMS). You can activate delivery reports and read
reports too (they are notifications that the receiver has read the
message).
Creating a message
Composing a text is still frustrating as the text box starts off as a
single line and grows only up to three lines, which makes working with
longer texts hard. We mostly let it slide on previous versions, but with
a 4.5" screen there's no excuse not to make the text box a tad bigger.
You can add multimedia (photos, videos, sounds, etc.), which will
convert the message to an MMS. If you need multiple slides or multiple
attachments, you can go to a full-blown MMS editor as well.
Even with the presence of the stock Messaging app Google is set on
retiring it to the bench and setting Hangouts as starter. For now the
app asks for the spot but by adding SMS support it clearly means
business and will gradually be taking over, just like Chrome did with
the Browser of old.
In its defence Hangouts offers a pretty sweet interface. On the left
you have your conversations - tapping on one will show you a threaded
view. A Swipe to the left reveals a mashup of your Google+ and phone
contacts along with a search box.
If the other person has Hangouts on their handset and an active
connection then you can text away freely - you even get a little shadow
under the contact photo to let you know the other person is active.
The Gmail app now features color coded sender images, based on the
first letter of the sender's name. This lets you easily see who your
most popular email correspondences are with. The default app supports
multiple Gmail accounts, but there's no unified inbox.
A cool new feature in Gmail is that you can swipe left or right to move between messages in your inbox.
A recent major update of the app also automatically sorts out your
incoming messages into three inboxes - primary, social, and one for
promotional emails. We found it to work like a charm - it makes sorting
through email messages much easier.
There is also a generic email app for all your other email accounts
and it can handle multiple POP or IMAP inboxes. You have access to the
messages in the original folders that are created online, side by side
with the standard local ones such as inbox, drafts and sent items.
Unlike its Gmail counterpart, this app supports a combined inbox
view. It color codes the inboxes so you can easily tell where each
message came from. Unfortunately, there's no moving between messages
with sideways swipes here.
The keyboard has plenty of room to stretch its legs on the 4.5"
screen and typing is very easy. Keys get even bigger when you switch to
landscape mode - the long screen becomes very comfortable for two-thumb
typing.
In Jelly Bean 4.3 Google introduced a new typing method called
Gesture typing. It works in a manner very similar to Swype - you just
Swipe your finger over the letters you want to type, lifting after each
word is complete. Naturally, the Gesture Typing feature benefits from
the already existing Android word prediction, so you can just click on
the words the keyboard suggests.
A tap on the text area will reveal a "handle" attached to the text
cursor - it's easy and more accurate, which makes correcting mistakes
easier. A double tap will bring up the select options - select word and
select all - with two handles to adjust the start and end of the
selection.
If a word has a typo, it will be underlined in red and when you tap
it, the phone will offer a number of suggested corrections along with
options to add the word to the phone's dictionary or just delete the
word.
Gallery
The Gallery in Android 4.3 Jelly Bean retains its ICS looks and
functionality. The Default view of the gallery is Albums, the first of
which is always the Camera album, which has a camera overlay icon too.
Rather than the familiar stacks, the app uses a grid of photos, two on a
line.
Besides, Album view, you also get Locations (photos are grouped based
on where they were taken), Times (grouped by when they were taken),
People (if the photos have tagged faces in them) and Tags (these are
general tags you can add manually).
A handy option is the Make available offline feature - it lets you
easily select multiple online albums and download them for offline
viewing. The Gallery app supports online albums like Picasa (but not
Facebook).
Getting inside an album displays all the photos in a rectangular grid, which is horizontally scrollable.
The settings menu lets you do simple edits to a photo (rotate, crop)
or go into a more capable editor with a lot more options. The editor can
be accessed from a small icon from the bottom left hand-side corner and
offers light adjustments (so you can bring out the shadows or the
highlights), effects, color styles, red eye correction, straightening a
photo, sharpening and face glow (which detects faces automatically).
Most of these options have a slider that lets you fine-tune the strength
of the effect.
Video player
The video player has retained its stock Android interface. Motorola
however, have added much better codec support than the one found in
Nexus devices. The video player is now perfectly usable out of the box -
it plays a host of formats which include H.263, H.264, MPEG4, VC-1, VP8
in up to 1080p resolution.
The only files the Moto G refused to play were MOV videos and a single DivX file (for unknown reasons).
You can also wirelessly share videos with a Wi-Fi enabled TV. You can
either use the good ol' DLNA technology for sharing multimedia content
or use the Miracast protocol for direct mirroring of the smarthone's
interface on the big screen.
Music player and FM Radio
Google's own music player called Play Music features the spanking
Listen Now feature which tries to determine what you like and the
sequence of your track-changing so that it can start offering you music
you might like to play next.
Google Play Music also gives you the option to stream on your
smartphone your whole music collection that you may have on your
computer. There's also the nifty option of downloading the content onto
the device if you want to have there for connection-less times.
From the Settings key you can get into the equalizer. It can be
turned on and off and features several presets that along with a user
defined one. If you plug in a headset, you can also play with the Bass
boost and 3D effect sliders.
The Now Playing screen uses the song album art and gives you a quick
shortcut to the rest of the artist's songs along with the play controls.
While the player is working, the lockscreen features the album art
and track info for the current song along with simple playback controls.
The notification area also lets you control the playback via an
expandable notification.
The FM Radio is a pretty straightforward affair. Once you plug in a
pair of headphones (to act as an antenna), the app will scan the
stations available in your region. You can also the region manually if
the app doesn't configure it.
Great audio output quality
The Motorola Moto G did quite well in our audio test, posting scores
that would make even a flagship proud and garnishing them with well
above average volume.
When connected to an active external amplifier the smartphone
showed great dynamic range, signal-to-noise ratio and stereo crosstalk.
Its frequency response could be better in the lowest and highest
frequencies but was close to perfect for the rest of the range. There
were no traces of distortion, either.
The great news is, besides some extra stereo crosstalk, there's
virtually no degradation when you plug in a pair of headphones. And
with the volume levels pretty high in both tests, the Moto G earned an
excellent mark here.
And here go the results so you can see for yourselves.
| Test | Frequency response | Noise level | Dynamic
range | THD | IMD + Noise | Stereo crosstalk |
| Motorola Moto G | +0.08, -0.85 | -92.1 | 91.9 | 0.0059 |
0.082 | -91.4 |
| Motorola Moto G (headphones attached) | +0.10, -1.03 | -92.0 | 91.8 | 0.010 |
0.117 | -50.4 |
| Motorola Moto X | +0.25, -1.12 | -91.6 | 91.7 | 0.0029 |
0.243 | -92.8 |
| Motorola Moto X (headphones attached) | +0.24, -1.08 | -91.4 | 91.4 | 0.012 |
0.244 | -55.0 |
| Oppo R819(headphones attached) | +0.58, -0.13 | -91.0 | 90.9 | 0.015 |
0.438 | -48.7 |
| Oppo R819 | +0.04, -0.09 | -92.4 | 92.3 | 0.017 |
0.045 | -87.9 |
| Oppo R819(headphones attached) | +0.58, -0.13 | -91.0 | 90.9 | 0.015 |
0.438 | -48.7 |
| Nokia Lumia 625 | +0.13, -0.10 | -90.3 | 90.3 | 0.013 |
0.355 | -82.5 |
| Nokia Lumia 625 (headphones attached) | +0.24, -0.00 | -90.2 | 90.2 | 0.014 |
0.460 | -83.8 |
| HTC Desire 600 dual sim | +0.04, -0.31 | -91.3 | 89.5 | 0.020 |
0.052 | -89.6 |
| HTC Desire 600 dual sim(headphones attached) | +0.10, -0.25 | -91.1 | 89.4 | 0.020 |
0.045 | -47.5 |
| Samsung Galaxy S4 mini | +0.06, -0.05 | -93.5 | 92.7 | 0.0090 |
0.056 | -86.2 |
| Samsung Galaxy S4 mini (headphones attached) | +0.08, -0.04 | -93.2 | 91.8 | 0.029 |
0.089 | -53.3 |
Great camera
The Moto G comes with a modest camera without many of the bells and
whistles found on some more robust flagship offerings, most notably the
ClearPixel 10MP shooter found on the Moto X. It does, however, come with
HDR support, which has an Auto mode meaning that it can selectively
turn itself on in certain shooting conditions.
The camera does have the same minimalist interface as on the Moto X,
which includes just two on screen buttons on the right-hand side for
video recording and front-facing camera. Taking an image is done simply
by tapping the screen (burst shots with a tap-and-hold).
To access more settings, you can swipe from the left edge of the
screen to the right. This opens up a wheel with a number of toggles,
including HDR, flash, touch focus, slow motion video, panorama,
geo-tagging, widescreen mode, and shutter sound.
You can also zoom in an out by swiping up and down, while a swipe from the right edge of the screen opens up the gallery.
Shooting with the Motorola Moto G takes some getting used to, as the
rather limited number of extended options tend to make your shooting
options less flexible. For example, focus relies primarily on auto mode
to get the shot right, and contrast tends to be on the low side in those
situations. You can compensate for this somewhat by using the touch
focus and exposure feature, but that tends to adjust the exposure so
drastically that many of your images will be severely over or
underexposed.
Shooting without HDR enabled produces generally low contrast images
with an inspiring amount of detail. Colors are accurate and there is
very little noise, but there's a notable corner softness. Unfortunately
the overly agressive noise reduction results in eradicating a fair
amount of fine detail and an oil painting effect is visible whenever you
shoot grass, foliage or similar.
Standard connectivity features
The Motorola Moto G starts off with the basics - quad-band
GSM/GPRS/EDGE and 3G globally, or CDMA support for the North American
model.
Also on board is Bluetooth 4.0 alongside Wi-Fi support which includes b/g/n.
Although it is missing some of the more advanced connectivity
features like NFC, and IR-port, or LTE support, the Moto G does have an
FM radio and GPS.
Google Chrome is solo
The Moto G comes with Google Chrome as its solitary preinstalled
browser. The interface hasn't changed much since Chrome's launch for
Android and is clean and minimalist.
At the top there's an URL bar with a refresh/stop button next to the
tabs and settings buttons. You can switch between tabs with a wide swipe
from either the left or right of the top bar.
Opening the tabs area reveals a list of tabs which can each be closed
again with a left or right swipe. The animation accompanying this
action is neat, too.
Chrome is running on the WebKit rendering engine, so underneath the
minimalist UI it's basically the same as all Android stock browsers. Of course, one of Chrome's strengths is its ability to seamlessly
sync with its desktop version using nothing but your Google account.
This allows you to open an article on your PC and finish reading it on
your mobile phone. It also syncs your bookmarks and favorite sites. Google Chrome is generous on settings as well. You can control almost
every aspect of your web browsing from choosing what content you want
to allow to load like JavaScript, images, cookies and pop-ups.
If you are out of Wi-Fi access, you can, for example, choose
temporarily not to load images. Digging into Chrome's options, you also
have the option to toggle form auto-fill and password storing.
Unfortunately, while Chrome excels in many areas, it falls short on
the one that could be a deal-breaker for many Android users - Flash.
Sadly, as Adobe has dropped support for Android, viewing Flash content
is the one thing you won't be able to do here.
Final words
A Google phone for the masses. At long last. Nothing like the
enigmatic Nexus, drip-fed through the Play Store, attractively priced
but hard-to-get.
OK, go ahead and call the Moto G the poor man's Nexus. Just don't
call it cheap. For what it has to offer, this phone is beyond cheap -
but doesn't look it. And definitely doesn't act like one, for the most
part. Bottom line, it's the Nexus 7 of smartphones - perhaps even
better.
Why and how Motorola can charge so little for the Moto G is not that
hard of a question really, but it's not one you should be bothered with.
Whether it's worth it is even easier - we mean, a 720p screen and
Snapdragon 400 at well less than €200 is a steal. And there's a KitKat
update on the way.
The limited storage is the obvious flipside, aggravated by the
lack of an expansion slot. It renders the phone almost useless as a
medial playback device and not too great for gaming either - not with
titles with larger footprint anyway.
OK, Google wants your stuff up there in the cloud, and the free 50GB
of Google Drive are some consolation. By giving up immediate cash
profits off the Moto G, Google is trying to win on two fronts - tying
more and more users into its services and making Motorola relevant
again.
The second point is perhaps a preparation for some day when Google
decides to really get behind the brand it owns and, for a change, stop
outsourcing its flagships. For now it seems like it's working. Once a
household name for overdesigned hardware and excess of bloatware,
Motorola is now linked to two devices people are talking about and
loving as well.
So, let's look at the Moto G - easy to spot in a crowd of budget
droids and basic Lumias, which make the bulk of devices in the price
bracket - and certainly watched with suspicion bordering on fear by the
so-called upper-midrangers. All well-deserved by the way.
Business reason says that price-wise the Moto G should've been pitted
against the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S4 mini, the Sony Xperia SP,
the Nexus 4 and the previous generation of flagships such as the Samsung
Galaxy SIII. Except that it isn't. It's cheaper. But the amazing thing
is it can actually stand such a comparison. Yet, with that unbelievable
price tag, it's getting ready to walk all over the cheap droids and
Windows-powered smartphones.
