Would you like a Nexus but find it too expensive? You are not willing to spend more than € 200 for a smartphone but still want a clean, fast and powerful experience? Do you want to restore confidence in Motorola, a company that has learned from its mistakes and got off to a great start? Motorola Moto G is the device for you!
A device from interesting features despite the price that remains low. The 2013 version has conquered the world of the medium-low range, will its successor be able to stand up to it? Let's find out together!
Bottle
Packaging that remains minimal as for last year's model. To save Motorola includes in the box only the device and a USB / Micro-USB cable for charging and data exchange.
No wall charger and no headphones. If you missed it, here's the unboxing video.
Design and Ergonomics
Comparison with its version from last year and with the other models in the Motorola range is mandatory. The design remains very similar to the previous ones however, taking up some details already seen on Moto E.
Not too premium materials, frame that wraps around the side of the device in glossy plastic e back cover in rubberized plastic. However, the construction is very good and will certainly not make us regret the purchase.
The rear tires together with the rounded shape of the rear of this Moto G ensure a firm and secure grip despite the generous dimensions of 141.5 x 70.7 mm. 11 mm thick in the most central part but which decreases significantly at the edges. The plastic materials keep the device light enough, About 149 g.
Sometimes it is difficult to reach all parts of the display given the size of the device but one-handed use is not impossible.
Very clean and well thought out design. In the back we find only the camera, the flash and the motorola logo. No speaker that has been removed from the back of the device and placed in the front in the form of Moto E-style stereo speakers.
Volume and power buttons located on the right side and also made of plastic.
Hardware
The Motorola Moto G is powered by a CPU Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 MSM8226 quad-core Cortex-A7 da 1,2 GHz flanked by one Adreno GPU 305 e 1GB RAM.
This union of CPU, GPU and RAM is used in most of the medium-low-end devices on the market and offers excellent performance without raising the final price to the consumer too much. These days our Moto G has never had problems with slowdowns, fluidity or slowness of any kind. Of course, don't expect to use heavy apps like Death Trigger and Real Racing 3 at maximum detail without some fps drop.
One of the main novelties of this smartphone is certainly the 5 ″ display with HD resolution 1280 x 720 pixels which replaces the 4,7 ″ one with the same resolution as the previous version. We therefore lose something in terms of pixel density and the colors are not as bright but it still remains a excellent display with very well calibrated and natural colors. The viewing angles and brightness are also excellent.
Present all the antennas (such as WiFi and BT) and sensors (brightness, proximity, etc ...) to enjoy atruly complete experience. Memory from 8 or 16 GB expandable via MicroSD.
Software
True strength of Motorola devices from 2013 onwards. No heavy custom interfaces. No useless programs that people will never use. Android 4.4.4 KitKat stock with only a few apps added via download from the Play Store.
With the latest update, a default il Google Experience Launcher making the user experience truly similar to that of a Google Nexus. Updates that will surely be as fast as happened with the previous generation of winged house devices.
Among the pre-installed apps we find Motorola Alert which allows us to send automatic messages based on our location. Some kind of smoke signal that says “Hey! I'm fine!". Also present Motorola Assist which instead understands when we are in the car, at home or in a meeting and allows us to perform customized and automatic functions based on the context in which we find ourselves. Motorola Migrate instead it will allow us to transfer our content from our old device to the new one.
Multimedia
Photographic department that does not surprise but does not even disappoint. Let's find one 8Mpx rear camera us single flash LED and records video up to 720p. Autofocus, Touch-to-Focus e HDR present but the photos are quite average. Not beautiful but not ugly either. To take occasional photos is more than enough. Front camera from 2MP only useful for quick video calls with Hangouts or Skype.
The music changes as far as the audio department is concerned (pardon the pun). The two front stereo speakers are excellent that make watching videos and gaming experience a real pleasure. They are not as powerful as HTC's BoomSound speakers but they are certainly better than the rear speakers of the competition. Clean sound though not too rich.
Autonomy
Although the back cover is removable, the battery is not. In fact, we find one battery from 2070 mAh hidden inside the plastic body of the device.
Battery that allowed me to get to the end of the day without too much effort but without ever exceeding 3 hours of screen-on out of a total of 10-12 hours away from the charger. We could have done much better but it is no worse than other devices that we have already seen even in the higher range.
Value for money
Great. Device whose price should be 179 € like its predecessor but which is currently on sale at around 190-200 €. Still great price for a device that guarantees a beautiful and fast experience, with a generous display and guaranteed fast updates.
Conclusions
Device that I have recommended to many last year and will continue to recommend with this year's release. He convinced me and a lot too. A little big size for this type of device but it is not exaggerated and in hand it is a pleasure. Excellent performance thanks also to the very clean and optimized software. Really low price, just think who devices with the same characteristics are also sold for € 300-400 by other competing houses. Great buy for those who want a fast, no-nonsense pre-installed device.
