The Moto G4 and G4 Plus represent the fourth entries in Motorola’s Moto G line. For me, the Moto G has always been about balancing the different features of a smartphone to provide a well-rounded smartphone that doesn’t really excel in any area, but does well in all of them. One would expect that as a product is continually developed, its quality will improve with each iteration. However, in the smartphone market there have been devices where this has not been the case. On paper, the specs of the Moto G4 and G4 Plus make them look like obvious improvements over the 2015 Moto G, but I’m not so sure that you can truly say that based on their specs alone. Over the course of this review I’ve looked at each aspect of the Moto G in detail, and I found that some areas impressed, while others left something to be desired. I think the question of whether or not a user should buy the Moto G4 or Moto G4 Plus is heavily dependent on what they value in a smartphone, so before trying to make any conclusions it’s worth going over how each aspect of the phones compared to their predecessor.
At first glance the chassis of the Moto G4 seems to represent an upgrade over the 2015 model. It’s thinner, and at least in my view the slightly rubbery feeling plastic back feels nicer than the hard plastic shell from the 2015 Moto G. However, Motorola has made a number of design decisions that I consider questionable at best. By far the worst one is the choice of buttons. I already went over this in detail in the intro, but the buttons really are terrible and the volume rocker is actually difficult to use because of it. The size of the phone also poses problems. Making the phone much larger has helped to slim it down while still putting in a large battery, but it comes at the cost of usability. I find the 2015 Moto G much easier to use due to its 5-inch display, even though it’s a thicker phone and a bit more slippery in the hand due to the hardness of the back cover. The Moto G was one of the only mid-range Android devices that hadn’t moved to 5.5-inches, and now there are really no options for someone looking to get a mid-range 5-inch Android smartphone.