The Moto G has been a hugely popular phone in the past two years, bringing a new level of power to the’affordable’ smartphone market – and with the new Moto G, the brand is hoping to continue that trend.
The talk on stage was of the new Moto G being the’Moto G-killer’ and with the spec list on offer, it looks promising.
The big upgrades here are to the camera and the design, with IPX7-rated protection against water(thus enabling you to take it into the shower… if that’s your kind of thing) and a new 13MP camera.Given this is a phone that will £159 when it lands in the UK(around$250 / AU$340), but more accurate pricing to follow) that’s not a bad thing – Motorola is claiming the Moto G will have a’best in class’ camera experience, which seems to bear out in testing.
The reason this’guarantee’ has been unveiled is that it packs the same 13MP sensor that we saw on the Google Nexus 6 - that wasn’t a market-leading camera experience, but that was on a phone that was three times the cost as we’re seeing here.The new Moto G also packs in an IR reflector to help reduce glare in photos, so while it might not be as good as the Samsung Galaxy S6 in terms of photo-ability, it should wipe the floor with its peers.
It also has the same twist to open camera experience as well as the’touch anywhere’ ability when taking a picture. I’m still not convinced that this is a great way to open the camera – the double tap of a button is a much easier gesture to remember, which is why it’s weird Samsung was the one to get it right first.The feel of these is, once again, a big upgrade on last year’s model, with the new grippiness helping with using the phone in the water. The smooth plastic of last year has gone, and the change definitely helps it feel more premium.
The 5-inch display doesn’t overpower in the hand either - if you’re coming from the first Moto G then you might find that you’ll have to shift the phone around in the hand a little more, but it’s nothing terrible and a much more compact experience than holding most of the flagship smartphones on the market.
The screen itself, a 720p 5-inch affair(which is what I’m taking from the fact Moto said’HD’ rather than’Full HD’) is pretty bright and vivid for a low cost handset - it’s a little washed out at times, but again for the price it’s excellent.