1. Introduction and design 2. Key features 3. Specs and performance 4. Camera 5. Music, movies and gaming 6. Competition 7. Verdict
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OUR VERDICT
The Moto G4 Plus is an impressive phone for the money and yet more evidence that the gap between flagships and budget smartphones is still closing.
FOR
Speedy, smooth performance
Great camera
Bright, crisp display
AGAINST
Plastic body
Speaker isn’t great
No NFC or Android pay
Motorola Moto G4 Plus deals
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$174.99
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$174.99
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€139.00
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Update: The Moto G4 Plus is, hands down, one of the best smartphones you can purchase if you’re on a budget or otherwise. However, the Moto G5 Plus is even better.
It’s drastically different in terms of design, looking more like a flagship model than just another budget phone. Better yet, it keeps everything that made the G4 Plus great and improved upon it.
See all Motorola Moto G4 Plus deals ( 25 found)
Simply put, it’s hard to recommend the G4 Plus from a value perspective now that the G5 Plus has come out and is on sale for a lower price than last year’s model launched with.
But if you are cool with last year’s tech, Android Nougat is now available for the Moto G4 Plus, making this an even better deal than it already was.
Very few phones offer support for the latest and greatest Android OS, but it’s encouraging to see Moto being one of the first to be updating its full catalog of devices.
Original review follows below.
Lenovo - the new owner of the Motorola brand - is aiming the Moto G4 Plus at the budget end of the Android market, but it’s a couple of rungs up the ladder from the entry-level Moto G4 Play.
Considering there’s a 5.5-inch 1080p screen, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 with 2GB of RAM, a 3, 000mAh battery, a 16MP camera, and almost stock Android Nougat, the Moto G4 Plus looks a very impressive smartphone for its low price tag.
While Lenovo doesn’t seem to have messed with the Moto brand it has indulged in a confusing three-way split, giving us the Moto G4 Play, the Moto G4, and the Moto G4 Plus.
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MOTO G4 PLUS SPECS
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Weight: 155g
Dimensions: 153 x 76.6 x 9.8 mm
OS: Android 6
Screen size: 5.5-inch
Screen Resolution: 1080 x 1920
CPU: Snapdragon 617
RAM: 2GB
Storage: 16GB
Battery: 3000mAh
Rear camera: 16MP
Front camera: 5MP
The thing is, the Plus part of the name probably doesn’t mean what you think it does. It has exactly the same 5.5-inch 1080p display as its cheaper sibling, and most of the internal specs, including the processor, are identical.
All that’s different is the enhanced 16MP camera with a pro mode and a combination of laser and phase detect autofocus, plus the addition of a fingerprint sensor.
Is that really enough to justify the price bump? Let’s take a closer look.
Moto G4 Plus price
The Moto G4 Plus is the most expensive of Moto’s G4 trio, with an initial price tag of £199 ( $249, around AU$325) .
Thing is, it’s now been reduced to just £184.99 in the UK, making the G4 Plus looking like an even better bet - on paper at least.
Only the 16GB with storage with 2GB of RAM option is available in the the UK, with the US handset also offering a 64GB storage + 4GB of RAM option for a Moto G4 Plus price of $269 ( down from $299.99 since launch) .
The Moto G4 Play is the runt of the litter at £115.98 ( $99.99, around AU$135) , while the Moto G4 now sells for £149 ( $149.99, around AU$200) .
Design
We’ve come a long way from the original, chubby Moto G, but the G4 Plus is still unmistakably related. It’s like the first-generation Moto G has been put in a press, shaving a few millimetres off its girth and stretching the screen by an inch.
This is an unashamedly plastic smartphone with a large, 5.5-inch display. There’s a tough, smoothly curved plastic frame around the glass front. The speaker at the top has a subtle metallic highlight around it and there’s a raised, small, square fingerprint sensor at the bottom.
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The textured power button and the volume rocker are on the right spine. There’s a Micro USB port on the bottom edge and a standard 3.5mm audio jack up top.
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Flip it over and you’ll find a lightly textured, removable plastic back, a lozenge-shaped camera lens and flash with the same metallic highlight as the speaker, and the dimpled Moto logo.
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There’s a gap at the bottom, so you can prize the back off with a thumbnail. You’ll find a microSD card slot and a SIM card slot inside, but the battery isn’t removable. The G4 Plus takes a microSIM card, but there’s also a handy frame so you can slot a nanoSIM in there instead.
There’s nothing glaringly ugly about the design, but if you had to pick a single word to describe it, then dull would be in the running.
My review unit has the ’Dark Moon’ frame, which you might more reasonably describe as grey, and the pitch black back with metallic highlights in silver.
If you order directly from the Motorola website, you can use Moto Maker