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Moto G4 Plus Review
by Roydon Cerejo
It’s no secret that India loves Motorola’s Moto line of smartphones. Strong sales of both the Moto G and Moto E series have helped Motorola ( or to be precise now, Moto by Lenovo) secure a strong foothold in the Indian market. Among all the phones under the Moto brand, the Moto G series has been the most popular. In our opinion, Moto G smartphones have always struck a good balance between features and price, not to mention that undeniable dependability of software updates that the entire series enjoys.
After Motorola Mobility’s acquisition by Lenovo, the fourth generation Moto G marks the debut of Lenovo’s branding on a Moto smartphone. The classic Motorola logo is present too but it’s pretty clear that Lenovo aims to make Moto a sub-brand of itself, especially considering the company’s plans to replace its Vibe range with Moto smartphones.
The Moto G ( Gen 3) ( Review) and the Moto G ( Turbo Edition) ( Review) were both solid performers but if we had any criticism, it would have to be their lacklustre camera performance, which Motorola has struggled with on pretty much all of its phones. The Moto G4 Plus, a better equipped version of the Moto G4, aims to change that perception for good with its improved camera and software. Let’s see how well it succeeds in achieving its goal.
Look and feel
Motorola’s iconic smartphone design continues to live on in the G4 Plus. Although not as distinct as before, it’s certainly identifiable as a Moto product. The rounded metal frame coupled with the rubber back cover offers good ergonomics and grip. The phone is a fair bit larger than its predecessors, thanks to the 5.5-inch full-HD TFT display. Sunlight legibility is very good and the display manages to produce punchy colours and good black levels. Gorilla Glass 3 is also present for added protection. The G4 Plus is fairly slim at 7.9mm and has good weight distribution so it doesn’t feel heavy when you hold it.
The Moto G4 Plus ditches the trademark bottom grille of the Moto G series for a fingerprint sensor. It’s not a physical button but it is slightly raised to help you find it by touch alone. The sensor can recognise your fingerprints from any angle and apart from a few intermittent misreads, it works very well all the time.
The buttons on the side are placed well within the reach of your fingertips and the power button has ridges on it to make easily identifiable. The headphones socket and Micro-USB port take their places on the top and bottom respectively.
The back is mostly flat as opposed to the earlier curved designs of Moto G models, apart from the slight bump that’s present around the camera module. The 16-megapixel sensor is accompanied by a dual-tone LED flash and a laser autofocus system, which is a substantial upgrade.
Taking off the back cover, you’ll see the non-removable 3000mAh battery and slots on the side for a microSD card ( up to 128GB) and two Micro-SIMs. The Moto G4 Plus comes with Nano-to-Micro SIM card adapters, which is a thoughtful touch. One feature that’s missing is the IP67 certification which earlier variants boasted of.
The retail box contains a TurboPower charger ( 25W) and a headset. The wall charger is not modular so you will need a separate USB cable for data transfer. The headset looks and feels a bit cheap, in our opinion, and it didn’t fit very well in our ears.
Specifications and features
In terms of power, the Moto G4 Plus uses Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 617 SoC, which is an octa-core chip running at 1.5GHz. This is the same SoC that was used in the HTC One A9 ( Review) . You also get 3GB of RAM and 32GB of onboard storage. The phone will also be available with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage at a lower price. Other specifications include 4G LTE ( Category 4) , Bluetooth 4.1 Low Energy, dual-band Wi-Fi b/g/n, GPS, GLONASS, USB-OTG, and FM radio. NFC is not present.