Best Budget Smartphone : Motorola Moto G

Motorola Moto G

Review

PROS

 Excellent price to performance ratio

 Good battery life

Well built

Good display

Stock Android UI

CONS

Thick and heavy for its size

Non expandable storage

Low spec camera

MRP: B12499

Summary

The Moto G is totally worth the price tag. With great performance and a simple design, the smartphone is perfect for someone looking for a budget Android smartphone.

Google took over Motorola for about $12.5 billion and recently sold it off to Lenovo for a mere $2.91 billion. While all this was strange, the development led to Motorola producing one of the most affordable Android smartphones; coming with specs almost as good as the Nexus 4. 

The Moto G, which has launched in India as we write, has been gaining a lot of attention due to the combination of speculated pricing and healthy specifications. The smartphone has officially been priced at Rs. 13,999 for the 16GB version and Rs.12,499 for the 8GB version. Let’s check, if the smartphone does give a bigger bang for the buck.

Specifications

The smartphone features a 4.5-inch 720p IPS display, a 1.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 400 processor, 1GB of RAM, 8GB/16GB internal memory, a 5MP rear camera with an LED flash, a 1.3MP front camera, 3G, Wi-Fi, a 2070mAh battery and runs on Android 4.4.2 KitKat.  

Design and build

The Moto G doesn’t have a flashy design but rather has a simple no-nonsense design and it looks a lot like its elder brother, the Moto X. The display on the smartphone is an IPS panel which measures 4.5 inches with a resolution of 1280x720 pixels. The quality of the display is quite good when compared to phones in the similar range. The glass on top of the display completely covers the front of the smartphone and it is prone to smudges and fingerprints.

On top of the display there is a 1.3MP camera, the earpiece and the usual sensors. The right edge has the lock/power key and volume control keys. Both have a chrome finish. The top has the 3.5mm audio jack and the bottom has a microUSB port. At the back you can see the 5MP camera with an LED flash and a loudspeaker grill. The back panel is made of plastic which is removable. Removing the panel unveils the microSIM card slot and the 2070mAh battery (which is non-user replaceable). One can also choose from a variety of colored back panels available for the Moto G.

The back of the Moto G has a slight hump which gives it a nice curve making it fit well in the hand. However the smartphone seems a quite heavy considering its size. Overall we are very pleased with the design and Motorola has done a good job with the Moto G.

OS and performance

The results of some standard benchmark tests on the Moto G including Antutu, Quadrant, Smartbench and 3DMark came out to be very good thanks to the Snapdragon 400 SoC powering the device.

Check out the results below:

 

Everyday performance on the smartphone turned out to be pleasing as well; probably because it runs on stock Android 4.4.2 so there aren’t any custom UI’s or layers which we personally like. Scrolling through the menu and home screen is smooth and multitasking didn’t slow down the smartphone at any point of time.

The camera on the Moto G has a 5MP sensor which obviously isn’t the best in class but works quite well. There isn’t a lot of shutter lag and the quality of pictures is very much acceptable. Under good lighting conditions, pictures turned out to be sharp and had decent details. Low light conditions made the pictures lose some details and you can see some amount of grain. The camera can record 720p videos which are fairly good and has a nice punch in audio.

You can check out some of the camera samples below:

A 2,070mAh battery juices up the Moto G which is ample enough as it doesn’t have a huge display. Our battery test revealed that on a full charge you can continuously run a full HD video for five and a half hours.

The Adreno 305 GPU proved to be slightly underpowered in the benchmark tests but as we have mentioned earlier, real life performance matters. Gaming was a sheer pleasure on the 4.5 inch display as the smartphone was able to run Asphalt 8 and FIFA 14 without any hiccups. The Moto G also managed to run almost every video format without any issues.

It is worth mentioning that the Moto G comes packed with a very loud speaker. It isn’t very crisp, but its loud enough to play music in a small room.

Conclusion

By far, this has been one of the best smartphones that one can buy on this budget. Simple looks, respectable specifications and a competitive price; Motorola has really done it right this time. But sadly, it is the only smartphone that the company has launched in India in the past one year and its already been called as the poor man’s Nexus.

However, if you are looking for good performance at low cost, then you should definitely go for the Moto G; especially the 16GB version which is available for Rs. 13,999. There are other smartphones that provide similar and even better specifications at the same price point but to be honest we think Moto G is truly the “no non-sense” budget Android smartphone.

Specifications

Basic Information
Model	Moto G
Launch Date (Global)	2013-11-13
Operating System	Android OS
OS Version	4.3
Type	Smartphone
Display
Screen Size (in inches)	4.5
Display Technology	HD Capacitive touchscreen
Screen Resolution (in pixels)	720 x 1280
Display Features	Multi touch, Corning Gorilla Glass 3
Camera
Camera Features	Camera Features
Camera Megapixel	Camera Megapixel
Front Camera Megapixel	Front Camera Megapixel
Battery
Battery Capacity (mAh)	2070
Features
Features	Dual SIM
Keypad Type	Touch Screen Keypad
Connectivity
Wireless Connectivity	3G Internet, WiFi, Bluetooth
Interfaces	MicroUSB
Headphone Port	3.5mm
Technical Specification
CPU	Qualcomm Snapdragon 400
CPU Speed	1.2 GHz
Processor Cores	Quad
RAM	1 GB
GPU	Adreno 305
Weight (in Grams)	143
Memory
Storage	8 GB
Removable Storage (Yes or No)	N

Where to Buy

 Motorola Photon 4G MB855 Android mobile (Black)

B15,350.00

Moto G (Black, with 16 GB)

B 13,999.00

Moto G (Black, with 8 GB)

B 12,499.00

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Next Post will deal with Xolo Play T1000 

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10 Reasons Why Android Is Preferred Over iOS 7

When new, colorful, vibrant OSs, like Android and Windows Phone, were making their head ways in to consumer’s psyche, iOS remained nearly still since its debut. iOS 7 is the first attempt by Apple at change. It turned out to be complete aesthetic overhaul of the interface. From the moment you turn on an iPhone running iOS 7, it’s different—every option, every app. The OS also sports amazing features like the Control Center, Lock Screen, Gestures Controls, Slide to Unlock, Touch ID. 

In the mobile market a cold war is going on among Android and iOS for outright supremacy. Android’s success is mainly based on the sales as well as its device options. Even though iOS platform is well built and its security is top-notch, Apple’s iOS is not held in such high regard. Apple’s software has high quality that can be compared to Android but it lacks many features that users find on Android. Now a days a strong reason is required for the user to select an Android device over an iOS one. All said and done, Android can still beat iOS in 10 ways, read on to know them as compiled by Business Insider.

Customization :

Android includes the option to customize your Smartphone according to your taste. You can change your default home screen with vibrant themes. Jelly Bean 4.3 enables you to make different accounts which containing selected apps. This comes in handy when you have kids who get their hands on your handset. In comparison, iOS doesn't offer customizing option to their users.

Sharing Options :

The new iOS helps the user to share the content of the handset through only a few choices like Message, Mail, Twitter, Facebook and Flickr. But Android opens up the endless options for the sharing task. It can list out all the apps that are capable of sharing the content, be it Mail, Whats App or WeChat. The capability also gives the consumers to try out many sharing apps that are flooding the Google Play Store. Android with its endless sharing option is the king in sharing domain.

Notification :

Even if iOS 7 has restored its Notification Centre, Android is still better. Notification Center gets a huge overhaul and things are pretty different in iOS 7. Now you have notifications from the calendar showing what's coming up, as well as a quick summary of the weather. The overcrowded notification can annoy you. And iOS7 only displays the updates, like new mail or SMS, but you have to go the apps to see the content you just received. However with Android's notification drawer, you can take action and respond without opening whatever app.

Third-party Software Keyboards :

There not many complaints about the typing experience on iOS 7, but Android still offers more options. Android has more options in keyboard which is not available on iOS. While iOS users depend on default keyboards, Android users can replace the default key board with third party keyboards from Play Store. All Android Jelly Bean versions can have this third party keyboards that are very easy to use and self-explanatory.

Visible File Systems :

As soon as you plug Android device to your PC, a file system will appear on the screen as if you have plugged a memory device. This makes the file transfer easier from one folder to another folder. But iOS device does not give this type of access to all your files. Apple has very tedious method of converting files to the compatible form before they are transferred on to iOS.

Multimedia Ease :

Apple device requires iTunes to load songs to its music player, but Android never cares about the source of the music. Android has music players like Play Music and Power Amp, but even with all the features iOS requires iTunes. Similarly iOS needs iPhoto to access your photo and to transfer them. But Android does not require any software for converting photo or downloading songs just transfer and enjoy.

Images with Contact List :

Android can automatically import photos for your contacts from the contacts email accounts. Which makes it a lot easier to see your friends contact pictures in your virtual address book than it is with iOS 7.

Google Now Trumps Siri :

Google Search is the most preferred search engine by the masses. Google Now is extremely quick and can parse web pages to find the most relevant information. On the other hand, Siri produces results from Microsoft’s Bing search engine. However Siri can be appreciative when it comes to "assistant" commands, like when you want to set up an internal calendar event.

Applications :

Though Google Play doesn’t offer better quality apps than App Store, there are plenty of free apps that can fulfill your specific needs.

Both operating systems include applications that are similar. For instance, signing into Gmail account on iOS gives the same experience as it does on Android. If you are a Gmail user it is better to consider Android, as Google apps work much better on Android than on iOS. As Android boasts a default Gmail account, it is not possible to configure default Gmail account on iOS. Moreover it does not pull in email ID of people you have contacted before. Even though Gmail app is available for download on iOS, it does not run smoothly as on the Android.

Unlock Options :

In Android device, you can unlock the phone to any app you want.,For instance, unlocking can be done from menus likecontacts, messages, camera by using a single unlocking swipe. Even if the finger print scanner on iOS is good enough, it does not have unlock options like Android.

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In my Next Post we will discuss about the Best Budget Smartphones like,  Motorola Moto G, Xolo Play T1000, Nokia Lumia 525, Xolo Q700 and lots more.......

!!! Thanks for a being Patient Reader

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