Motorola entered the Indian market again with a very strong product, Moto G. it caused a lot of stir in the market and made almost every other device feel overpriced. It was offered with a nice hardware, an impressive display and an attractive price tag. This device started the trend of powerful budget devices and we saw a lot of impressive devices come out to compete with the Moto G. now they have updated this device and launched the second generation Moto G in the Indian market. Indian has been among the very first markets to receive this device which indicates how important the market is for the manufacturer. We explored the new Moto G to figure out why you should pick this device.
Table of Contents
Design:
They have worked on the design of this device and now it looks more premium as compared to the previous device. It is bigger because of the larger display size but they have made this one easy to handle. The edges are curved nicely making it comfortable to use with one hand. It feels somewhat similar to the costlier Moto X which isn’t a bad thing at all. However they have retained design elements from the previous generation device and a look at the back panel would tell you that it is a Moto G. they have put two speakers up front on this device for good audio quality. The speakers go one each above and below the display like HTC devices so you get nice stereo effect when you hold the device in landscape. The device also gets a water resistant coating. This won’t allow you to take a bath with the device but it can survive water splashes without any trouble.
Display:
This Moto G comes with a 5 inch display instead of the 4.5 inch display on the previous Moto G. now this is a matter of personal choices but a bigger display would translate into more workspace. Watching videos and playing games would be more fun on a bigger display. The display resolution remains the same so there is a little drop in pixel density but the number is still pretty decent. It is an IPS LCD panel like the previous generation device so you don’t have to worry about quality of display. It is superb with well saturated colours and good contrast ratios. It is reasonably crisp and using it outdoors won’t be an issue either. To protect against scratches, the display comes with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection just like the old Moto G.
Storage
The new Moto G retains the same hardware specifications as the previous generation device but there is a very welcome change here. The previous device lacked a micro SD card slot and was disliked by many for this reason and it was justified to some extent. You get just over 5 GB of available memory on the 8 GB variant and it doesn’t make much sense. The 16 GB variant was okay though. This time, they have launched the 16 GB variant of the new Moto G and it comes with a micro SD card slot. There is no word on the 8 GB variant though it would be a good deal as well because this time it would have a micro SD card slot. Rest of the hardware is same as the previous device. A Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 chipset with 1.2 GHz quad core processor. You get 1 GB of RAM on this device as well. Apart from this, you get dual SIM card support, HSDPA support, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and micro USB 2.0.
Camera:
The first generation Moto G used to come with a 5 megapixel primary camera. It has got features like HDR and autofocus. The camera quality was acceptable for a 5 megapixel camera but since then, many other devices came in with better cameras for similar cost. So to take care of that, the new Moto G has got an 8 megapixel camera. If you look at the mainstream manufacturers, you would usually find similar cameras in relatively costlier devices. The camera offers similar features as the previous device but the quality has gone up considerably with the resolution. The camera is fast and there is very small lag between a tap on the capture key and release of shutter. The camera app is also quite fast to launch. The front camera resolution has also gone up. Earlier it used to have a 1.3 megapixel camera but this version has got a 2 megapixel front camera.
Price:
This is a very important factor for a device like this. The first generation Moto G managed to sell in impressive numbers because it was priced very well for its specifications. Apart from that, there were no devices that could match it in terms of value for money. We had some devices from the domestic manufacturers but they couldn’t match it in terms of all round value. Now however, we have seen many devices that offer almost as good value. But thankfully they have priced this device very well and to take care of the rivals, they have priced it even lower than last time.
The new Moto G with 16 GB internal storage is priced at INR 12,999 and at this price, we think it is an excellent value. Obviously you need to ignore the Xiaomi Redmi 1S and Xiaomi Mi3 or even this Moto G might seem like a deal not so attractive. Otherwise it is a great device and comes at a price point where it would compete with device above and below it equally. If you are looking for alternatives, you can consider the Asus Zenfone 5. It also offers a 5 inch HD display like the Moto G but runs Intel hardware. The device looks premium as compared to the Moto G and comes at similar price as the Motorola. It is also on offer as an 8 GB device which is priced lower.