Ask anyone in their 60’s, 70’s or even those in their 50’s about Motorola and immediately, you’d be taken back to the past where mobile phones were as big as today’s water bottles and also weighed just about that on full capacity. In other words, Motorola has been in the game for a very long time and still has stood the test of time with their products and services. With that being said, today we find out if the company’s revamped version of the Moto G is still relevant by today’s standards after about a week of tinkering with the Moto G (2nd Gen.).
Moto G (2nd Gen.) Hardware Specifications:
Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 Quad-Core 1.2GHz CPU
RAM/ROM: 1GB RAM/8GB ROM with MicroSD expansion up to 32GB
Display: 5″ HD (1280×720) IPS LCD panel with Corning Gorilla Glass 3
Camera: 8MP (Main) with LED flash, 2MP (Front)
Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, BT 4.0 LE
Features: Dual front-firing speakers & microphones, matte-textured water resistant body
Networks: GSM/GPRS/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz), UMTS/HSPA+ (850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz)
Battery: Non-removable Li-Ion 2070mAh
Ergonomically designed
he Moto G’s aesthetics is as pure as the company intended it to be, subtracting all the unwanted clutter around the device. Motorola definitely had maximum ergonomics in mind as the phone is nicely contoured which gives it a tinge of premium feel in hand although its chassis is made of polycarbonate – read plastic. The front of the phone is adorned with a 5” IPS LCD panel, stereo front-firing speakers, a proximity sensor, a 2MP camera alongside the LED for notifications.
Flipping the phone over to the back and one will immediately notice the smooth matte-textured Motorola shell, the dimpled Motorola logo and also the 8MP camera with LED flash. A good point to note is that the shell is easily smudged or smeared and you might find yourself needing to whip out your hanky from time to time for cleaning purposes if you intend to get any other colored shell besides Black. On a side note, I have a particular affinity to that little dimple on the back for some unknown reason. A 3.5mm jack accompanied with a microphone is fitted at the top of the phone while the bottom is sashayed with the standard MicroUSB port. The Power Button and Volume Rockers are located on the right while the left of the device is left bare.
As mentioned earlier, the Moto G (2nd Gen.) is equipped with a 5” 720p IPS LCD Panel reinforced with Corning Gorilla Glass 3. As far as color reproduction is concerned, the panel is rich with 16M colors and a pixel density of 294 ppi, however, the colors are more vivid as compared to my previous daily driver, the ASUS Zenfone 5. With its rightly engineered IPS LCD panel, watching movies or just browsing the web is an immense joy and 5” is ideal for one-handed usage too. The Moto G also has a screen-to-body ratio of 68.9%, a wide viewing angle and is legible under direct/harsh sunlight thanks to its latest upgrade to Android 5.0 Lollipop which has a more dynamic Adaptive Brightness setting. I found this setting particularly useful in dark rooms as the screen’s brightness is able to drop below the average intensity, which is definitely a plus point if one wishes to preserve eyesight and still use the device in the dark.
Impressive software experience
Do not let the specs sheet fool you when you find out that the Moto G (2nd Gen.) comes with only 1GB of RAM and a Snapdragon 400 1.2GHz CPU as this device is able to take more hits than I expected it to and I was blown away when I first found out how fluid and responsive the Stock Android (with Google Play launcher) was. Motorola has promised a Pure Android experience with less bloatware and indeed they have done their level best with the Android 4.4.4 KitKat as the device is snappy, as they claim it to be. Multitasking is not too hard of a feat for the Moto G and with the Snapdragon 400 chipset, power efficiency is also greatly maximized (more on that in the Battery Life section).
My only gripe was that the company took out some important apps that I constantly use on a daily basis with their so-called, Pure Android experience, namely, the File Manager, Flashlight and Sound Recorder. The Flashlight issue was later fixed with the Lollipop update but the File Manager and Sound Recorder was still absent and this got me a little irked. Hence, I resorted to transfer the two said apps from my Zenfone 5 to the Moto G because I tend to clear and make new folders quite often. Other than those two apps (and Tasker for a little automation) the rest of the experience was pure in its sense.
Moving on, a couple of days into using Android KitKat on the device, I found myself updating to the latest Android 5.0 Lollipop which promises an even more fluid experience. Of course I jumped right on it!
The update was more than welcomed as it enhanced my user experience tremendously because prior to the update, there were some issues with KitKat as I found out that certain apps (e.g. Telegram) were not responsive and kept crashing on the Moto G (2nd Gen.) – and this was somehow concluded (by users from all over the world) to be a bug in the software. But no more nonsense like that as the Lollipop update improved the stability of the device overall with consistent notifications for the said GCM apps. On the look and feel of Lollipop, the Notifications Bar has also been revamped and below is the comparison with the KitKat on the Left and Lollipop on the Right.
Major overhauls can also be seen on the Lock Screen as incoming notifications are now in card-like form and can be swiped away or either opened by double tapping. This neat feature is useful as productivity is increased as no time is wasted having to unlock the phone and tending to individual notifications one at a time. The Display settings of the phone is tweak-able as well under Ambient Settings where the screen will light up when a notification arrives if the phone is locked. The white LED indicator is also an added classic touch. As far as everything else on the software is concerned, it’s is pretty much the same and you wouldn’t be cracking your head to relearn how to use the Android OS.
However, a point to take note is that the Moto G (2nd Gen.) comes with Google Now Launcher on-board from the get-go and this might be a make/break point to users who miss the purer Pure Android experience on the first generation of the Moto G. For me, I just didn’t like the look of having a white background in my app drawer and I’d rather have a dim/no background at all. Unfortunately, Google doesn’t give you the luxury of choice in this department. The pre-installed Google apps are are also pretty useful – if you use all of them that is. If not, there’s always the option of disabling them, however, your Internal Storage would still be cluttered with a barrage of unused and (uninstall-able) apps which would take a toll on the already paltry 8GB of space.
And since we’re speaking of storage space, the Moto G (2nd Gen.) comes with a meager 8GB of Internal Storage which is expandable up to 32GB via the MicroSD card slot. Unfortunately, only 5.51GB can be utilized due to the other 2GB+ being used for other purposes – apps, system files, misc. files etc. On the flipside, users will be entitled to free 15GB of Google+ cloud storage for all your back-up needs and USB OTG is also featured on the device.
Point & Miss?
As mentioned earlier in our First Impression post, the Moto G (2nd Gen.) comes with an 8MP Rear camera equipped with an LED Flash while the front of the phone rocks a 2MP camera. On to the main camera, the camera interface is simple enough to handle and reminds me of the Lumia 930 with the scroll wheel mechanism for selecting modes/settings, however, it lacks a fast response time when focusing onto a subject and taking a picture. This condition inhibits for fast picture-taking, however, if you get used enough to the set-up, you might be able to work-around this predicament (somehow).
ow light shots are pretty decent and not too noisy and of course, a little Photoshop wouldn’t hurt at all. Below are a few camera samples for your viewing pleasure (all of which are not edited, of course).
Expansive Sound
As far as sound reproduction is concerned, Motorola has definitely upped the ante with the revamped version of this model as it now comes equipped with two signature front-firing speakers which deliver clear, crisp and a balanced sonic experience. The tone can definitely be tweaked via the EQ settings found in the Google Play Music app.
If you do not know me already, I’m one who appreciates a good Music software/app for my music playback and although I have heard from friends of mine who have tried and disliked the Google Play Music app, I decided to try it out for myself to find out what the problem was – and the problem is, I can’t find any. It’s a simple, minimalistic app which plays my .m4a and FLAC files just fine and is simple enough to use and even enhances my phone’s speakers tone with the embedded EQ settings. To me, this was the perfect marriage of the audio hardware and Google music software – big on style, big on sound. Also, this might probably be the closest thing to the HTC BoomSound experience you might get in today’s mid-range phone market.
Benchmarks, Battery Life & Call Quality
As aforementioned that my previous daily driver was the ASUS Zenfone 5 and now the Moto G, I have to say that the experience on the latter is more memorable compared to the former. A quick test under 3D Mark reveals that the Moto G is on par with other mid-range smartphones in this department of gaming and graphics. However, the Zenfone 5 surpasses the Moto G in the AnTuTu Benchmark test. In my opinion, this is so because the SoC of the Zenfone 5 is an Intel Atom CPU capable of hyper-threading, which is no surprise that the scores would be slightly higher. However, in terms of battery life, the Champion title would go to the Moto G as I reveal my reason why below.
For those of you who are a little new to Motorola’s claims on their battery life on their smartphones, they claim it would last a full day (under mixed usage, of course). And I am here to reinforce that claim by stating that I am NOT exaggerating when I say that this phone’s battery life is the BEST I’ve tested on thus far for such a small battery pack at only 2070mAh! This baby lasted me a whopping 12-13 hours under mixed usage and at times with an OFF/ON cellular network signal.
Under maximum heavy usage (think 24/7 Mobile Data/Wi-Fi ON and Location ON), the Moto G still manages to squeeze out of itself an impressive 6 hours of battery life as shown below.
Last but not to say the least, Call Quality. Since the Moto G (2nd Gen.) has double speakers on the front panel, naturally and logically, the sound quality will be LOUD. Call quality was superb and clarity was on the next level thanks to the well-engineered speakers of the Moto G. Although there was one incident of a drop call, I believe it to be a remote one and shouldn’t be taken too seriously as overall, reception and call quality was superb most of the time.
Midrange Phone Killer
The Moto G (2nd Gen.) is indeed a class on its own when it comes to midrange smartphones as one will be forgiven if one thinks that the phone is a flagship device thanks to its beautiful aesthetics and above average performance. Although the device retails for RM688 or cheaper (depends where you get yours from), and isn’t priced as cheap as other mid-range phones in the market, I would still highly recommend the Moto G (2nd Gen.) to anyone any day anytime. Besides, if you get bored of the default Motorola shells, just get others and swap it over for a fresh new look.
Verdict
Highly recommended for the midrange budget-conscious consumer who wish for a memorable experience.
The Good
+ Great aesthetics
+ Brilliant display
+ Immersive sound
+ Fluid-like Pure Android experience
+ Amazing battery life
+ Affordable price tag
The Not-so Good
– Meager Internal & External Storage
– Incomplete stock apps
The Moto G (2nd Gen.) receives a rating of 8.75/10
