Following Lenovo’s acquisition of Motorola, the fourth generation of Moto G smartphones carry Lenovo branding. The classic Motorola logo can still be seen on the handset but it’s clear that Lenovo wants to position Moto as its own sub-brand. Especially the company plans to replace its Vibe series with Moto smartphones.
The Moto G (Gen 3) (Review) and Moto G (Turbo Edition) (Review) smartphones were very successful but we had complaints about the camera performance in these phones. But Motorola has faced this problem in all its smartphones. Moto G4 Plus smartphone is a phone with slightly better specifications than Moto G4, which has better features in terms of camera and software. Today we will review this new smartphone of Moto G4 Plus and see how this smartphone of Moto is.
Look and design
Motorola’s familiar design can also be seen in the G4 Plus. Although it’s not exactly the same as before, it’s definitely recognizable as a Moto product. The rubber rear cover with a rounded metal frame gives the phone a good grip. This phone is slightly larger than the previous Moto G smartphone, due to which it has a 5.5-inch full-HD TFT screen. The smartphone can be operated very easily even in sunlight and brilliant colors can be seen in the display. Corning Gorilla Glass has been provided for protection. The G4 Plus is quite thin and its thickness is 7.9 mm. But the phone does not feel heavy when held in hand.
The Moto G4 Plus does not have the trademark grill given in the Moto G smartphone. But in this new smartphone of Moto, fingerprint sensor has been given place. It does not work as a physical button but only on touch. The fingerprint sensor can recognize fingerprints from any angle and apart from the occasional mis-identification, it works very well.
All the buttons in the phone have been placed at proper places so that they are easily accessible to the user. The headphone socket is at the top while the micro-USB port is at the bottom.
Instead of the curved rear design of the previous Moto G model smartphone, this phone has a flat rear. The phone has a 16-megapixel camera with dual-tone LED flash and laser autofocus system, which can be called a good upgrade.
On removing the rear panel, a non-removable 3000 mAh battery can be seen in the phone. MicroSD card (132 GB support) and two micro-SIM slots are provided on the edge. The Moto G4 Plus comes with a nano-to-micro SIM card adapter. But this phone does not have IP67 certification (water resistant) like the previous variants.
A turbopower charger (25 watts) and a headset are available in the retail box of the phone. But the wall charger is not a modular one so you will need a separate USB cable to transfer data. The quality of the headset is a bit poor and it did not fit properly in our ears.
Specifications and features
Moto G4 Plus has Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 617 processor which runs on 1.5 GHz octa-core chip. The same processor was also used in HTC One A9 (Review). This phone will have the option of 3 GB RAM and 32 GB storage and 2 GB RAM and 16 GB storage. For connectivity, options like 4G LTE (Category 4), Bluetooth 4.11 Low Energy, dual band Wi-Fi B/G/N, GPS, GLONASS, USB-OTG and FM radio have been provided. You will not get NFC feature in this phone.
Like all Moto smartphones, the G4 Plus runs a near-stock version of Android but this time Android Marshmallow 6.0.1.
The Moto G4 Plus has an LED to the right of the fingerprint sensor, but we found it to work quite well while charging. Apart from this, other motion-based gestures work easily. There are not many pre-loaded apps in the phone but file manager and Google’s standard apps are provided.
performance
The Moto G4 Plus is a good performer with hardly anything that makes it bad. The user gets 1.2 GB RAM for use in the phone. We did not see any problem in this phone during animations and app switching. The phone gets hot while playing games or with data-GPS on, but not so much that it cannot be used. You may experience some problems with the camera app when the phone heats up, which may also be due to the system controlling the CPU speed to prevent the phone from overheating. We found the phone’s benchmark figures to be good.
The Gallery app has been replaced by Google’s Photos app, which we don’t like, but it works. Full-HD videos can be played easily in the phone. Photos can be edited and videos can be trimmed in the Photos app. Play Music app is provided for music but does not support FLAC files. Equalizer is also provided for wired headphones and speakers. The single speaker for general media playback and alerts in the earpiece provides good sound.
One of the biggest features of G4 Plus is the camera of G4 Plus. The 16-megapixel rear camera comes with aperture F/2.0, phase detection autofocus (PDAF). Laser autofocus system has been provided in the phone to capture the object quickly. Tap-to-focus can be used to focus on the subject and the slider can be used to adjust exposure. Long tapping on the subject locks the focus which helps a lot. Apart from this, slow-motion video, panorama and a professional mode are available in the camera app. The camera app is quite handy when you need to adjust focus, white balance, shutter speed, ISO and exposure in low light.
In daylight, landscape and macro photos are of better quality than before. The detailing is quite good and the camera can take pictures with good colors. We would recommend keeping HDR set to auto as it helps in making the photos look great. Pictures taken indoors look fine but when zoomed in, the detailing and colors appear scattered. Video recording can be done at a maximum resolution of 1080 pixels and the photos are good in daylight and low light. In good lighting, good detailed selfies can be taken from the front camera. Apart from this, barcode and QRcode can be read directly from the camera app itself.
battery life
In the video loop test of Moto G4 Plus battery, Batru supported us for 12 hours and 4 minutes, which is quite good. In normal use, with both SIM cards, we were able to use this Moto smartphone for about one and a half days with full charge. The phone supports TurboPower or fast charging so that the battery gets charged quickly.
our decision
The new Moto G series smartphone Moto G4 Plus can be called a welcome option that comes with performance and feature upgrades. The phone has been provided with a processor as per requirement so that Android works easily. A good fingerprint sensor, good camera and excellent battery life make the phone great. Moto G4 Plus is a very good option in this price range.
The competition is fierce but in our view the Moto G4 Plus has what it takes to make its own place. Its most special feature is the timely release of Android updates. G4 Plus could have been better if it had been provided with water and dust protection feature like the previous smartphone. At the same time, the poor performance of the camera in low light could also be improved.
If you are looking for a phone that comes with great features at a low price, then Moto G4 Plus is definitely a good option.