During the international launch, Motorola’s owner company Lenovo had made it clear that these smartphones will be launched in India soon. Now it can be said that the company really did not disappoint the fans here. Moto G5 Plus has been introduced in India.
The Moto G was launched in early 2014. It was one of the first smartphones to be sold only online. At that time this handset became as popular as any premium handset. And we praised it highly for its features and price.
Three years later, more than 1 million Moto G handsets have been sold. Recently, in a meeting, Sudhin Mathur, Managing Director of Motorola Mobility India and Executive Director of Lenovo MBG India, told Gadgets 360 that till now four generations of Moto G series handsets have arrived. Not every series has been equally successful, but there has always been a demand for them. The company hopes that through Moto G5 Plus, it will work to take forward the success of the older generation handset.
This is the first phone in the Moto G series which comes with a metal body. Apart from this, it is the first phone in its price range to come with Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box. Motorola has tried to keep the price within reach of customers. And along with it, such features have also been provided which can give a strong challenge to even the expensive handsets. Will the Moto G5 Plus live up to our expectations? Let us know through the review.
moto g5 plus design
So far four generations of Moto G smartphone devices have been introduced. The design has changed with every generation. Because the specifications also changed. We liked the early Moto G. Features of expensive phones were made available to customers at affordable prices. But its plastic and polycarbonate body was not very exciting. Some significant changes were made to the design of the Moto G (Gen 2) and Moto G (Gen 3), but the identity of the Moto G was still there. Things changed completely with the Moto G4 series, as features like the fingerprint scanner were limited to the larger models only. However, the design was still dominated by plastic.
With the fifth generation device, Moto G has finally embraced the metal body. Aluminum finish has been given in Moto G5 Plus and Moto G5. And the G5 Plus feels sturdy. It looks very beautiful from the front. In our opinion, there has been a tremendous improvement in this department compared to the older variants.
At first glance the new Moto G5 Plus looks a lot like the mid-range Moto Z Play (Review). Looking at the Moto branding on the earpiece and display, it seems to be the same. The difference is the design of the fingerprint sensor which is located below the display. Its design is oval, whereas the Moto Z Play has a square sensor. During the global launch, Motorola stressed that the new Moto G5 range is inspired by the premium Moto Z family.
The space provided for the camera and dual LED flash on the rear is also reminiscent of the Moto Z. The Moto logo is below the raised area. With a thickness of 7.7 mm, the Moto G5 Plus cannot be called slim by any means. But because of this the phone is easier to hold. During the review, we had to take special care of the bulge of the camera, because there was a fear of getting scratch marks on the lens. We would recommend using a cover for the Moto G5 Plus.
The power and volume buttons are on the right side. There is no problem in reaching these while using them with one hand. The 3.5mm audio jack and Micro-USB port are at the bottom edge. It is good to know that this phone has a separate slot for microSD card in addition to two SIM card slots. The edges of the phone are curved, due to which the phone is comfortable to hold and use.
At 155 grams, the Moto G5 Plus weighs the same as the previous generation device. But remember that Moto G4 Plus comes with a 5.5-inch display while Moto G5 Plus has a 5.2-inch display.
Moto G5 Plus has a 5.2 inch IPS LCD display. This is a full-HD resolution screen with a pixel density of 424 pixels per inch. In comparison, Moto G4 Plus comes with a 5.5-inch full-HD display. Corning Gorilla Glass 3 has been used for protection on Moto G5 Plus. During the review we found that the screen is fully capable of playing videos, movies and games. There is no problem in reading the screen in sunlight. Viewing angles are also good. There’s also a color mode feature in the display settings that lets users choose between standard and vibrant color reproduction.
Moto G5 Plus will be available in Lunar Gray and Fine Gold colors in India. We have reviewed the Lunar Gray variant. Apart from the TurboPower charger, you will get Micro-USB cable and earphones in the retail box of Moto G5 Plus.
Moto G5 Plus specifications and software
This phone has Adreno 506 GPU with 2 GHz octa-core Snapdragon 625 chipset. This is a popular chipset that has been used in smartphones like Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (Review) and Lenovo P2 (Review). The same processor is also a part of Lenovo’s mid-range Moto Z Play which is Rs 10,000 more expensive in comparison.
Three variants of Moto G5 Plus were launched at Mobile World Congress. These had options of 2 GB, 3 GB and 4 GB RAM with 32 GB or 64 GB inbuilt storage. However, in India, variants with 3 GB RAM and 16 GB storage and 4 GB RAM and 32 GB storage have been launched in the market. We got a model with 4 GB RAM for review. Both models support microSD cards up to 128 GB.
Moto G5 Plus supports two Nano SIMs. Both can connect to 4G networks, but only one at a time. There is also support for NFC, VoLTE and GLONASS. The phone has a 3000 mAh battery and it supports TurboPower fast charging. Its dimension is 150.2x74x7.7 millimeters.
Moto G5 Plus is the first smartphone in this price range which comes with Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box. You will also get some useful software features from Moto like Moto Display. Moto Display shows the user previews of notifications even when the phone is locked. This is a very useful feature and we have come across it in Moto G models before too.
At the launch event of the Moto G5 series, we also got a glimpse of the much-awaited Google Assistant feature. If you want, you can activate Google Assistant by long pressing the home button. After this, you can chat with the assistant to search anything. Sadly, our review unit did not come with Google Assistant. Motorola told us that this feature will not be a part of the Moto G5 and Moto G5 Plus out of the box. For this, customers will have to wait for the update. It is not clear yet when this feature will be rolled out.
With the help of the pre-installed Moto app, you can activate or turn off various gesture shortcuts. This feature has also been a part of older Moto phones. For example, a karate chop will activate the flashlight and twisting the phone will activate the camera. One Bat Nav lets you tap or swipe up on the fingerprint sensor to access Android navigation buttons. You will also be able to lock Moto G5 Plus with the help of fingerprint sensor.
Stock Android Nougat experience can be one of the main reasons to buy this phone. Most companies use their own custom skins. In Android Nougat you get features like split screen multitasking. And we were able to run two apps simultaneously.
You can make multitasking easier by double tapping the Recent button. And can create different wallpapers for your lock screen. The Data Saver feature prevents selected apps from using cellular data in the background. For user’s convenience, a new menu has been given on the left side in the Settings app. Apart from this we got new emojis.
moto g5 plus performance
Moto G5 Plus will prove to be your reliable companion every day. And will not disappoint in terms of performance. It handled multitasking with ease. Apps launch quickly. All types of media files can be used on it. We also did not face any problem in playing games with powerful graphics on the phone. Remember that we were given the 4 GB RAM model of Moto G5 Plus for review.
Moto G5 Plus plays videos with 1080 pixel resolution smoothly. Sadly, the company has given limited facility to make changes with the audio. You may prefer third-party music players and streaming apps over Google Play Music.
The earphones supplied with the phone are average to weak. We would suggest you to buy third-party earphones. The earpiece present on the front panel also works as the phone’s speaker. It produced loud sound, but we were not satisfied with the audio quality.
During the review, we used the Moto G5 Plus as a GPS navigation device several times. And found that its rear part was getting excessively hot. Many times there was difficulty even in holding it in hands. Apart from this, the absence of LED status indicator irked us. The Moto Display feature overcomes this shortcoming to a great extent.
Moto G5 Plus has a 12-megapixel rear camera which is equipped with dual autofocus pixels. With its help, the focus will be locked in the blink of an eye. The aperture of the camera sensor is F/1.7 and it is provided with dual LED flash. The handset also has a 5-megapixel front camera which is equipped with F/2.2 aperture and display flash. The camera app is easy to use and launches quickly without any lag. You will get 8X digital zoom. The mode selection control is on the right. You can also capture slow motion videos and panorama shots. It also has a professional mode. You can switch to the front camera by tapping the screen. A beautification mode is provided with the front camera. This can be found in Settings.
Talking about the quality of photos, the camera of Moto G5 Plus took good photos in every situation. We were impressed by the camera’s fast focusing ability. Macro shots turned out good. Landscape shots taken in daylight came out with detail. However, some photos were too saturated. There was noise in the photo in low light. And at times it seemed too grainy. We personally liked the Professional mode of the Moto G5 Plus.
The front camera of the Moto G5 Plus surprised us with accurate color results. But in low light conditions the photos were of average quality. With the camera of Moto G5 Plus, you will be able to record 4K videos at a frame rate of 30 frames per second. Considering the price, this feature is also a bargain. You’ll also get the ability to record full-HD videos at 30 and 60 frames per second. 4K video looks better than full-HD video, but we’ve seen better output in this price range. We did notice the phone getting warm while recording 4K videos.
Moto G5 Plus gave good results in benchmark tests. Although Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 gave better results in these benchmark tests, but G5 Plus is by no means weak.
Moto G5 Plus has a 3000 mAh battery. Regarding this, the company says that it will last for about 24 hours in mixed use. In normal use, we found that it lasted for about a day with heavy use. Let us tell you that during use, we used apps like email, WhatsApp, Twitter and Facebook several times a day. And the phone always remained connected to 4G network. It supports VoLTE and the quality of voice calls made from the phone was satisfactory.
In our HD video loop battery test, the Moto G5 Plus’ battery lasted for about 12 hours and 10 minutes, which would be considered good. We were impressed by the TurboPower charger function. You will get up to 50 percent battery capacity in 20 minutes of charging. However, the company is claiming 60 percent power in just 15 minutes of charging. Fast charging goes in favor of the Moto G5 Plus. This feature is not available in the popular Xiaomi Redmi Note 4.
our decision
The starting price of Moto G5 Plus is Rs 14,999. At this price you will get a variant with 3 GB RAM and 16 GB storage. At the same time, the variant with 4 GB RAM and 32 GB storage will be yours for Rs 16,999.
Lenovo’s new Moto G5 Plus is a powerful handset in terms of price, design, performance and battery life. Moto G5 Plus is the only phone in this price range where you will get pure Android Nougat experience. Turbopower charging is also a useful feature and in general photography, you will not be disappointed with its camera. However, it also has some drawbacks. Like the phone getting hot while running GPS. Because of this it became difficult for us to use the phone. There is scope for further improvement in camera performance in low light. Well, this shortcoming is common in handsets of this price range.
If you’re looking for an affordable smartphone with powerful features, the Moto G5 Plus is a solid choice. It will be available exclusively on e-commerce site Flipkart. Our first pick in the budget smartphone segment, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4, is often out of stock, so there’s nothing wrong with considering the Moto G5 Plus.