Esat Dedezade spends ten days with the ultra-cheap-yet-ultra-powerful Moto G. But is its spec-to-price ratio too good to be true? It's got to be, right?
DAY 01
Whoops. Looks like Motorola sent us a Moto X by accident. Hang on, though: I don't remember the X being this pudgy. Has it put on weight? It does feel a little fatter than usual.
Of course it hasn't. Phones don't gain weight, that would be ridiculous. No, this is definitely the new Moto G, and mistaking it for the X is actually a compliment. It's shorter and fatter, but it's still got a handsome face and I like the way it sits in my hand. Like a smooth black pebble. Sturdy. Confident. Manly. I like it, that I'm about to be greeted by another awful pixellated mid-range scre...
Wow. The G's screen is good. Really good. 720p on 4.5 inches means it's easily sharp enough. It's bright, too, has decent colours and even has good viewing angles.
Which has me reaching for the spec list. The Moto G Starts from £130, for the 8GB model.
Where’s the compromise? Surely Moto blew all the money on the screen. This thing's got to be running on a puttering dual-core processor at the very most, right?
A quick check reveals that, no, there's a quad-core chip inside.
Mind you, I’d feel more at ease with the dimple on the back of the phone if I knew what it was for. What are you, dimple? What is your purpose? Am I supposed to sacrifice iPhones in your honour? WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?
After a period of emotionally draining research, it seems likely that the dimple is an aesthetic feature. Which is fair enough. This decided, I feel confident enough to actually turn the phone on, though I am slightly concerned The Snapdragon 400 quad-core, to be precise, which isn’t silicon seller Qualcomm's daddy chip, but is still a bit of a doozy. More wow.
I don't really understand how Motorola is getting away with this, until it dawns on me that Moto is now owned by Google, and this is the exact same tactic it’s used so successfully with its Nexus devices. Whatever – the important thing is that I’ve only spent a few minutes with the G and I'm already impressed.
DAY 02
While investigating, I discover that the Moto G has a removable back cover. Not for swapping out the battery. Not for accessing a microSD slot – it doesn’t have one – but for kitting it out with different coloured back plates. Flashbacks of my Nokia 5110 fascia wardrobe collection flitter through my brain. I’m browsing through every luridly coloured rear cover I can find online, humming the Nokia tune. I'm a happy man.
DAY 03
Despite the paltry 1GB of RAM, the G's got some games skills, all thanks to that sweet Snapdragon silicon. Enough, in fact, to handle Real Racing 3 without a stutter – not an easy task for any phone, and certainly not at this price point. I think I can hear the dual-core Galaxy S4 Mini and HTC One Mini sobbing in their respective corners. And so they should. Both demand way more than £200 to take them home. Let them cry.
DAY 04
Ah, bingo. So this is where the Moto G lets me down. Its 5MP camera is poor. The LG G2 and iPhone 5s absolutely destroy it. Poor detail even in good light means that this definitely isn't a phone for shutterbugs.
DAY 06
Watching Breaking Bad on the smaller 4.5in screen isn't actually as painful as I thought, though that could be because it's practically pressed against my face on my home commute. This is, of course, partly to do with the shoulder-to-shoulder rammed trains. Still, the G's 4.5in screen, although smaller than I'm used to, means I can easily do everything with a single thumb, without fear of the dreaded Pavement Smash. A fate that saw the end of a Galaxy Note in the near past.
DAY 08
I hammered the Moto G on the way to Stuff HQ this morning. Editing this very review, streaming music to Bluetooth headphones, sending emails, checking Reddit – all pretty heavy stuff. After an hour and 15 minutes it drank around 20% – so it'll last a day, but as with 99% of phones, it won't escape the nightly charging ritual.
DAY 10
Motorola has surprised me. The G isn't the most powerful phone on the block. It's not the sexiest. It doesn't have the most pixel-packed screen. But I love the unbelievable bang for your buck that it offers. Motorola – I haven't said this in a while, but I salute you.
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