Motorola Moto G Review: The Benchmark Android 4.4 Smartphone

Motorola Moto G (picture: Ewan Spence)

Announced on November 13 2013, the Moto G is the lower-cost variant of the Moto X. Do not make the mistake of benchmarking the Moto G in comparison to the Moto X, because the Moto G is one of the firmest performing mid-range smartphone on the market. I'd go so far as labelling the Moto G as 'the handset to beat' in 2014 for many manufacturers looking to ship a handset in the sub $200 price range. It's that good.

At the press launch, Motorola pitched the smartphone at developing markets. It was initially available in Latin America, with Central Europe and North America quickly following. The lower cost of this smartphone makes it attractive as a budget conscious pay monthly handset, and has many merits for Prepaid plans. I don't think it's fair to count the Moto G as a low-cost handset - with US pricing at $179 for the SIM free 8 GB handset the Moto G is better pitched as the lowest cost mid-range handset.

When Motorola releases a Moto that hits the $99 mark, that's when the Google owned company will have a low-cost handset than can be compared to handsets such as Nokia's Lumia 520. I say this not to minimise the impact of the current price-tag (the Moto G undercuts Google's Nexus 5 and the pricing of the now discontinued Nexus 4), but to place the Moto G in the correct price banding in the smartphone.

That said, the Moto G passes the 'good enough' test for me with flying colours. The tasks and functions that I would consider core features of a smartphone (social media interaction, PIM functionality, connectivity, and peripheral support) are all achievable with ease on the Moto G's hardware. While a close examination of graphically intensive games (such as Real Racing 3) may not be as smooth as they are on high-end handsets such as the HTC One or the Samsung Galaxy S4, the majority of puzzle and action games that make up the bulk of the Google Play store all run happily without lagging or skipping frames.

If you are looking for a handset that has power without spending too much money (either buying it SIM free or keeping your monthly contract payments low) then the Moto G deserves to be at the top of your list. I'm about to go through the Moto G, pointing out omissions, compromises, and the occasional flaw, but every device that aims low in terms of price will have similar issues to deal with. How a manufacturer deals with these issues determines how good a device they have on sale.

The Moto G is one of the best devices I have used in this price range, and Motorola has balanced the required compromises very well. That said, let's looks at those compromises.

The handset does not support 4G LTE, so your mobile data transfer will be limited to 2G/3G. Given the focus on developing markets this makes sense for the design both from the capabilities required in the target market, but also to keep the bill of materials lower. While 4G is nice to have, email, IM, and web browsing are all still acceptable over 3G at the moment, but that might not be the case in a year's time if the Moto G is still on sale.

The lack of any microSD expansion is the biggest limiting factor of the Moto G. Available in both 8 GB and 8 GB storage variants, the memory you have in the box is all you'll ever have with this handset. Once you add your personal data and a few key apps, the 8 GB model (which I have been using for this review) has 3 GB available for storage. I'm using the streaming option of Google Play for my music and just adding in the occasional album for travelling, but if I was to download ten albums to the handset, that's almost half of my remaining storage gone.

I would be comfortable with an 8 GB device if it had an SD card for extra storage. As it stands I would be wary of purchasing the 8 GB Moto G, and the increased capacity on the 16 GB model would need to be carefully managed. It's all well and good advertising cloud services (such as Google Music and Google Drive) as an alternative to on-device storage, but that means a big data pipe and consistent access. With the best will in the world that's not 3G, and I doubt that the data plans associated with the Moto G will be suitable for extensive use of the cloud over a cellular data connection.

Otherwise the Moto G feels like a well specced handset from late 2012 that can still deliver when you ask it to. The 'off the shelf' Snapdragon 400 system on chip sports a 1.2 GHz quad-core CPU and an Adreno 305 as the GPU, both supported by 1 GB of RAM (although this is likely the last wave of mid-range devices where just a single gigabyte of RAM will be cool). The visible but not user-replaceable battery has a capacity of 2070 mAh and coupled with the latest version of Android (KitKat 4.4.2) the Moto G will easily last through a working day, and well into a second day. With careful use of connectivity, the Moto G will run for two days between charges if you need it to be stretched.

One of the main elements that makes the Moto G feel a more competent device than others in this price range is the screen. It's a 4.5 inch LCD screen, and running at 720p resolution gives a density of 326 pixels per inch. That would have been flagship territory just over a year ago. LCD requires constant backlighting so the blacks are not as black as you might see on other screen display types, dropping the contrast levels very slightly, but this is a well-engineered screen. I feel the screen is actually better than the price of the Moto G suggests it will be.

By going with a 4.5 inch screen, the extra tenths over the more expected 4.3 inch screen at this price give the Moto G a much more luxurious feel. This is helped by the narrower bezels all round the device. By sloping the sides of the device away from the screen the waist of the device is visibly wider when looking directly down on the screen, but the illusion is complete. It also makes the handset feel very comfortable in the hand with the soft blown curves of the back of the handset creating a pleasing shape.