Another year another new Moto G and this one looks to be even better than its predecessors. The first Moto G smashed our expectations of what a budget smartphone should be, while its follow up, the Moto G 2nd Gen, consolidated upon that nicely. This new version, simply called the Moto G (or Moto G 3rd Gen to differentiate it) is a far more refined product, though. The specs haven’t leapt forward but in terms of build and features its a marvel, with prices starting at £159.
Design
What’s so exciting about the new handset then? Well the design is far superior to previous models, with a shape that’s taken directly from the Moto X series. A metal-effect frame curves around the phone meeting the backplate almost seamlessly. The headphone and USB ports are positioned centrally at the top and bottom; while the textured power button feels just right and clicks in distinctly. It’s no metal marvel, but this is a very stylish and wellmade handset.
The removable backplate comes with a subtle ribbed texture in numerous colours (with the default wallpaper cleverly set to match the rear). When properly clipped into place that backplate makes the handset waterproof up to 1m for up to 30 minutes, so it’ll survive a quick dunking.
Underneath the rear panel you can access the SIM card slot and micro SD. There’s full 4G support of course (1, 3, 7, 8 and 20 here in the UK) though that SD card slot only supports cards up to 32GB in size. Still that should be plenty for most uses in addition to the 8 or 16GB of memory provided – of which you’ll only get around 4 or 12GB you can actually use of course.
Display
The screen doesn’t appear to have changed from the last model. It still measures 5in, a good compromise between being big enough, without making the handset huge. It also about as big as we’d like to see a 1,280x720 display with a respectable 294 pixels-per-inch providing good detail levels. White’s could be cleaner and clours could use a touch more vibrancy but then this phone costs a quarter of the price of top-end handsets some such things can be forgiven.
Motorola continues to use a largely unaltered version of Android, which is great with us
Camera
The camera will account for a lot of your data storage of course and this the Moto G’s big upgrade over its predecessor. The handset uses a 13-megapixel sensor for its main camera, apparently the same one found on the Motorola-made Nexus 6 handset, plus a 5-megapixel front sensor for selfies.
We’ve only had a short time with it, but it looks to be a good camera for the money. It’s quick to shoot, with HDR off you can shoot about as fast as you can tap the screen. Shooting in HDR is a little slower but still under a second a shot and the results look great. If the light is really bad, or your subject just won’t stand still then there’s now a twin-LED flash with colour temperature adjustment so flash-lit shots look more natural.
We were impressed with the initial results from the HDR mode of the new Moto G
The interface is easy to get to grips with and with a simple tap anywhere to shoot, most won’t ever see it. You can activate the camera by simply flicking your wrist twice, even from the lock screen, and switch from the back camera to the front with the same movement. It’s a great little shortcut and works flawlessly. You can also turn on and off the flashlight with a double chopping motion.
Specs and hardware
Inside the new Moto G 3rd Gen is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 chipset. We’re very familiar with this from numerous budget handsets, most notably Motorola’s own Moto E 2nd Gen. Here though it’s running at 1.4GHz rather than 1.2GHz, and the handset does feel a bit smoother for it. That said, this is never going to be a handset for those who want the best performance when multitasking between resource-hungry apps.
The new Moto G (left) doesn't look to be much faster than the old model (middle) and Moto E 2nd Gen (right)
The handset does come in both 1GB and 2GB versions, with our test phone having the larger memory pool. The 8GB handset comes wth 1GB or 2GB of memory while the 16GB version always ships with 2GB. Which handsets will be available in the UK at what prices we’re not yet sure.
The battery is slightly bigger than before at a sizeable 2,470mAh. We haven’t has time to run our usual tests yet but we’d estimate it to achieve just over 10 hours of constant video playback. That a respectable score based on our round up of Battery scores from all last year's handsets.
Conclusion
So what don’t you get? Well there’s no NFC for quick wireless connections and cashless payments, and on that note there’s no fingerprint sensor either to authenticate such transactions. Other than that though the new Moto G 3rd Gen is pretty much perfect for most people, once you add a memory card for under £10. Yes the price of the Moto G has slipped upwards once again, but it's improving with it and if you want a really cheap phone there's still the Moto E 2nd Gen.
If app performance isn’t your main worry with a phone then this a great handset. The new, improved camera is a big asset as is the slicker design and feel. We just need to run all the usual benchmarks and do some more camera testing, but from our first look this new Moto G is looking to be another award-winning hit.