Motorola’s budget formula hasn’t changed much since 2013’s Moto G; it changed just enough to make this year’s version one of the best smartphones on the market and at a wallet-friendly cost.
The Moto G measures 5.11 x 2.59 x 0.46 inches and weighs 5.04 oz. It sports a 4.5-inch IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen with a resolution of 720 x 1280 pixels at approximately 326 ppi.
The screen can display in 16 million colors and is made of Corning Gorilla Glass 3 making it strong and durable.
The device has a generous 1GB of RAM and either 8GB of 16GB of internal storage.
For wireless connectivity, it offers both Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n/ and Bluetooth v4.0 support. Wired connectivity is via microUSB V2.0 port.
Moto G has a 5MP primary camera offering 2592 x 1944-pixels resolution and featuring autofocus, geo-tagging, panorama, HDR, and face detection. It can capture 720p video at 30 frames per second.
The secondary camera is 1.3MP and is great for video chat or for taking self-portraits.
The device runs Android OS, v4.3, upgradable to v4.4.4. It is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 chipset having a 1.2GHz quad-core Cortex-A7 processor and an Adreno 305 graphics processor on board.
It also features proximity, accelerometer and compass sensors. The device uses a non-removable 2070mAh battery offering talk time of up to 24 hours.
Pros
• Camera is much better than the original’s
• Near-stock Android 4.4.4 is a treat
• Feels snappy despite aging internals
• Inexpensive
Cons
• No LTE
• Lacks card slot
• Screen isn’t as crisp as last year’s model
