Motorola’s New Moto G takes the brilliant game-changing original and improves it, to bring a premium experience at a still-ridiculously-affordable price. Here’s our IFA 2013 hands-on review, plus UK price and date info.
One of our most popular phones of last year was the Motorola Moto G, no surprise given the awesome value for money. For just over £100 you got an HD screen, 5-megapixel camera, quad-core performance and a gorgeous near-vanilla Android UI, on the latest KitKat version.
Now the New Moto G looks to solve any little issues with the original game changer, which frankly made other mid-range mobiles look crap in comparison. So can the New Moto G repeat the original phone’s success?
The New Moto G boasts a bigger 5-inch 720p HD display, compared with the 4.5-inch original, giving you more space for playing with apps and games or just kicking back with movies. At 294ppi, images are still gorgeously sharp. It’s not quite as edge-to-edge as the New Moto X, but it still fits nice in the hand.
And if you love a splash of colour, the New Moto G has a number of bright and colourful rear shells that you can buy separately and snap on as and when you like.
Motorola has also copied HTC’s BoomSound feature, by adding dual stereo speakers on the front of the phone. Theyre powerful enough to fill a small room with music, and definitely do the job when youre watching a movie on the sofa or in bed.
The original Moto G had a single weak point, an Achilles Heel, and that was the 5-megapixel camera. It wasn’t a bad camera, but our shots lacked life and were occasionally a little hazy.
Here’s hoping that the new-and-improved 8-megapixel snapper can make amends. We only had a few minutes to play around in the demo room, but the camera UI is the same simple-to-use effort from the Moto G: just point and tap the screen to shoot a pic. You can also record slow-mo 720p video – perfect for those inevitable and endless ice bucket challenges.
You also get a 2-megapixel front facing camera, for selfies and video chats.
The other issue with the original Moto G, which was subsequently corrected in the Moto G 4G, was the lack of a micro SD memory card slot. The New Moto G thankfully also rocks a memory card slot, so you can carry around a sizeable media collection. However, there’s no 4G support, so you’ll need to buy the Moto G 4G if you want to benefit from super-nippy streaming.
No surprise to see a Qualcomm quad-core Snapdragon 400 processor packed inside the New Moto G, and the 2700mAh battery will hopefully give decent battery life. We’re expecting all-day life.
Android KitKat comes in a vanilla form, with guaranteed upgrade before most of the big boys. Most of the Moto X’s neat voice and gesture features are sadly missing, but it’s still a satisfying user experience from our hands-on time.
Motorola’s New Moto G will cost 199 Euros, or £145 in UK, and it goes on sale September 5th. Full review coming at your eyeballs shortly.
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