Moto G4 Plus: Review

In April 1973 Motorola came with the first portable handheld mobile phone in the world. That was a revolution in the world of communication!

However, the company started struggling in the EARLY 2010s. When the Android market was growing so fast; this brand was not able to withstand that storm. But the sun always rises after night, and Motorola came back with a bang in the market in mid-2013 with the Moto G and Moto X series. Those phones hit the market in online stores and got too much success. G-series was offering a good value at its price range and decent performance for low-budget smartphones. Years passed and updates came. Finally, in 2016, Motorola has launched its latest G series smartphone Moto G4 Plus here in India. Let’s talk about the device.



Out of the box:

A 5.5-inch IPS-LCD touchscreen display with 401ppi pixel density and 1920×1080 full HD resolution. There is a Corning gorilla glass 3 protection in the front. The device with 155 grams in weight; but doesn’t feel as heavy as it’s having a 5.5-inch screen! There is a fingerprint reader below the screen in the center which is adequately fast. This time, Moto has finally included the Turbo-Charging plug in the box instead of giving special variants.

motog4 front unboxing

How does it feel in your hands?

Bigger phones are becoming more popular among people, and this time Motorola hasn’t missed the opportunity to give a good screen with big size. But with 9.8mm thickness and slightly curved edges, the phone feels ok to hold in hand. There is a Moto dimple present in the back to make you remember that yes it’s a Motorola device. People with shorter hands might have to struggle, but even with gigantic hands, you can’t operate a 5.5-inch phone with one hand only; so it’s not a deal breaker if you want a good multimedia experience.

moto g4 in hands

On the right-hand side of the device, there are both power buttons and volume buttons present, which makes it difficult to operate in low light conditions. However, there is texture present on it, so you can get used to it.

moto g4 plus side

The back body doesn’t feel so slippery, and you will be able to have a grip on it. Your 16MP rear camera sits here. With dual LED flash and laser autofocus, you can get good bright outdoor pictures. A dimple is there below your camera sensor. The secondary noise cancellation microphone is with the camera.moto g4 plus back

 

Over the top, there is a 3.5mm headphone jack. Below the device, you get your fast-charging micro USB port.

How does it perform?

With Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 SoC octa-core chipset, clocked at 1.5 GHz and Adreno 405 GPU, performance is above average. It comes with two options 16GB+2GB RAM and 32GB+3GB RAM. However, with around a ₹1000 price difference, we recommend you go with the 32GB version.

The phone offers LTE, the latest 4.1 Bluetooth, Wi-Fi b/g/n, GPS, and OTG support. NFC is not available.

So, how is the real-world performance?

With a 617 chipset, the phone picks up the heat while playing intensive gaming. The upper part of the phone and the front glass get too hot to handle sometimes. You can hold it in your hands, though can’t talk on the phone while putting it near your ear.

The fingerprint reader is quick. You won’t see any noticeable lag in it.

There are no call drops or network-related issues in our test. Battery life is quite sufficient with Li-ion 3000mAh capacity. The problem is while playing games or multitasking. Opening too many apps, by too many, I meant 5+ applications in the background; the device will react slowly in opening a new app. The new app will open, but it will take a noticeable time. Sometimes while playing games or working on very large apps can make them stop randomly. This might get solved in new updates.

With Android Marshmallow version 6.0.1, Moto G4 is offering quite a vanilla Android experience with small Motorola magic things like twisting to open the camera and chopping to turn on the flashlight and some others. The app drawer and other stuff like icons and all are not changed.

moto g4 review images

Moto G4 comes with a card slot where you can put memory cards up to 128GB. 2 micro sim slots are present beneath the removable back cover.

Camera performance:

Motorola said the big change is the camera. Updated 16MP camera with dual-tone flash and laser autofocus, this camera is a game changer indeed. The camera performs very well in bright outdoor light conditions and bright lights. However in low lights and indoors; shots aren’t that great. 16MP f/2.0 aperture camera at the rear performs very nicely as per its price range. Image color reproduction is nice. The Front 5MP f/2.2 aperture selfie cam also works well. Both cameras aren’t too great in low-light situations.



moto g4 pluscamera test

 

moto g4 plus sunset

moto g4 plus review

moto g4 plus front camera

The camera app gives many options to select shots and some manual controls too. Which will be useful for enthusiasts out there.

Final verdict:

What works for you?

  • Nicely built and offers a lot of value
  • Great camera performance in outdoor situations and bright sunlight
  • Decent performance
  • Fast charging
  • Big screen with good display quality
  • With next to vanilla Android, expect faster updates

What works against it?

  • Camera performance is weak in low light
  • Some heating issue
  • Can’t you make it a bit cheaper again?

Photography credits: sonivikas459@gmail.com