Moto G4 & G4 Plus – Still the best affordable mid-range smartphones?

The Motorola G range of phones have been very popular since the first Moto G was launched. A good built, near stock android OS, smooth performance and decent camera have made these phones the favorite choice in mid-range smartphones. This time Motorola have launched two variants – Moto G4 and Moto G4 Plus.

Design

Motorola haven’t changed the design of the phone drastically, but there are minor tweaks to let you know the difference, when compared to previous versions. First, it’s the thinnest Moto G yet, next the screen has gone up to 5.5 inches, which some of you might find makes the phone too big. With rounded edges and a micro-texture back, Motorola claim that the phone will have more grip.

Of course, the Moto G4 Plus has a fingerprint scanner at the bottom of the screen. Which makes it stand out compared to other Moto G family models.

 Pure Moto and Performance

One of the positive aspects about Moto G phones are their stock android experience. Moto G4 is running on Marshmallow 6.01 and you can expect fast updates from google to reach the phone. Moto G4 is using Google launcher as it’s default setting. Of course the signature Moto app is still present, which allows you to access:

Moto display – which gives you a simple display of notifications. You just need to nudge the phone to see what’s new, no need to unlock the phone.

Moto Actions – which responds to your gestures and motions. Simply twist your wrist to open the camera app, chop downwards twice and the flashlight turns on and pick up a ringing phone and it goes into vibration mode.

Moto G4 is powered by Qualcomm’s octa-core Snapdragon 617 processor, along with 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB of internal storage which can be expanded to 128 GB using a micro SD card. Where as, Moto G4 Plus comes with the same specification and another variant of 3GB RAM and 32 GB internal storage configuration.

I would recommend the G4 Plus variant to be the best option for getting the best performance. Though the Moto G4 also gives a decent performance.

Camera

The Moto G4 comes with a 13 MP primary camera while the Moto G4 Plus comes with a 16 MP primary camera and added features of laser auto-focus and phase detection. Both come with dual led flash and video recording of up to 1080p at 30fps and slow motion recording of 120fps at 540p.

The camera app is of Motorola. It’s a decent app with all the features of flash, HDR, self-timer etc only a toggle away. The pictures are decent, with the Moto G4 camera suffering more in high contrast and saturation areas. There isn’t much of photo-noise defects but certainly there’s pixelation.

I would recommend to go for Moto G4 Plus for the better camera experience.

Battery with Turbo power

Moto G4 and G4 Plus come equipped with a 3000 mAh battery. The differentiation of course is Moto G4 Plus also comes with a turbo charging adapter. Motorola claims the new turbo adapter gives the phone up to 6 hours of battery life in just 15 mins of charging.

The Moto G4 charger isn’t that fast at charging, but certainly performs decently and gives a steady but quick charge. Though again the G4 Plus has the advantage over the G4.

Conclusion

Moto G4 and G4 Plus are still solid mid-range smartphones. And with their stock android offering which converts into early Google software updates, they’ll be quiet popular. Though personally I would recommend shelling out slightly more to purchase the Moto G4 Plus variant; to get the best experience.

Also Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 is a good option in slightly lesser price.

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