New Delhi, September 8 – By all accounts Motorola’s Moto G, which was launched last year in November, was a success. It helped Motorola sell millions of Moto phones around the world.
In India, the device proved incredibly popular as it offered consumers clean and usable Android experience at a price that was very reasonable. Now Motorola is back with the next version of the Moto G. Taking a leaf out of Apple’s book, Motorola is not adding anything to the name of the new phone.
It is just called the Moto G. For retail purposes, Flipkart, which is the exclusive retailer for Moto devices, will call it ‘2nd generation’ Moto G but the name, at least on the product box, is just Moto G. But take the hint from Flipkart, we are also going to call the new phone Moto G (2nd gen).
We will take a detailed look at the device in our review. But for now, we can tell you about our first impressions after we tried the device briefly at Motorola’s launch event in New Delhi.
In terms of core hardware, the new Moto G is similar to the older one. But there are changes. The biggest change — literally — is the size. The Moto G (2nd gen) sports a bigger screen.
It is a five inch-screen on the new devices compared to the 4.5-inch on the earlier Moto G. Thankfully, Motorola has increased the screen size in a way that doesn’t add much to the overall dimensions and weight of the device. It is still fits in a hand relatively well, mostly because of the curved back, and doesn’t feel unwieldy.
Below and on the top of the screen, there are speakers. We will check the sound quality of these speakers in our review. The screen still has 720P resolution but it seems to show punchier colours compared to the screen on the older Moto G. The viewing angles too seem somewhat better.
Another big change between the older and newer Moto G is the camera. The older one shoots 5-megapixel images. The newer shoots 8-megapixel images. A few images that we clicked with the Moto G (2nd gen) hinted that the camera performance has improved. But we will like to use the device for a little bit longer before we can talk about its performance in definite terms.
The build quality too seems to be better on the newer Moto phone. It feels sturdy and finishing looks good, better than what Desi manufacturers Micromax and Karbonn manage in their phones.
The Moto G (2nd gen) is powered by the same processors that was used in its predecessor. While this looks like lack of progress, we did not see any performance related issues with the device during our time with it. The user interface (UI) was fast and fluid, the subtle UI animations were handled without any lag, scrolling was smooth and apps opened in a jiffy.
The Moto G (2nd gen) runs Android 4.4 with the stock launcher and interface. Motorola calls it “pure android experience” because unlike other manufacturers it doesn’t modify the software interface in its phones.
Overall, we can say that Moto G (2nd gen) looks like a decent upgrade to arguably the most popular Motorola smartphone. we would have liked to see a little bit more powerful hardware but Motorola, in a bid to keep the cost of the phone down, focused on two components that matter most — screen and camera. We will put the device through its paces in our review and test it against some other devices available in the market. Stay tuned for our review.
-INDIA TODAY
