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232 of 246 people found the following review helpful.
Moto Reclaims the Budget Crown… For Now
By Eduardo
Pros
+ Excellent Screen
+ Great Camera
+ Clean Android 6.0 Marshmallow
+ Compatible with all major networks
+ Great Price
Cons
- No NFC
- No longer waterproof
- Bland Design
- Competition is Getting Better
- Single Speaker
Should You Buy: Yes
Actual Value: $200
Contrary
to what most reviewers though, I thought Motorola really dropped the
ball last year. The Moto G of 2015 had a weak processor, low resolution
screen, and an okay, but not great, camera. Perfectly fine in 2014, but
not in 2015 and definitely not now. Companies like Alcatel, ASUS, and
even small companies like Honor (Huawei) were offering better value for
money. But this year, Motorola definitely brought its best. But is it
enough to be the best budget phone of the year? In short, yes. The Moto
G4 is the best budget phone you should buy today. The question you
should ask yourself is, will it be the best value this year?
- Design -
Motorola
has never made the Moto G the stylish one of its lineup. True, with
Moto Maker, this can be a very personalized phone. But the overall
design has been plain. This year, that trend continues. The new Moto G
is plainer than the with a simple plain back and a simple flat front.
Personally I like it. It was built to be a solid, reliable phone and it
doesn’t try to be something it’s not. What I don’t like is the lack of
more premium material. Blu and Huawei have added metal to the mix, which
feels a lot better in the hand compared to the simple plastic build.
It’s a great phone, but it could still be better.
- Screen -
The
screen is a 5.5 inch 1080p panel, which is a huge improvement from the
old 720p panel on last generation’s phone. I honestly would’ve prefered a
5.2 inch panel, but that’s just a personal preference. This is a very
good panel as a whole, but certainly not the best screen available. Text
is really sharp and colors are vibrant enough. Whites tend to be
slightly on the blue side, but it is not that noticeable and contrast is
good, but not excellent. Still, for a phone that cost only $199, it is a
great screen and certainly an upgrade if you are coming from last
year’s Moto G.
- Software -
Motorola has kept their
reputation of keeping stock Android alive with this phone. Everything is
stock and the few additions that Motorola added to the phone are
definitely appreciated. Active lock screen is still here and twist
gestures are also back from last year. But what makes this different
compared to other phones is the Amazon ad experience that allows it to
be cheaper than a plain stock version. So, are the Amazon additions
something that affects the experience? In short, not really. General
usage is just what you’d expect from a typical Android phone and it is
hardly noticeable that you have Amazon ads built in. Well, when I say
hardly noticeable, I mean in general use. You will always be reminded of
the Amazon ads when you unlock, which takes up the entire screen and
shrinks to a notification when there are other notifications on the
screen. You can easily replace the screen lock with something like the
Next Lock Screen app (available on Google Play) and you can get rid of
all signs of Amazon ads. Some apps are kind of bloatware, but they are
all from Amazon so you can take it or leave it.
- Performance -
The
Moto G4 comes packing an octa-core Snapdragon 617 paired with 2GB of
RAM (at least on my version). This is still a decent package and seeing
as most of the competition will be using this chip, there isn’t much to
complain about. The phone works smoothly and games like Asphalt 8 and
Pokemon Go run well. Benchmarks show that the Moto G4 is right in the
middle of the pack, ahead of the Sony Xperia M4 and the Nexus 7 (2013).
It falls short compared to the 800 series of phones, but the gap is
slowly, but surely closing in. For the price, it definitely packs more
value for money and keeps the phone running smooth and quick. MicroSD
card support is always welcome, especially because it only has 16 GB of
storage, which easily fills up. Battery life is too soon to tell, but
today at work, it survived the entire day with constant use and it is
going towards 5 hours of screen on time. This is looking good and I will
update later to confirm whether it stays like that.
- Camera -
The
13MP back camera and the 5 MP selfie camera are good, but not the best
available. The sensor appears to be the same sensor as last year’s Moto
G. And in some aspects, it shows. Photos in bright light look vivid and
detailed, contrast is good, and focus is really fast. However, dim the
lights and grain starts to find its way onto images that look decent,
but good. Low light shots are clearly this camera’s weakness with the
sensor not able to grab onto details without creating a muddy image. The
5MP selfie cam works great for Snapchat and Instagram; great detail if a
bit mute and flat. But for a $199 phone, it falls right into place
within its competitors. Just don’t expect anything mind blowing.
- Conclusion -
Motorola has , without a doubt, made the best Moto G ever and the best budget
phone. The design is good, build quality is excellent, and the camera is
decent enough. The screen, while an improvement, is good but not great.
Overall,I can’t find anything to fault this phone. But the real problem
is the competition. Alcatel’s Idol 4 looks to be improving on
everything the Moto G has and the ASUS Zenfone 3 looks really beautiful
to hold. The Moto G has stock Android and the (sort of) promise of
getting updates faster. But is that really enough to be the best budget
phone of 2016? Only time will tell. If you need a phone now or just want
a guaranteed good experience on a budget, then go ahead and buy the
Moto G. But if you can afford a little more and want the absolute best,
I’d recommend waiting to see if the Alcatel or the ASUS can deliver a
solid experience.
187 of 203 people found the following review helpful.
The phone works just fine on Verizon
By Andre
I usually do not write reviews but felt compelled to write a review
on this phone due to the fact that people just DO NOT ask for help. The
phone works on all carriers including Verizon, if you do not know how
to set the phone up on your carrier ask for help. Don't write a review
prematurely blasting the phone for not working on your carrier when it
does. The phone works just fine on Verizon, you have to put an already
active sim in the phone. Once you do that you go to settings, network
settings, change the network mode to LTE / CDMA hit OK, then go to
access point names and turn on the Verizon APN. I have tested using the
phone on Verizon and had 0 issues.
So far the phone is great working on Cricket.
The
main problem is Verizon itself. They probably already have the list of
IMEI numbers for all of these phones and they are just dragging their
feet to enter them into their database. They did this with the Moto X
pure Edition last year. People were having the same issue of not being
able to activate it with a new SIM card because Verizon was taking their
sweet time entering in all of the IMEI numbers. Eventually Verizon out
of them all in and people were able to activate the phones in the
stores. It took them about a month after the phone was released to do
that. It may be the same case with this phone you just have to be
patient and wait for Verizon to update their systems. In the meantime
just activate an old phone with a new SIM card and then take that SIM
card and put it in the Moto G4 and you will be good to go.
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