Motorola Moto G4 and Moto G4 Plus review: Hands-on with the Moto G 2016 budget phones

Motorola Moto G4 and Moto G4 Plus review: Hands-on with the Moto G 2016 budget phones :

The new Moto G4 for 2016 is here with a bigger brother, the Moto G4 Plus. Here's what we make of the new affordable phones.

price of device : £169

MOTOROLA MOTO G4 AND MOTO G4 PLUS REVIEW

As expected, Motorola has launched a new Moto G budget phone for 2016. For this year it's available in two different models but here's our Motorola Moto G4 and Moto G4 Plus hands-on review. See also: Best budget phones 2016.

The Moto G range is a little confusing so let's quickly explain how the range has been launched over the years. You can see the list of Moto Gs below which was launched in 2013 originally. The phone got updated with 4G support before the second generation model came along in 2014 which was then upgraded to 4G in early 2015. Then last year the Moto G third-gen launched later in 2015. Now we have the 2016 models in the form of the Moto G4 which is the fourth-generation.

Moto G
Moto G 4G
Moto G (2014 - second generation)
Moto G 4G (2015 - second generation)
Moto G 2015 (third-generation)

If the launch seems a bit sudden, Lenovo chose to hold an even in India for the Moto G4 but we've been able to see the new phone in London ahead of its UK release.

MOTOROLA MOTO G4 AND G4 PLUS REVIEW: DESIGN AND BUILD

Now owned by Lenovo (previously Google), Motorola has kept the familiar design of the Moto G going with the new 2016 model. It's got the same overall look and feel but tweaking it enough to give it some freshness and individuality.

For example, the dimple the 'M' for Motorola has been taken out of the camera surround. A small change but one which helps differentiate between last year's and this year's models. The build is still plastic but the Moto G4 and Plus feel good in the hand. The main difference is that they're bigger phones which some customers might not want.

The good news is that you can still customise the phone via the Moto Maker. It's like build a bear for phones so you can choose different front and back colours and accent colours. You can only choose black or white for the front but the rear cover comes in eight different options. You'll also be able choose how much storage you want an optionally add an engraving to the rear cover.

While the 2015 Moto G is fully waterproof, the Moto G4 has been downgraded in this respect. Now it's simply splash proof so you can't go dunking it completely in water. Motorola told us that most consumers only need splash level protection so avoided the additional cost of making it fully waterproof.

It's worth noting that the Moto G4 Plus is identical to the regular Moto G4 in size and design – 7.9mm and 155g. It simply has the fingerprint scanner below the screen in addition. The scanner is quite small compared to others we've seen on phones and has a small raised border around it making it feel a bit different to the touch.

MOTOROLA MOTO G4 AND G4 PLUS REVIEW: HARDWARE AND SPECS

If you like the size of the Moto G 2015 then the fact that the Moto G4 has a larger screen might not be the best of news. It's jumped from 5- to 5.5in which is a reasonable amount to add but the resolution has also gone from 720p to Full HD.

What's confusing, compared to the rest of the smartphone market, is that the Moto G4 Plus is actually no bigger. It's also 5.5in and Full HD so it offers benefits in other areas. Read on to find out how.

Back to the regular Moto G4 and there are a few key hardware upgrades to address (other than the screen). Firstly the new processor which is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 chip, up from a Snapdragon 410 in the third-gen Moto G. The Snapdragon 617 offers octa-core CPUs (A53 cores up to 1.5GHz), Cat 7 LTE and Adreno 405 graphics.

That's a good start and the Moto G4 now has 16GB of storage and 2GB of RAM as standard which is double the entry-level Moto G from last year. A 32GB model is listed on the Motorola website, but it's unclear whether this will be available in the UK.

For the Plus model, there are three capacities: 16-, 32- and 64GB which come with 2-, 3- or 4GB of RAM. Again, it's a little unclear whether all three will be on offer in the UK. What we do know for sure is that both new Moto G phones come with a Micro-SD card slot which can take up to 128GB cards.

Both the G4 and G4 Plus come with a 3000mAh batter which is sadly non-removable despite the rear cover snapping off. Motorola offers '24 hour battery' and 'Turbo Charging' with the latter meaning you can get 6 hours battery life from a short 15 minute charge. Only the Moto G4 Plus is supplied with the necessary charger in the box, though.

The cameras remain at 13Mp for the rear with a dual-tone LED flash and 5Mp for the front. If you upgrade to the Moto G4 Plus, you'll benefit from not only a 16Mp sensor for the main camera, but a laser auto focus and a professional mode within the camera app, too. This means you can manually control settings like the ISO and white balance.

From our hands-on time with the two phones, it's going to be worth spending the extra cash on the Moto G4 Plus if photography is important to you. The other reason is that fingerprint scanner which we didn't have time to set up but Motorola claims it's super-fast and you can also use it to authorise Google Play payments as well as unlocking the device.

See also: Moto G4 vs Moto G4 Plus comparison review.

MOTOROLA MOTO G4 AND G4 PLUS REVIEW: SOFTWARE AND APPS

Under Lenovo, Motorola is sticking to its formula of offering an essentially stock Android experience. The Moto G4 and G4 Plus both come with Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow pre-installed with a very thin layer on top to add some features.

Alongside the usual Android elements such as the two-stage notification bar/quick settings, and the cards style recent apps are some Motorola elements. For starters there's a camera app which we've mentioned and the Moto app.

This is where various things (namely Moto Display and Moto Actions) are bundled together, such as the ability to use gestures to do things like launch the camera, torch or silence notifications. You can also opt to have 'battery-friendly' notifications which fade in and out while the screen is off.

Motorola also adds the ability to automatically keep the screen dark between user-defined times (ie overnight) and you can also tweak how the screen looks with two different modes.