Moto G4 Plus First Impression – Plus Features, Minus Charm

Motorola’s Moto G series is all about providing decent ‘smartphone experience’ (if not specs) for a price that lies within affordable realms – tagged under a familiar global brand that won’t be discarded or belittled as a novel ‘Chinese’ offering. That should explain why Motorola has sold so many of its Gs and why it’s so popular among youngsters. The new Moto G4 Plus carries forward the same legacy, promising improvements in many key areas, for just the right price. Was it as appealing in person as on paper? Let’s discuss what we liked and what we didn’t in our first encounter with the Moto G4 Plus.

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Key Specifications and Features:  

Better quality material used

The cheap metal finish plastic on Moto G3 (which wasn’t fooling anyone) has been replaced with real metal side frame. The plastic matte finish back cover has a subtle texture which lends it a nice grip. Motorola’s iconic dimple insignia is still there.

Also, the new Moto G4 Plus sheds off that Chunky feel by opting for a comparatively flatter back design. Imagine a Samsung Galaxy S7 like side edge, but with polycarbonate instead of glass, and you will get a fairly good idea of what the new Moto G4 Plus design feels like.

With a display size of 5.5-inches, it’s fairly bigger than Moto G3. Speaking of which, the display panel on Moto G4 Plus scales resolution to full HD, and whites are good too, but if you like colors that pop (as in Moto X Play or Moto X Style) you might be a bit disappointed. We will test it further in our personal space before we give our final verdict.

Just below the display, you will find a square (OnePlus 2 Like) fingerprint sensor. It doesn’t double as a home key. Navigation bar is still on the display. It’s a trackpad like sensor, so you can’t press it either. The fingerprint sensor worked fine in our initial testing, but felt weird. Perhaps because of the bordering rim which protrudes out. Also missing is water resistance certification when compared to Moto G3 (IPX7). Splash resistance nano-coating offers some consolation though.

Improved camera hardware?

Motorola brought many professionals from different walks of life to testify Moto G4 Plus’s camera prowess. Point being, this is the feature which Motorola aims to highlight and is solely depending on to market the new Moto G4. We tried some shots in low lighting and under Motorola’s set-up. The shutter speed wasn’t very fast and for good images we had to keep our hands steady and even switch to the new pro mode for accurate white balance a couple of times. On the whole, the low light performance felt above average compared to other similarly priced handsets.

It is still too soon for any sort of conclusions but here are a few camera samples to help you estimate how well the Motorola camera performs.

Moto G4 Plus Camera Samples 

Performance Expectations

The performance on Moto G devices often exceeds expectations. The stock Android Marshmallow on new Moto G4 Plus felt smooth. The Snapdragon 617 octa-core SoC used in Moto G4 is similar to Snapdragon 615, save for improvements like better ISP (for camera) and a new modem. An upgrade to Snapdragon 615 isn’t exactly as enticing as Snapdragon 650 or 652 at this point of time, but Moto Gs have worked surprisingly well with mediocre SoCs in the past, and this could very well be the case with the G4 Plus. The chipset is also aided by Adreno 405 GPU, which hints at smooth gaming. Motorola has also added support for a few gestures, though I couldn’t spot them in the settings menu on the hands-on prototype.

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Moto G4 Plus Photo Gallery

Conclusion

The Moto G4 Plus is an incremental update, sticking to existing Motorola philosophy. Yet, somehow it feels that Motorola didn’t go that extra mile. The fingerprint sensor implementation could have been better (integration in Moto dimple on the rear would have been cool) and the same goes for the display. Having said that, it might still be a better alternative to existing rivals. The design choices and stock android should play to its advantage. How impressive it ends up being will heavily rely on how good the rear camera turns out to be.