The Motorola Moto G is an important phone, for Motorola at least. It’s the first new Motorola phone to be released in the UK in ages, and the first we’ve seen since Google bought Motorola back in 2012. It’s also superb. Thanks to its 720p screen and solid Snapdragon 400 processor, it offers far better specs than any other big-name a phone selling for under £150. If you want a sub-£150 or $179 phone, get this one. It’s that simple.
Design
The design on the Moto G doesn’t, by any means, follow the current smartphone trend of the straightest possible form and thinner-is-better chassis approach. Its thickest side is the curved back which is almost 1.2 cm thick, while the thinnest part is just over 6 mm.
Its kinship with the Moto X is quite evident: both have the same exchangeable back side made from a slightly rubberized polycarbonate, built with the headphone jack at the top side as well as a cut out for the camera, an LED flash and finally a Motorola logo. Just like the Moto X, there’s a whole rainbow of colors from which to choose.
The interface is largely vanilla, which is good, but there are a handful of Motorola flavoured additions. Motorola Migrate helps you bring all your content such as photos, videos and text message history – as long your old phone was Android. Motorola Assist helps to avoid disruptions when you’re in a meeting or asleep which we’ve found extremely handy.
Display
The Motorola Moto G’s most impressive feature is its screen. This is the first time we’ve seen a 720p screen on a phone that costs less than £140. 
This gives the phone the sort of ultra-sharp text and images that we’ve only seen in much more expensive phones to date. 720p resolution stretched across a 4.5-inch display gives a pixel density rating of 329 pixels per inch (ppi). Higher-end Androids may offer 1080p screens these days, but that’s still higher than the ppi rating of the iPhone 5S (326ppi).
Design your smartphone : Moto x
Processor
The processor on the Moto G is a Snapdragon 400 with four cores, a clock speed of 1.2 GHz and 1 GB of RAM.
Battery
Motorola touts ‘all day’ battery life for the Moto G and this is certainly the case in our testing. The Moto G will last a day and if you are a light user then you’ll probably even get a couple of days from the handset.
Tech Specs and Price
The technical aspects that come with the Moto G aren’t in the class of superior smartphones, but sit somewhere in the middle ground. The quad-core processor with 1 GB of RAM and Android 4.3 operating system ensure that the system runs smoothly at all times. The 5 MP camera is in tune with the price class, while the battery for the device is actually quite good. Considering the price of 199 USD for the 16 GB version, the Moto G offers a great price-performance ratio.
| Processor | Qualcomm Snapdragon 400, Quad-Core, 1.2 GHz |
|---|---|
| Display | 4.5-inch, 1,280 x 720 Pixel, 329 ppi, LCD |
| RAM | 1 GB |
| Internal storage |
8/16 GB |
| Dimensions | 129.9 x 65.9 x 6-11.6 mm (curved back side) |
| Weight | 143 grams |
| Battery | 2,070 mAh |
| Camera | 5 MP (back), 1.3 (front) |
| Connectivity | GSM/GPRS/EDGE/UMTS/HSPA+, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, GLONASS |
| Android version |
Android 4.3 Jelly Bean |
| Price | 179 USD (8 GB), 199 USD (16 GB) |
The Motorola Moto G is one of the best phones of the year, and the first time we’ve seen a phone of this calibre launch at under £200 SIM-free. That it’s so much cheaper than £200 is a minor miracle. This phone deserves to sell by the bucketload.
