Moto G4 Plus - Great budget phone with lots of great features

Verdict:

A splash of premium for a fraction of what is expected but a let-down in some areas. Overall, a really great stock-Android experience with Oreo to look forward to at a very affordable price

Pros

Premium feel
Nice stock Android experience
Super quick Turbo charging
Exceptional price

Cons

Obviously a budget phone
Slow camera
Many bugs
Canslow at times

Key features:

• Review price: 160£ (200$)
• 1080p, 5.5 inch display
• 16MP camera
• Fingerprint scanner
• 3,000 mAh
• Snapdragon 617 CPU with octa-core processing

Ratings:

Storage: 9/10

Value: 8/10

Screen size: 9/10

Speeds: 6/10

Screen: 7/10

Software: 8/10

OVERALL: 8/10 (4/5 stars)

This very affordable phone will suffice for some but not live up to expectations of others. It is definitely middle of the road in many aspects but that is not necessarily a bad thing. For the price, it performs well. It may not serve exactly as expected, but it’s features fly close enough to the top dogs for it to be a great contender.

Storage

The model I reviewed was the UK version with 16GB of storage and 2GB of RAM. It’s US sister has 64GB of storage with 4GB of RAM. That one currently retails for 250$ so it is slightly more expensive. 

One great add-on feature with the Moto G4 plus is the ability to add up to 128GB of removable storage with an SD card. This makes the 16GB variant a lot more valuable and for that reason I wouldn’t advise against it. Unless you download hundreds of HD videos, storage shouldn’t be an option even with as little as 16GB of storage.

Value

The price point of the Moto G4 Plus is probably the main deciding factor for most when purchasing this phone. For the sheer amount of features included, this phone is jam-packed with value. At the time of reviewing, the price was 165£ but it does fluctuate. It can usually be bought for less than 120£ second hand which is a great deal. If you’re looking at the US variant with the 64GB, I have seen the price fall below 220$ which would be a bargain. 

These price have dropped considerably since launch which makes this phone all the more appealing. The UK variant launched at 199£ while the US one at 299$. 

Screen:

The screen size is definitely on the larger side. When compared to the IPhone 6 Plus, it has exactly the same screen size but an overall smaller shape. In other words, more bang for your buck. The full 1080p display looks and performs very well but under pressure it crumbles. When I say it crumbles I am referring to the phone’s speed. I will touch down again on that later.

Battery

The battery is actually pretty above par for a mid-range phone. It is more than enough to power you through the whole day. With very power-consuming apps on, it can drain quite rapidly but with little use it lasts very well. It may not be a patch on Moto’s 5,000mAh E4 Plus, but it is exactly what is expected in this day and age. The technology in this area is not very advanced so no other phone will completely outperform the G4 Plus here.

What makes the 3,000 seem like more than enough is the super fast Turbo charging. That is a real game-changer for this phone. While many other phones have it, it is usually a feature associated with higher spec phones. I usually need to bring my charger with me but that is not much of an issue because the fast turbo charging is brilliant. It’s very handy being able to charge the phone fully in just over an hour. This is a feature that would be useful to anyone and could save you hours of waiting for your phone to charge.

Speeds

This is one area where I found the phone to suffer slightly. While it houses a 617 Snapdragon processor, 2GB of RAM just doesn’t cut it. I often found the speeds of the phone quite slow. The problems really start to materialize when you switch from one app to another repeatedly. It is just not fast enough to play high-demanding games or multitask effectively.

Software

The stock Android experience is great with no ads to annoy you. I love the Moto notifications as it is very simple to view notifications without unlocking the phone. Also, the Moto actions are great and I use them a lot. For example you just have to chop twice for the flashlight and twist twice for the camera. The fingerprint scanner is brilliant and it is definitely quicker than any Samsung or iPhone to unlock. One big bonus is that this phone will soon be upgraded to Android Oreo which is great. That makes it almost in line with other Android flagship smartphones in terms of software. 

Home button? 

One flaw in the fingerprint scanner is that it doesn’t double as a home button which makes no sense but to solve that problem I realised that you can download an app to fix that called Fingerprint actions.

To conclude, this phone has performed well for tasks I have put before it. I wouldn’t rank it close to any of the high spec phones but for a budget it’s easy to recommend. Moto in general is a great choice with lots of cool features. If you’re interested in better value with slightly less features, I would recommend the Moto G4 which has a slightly worse camera and is missing a fingerprint scanner. Otherwise it is the same. I definitely recommend the Moto G4 Plus.

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