25/11/2015
This review will not be short. For a quick summary, please read the last two paragraphs.
Despite being a great device, there are a couple of drawbacks.
The LED notification light has been removed, as has the gyroscope.
In place of the LED, you get Moto Display, which can light up the display when you get a notification. I prefered the LED, but Moto Display is genuinely useful.
The gyroscope being removed affects panorama and Photosphere photo capture. Additionally, virtual reality headsets such as Google Cardboard won't work and some games that let you navigate by physically moving the phone won't work.
Despite the above, I feel like Motorola included enough to make the upgrade a no brainer and earn 5 stars.
The customisation is nice (as is the improved processor and more grippable back), but the camera and the water resistance are the real upgrades here.
Specs aside (it's the 13MP sensor from the Nexus 6 on the back and 5MP on the front) the camera simply takes far better photos by capturing more light and has more video capture options.
Versus last year's camera, light gets more evenly distributed and level/balance correction in editing tools produces better results when the initial image is less than stellar. The rear camera also shoots 1080P (full HD) video and has the option of slow motion (60 frames per second versus 30 at normal speed) capture at 720P.
This same camera sensor is being used in quite a few budget phones this year, because the price has now dropped. However, Motorola did some extra work with the flash and an infrared coating to better capture skin tones and light. This should be taken into account if the camera in your phone is important to you. It won't rival a 2015 flagship's camera, but it will give it a small edge over other budget phones.
Still images are excellent outside (with lots of light available) and decent indoors or outdoors where there's a little less light.
The HD video looks good and the slow motion video is nice to have, but not amazing.
Photo backup is important, whichever phone you choose. If you lose your device, all those moments are lost. This may not seem like a big deal now, but those pictures could turn out to be important. A lot of companies now offer unlimited photo backup (smaller pictures) with full size backup at a small premium. My personal choice is Google Photos because it covers web, Android and iOS and has some decent basic editing tools and creates animations etc for you. However, there are many capable services out there.
Being able to choose more RAM means being able to multitask better and impacts everything, really. The phone is more responsive, has less stutter/laggy moments etc and will generally last longer. It's definitely not just about being able to play games and impacts camera use, too.
On the previous model (slightly inferior processor, 1GB of RAM) burst mode in the Motorola Camera app would get 'stuck' after about 25 captures, resulting in a pause of about 10 seconds before it resumed. This may seem like a tiny thing, but it can mean a lost photo of your child or pet. Modern photo services offer automatic animation creation and losing lots of similar pictures can also lose you future memories, so an unresponsive camera due to low memory definitely sucks.
The IPX7 rated water resistance that protects the phone for up to half an hour in a meter of water is definitely a nice touch and isn't offered by many phones. This means that you can drop it in the bath or take it in the shower and it'll be fine, as long as the back is securely in place and the water isn't acidic or in some way harmful beyond neutral, regular water. It raining on you (even heavily) should no longer hurt your phone.
This review isn't intended to cover everything as the big upgrades here over the previous generation are the cameras, LTE (over the 3G model) water resistance and the option for more RAM and storage.
Storage isn't as relevant as you may think, as MicroSD cards (officially up to 32GB) are supported and Android M (due for release later this year) will allow you to merge that MicroSD with your internal storage, essentially. However, my 16GB model had roughly 9GB free after formatting, the OS and updating apps, if you're curious. My previous model (8GB) had about 4 gigabytes free.
I feel a general note on price would be helpful to some.
Spending £168 (Amazon's price as of the latest update to this review) upfront on a phone may seem like a lot. After all, a 2-year contract often comes with a phone. As well as those 'free' phones generally being terrible, whatever you get is paid for by the contract. That 'free' device will probably add over £150 to your monthly charges over the life of your agreement, with a flagship probably adding at least £400
Paying for something like a Moto G upfront and then choosing your own plan gives you the option to be flexible and save real money over a couple of years.
So, should you get this? Ultimately, if you want a cheap phone that has a nice camera, with a responsive, clean/stock Android experience, it's the best option. It can be customised (for a premium) if bought directly from Motorola and is a big upgrade in almost every area over the previous generation.
Motorola definitely do add some apps to their phones, but they provide genuinely useful features, such as automatically turning off notifications if you're in a meeting and letting you do a double karate chop to activate the torch. Other companies add bloat via custom interfaces, resulting in a slower experience.
For me, this is the best phone in the budget to mid-range market that exists right now. Motorola have added a lot for the price and removed only a couple of features.
There are definitely other options (One Touch Idol 3 and Zenfone 2 come to mind) in this price range, but Motorola have a record of delivering updates faster than the competition and providing quality experiences. If you want a cheaper option, the Moto E is worth considering.
Motorola Moto G 3rd Generation 2 GB RAM/16 GB ROM 4G LTE UK SIM-Free Smartphone - Black (Amazon Exclusive)
