The Moto G review

It’s been a while since I’ve done this,  I’ve been posting impressions and reviews on Facebook,  but I felt the moto g deserved a place on its own.
Almost a year ago,  I had the chance to use  the nexus 7,  a very robust device providing the stock Google experience,  but since I wasn’t around wifi much,  I decided it was pointless having it. 
I also got myself a Samsung s2 plus,  which was basically the good old s2 with android jelly bean and a better battery backup (thanks to the crappier processor).  The s2 plus was fine,  but almost 7 months in I could feel the crappiness Samsung loads into their devices starting to eat it up from inside.

I wanted the nexus 7 experience but on a phone.  Nexus 4 and 5 were around,  both way too pricey in Kuwait.
And then Motorola and Google teamed up and came up with this…

After 3 weeks of using the moto g..  I can safely say I may be in love with her.

First off,  she is gorgeous.  She isn’t all sleek and sexy like the powerhouse divas from Samsung and Apple.  But there is something “just right” with her,  the moment you hold the moto g,  you feel it. The screen is beautiful and though relatively small,  has amazing pixel density and brightness. The back is made of a smooth,  almost matte finish. Its a no bullshit,  “this is what I am, deal with it ” design.  The back panel can be changed to a wide selection of colours but it does come in black 😉 

She is smart. The moto g comes with a very modest but highly capable snapdragon 400 quad core processor.  Which is surprisingly able to hold its own against the Much more expensive big players in the market. (benchmarks show it to be just slightly lesser in capability to run apps)
Nevertheless,  I tried pushing it,  and so far it can run everything silky smooth. Only heavy multitasking seemed to make her have some cute hiccups (which I forgive)

She is delicious . Moto g comes with the latest android version,  4.4.2,  Kitkat . This is what Google wants you to experience,  everything is super smooth and fast. Stock android is a joy to use and though it takes a while to get used to if your coming from a Samsung or other devices,  once you learn its flow,  there is no going back.  Plus you can compile it with 3rd party launchers (Nova, apex) to make it look like whatever you want it to be. It even updates itself,  the inbuilt apps like the gallery, calendar, music player all updated themselves into much better indistinguishable versions . Plus being stock Google,  I’m expecting a lot of system updates into the future.

She gets shit done. Google has further fine tuned their Google now search assistant.  She is just a flick away and so far her success rate with whatever I ask her to do is mind blowing. The moto g came to me at the right time , cause I had to find a new house within a small time window frame and I was in a town whose place names I had difficulty saying. All I had to do was,  flick up,  “okay Google”,  “navigate me to the Avenue reagent Kochi..” ,  2 seconds later I was on my way to the place with she guiding me.
It’s amazing how easily and Accurately she is able to decipher my voice. Searching has never been this fun . You can even make hands-free calls and messages with her.
If You combine the moto g with a good 3g cellular network,  you don’t need anything else. Heck I’m writing this review from my moto g using the WordPress app for android.
( I use idea 3g, in Kerala it seems to have a 3g signal everywhere,  EVERYWHERE!,  – Leon the professional reference )

She doesn’t give up on you.
I’m on 3g high speed  network 24×7,  all notifications on, auto/medium brightness (which itself is brighter than most devices), Whatsappin/facebooking,  takes at least 3 photos a day, at least an hour of searching/browsing the net and finally a plethora of calls.  And St the end of the day,  it’s still got juice left!
I think it’s black magic or something,  cause my  Samsung s2 plus,  with its supposedly better battery backup,  would never have made it a day if I did half of the stuff I mentioned above. From the benchmarks I saw online, it is actually able the  hold its own against the big note 3s and s5s,  this is thanks to the lesser intensive processor and smaller screen.

She is fun. Great hd screen so high definition videos look lovely. The audio quality is excellent,  punchy and loud. The device comes with its own built in equaliser in the audio settings that affects all the music apps. The loudspeakers are very loud and I honestly can’t ask for anything more from the device in this regard.  Streaming services are also just a few touches away in the play store so with a good data connection and favourable data limits,  you have music on the go.

She needs glasses. Back Camera is 5 a mega pixel shooter and not a very good one too.  BUT,  she does have some tricks up her sleeve,  HDR is available and so is multi shots . The camera is easy to use and take pictures quickly.
I dunno,  if this is available In other devices,  but the moto g’s video recording has slow motion capture!  I was at a party,  and this led me to capture some highly terrific fun videos.
The low resolution shots make it a breeze to upload onto the net. There is also a built in image editor with filters and stuff like that.

She can go duos. Yup,  the moto g has support for 2 networks and even the data connection from both of them at the same time. I can’t say how much it will effect the battery life though.

And finally..  She is humble. ( I didn’t want to call her cheap).
At 13,000 INR ,  she is very affordable and at that price point you won’t find anything else like her. Heck you wont need to,  once you use the moto g, you begin to wonder,  do you really need a better camera or larger screen?  Are they worth paying 10 k more for?

I kinda feel bad even putting a price on her,  the moto g is an amazing experience and one I won’t be putting Down for a very long time.

(Sorry for the poor edit,  doing it over the phone)