Moto G (2013) Review

[silentanarchy]

Moto G Review

 

 

 

The Build

 

The Moto G in short is built, like most phones in the $300 to $400 price range, which for the price ($100) was a great surprise. The buttons are nice with a firm push required and a nice click upon actuation, not mushy  and unresponsive like some of the other phones I've tried. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next surprise was how well the phone felt out of the box initially, I say initially because the thin piece of plastic under the 3.5mm jack broke, when I put the white back on

 

 

 

and with this piece broken the back creaks slightly on one side, and flexes a bit. This was not a major issue because I can just put the other cover on, and I can't blame motorola because there really wasn't a way to get around this problem, so just take note of this if you buy one. The black and white backs have different feelings, The black one is a soft touch material, like the nexus 7 but a little less thick, and the white one feels like a smooth painted plastic. I would imagine if you bought any extra backs in color they would feel like the white one. If you are wondering does this thing bend, with a decent amount of pressure I was able to see a little flex but it was flexing and not bending. The screen does not appear to have an oleophobic coating because I get fingerprints on it all the time, so you may want to buy some oleophobic spray if fingerprints bug you like they do me.

 

 

 

 

Device Tour

 

With the price I hope you were not expecting Ir Blasters and Wireless charging, because the Moto G is basic when it comes to features. on the outside you get a micro usb port, 3.5 mm jack, front/rear camera, speaker, and flash. The dimensions are 129.9x65.9x11.6(mm) at 143g. The screen is 4.5 inch at  720x1280, and is surprisingly under Gorilla Glass 3, it has a 2070mAh. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Design and Ergonomics

 

Because looks are subjective, my pictures should provide you with the ability to judge for yourself. I will however tell you what I think about the design. To me it looks better with the white back on, as long as you keep it clean. I like the how the front is just a clean slate, even though the curve is much more ergonomic, i prefer the candybar style smart phone, some say they have harsh lines but to me that provides a more solid grip.

 

 

 

As you can see from these pictures the Moto G has a curved ergonomic design, as I just said I prefer the candybar shape. So I don't love the feel of this in the hand I don't have a problem holding it, you can also see the dimple in the back that motorola is doing to all their phones, and like many have said the dimple is in the perfect spot, I actually use the dimple to flick the phone around when I pull it out of my pocket. also if you want to reach the top corner of the phone you should have no problem, I can easily reach the top left corner, my hands are 7 3/4" long from tip of my middle finger to the crease on my wrist.

 

 

The performance

 

If you were expecting the Moto G to be slow based on the price you will be surprised. I have had very few issues with performance of this. I would compare it to the speed of a samsung galaxy s4, it outperforms my mom's s3 and it, has a much better battery life. As you should expect it's no iphone 6 or note 4, but this thing is no slouch either. watch this video to see the speed of normal browsing. Battery life is good I'm a not a power user but it gets me through a day with about 40%, I expect a power user to get to 10% by the end of a long day. and if you were dreading the fact that this 720p screen, fear not, the screen on this could be more sharp, but it was not something that I really notice unless I'm looking for it, every other aspect of the screen is great, I can read it in daylight, and the color of the screen is balanced maybe slightly cool, but not really noticeable either. the contrast is good, if you compare the black on screen to the bezel there is a little bit of a difference but with how bright the whites are it makes for a great contrast.

 

 

 

 

The Camera

 

The camera on here is pretty great, not nearly as feature rich as a GS5 or a HTC One M8, and the quality isn't as good as those either. but I think this takes great pictures if you have ample lighting, They say a picture is worth a thousand words so I'm going to save myself the trouble and show you click here. Sorry there aren't that many good photo's on there I will add more later so come back and see.

The detail, isn't that great due to the fact that it's only 5MP but I've been happy enough with it. The front camera works well, and is surprisingly good with low light, I'm able to get a great picture in just the glow of my monitor. It should suffice for snapchat and instagram.

 

 

The Speaker and Calling

 

The media experience on this thing is good. in a quiet room the speaker at max volume is very loud, however in a noisy environment the speaker lacks a little volume, it is still audible, just not very enjoyable. Well this is a phone afterall so can it do it's core function well. yes. it is great at being a phone just as good as the iphone 6 and GS5. The earpeice is loud enough for moderately noisy environments, it may be hard to hear at a concert, but then again anything is, and I have had very few moments where I had to say WHAT? 12 times, which I tend to do on alot of phones. when it comes to the other end, I've had no complaints and I haven't had many people say WHAT? to me, so overall good experiences.

 

 

 

Conclusion

 

In the end the Moto G 2013 comes out on top as the best value smartphone, that is other than maybe it's newer brother the 2014 model,

 

Please comment and tell me if I could improve on anything, I did try a different method of taking pictures so tell me if you liked them or not. I actively view and comment on all my reviews, so I should respond quickly. Please check out my other reviews too if you liked this one, also if you didn't like the pictures on this one check out my other review's because I used a different method for each.

 

 

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[werto165]

I feel like a phone like a one plus one would be a better option for the price. Good review, the camera department is what made me steer clear of this phone. 

[silentanarchy]

I feel like a phone like a one plus one would be a better option for the price. Good review, the camera department is what made me steer clear of this phone. 

thanks. I got this phone for about $100 and the one plus one is about $300, They are in completely different price brackets.

[werto165]

thanks. I got this phone for about $100 and the one plus one is about $300, They are in completely different price brackets.

oh I misunderstood "$300 to $400 price range," anyway, good phone for the price. 

[silentanarchy]

oh I misunderstood "$300 to $400 price range," anyway, good phone for the price. 

Yeah I will edit it, I can see how you misread.

[werto165]

Yeah I will edit it, I can see how you misread.

I have the tendency to skip over words  or even whole lines when I'm tired, it's nearly 3am lol. 

[silentanarchy]

It is an awesome phone for the price, got my for free though, but stuck with Boost Mobile. Love the phone, I did install CM just for fun on it. Eventually I switched to the Nexus 6. Really good review by the way. keep it up.

Thanks, I hated the look of the nexus 6. But it did slowly grow on me, I actually really like the look now. I am running apex launcher right now, because I like the look, I was thinking of putting CM on this but I never got around to it.

I have the tendency to skip over words  or even whole lines when I'm tired, it's nearly 3am lol. 

I do the same thing, Then I'll go to comment, and go back up and read it to quote them, and realize I misread. 

[Guest]

The funny thing is you have not realized that they treated the inside with a water proof coating

We put my sister's 2013 Moto g in a full sink twice, for 10 minutes.

No damage.

One time it had a boot loop because if it. but we fixed It quick enough.

[silentanarchy]

The funny thing is you have not realized that they treated the inside with a water proof coating

We put my sister's 2013 Moto g in a full sink twice, for 10 minutes.

No damage.

One time it had a boot loop because if it. but we fixed It quick enough.

 That is awesome! I had no idea, I'm not going to do what you did, but I will definitely be less sheltering of my phone in the rain.

[Guest]

 That is awesome! I had no idea, I'm not going to do what you did, but I will definitely be less sheltering of my phone in the rain.

Dude, every phone is okay in mere rain

 

But no, you can safely put it in water.

 

[silentanarchy]

I know every phone is good in the rain but I still get nervous, not as much with this, but with more expensive phones. My step brothers screen cracked from the rain, the phone got really hot then the rain cracked it