After nearly two years, Motorola has launched a handset in India. The handset in discussion is the Motorola Moto G. As of now it will be available via Flipkart only and Motorola doesn’t have any immediate plans to make it available in physical stores.
Moto G is priced at Rs 12,499 for 8 GB version and Rs 13,999 for 16 GB version. To make the deal sweeter, Flipkart is also offering several goodies with Moto G like Rs 500 off on eBooks, Rs 1,000 off on clothing, 70 per cent off on colourful covers and 100 per cent cashback as store credits. However, this is a limited period offer.
At the launch event of Motorola Mot G we did spent some time with the device here is our first impression.
Specifications
Motorola’s Moto G flaunts a 4.5-inch IPS LCD display with 1280×720 pixels resolution and is powered by a quad-core 1.4 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 mobile Chipset and Adreno 305 GPU. The display has been constructed using the Corning Gorilla Glass 3 technology to make it slimmer, lighter and resistant to normal wear and tear. The bezel on each side of the screen is quite thin which makes it look quite slim.
Motorola has packed 1 GB RAM to make the Android 4.3 Jelly Bean run easily on the phone. The smartphone will also get the Android 4.4.2 KitKat update in the next few days.
Motorla Moto G measures 11.6 mm thick and weighs 143 grams. Moto G will be offered in 8 GB or 16 GB storage but does not have a memory card slot. At the rear, Moto G packs 5 megapixel camera with autofocus and LED flash along with imaging features such as Geo-tagging, touch focus, face-detection, Panorama and HDR. The camera can record HDR images and videos at 720p (HD). In the front, it has a 1.3 megapixel camera for making video calls.
Motorola has packed WiFi (802.11 b/g/n) in the Moto G for faster mobile web experience. Moto G supports 3G network for faster mobile internet and is a dual SIM (micro-SIM) smartphone. Other features of Moto G include Bluetooth 4.0, USB Host, micro USB 2.0 and GPS with A-GPS and GLONASS. Motorola has packed a 2070 mAh non-removable battery.
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Look and feel
In terms of design there is nothing extraordinary in Moto G but that doesn’t mean it is bad. It has curved edges which makes it attractive. It has a rubberised rear plate which has a slight slant towards the sides. Just below its rear camera, there is groove where one can place his index finger which makes it comfortable to hold the device and provides a decent grip.
The Moto G has a removable back panel under which one can find a non-removable 2070 mAh battery and two SIM slots. One can also purchase back panels in different colour to suit one’s style.
Here I would like to mention that removing the back cover is pretty tricky and not a smooth affair because there is no dedicated slot to dig your nails to remove the back panel; one has to really dig their nails at the base of the handset where micro USP port is placed to do the job.
The front panel of Moto G consists of the 4.5 inch display while the back panel harbours a 5 megapixel camera and an LED flash. On the right panel, power/lock key and volume rocker switch are located which are quite accessible. On the top panel, Headphone jack is placed and at the bottom panel a micro USB port is placed.
Moto G doesn’t have expandable memory slot so one has to use cloud services or transfer data to PC to free memory.
Camera
Moto G has a 5 megapixel rear camera and a single LED flash, while on the front there is a 1.3 megapixel camera. To click pictures one can tap anywhere on the screen while the camera App is on and to access setting wheel ( which has all the settings like flash, HDR, panorama and so on) one has to swipe his finger from left to light.
The picture quality of both rear and front camera is quite decent and detailing was visible but this is not our final verdict as we were not able to test camera in different lighting conditions. We will shortly come up with the detailed review of the device where I will talk in detail about its camera capabilities.
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Performance
During my brief encounter with Moto G, I found the device’s navigation quite fluid, without any lag. The screen was also responsive to the touches. Also, if we compare it with handsets of international brands in terms of specifications, it is quite better than HTC One Mini, Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini and Nokia Lumia 820. But this is just our initial findings, there is much more to find which we will discuss in our detailed review.
Moto G comes pre-loaded with couple of apps like Moto care and Moto Migrate which add value to the phone. As the name suggests, Moto care app is meant to provide customer service and one can even make a call directly to the customer care executive using this app. On the other hand, Moto Migrate app will be helpful in migrating data, music, picture and contents from your old phone to Moto G. Please keep in mind Moto Migrate app can be used in any other phone also and it transfers data using WiFi.
Conclusion
Motorola has priced Moto G quite attractively but the only issue is that it will be available online only. 
Absence on availability in physical stores is a major drawback. Also, in the first look device looks good but the real picture will emerge only when we do a detailed review of the device. Till then keep reading The Mobile Indian.
Images Shot by: Sushil Kumar