A couple of years back, Motorola’s mid-range series had not much in the camera department. Well, it didn’t have much even in a few other aspects, but the need for delivery of a great device wasn’t much because of the low competition, and many seemed happy enough with the simple Android usage and performance offered in the phones. Last year, the Moto G4 Plus excelled with the camera but it had its own issues of heating and the not-so-good form factor and build quality.
Lenovo, now the owner of the Motorola brand has taken “Motorola” off and that is only a small change to mention because that doesn’t matter to the end user. What matters is how well is the phone made, and we’re talking about the new Lenovo Moto G5 Plus that got launched in India, one of the first markets for this device. A few words as they are written above – “I’m liking it already”. A much better build quality, a promising chipset, and a killer camera.
Let’s start with the design – The Moto G5 Plus has a good change with the build. Unlike the plastic used on the G4 Plus last year, the Moto G5 Plus has an aluminum back plate. Another change is the size of the display that makes the phone smaller when compared to the predecessor. The Moto G4 and G4 Plus had a 5.5-inch display and the G5 Plus is given a 5.2-inch display, and smaller the phone, the easier it is to hold and get a grip on.
It might be hard to find a reason as to why Lenovo has chosen to make the phones smaller but the initial thought would go towards the lineups that are already present in the market – Moto X Play, Lenovo P2, etc. which all have a bigger 5.5-inch display and the company probably didn’t want to have a competitor from the same manufacturing house. This also gives the users an additional choice for those who always wanted a well-made and well-performing smaller phone. Though, I was told that users preferred smaller screens so the company chose to reduce the screen size.
Remember the fingerprint scanner on the OnePlus 3? It was a slightly regressed one, not having itself at the level of the screen. Moto G4 Plus had a flat and leveled sensor area on the front but the Moto G5 Plus takes a cue from the likes of OnePlus 3 in having this regressed sensor on the front. The navigation buttons, though, are a part of the interface itself.
Regarding the performance, we can talk about the specifics and ask for a good time to play around with the device to see how well does the Moto G5 Plus with Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor hold up in performing various tasks and if multitasking it easy on the phone. The unit that I’m using has 32GB of storage, which means it also has 4GB of RAM because there is only one more variant with 3GB RAM and 16GB storage. No 64GB storage because the company feels this is what they could offer the best for the price asked, and there is anyway a dedicated MicroSD card slot if the limited internal storage was a problem after all.
Oh, and how can we forget about the cameras? The Moto G5 Plus has a sharp 12-megapixel that has its specs matching to that of the primary camera on the Galaxy S7. A Sony IMX362 sensor with F/1.7 aperture and 1.4-micron pixel size, the camera does have a story to say and for a few quick captures, I’m convinced that Lenovo has left no stone untouched with the camera. Let us give it some time to see how the camera performs in the different conditions.
The camera bump that was even on the Moto Z series, is well noticeable here, which is a result of the company trying to have the device slim enough to be comfortable to hold in the hand but it doesn’t want to compromise with what it can offer on the camera part.
There’s a lot to talk about the interface of the Moto G5 Plus, especially the Moto app that enhances the user experience by folds, and we know how the simplistic nature of the Android UI on Moto phones have been a reason for many to choose it.
So, as for the initial impressions, the Moto G5 Plus makes me forget quite a few in the list of mid-range competitive devices and hope it stays that good even in the longer run.
