The first-generation Moto G has been the most successful smartphone in Motorola’s history. So, how do you improve something that is so loved by the consumers without messing it up? This was the biggest question in front of Motorola as it developed the second-generation Moto G over the past several months.
According to the company executives, it focussed on the basic issues and listened to its consumers. Despite being very popular, the original Moto G was not a perfect phone, it had its fair share of issues but none of them impossible to fix. So, what Motorola has done with the new Moto G, is attempted to fix some of the most talked-about problems with its predecessor without compromising on good aspects of the phone.
During the India launch event of the Motorola’s new devices, I spent some time with Moto G (2nd Gen.) to find out whether the company has been successful in making the new Moto G better than the original.
The most important changes in the new Moto G are the display and speakers. Not only the company has increased the display size but it has also included front-facing stereo speakers on the phone, something which was not present in the last-generation. The display resolution is still 720p HD but I believe that despite the increased display size, the screen still looks quite good. The IPS technology makes sure the consumers get great viewing angles and the Gorilla Glass 3 makes it scratch-resistant.
Another aspect about which the buyers of the original Moto G had been most vocal about is the microSD card slot. The lack of expendable storage in the first-generation Moto G was a big issue for the 8GB variant buyers and a deal-breaker for a number of consumers. Motorola has fixed the problem by providing a microSD card slot in the new smartphone, which can be accessed by removing the back cover. Although the expansion slot only supports 32GB of storage, it is still better than nothing. Especially in India, where Motorola is only selling the 16GB storage variant, the consumers will be satisfied with up to 32GB of extra storage.
Motorola has also upgraded the resolution of both front and rear cameras in the Moto G (2nd Gen.). The consumers will now get 8MP rear camera with LED flash and a 2MP front shooter. This brings the Moto G cameras in-line with other similarly priced smartphones from most popular smartphone makers. The image quality of the cameras remain to be tested and I will cover it in the full review.
This is pretty much what is new in the new Moto G, apart from these features, the smartphone keeps the sturdy and solid body of the last-generation with some design changes. There is splash-resistant nano-coating as well as for basic protection against water.
The Snapdragon 400 quad-core processor makes sure the consumers get a snappy performance without any lag or hiccups. During my brief usage, the phone provided a smooth experience with no sign of any issues.
You will also find FM Radio, 3G support, as well as stock Android 4.4.4 (the latest available version of Android). Motorola is promising that it will provide Android L for the new Moto G and given the company’s past track of software updates, you shouldn’t worry about them. I have heard some concerns about the presence of just 1GB of RAM and whether it will impact the performance of the smartphone after the Android L update. Thanks to Google’s efforts to make Android play nice with low-end hardware, I believe that 1GB of RAM will be more than enough to provide a good experience even with the upcoming iteration of Android.
So overall, Yes, Motorola has successfully improved on a tried and tested smartphone. Despite the increasing competition, the Moto G (2nd Gen.) once again brings Motorola on the front of budget smartphone makers.
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it won’t succeed like original moto g. and the proof is that its still in stock.
around 20k moto g were imported during first sale and at that point there was virtually no competition. this time flipkart imported 140000 pieces. and definitely this won’t be a hit like the original, but other than Xiaomi Redmi 1S & Asus Zenfone 5 nothing can match this one. But to help Motorola, Xiaomi continues with its flash sale and Asus has complain about low battery backup and games not being compatible (due to non-ARM chipset).
Xiomi is gonna kill of the competition with their pricing and Good specs..Case in point I saw my friend brought the MI3 to my office in ABUDHABI (he ordered and collected from India). Upon seeing the phone my colleagues are interested to get it for them also. I have suggested to get MI3 earlier also and they were reluctant..But seeing it action made them. Change their mind..So unless motorola can change their pricing it won’t be huge hit
But NOT everyone has booked Tatkal tickets successfully… Further, more than 60% of Tatkal tickets are booked by experienced brokers..
The same applies to buying xiaomi phones online… More than 60% buyers / resellers sell them at higher price…
If xiaomi also starts importing 1,40,000 phones like Motorola has done, then the chances of xiaomi phones reaching real customers will be more (still it will sell out in minutes).. Otherwise, those who failed for 3 times continuosly has to either buy bad bad battery life Asus zen phones (even 3000mAh equipped top end phone suffers, as its an Intel processor issue) or Moto G..
But reg Moto X (both new and old), there is not much future afaik here in India…
Motorola done a decent job keeping its lineup fresh. The upgrade was modest as neither SOC, ram, internal memory, display resolution or connectivity changed. This was most likely done to keep it strictly in line within the previous lineup. Pricing it at 15-16k with the above upgrade will make people ignore it. Front stereo speaker is nice upgrade, specially on white it looks cool. Camera upgrade is a must have as 1st gen had the worst 5MP camera i have used. Credits go where they belong but 2nd gen G is not without its share of problems
They converted a perfect smartphone into a phablet. What was wrong with 4.5″? or why not keep it at 4.8″ which is big enough but not in phablet zone. Secondly the battery remains same. They can optimize the OS as much as they want but still it’ll hit the battery. 1st gen Moto G has excellent battery backup so Motorola did have some room for experiment but this hardly explains why they can’t upgrade the battery. Upgraded the camera but kept video recording at 720p. Not much complaining as quality 720p is always better than noisy 1080p. Lastly, Black version should have the speaker grill coloured samee. Looks so much better than silver on blacks gives it an cheapo look like those Chinese ripoff.
Looking at the competition, Xiaomi pulling out Mi3 is only going to help Motorola. Only Asus with Zenfone 5 4G can offer proper competition.
I just had a change of mind today wen i was compromising for asua zenfone 5, but as i saw the add on the front page of the news paper, i did not hesitate to order moto g 2nd edi
I know I’m in the minority here, but the reason I liked the G (2013) was it’s size. 4.5″ is perfect. Sadly, phablets (5″ is a phablet!) are being pushed down our throats, and this phenomenon is not gonna change.