I'm slightly disappointed, but it's not the Moto G's fault. It's the fact that I spent the better part of the morning fawning over, and later fondling, Motorola's latest flagship before being introduced to its budget brother in arms.
Perhaps Motorola could have done a better job warning reviewers about the inevitable comedown after fiddling around with the Moto X Style, but the simple fact is that the G is a phone with an entirely different set of ambitions.
As with its predecessors, the most important feature of the third-gen Moto G isn't a design element or spec, it's a number – 180 – the amount of dollars it will take to put the unlocked version in your hands.
Previous Moto G generations set a precedent for quality among extremely low-priced Android handsets, and with its solid battery life, rugged build and customizable features, the latest version happily complies.
Hardware
There's really no nice way to say this, so I'm gonna have to drop the C-word. The Moto G is chunky. The budget handset measures 0.46-inches at its thickest and weighs in at 5.47 ounces.
This isn't one of those ultraskinny new flagships designed to slice through a stick of butter, although its hardly unwieldy. It's the sort of footprint that would have passed for slim a generation or two ago.
The 5-inch display is enclosed inside a fairly skinny bezel on either side, with a bit more real estate on the top and bottom. Below the screen is a long, front-facing speaker grille and above it, a 5-megapixel front-facing camera.
The back of the phone maintains the company's current love affair with curves, with a convex arc. In the case of the Moto X Style, the design helps the handset rest comfortably, but here it honestly just adds a bit more to the overall bulk, making it more difficult to find the perfect way to hold it.
The rear is a touch plasticky, definitely a step down from the real wood-backed Moto X we tried on last week, but it's not a bad design. There's a diagonal ribbed design which should help you hold onto the thing in case of a freak rainstorm (more on that later).
The model Motorola lent us had a burgundy coloring ("Cabernet," sayeth the company) – not what I would have picked, had they asked nicely, but thankfully, the company has once again freed consumers from the tyranny of limited palates with the healing powers of its Moto Maker site.
At present, the online customization service offers two front colors (black and white), 10 rear colors, 10 accents and further customization via engraving. Better still, the rear pops off in a snap, so users can pick up a different back color for every day of the week (and then some).
In the middle of the back is a landing strip (which is where the accent coloring comes into play) featuring a small and subtle Motorola M, the flash and the rear-facing 13-megapixel camera.
It's really not a bad-looking $180 phone – even if it could stand to shed a few fractions of an inch. Though bulk does come with certain benefits, such as:
Durability
In the world of smartphones, a little extra padding can mean the difference between a close call and a heartbreaking trip to the phone store. And while it's not necessarily built for the task, the Moto G is a phone that can take some licks, thanks to its beefy build, a Gorilla Glass 3-covered front and the aforementioned replaceable backs.
And then there's the waterproofing. This was the bit I couldn't wait to test out. Look, here's a picture of the Moto G sitting in a glass of water on my coffee table:
I took some pictures of the thing in my sink, too, and while those weren't quite as visually striking (I have a boring bathroom, sue me), there's a lot to be said for hearing Don Ho's "Tiny Bubbles" played on a phone submerged under three inches of water. For the record, it was faint, but perfectly audible.
The phone's IPX7 means it'll survive a dunk in one meter of water for up to 30 minutes, so it should do the trick during bath time (assuming you're not bathing in a saline tank). Of course, actually trying to get the touchscreen to work while covered in water is another story, but that's nothing a quick wipe on the old shirt won't fix.
Waterproofing like this ought to be standard by this point. There's a lot to be said for a phone that won't crap out after getting caught out in the rain.
Multimedia
The Moto G's 5-inch display is is 0.3 inches larger than the iPhone 6, though notably lower-res at 1280 x 720 (at 294 pixels per inch). That works out to 720p HD -- not exactly the iPhone's 326 PPI Retina Display, but it's plenty good for a budget phone.
Get Hard looked about as good as it possibly could (though that's more an indictment of Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart than any of the fine people at Motorola). It also gets extremely bright, so unless you want your phone to double as a flashlight, adaptive brightness is your friend. The screen's viewing angles leave a bit to be desired, but again, this is a $180 phone we're talking about here.
The front-facing speakers get plenty loud. In fact, when you turn the sound up, the whole handset starts to vibrate. Things also get pretty tinny and muddy at top volume, so those looking to truly jam out would be advised to invest in a Bluetooth speaker.
Camera
This section was largely regarded as a fairly big oversight in past Moto G generations. This time out, thankfully, Motorola's shifted its focus, bringing a fine picture-taking experience to the entry-level handset. To get things started, slide the camera icon on the lock screen – or better yet, simply twist your wrist twice and the phone opens up into camera mode.
The rear-facing camera snaps 13-megapixel shots and captures 1080p video at 30 frames per second. The Moto G snaps great, bright shots in daylight – particularly for a budget phone. Things also fared reasonably well in low light, too, though there's also an extremely bright flash, should you need it.
All of this works in concert with simple camera software that let's the user quickly take shots and adjust the brightness without ever leaving the main screen.
Guts
Battery life is, as ever, a centerpiece for Motorola. The 2,470-mAh battery got me through a day's use, no problem at all, thanks in fact to the relatively low energy display. The 1.4 GHz quad-core Snapdragon processor, meanwhile, isn't exactly the Ferrari of cellular processors these days, but it works pretty snappily for most activities.
The low-level version of the Moto G will get you 8 GB storage and 1 GB of RAM, the former of which is expandable up to 32 GB via a microSD slot accessible (along with the Micro-SIM) by popping off the back. Picking up one of those seems like a no-brainer.
Software
And speaking of software, there's actually not a heck of a lot to say on this front – and that's a good thing. The fine folk at Motorola have come to peace with the fact that the best thing a phone manufacturer can do is boost – not skin – Android.
That means the Moto G is running pretty close to stock Lollipop 5.1.1, with a few extra bells and whistles that largely work to enhance the experience, rather than bog it down. There's the camera action mentioned above and Moto Display, which shows off the time and notifications as soon as you pick the phone up.
Motorola's also got a suite of proprietary apps like Moto Assist, which are there if you need them or entirely out of the way if you don't.
Wrap-Up
Motorola's done it once again. Sure, there are some of the standard budget phone sticking points, but each Moto G generation continues to improve upon the last. Waterproofing(!), a better camera and a customizable body all help to make the best budget smartphone all the better.
It's a breath of fresh air in a flagship smartphone race far more obsessed with specs than sticker price. Sure, the Moto X Style is the far more lustworthy object, but the Moto G makes a pretty compelling argument for not having to spend $200 and above for a solid Android experience.
Pros
Low, low price
Improved camera
Customizable body
Waterproofing
Cons
Chunky body
Middling specs
Lackluster speakers
