Motorola New Moto G (Moto G2) review

When you think of budget smartphones, you might think of small, chunky
devices with sub-par screens and low-powered specs. This all changed when
the original Moto G launched last year, as it
revolutionised what we came to expect from budget
smartphone performance. It was still, by current
standards, a compact phone, though, with a small
4.5in display. Now, the latest version of Motorola's
best-ever-selling smartphone, also called the Moto G,
has a large 5in display, giving you great value
performance on a big screen.

It's rare to see a budget phone with a screen this size,

so the fact that Motorola has kept the price down to
£145 SIM-free is outstanding. It's a shame the new
phone is only available in 3G; if you want a 4G Moto
G, you'll have to buy the old version (currently around
£160 SIM-free). The upside is that the new Moto G is
available in both dual- and single-SIM varieties (in the dual SIM version you
can use both SIM cards at the same time) and has a guaranteed prompt
upgrade to Android L waiting in the wings when Google launches the new
version of its operating system later this year.

Motorola's outstanding build quality returns for the new Moto G. Its curved
back, which measures 6mm at its thinnest point and 11mm at its thickest, is
extremely comfortable to hold, and its feather-light weight of 149g is just 6g
heavier than the old Moto G - an impressive feat for a considerably larger
handset. The screen is also surrounded by the Moto G's new front-ported dual
speakers, which deliver impressive-sounding audio for your films and music.

The 5in screen is beautiful. The resolution is still 1,280x720, so the new Moto
G actually has a lower pixel density of 293 PPI (pixels-per-inch) compared to
the old Moto G's PPI of 326, but the screen still looked perfectly crisp and
sharp.

The screen isn't quite as bright this time round, but our peak measurement of
350.7cd/m2 means the screen is still perfectly legible both in- and outdoors.
Colour accuracy is also a little lower than the old Moto G as well; we measured
the new handset as covering 87.2 per cent of the sRGB colour gamut,
compared to the old model's 98.4 per cent. The trade-off is noticeably deeper
black levels, which we measured at an impressive 0.36cd/m2.
Measured contrast was also excellent, at 960:1. This high contrast level helped
the screen produce plenty of detail in our high-contrast test images, and the
screen's viewing angles were equally superb. When we placed the new Moto G
to our side, we could still see the screen clearly with hardly any discolouration
present onscreen.

Motorola has also improved the Moto G's camera, which is great news as the
camera was one of the old Moto G's weakest areas. The phone now comes with
an 8-megapixel rear sensor with an f2.0 aperture, and you also have the option
to change the aspect ratio from 16:9 to 4:3. The old Moto G, by comparison,
was locked to 16:9. The new Moto G has all the same photo modes available,
too, including HDR and Panorama modes.