All in all, it’s a simple interface, and much like the other Motorola phones, is one of the most up-to-date of any handset we’ve seen, thanks to Motorola loading their modifications on top of what Google does, making it possible to have the very latest ready for the phone, compared to the weeks to months Android users normally wait for updates.
Motorola has also included its own little bits and bobs, such as its “Migrate” app which will help with anyone making the jump from another Android phone to this one, or even an iPhone to this one, while its “Assist” aims to provide support while you’re in meetings to silence would-be callers based on your calendar, as well as working out when to switch you to drive mode and activate that Bluetooth.
Android’s regular stuff is also here, including gesture typing built directly into the keyboard, and thanks to the two SIMs you can install, you can choose which of the two will handle data and voice.
The camera is improved, too, jumping from a 5 megapixel shooter to an 8 megapixel camera, which offers a little more quality with more of Motorola’s simple “touch and fire” interface.
Overall, this camera isn’t the best around, but it does at least include auto focus which is relatively snappy, and there’s a flash here too, in case you need it.
But really, the best positive that the Moto G second-gen offers is its battery, which manages two days without problems.
That’s two days of web surfing, phone calls, texts, emails, social networking, camera use, a bit of gaming, and listening to streaming music, otherwise known as the things most people are doing.
Two days is pretty impressive, and if you use your phone less than us, you might even eat into the third day a bit, though you’d have to curb that usage to make this possible.
But perhaps we’ve been spoiled by all that 4G has delivered, because the 3G speeds of the Moto G second-generation just make us yearn for LTE more than ever, which the Moto G 4G provided and this does not.
Make no mistake: the Moto G2 is not a 4G phone at all. Motorola may well come out with one later on like it did with the original Moto G, but this generation is strictly 3G, so if you’re looking for a value-packed 4G phone, this is not it.
In fact, the speeds here aren’t even good enough to make this phone suitable for the ageing Telstra 3.5G NextG network, which should offer speeds as high as 15-20Mbps in practice.
Rather, with our Telstra SIM — which has seen speeds as high as 150Mbps on some devices — we were only able to nab barely 6-7Mbps down, showing this phone works at the bottom end of the 3G technology.
If you don’t care about the high speeds, you’ll be fine, because this phone can’t deliver them, but if you do, any you’re reliant on services such as Spotify or Google Play Music, the times you hear empty spaces or silence between tracks will be often, as the phone just isn’t fast enough to stream music, or play YouTube, or do anything you might expect out of a high-speed web-connected world.
Also not doing tremendously well is the system performance, which is usable, but is by no means as fast as some of the other budget phones we’ve seen.
While Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 400 quad-core chip isn’t bad, the inclusion of merely 1GB RAM appears to be the bottleneck here, providing a second or two before the phone usually responds to apps that you’ve asked to load.
For many people, this slight lag will be fine, and certainly for the price it sits in, Motorola isn’t likely to collect a lot of vented frustration or anger, but there could be more speed delivered here for its owners.
There’s also no Near-Field Communication, one of those wireless connection standards we just expect to see in a 2014 model handset. That’s missing in action here, as is 802.11ac WiFi. You’ll get the regular b/g/n WiFi, but none of that high-speed stuff, with the omission of both of these communications standards cementing the fact that yes, you really are using a budget piece of kit with a 5 inch screen.
Conclusion
Every manufacturer has responded to the increased screen sizes of 2014 in a similar way, with all flagships sporting increased sizes, even those from Apple.
But the Motorola G isn’t a flagship, and it’s not even a mid-range, offering a value closer to bang-for-your-buck, with 5 inches of screen size and just enough power to let you get stuff done.
The problem with the Moto G second-gen is the price in comparison to similar models, and with a tag $30 less than its 4G 4.5 inch cousin — a phone with almost identical specs except for the camera, download speeds, and display size — you’re not really getting any huge increases over its sibling.
In fact, we’d happily pay that $30 difference for faster mobile speeds, as they’re seriously needed in a bigger phone, with a display that basically encourages you to view more of the web, watch more video, and enjoy more from that vast internet on the go.
That said, if you can live without good speeds and are happy to download everything at work or home and take it with you, the second-generation Moto G offers a reasonable amount of value, just don’t say we didn’t tell you so if the 3G speeds are a little too hard to take after a week.
