The Lenovo Moto G4 Plus – Lenovo’s Premium model Review

Today we’ll be reviewing the Lenovo Moto G Plus – the premium model of this year’s model G lineup. Lenovo announced a total of three phones with the other two being the Moto G4 and the Moto G Play.

We’ve been using the G4 Plus for over a day now and we have to say that it’s a pretty sweet mid-range phone

The Moto G line gets better looking every year. You can see that it still takes a lot of design cues from its bigger brother the Moto X. The top is slightly curved and in the back still retains the famous dimple that’s perfect for resting your finger.

The body is made out of plastic, including the frame, and the back is made of a rubberized poly-carbonate texture similar to the back of the Moto X style. We personally liked it as it prevents the phone from slipping out of your hand or off of any flat surface. The power and volume buttons are placed on the right side and feel really solid.

This is actually a great improvement since last year’s Moto G and Moto X Play models had loose buttons and would often rattle. A small detail but one you’ll appreciate.

This year a fingerprint scanner is included and so far it has been fast and accurate. If you’re wondering if it’s also a physical HOME button then sorry for the disappointment, it’s not. You’ll have to use the regular on-screen buttons to get around.

Speaking of screens – this one is a big 5.5” FullHD display, a first for a Moto G device. The IPS panel is surprisingly a pretty good one too. We actually thought it was amoled at first – as the colors are really warm, fairly bright and have good viewing angles but we do find the lights to be a little on the “yellow” side. Just like previous Moto G and Moto X devices, you get the “Moto Display” feature which shows the time, date and any notifications if you move the phone or just tap on it.

The speaker is located at the top of the display and it doubles as an earpiece and a speaker. It’s great that Lenovo put it on the front but the sound quality is just OK. It’s more than enough to watch movies or listen to music in a quiet room.

In terms of performance the G4 Plus packs a Snapdragon 617 processor and 2 Gb of RAM. We are using the model with 16 Gb of storage. With our unit only having 2Gb of RAM, we are a little concerned about future performance. As we’ve seen, with the Nexus 5X, 2 Gb of RAM can cause a lot of lag when too many apps are running.

Nevertheless, as of right now, the G4 Plus feels fast and fluid. Apps open and close well, browsing is very smooth and playing games it’s fine.

The software installed is the latest version of Android Marshmallow 6.0.1.0 and like last year’s Moto G, most of stock Android shines through. This is always a good thing as you will get faster performance and a clean experience however Motorola has included a few nice touches that don’t get in the way and actually add value to the user experience, a rarity these days.
You can still “chop” twice to turn the flashlight or twist your wrist twice to turn on the camera

Speaking of the camera – it’s definitely the most exciting feature of the G4 Plus because it’s supposed to be really good! In fact, a reputable site that tests camera lenses, rated the G4 Plus at 84 points, next to the big names like the iPhone 6S plus and the Nexus 6P.

The 16 MP camera uses Laser focus and phase detect auto-focus technology so you never miss the shot.

The camera is 16 megapixels, it has a face detection feature and laser autofocus, which results in super fast autofocus. We can’t describe how great it actually does against the iPhone 6S Plus. Our experience so far has been really good. It’s fast, takes really clean photos and feels like it’s probably the best camera you can get at this price point.

In terms of storage, as we mentioned earlier it does come with 16 Gb of internal storage but it also has a microSD card slot capable of holding up to 128 Gb.

The battery inside is 3000 mAH and it’s not removable but because it’s using a full HD screen
getting a full day of battery life shouldn’t be a problem.

You can use MotoMaker to create a unique look.

The phone should be available during mid Summer and we don’t have a price as of yet.

Please let us hear what you think about the new Moto G4 Plus on the comments below.

UPDATE: The price for the G4 Plus is currently set at $249.