The Moto G 2nd gen

The Moto G 2nd gen

Motorola's middle range phone has gotten a refresh to keep with the times. Facing stiff competition from smaller OEMs in developing markets like India, Motorola has had to refresh the Moto G to keep the masses interested.

The phone continues Motorola's family look. It has the Motorola dimple and the curved back that lets it fit perfectly in the hand.

The Moto G now has a 5" display with a resolution of 720 x 1280 pixels. The phone now gets front facing speakers that give stereo sound. The Moto G is powered by the same Snapdragon 400 processor as before.The camera on the Moto G is an 8 MP camera that is an upgrade from last year's 5 MP camera. It gets a 2 MP front camera that is good for Skype calls and the occasional selfie. A big bonus for the Indian market is the addition of a microSD card slot, which allows expandability upto 32 GB of space.

There is not much different in the new Moto G from last years model. Motorla has stuck to the basics and has given us yet another well engineered phone that should be more than enough to keep the average consumer happy. The added Motorola logo adds a sense of reliability to the phone and should boost the sales of this phone.

This phone runs on Android 4.4.4 KitKat and is upgradable to Android Lollipop when it releases.




Review


I've been using the new Moto G for almost a month now. The first thing I noticed when I held the phone was how comfortable the back shell was and how it snugly fit in my hand. So far, I have never encountered any stutter or lag. None of the apps have crashed- not even once. KitKat runs smoothly and stock android is just beautiful.

The 720p display is decent. I use an iPad with a retina display and I feel the displays are more or less the same. However, the Moto G seems to have a greater pixel density than the retina iPad, although it has a lower ppi than its predecessor.

5 inches is the perfect size. At first, it was big for me but now I've gotten used to it.

The battery lasts for a little more than a day with regular use with its 2070 mAH battery. That is pretty decent battery life for a low end phone.

The new Moto G is very sturdy. I've dropped my phone a few times and I haven't got anything- not even a scratch. Although I would recommend using a case.

The camera is an upgrade from last model's camera- from 5 MP to 8 MP. The pictures are decent. Video, however is not that great. It shoots video at 720p, which is not satisfactory as its competitors can shoot video at 1080p.

The front facing 2 MP camera is great for taking selfies and for video conferences.

Only the 16 GB variant is available on Flipkart and storage can be expanded upto 32 GB, which is enough storage (for a person like me).

The dual speakers are brilliant, but not the best (when compared to HTCs boom sound speakers).

Overall, the phone is brilliant and runs smoothly. It is worth every penny although the rear camera could have been improved for video (taking 1080p videos).

KitKat runs smoothly and is beautiful. This will change for the better when Android Lollipop comes out.

This phone is one of the best in its price range. I would give it an overall rating of 8.7.

The Motorola Moto X

The Moto x (Gen 2)

Motorola just launched its new flagship, that is a revision to its model from last year called the Moto X. The phone follows the family design language.
All the new phones unveiled by Motorola now get front facing speakers, including the new Moto X. The phone is really well built with an aluminium frame with a slew of customization to the trim, back and boot up animation (though this only in the USA). For those of you who were wondering, the phone does not bend like the iPhone despite its aluminium frame. Reports from Unbox Therapy have shown that the phone doesn't as much as creak under pressure and is probably one of the most sturdiest phones in the market.

This phone has a 5.2" 1080p, having a pixel density of 423 ppi with Corning Gorilla Glass 3. It includes a 2.5 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 quad core CPU and has 2 GB of RAM with an Adreno 330 GPU. Only the 16 GB variant is available in India however, a 32 GB model is sold abroad. It has a 13 MP rear camera capable of 4K recording and a 2 MP front facing camera. It comes with Android 4.4.4 KitKat out of the box and is upgradable to android L when it releases. It has a 2300 mAh battery. The phone also has NFC and bluetooth 4.0 and is water resistant.

It also comes with enhanced voice controls and compatibility with the Moto Hint.

This phone is a huge improvement over its predecessor, the Moto X (1st generation). However, the camera is average and does not have a great battery life as compared to its rivals.

The Moto 360

Motorola caught everyone's attention with the moto 360, but after its release some are less enthusiastic about buying the smart watch.

Smart watches are still a niche product for the geeks and early adopters of new tech, but the moto 360 was supposed to change that. The circular display and watch design made the watch seem more like a standard watch rather than the square, less eye pleasing ,design.

After some use we can clearly see the moto 360 is not what it was meant to be.The circular display was not a perfect circle and the long lasting battery barely lasts a day.

The moto 360  has a 1.5" LCD with a resolution of 360 x 290. the display is not the sharpest and not the brightest but the display is good enough for viewing your notifications and Google Now cards. The watch runs on a TI OMAP3 chipset and has 4 GB ROM . The watch has 512 MB of RAM that should be sufficient for running android wear OS. The 320 mAh battery does not do any favors for the smartwatch, even with the under powered processor the moto 360 maxes out at 8 hours of battery life. When the moto 360 was torn down it was found that there was only a 300 mAh battery in the watch. The charging dock is actually usable with a desktop clock face when you dock the watch, but you'll be using the dock more often than you'd like. 

The moto 360 runs on android wear which is still not a very ironed out OS and it still  has its hiccups and glitches. 

All together the price ($249) and specs of the watch don't compel average consumers to buy a smartwatch.