The best budget phone gets better, but a little pricier

With the Moto G, Motorola threw a giant spanner in the works of the mobile world. Its lineup of mid-range specs were paired with an amazingly low price, making it the best value phone by a country mile. It made reviewing phones somewhat repetitive — time after time I was forced to conclude, “This phone is fine, but the Moto G offers the same performance for much less money.”

Its only downsides were a lack of 4G LTE (at the time, not so much of a problem, given that 4G was new and still prohibitively expensive, in the UK at least) and no expandable storage. Motorola has rectified both, adding 4G and a microSD card slot to this new revamped version of the Moto G.

It remains the same in every other respect — you still get the best screen at the price, a very capable quad-core processor, a 5-megapixel camera and the latest version of Android, 4.4.2 KitKat.

It’ll be on sale “globally” in late May (Moto wasn’t able to confirm exactly which countries at the time of writing), although the UK will have to wait until 30 June. Motorola says it’ll set you back £149 in the UK and $219 in the US, unlocked and with 8GB of storage. Prices for other regions weren’t available at the time of writing, but the US price converts to about AU$230.

That’s a small increase on the 3G Moto G’s price of £119 or $179 unlocked, with the older version continuing to be on sale alongside the new one. Motorola also has another new phone for you, though, and it’s even cheaper: the $130/£90 Moto E. You can read all about the Moto E in our first take here.

Editors’ note: We’ll update this first take with hands-on impressions, photos and video very soon.

Design and display

Although it now packs a 4G LTE radio inside, the Moto G remains physically unchanged. I found the older Moto G’s 4.5-inch body to be very comfortable to hold, thanks to its curved back, which fits snugly into your palm. It’s also not so big as to make you dislocate your thumb every time you try to type with one hand.

The plastic back panels are interchangeable and there are a host of different colours available, along with ruggedised cases and flip covers that protect the screen. The Moto G will also now come in white, which should make it look a little brighter when you pair it with a light-coloured back.

Underneath the swappable cover is the microSD card slot. The lack of expandable storage was a disappointment on the older Moto G, as it was only available with 8 or 16GB. While 16GB is probably adequate for most people, if you were shopping on a budget and only wanted to spring for the 8GB model, you’d quickly find yourself running out of space once you’ve downloaded your favourite apps and songs. The new model comes with only 8GB, but with the option to pop in 32GB microSD cards (sold separately), storage shouldn’t be an issue.

The 4.5-inch display has a 1,280×720-pixel resolution, giving a really good density of 326 pixels per inch. Couple that with its high brightness, vivid colours and decent viewing angles, and the Moto G has easily the best screen available on a budget phone. Assuming the display hasn’t been tampered with at all, it’s fair to assume the 4G version will be similarly impressive, but I’ll check on this in the full review.

Specs and software

The 4G Moto G has the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor as the previous version. It’s a 1.2GHz quad-core affair, backed up by 1GB of RAM, and I found it to be more than powerful enough for most common tasks. Instagramming food and sending horrific selfies over WhatsApp were handled without any issue. It even turned its hand to a spot of light gaming, which would normally be out of reach of many phones at its price. I expect to see very similar performance from the new Moto G.

The Moto G first launched last year with Android 4.3 Jelly Bean on board, but was updated to 4.4.2 KitKat in January. The 4G model will come with KitKat as standard, with new features such as the ability to display video and games at full screen without the navigation buttons taking up space. It also lets you search for local businesses directly from the contacts app.

Unlike most manufacturers, who like to put their own stamp on Android, Motorola has done very little to the interface. In fact, it’s pretty much stock Android, so if you’ve ever used an Android device before, there’ll be nothing new here for you to get your head around. The G does have a couple of additions, including Motorola Assist, which performs set tasks such as automatically silencing your phone when you have a meeting scheduled.

The back is home to a 5-megapixel camera, which again has remained unchanged from the original Moto G. I found it capable of producing some decent — if hardly outstanding — photos and it has extra features such as HDR and panorama modes.

Inside is a 2,070mAh battery, which put up a fair fight in my tests of the normal Moto G. How it’ll perform when using the more demanding 4G LTE connection remains to be seen.

Outlook

With its decent specs and rock-bottom price, the Motorola Moto G was already a fantastic bargain, not only outpacing its low-end rivals, but offering much more than most mid-range mobiles. The addition of 4G LTE and expandable storage addresses our two original quibbles with the Moto G.

There’s been a small price increase, but as long as the 4G radio doesn’t have a negative impact on processor performance or battery life, the Moto G will keep its crown as the best value mobile money can buy.