Motorola Moto G4 Plus

Moto Is Back In Singapore
On 24th August 2016, Moto announced that their latest product portfolio of six devices has arrived in Singapore.

Unfortunately, I can’t find any product links for Singapore, so it links to either Motorola US or Motorola India site.

Moto G4 Plus – S$499
Moto X Force – S$899
Moto X Style – S$799
Moto X Play – S$499
Moto G Turbo Edition – S$399
Moto 360 Sport – S$499

You can purchase those devices at the following Singapore retail stores:

Lenovo by Addon (Lenovo flagship store): Bugis Junction, #03-03/04
Lenovo by Newstead: Causeway Point, #04-21
Lenovo by Newstead: Sim Lim Square, #04-64
Lenovo by Newstead: Marina Square, #02-275

Motorola Moto G4 Plus
I received have the Moto G4 Plus as a review unit and it so happen to be the phone that I am most interested in.

I am a huge fan of the Nexus series Android phones because they come with stock Android OS. Nexus phones come at a higher price range because they are being marketed as high end Android phones.

This got changed last year with the introduction of Nexus 5X which is a mid-tier phone going at about US$379 (S$515). But unfortuntely, the Nexus 5X is not officially available in Singapore unlike the Nexus 6P.

Moto G4 Plus is probably the closest mid-tier Android phone you can get to stock Android that is officially available in Singapore. Priced at S$499, I would say it is a pretty good deal given the decent specifications.

The only three apps that are not stock in the Moto G4 Plus is the Help, Moto and Camera app. The rest and even the keyboard is stock Android.

It doesn’t come with the latest and fastest processor, instead it is running on Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 at 1.5GHz. The processor is good enough for normal usage. I don’t find the phone sluggish at all if you are using it to watch videos, surf the Internet and using your social apps.

If you are using it for gaming, you will notice some lag because it’s Adreno 405 GPU isn’t exactly fast. Tried Pokemon Go on it and it lags a little. Still bearable though.

It comes with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage with an option to expand the storage to 128GB via microSD card.

I was surprised that the phone comes with dual SIM card slot as well which makes it a good travel phone. For Singapore, the dual SIM card slots are for both nano-SIM. There are micro-SIM variants as well for other countries.

Despite being a mid-tier phone, the Moto G4 Plus comes with fingerprint sensor. Similar to the Nexus 6P and iPhones, you can unlock the phone using your fingerprint. I was impressed by how fast it takes to detect and unlock the phone. It is really fast. You can store up to 10 fingerprints.

It is a pity that there is no NFC in the Moto G4 Plus and hence you are not able to use it for Android Pay. Given that it has a fingerprint sensor for security, I don’t see why the NFC is left out.

The screen of the Moto G4 Plus is pretty standard, it is a full HD screen (1920 x 1080) at 401ppi.

Specifications

OS: Android 6.0.1, Marshmallow
CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 octa-core processor (1.5 GHz)
GPU: Adreno 405 GPU (550 MHz)
RAM: 3GB
Internal Storage: 32GB
External Storage: Up to 128 GB microSD Card support
Dimensions (H x W x D): 153mm x 76.6mm x (7.9 mm to 9.8 mm)
Weight: 155g
Display: 5.5″ 1080p Full HD (1920 x 1080) (401 ppi)
Battery: 3,000mAh
Fast Charge: TurboPower (charger sold separately) for up to 6 hours of power in 15 minutes of charging
Water Protection: Water repellent nano-coating
Networks:4G LTE (Cat 4), UMTS / HSPA+, GSM / EDGE
Bands: GSM / GPRS / EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz), UMTS / HSPA+ (850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz), 4G LTE (B1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 19, 20, 28, 40)
Rear Camera: 16 MP, Laser auto-focus, Phase detect auto-focus (PDAF), ƒ/2.0 aperture, Color balancing dual LED flash, Professional Mode, Quick Capture, Best Shot, Tap (anywhere) to capture, 4X digital zoom, Burst mode, Auto HDR, Panorama, Drag to focus & exposure, Video Stabilization, 1080p HD video (30 fps), Slow Motion video
Front camera: 5 MP, ƒ/2.2 aperture, Wide-Angle lens, Display flash
SIM: Dual-SIM (2x nano-SIM)
Connectivity: Micro USB, 3.5 mm headset jack
Bluetooth: Bluetooth v4.2 LE
Wi-Fi: 802.11 a/b/g/n (2.4 GHz + 5 GHz)
Speakers: Front-ported loud speaker with 2-Mics
Video Capture: 1080p (30 fps)
Location Services: A-GPS
Sensors: Fingerprint reader, Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Ambient Light
Colors: Black or White