Moto G5S Review Motorola's Best Budget SmartPhones

sujanbk (28)in #steemit • 7 years ago

https://ourblogcentre.blogspot.com/2017/12/moto-g5s-review.html

You'd be forgiven for not paying close attention to the release of the Moto G5S Plus; it snuck into the company's lineup in early August alongside the Moto G5S.

The 'S' stands for "Special Edition" (Moto G5SE Plus was too much of a mouthful?), and they're moderately improved versions of the existing Moto G5 line that debuted earlier in the year. Why would Motorola introduce slightly updated versions of existing phones less than six months after their release? Who knows?!

What I do know is that the Moto G5S Plus, which is available unlocked in the U.S. for $279, is one of the better budget phones you can buy, but the slightly better build quality, additional camera, and larger display don't justify the additional cost over the existing Moto G5 Plus.

The G5S marks a big step up from its predecessor. Where the G5 merely had an aluminium rear panel, the G5S’s unibody design is cast entirely from aluminium. This makes the 5.2in phone look and feel a lot more upmarket – the little details, such as its chamfered edges, are a rare sight on a budget phone.

Look beneath the IPS screen (which I’ll talk about in the next section), and Motorola has again opted for a front-mounted fingerprint reader. As you’d expect, this doubles up as the home button, too. In my time with the phone, I found it unerringly responsive – it just works.

Turn the phone over and you’ll first notice the G5S’ protruding camera, but you may miss one of the more subtle design touches: Motorola’s indented logo provides a subtle finger-hold that makes the phone easier to grip and use with one hand.

The G5S is well-appointed for connectivity and expansion. If, however, you’re looking to expand the G5S’ 32GB of internal storage, you’ll have to decide which is more important to you: a 256GB microSD card, or a second SIM. As a dual nano-SIM smartphone, you can run a pair of SIMs concurrently, but the second SIM will occupy the microSD slot.

USB Type-C fans are going to be disappointed, but there’s a micro-USB port at the bottom and, thankfully, a 3.5mm headphone jack at the top. Dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.1 make the grade, too, and aptX support guarantees high-quality audio streaming over Bluetooth, which is a nice bonus on a £220 phone. The G5S isn’t dust or water resistant.