Motorola Moto G5

Budget phone takes step back

For the last couple of years, Motorola’s Moto G has been our favourite budget Android phone. The G3 was brilliant, the G4 (see our review, Issue 479) was even better, and now the G5 is…

Well, let’s start at the beginning – it looks good. Motorola (now owned by Lenovo) always did a decent job of making plastic cases appear classy, but for many people metal feels more upmarket, and that’s what the G5 gets. Available in grey or gold, the rounded rear panel has a distinctive two-tone effect. And here’s where the Moto G5 pulls a bit of a fast one. While the back itself is aluminium, the edges are still plastic. Hmmm.

The circular camera cutout works well – no awkward bump here – and there’s now a fingerprint sensor on the front, a feature previously limited to the pricier Plus model. A dual-sim version is available with 3GB of memory rather than the standard 2GB, which will speed up multi-tasking. But this model is exclusive to Amazon in the UK and costs £10 extra (£180).

The screen is still Full HD, but it’s got slightly smaller and doesn’t go as bright as the Moto G4. Contrast is reduced, too, only covering 86 per cent of the SRGB colour range, down from 90 per cent. As with the new ipad (see page 21), we’re frustrated to see something that was good getting worse.

Like Apple, Lenovo has also opted for a processor that’s not better, just different. While the ipad came out slightly faster than before in our tests, the G5 fell slightly behind its predecessor. Coming after new models like the Honor 6X (see Issue 495) and Lenovo’s own P2 (see Issue 498), which cost only a little more and are faster, that doesn’t impress us much.

Phones like the P2 have also showed dramatic improvements in battery life this year. Not the G5. In fact, at 13 hours 39 minutes of video playback, it was nearly two hours shorter than the G4, even though the case is thicker. Finally, the camera specification is basically unchanged except for faster autofocus, and while we were very happy with our pictures outdoors, they were still dodgy inside or in low light.

VERDICT: It’s still very reasonably priced and by no means a bad phone, but the Moto G’s fifth incarnation isn’t anything to call home about

★★★☆☆

ALTERNATIVE: Motorola Moto G4 £139 It’s still on sale and cheaper, so we’d be tempted to get one of these while you can, if a fingerprint sensor isn’t essential

Not a bad phone, but worse than its predecessor