Motorola Moto G5

What’s the story?

e Moto G has been our go-to budget buy for years, and that hasn’t changed. A few things are different this time around, but it’s still a corker.

Parent company Lenovo has tried to spice up the G5’s design a bit, with a plate of metal on the back rather than just a sea of plastic, but the sides are still plastic.

ere’s a great fingerprint scanner on the front, and you’ll be hard pressed to find a better screen at the price – 1080p resolution across five inches makes the Moto G5 look extremely sharp.

Is it any good?

Lenovo hasn’t fiddled much with Android here – aside from a custom camera app and a Moto one that lets you fiddle with a few software extras, this is Android 7.0 as it was meant to be: simple, clean, great.

Some have complained that the Moto G5 isn’t as powerful as the G4. And it isn’t. And, yes, that’s a bit weird. However, the phone runs well and you can play any game you like without it chugging like that laptop you retired five years ago.

e camera hasn’t radically improved this year either, but you can still get cracking shots as long as you’re shooting in plenty of light – like most budget phones, it’s no midnight David Bailey.

If £150-ish is the limit on your budget, the Moto G5 is the easy choice – you can’t go too wrong here. Already have last year’s version? You can probably skip this upgrade.

TECH SPECS

● 5in 1920x1080 IPS LCD

● Android 7.0

● Octa-core Snapdragon 430

● 2GB RAM

● 13MP rear, 5MP front

● 2800mah

● 16GB, microsd

● 144x73x9.5mm, 145g

IT’S A CRACKERYou might want to grab a screen protector for this little guy – unlike its big brother the G5 Plus, it doesn’t have Gorilla Glass protection. £159GOT YOUR BACKe Moto G5 has a metal back that you can pull off completely if you like – you’ll find lots of funky replacement designs online.