Moto G5 Plus India: First Impressions review

The much awaited mid-ranger Moto G5 Plus has finally made it to India. The smartphone was first unveiled at the Mobile World Congress 2017, and looking at the love that G series gets from Indians, the company was fast enough to bring it to India.

For those who don’t know, Lenovo India has launched two variants of Moto G5 Plus in India- 16GB/3GB for Rs 14,999 and 32GB/4GB for Rs 16,999. It will compete with smartphones like Redmi Note 4, Honor 6x and similar phones in the same price segment. I got lucky to spend some time with the G5 Plus at the launch event, and here is my experience with the smartphone.

Display

The Moto G5 Plus comes with a compact 5.2-inch full HD IPS display, with a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels. The display is protected by Gorilla Glass 3 and has a pixel density of 424 ppi.

The display is pretty crisp and vivid, and the colours look punchy. The viewing angles of the display were pretty convincing but sadly, I couldn’t take the device under sunlight to test its legibility.

The display comes with smart wake that lets you peep into time and notifications the moment you move the device. This feature was also seen on the Moto Z phones. All in all, the display looks fine for multimedia, reading or gaming.

Design

The Moto G5 Plus comes packed in a unibody shell with a premium and indifferent design. On the front, it has a loudspeaker on the top followed by the display and then the fingerprint sensor at the bottom. Looking at the latest range of smartphones, the bezels on the front look a bit thick but still doesn’t look gives it a clean look. It has a shiny chrome border running around the front edge of the phone.

The back has curves on the sides, which makes it sit perfectly in the palm. The back has a round camera module like the Moto Z Play, with the iconic Moto Logo under it. The back is made up of aluminium with a plastic patch on the top, which is obviously for better antennae reception.

With the 5.2-inch display size, the Moto G5 Plus comes very handy for one handed usage and the build quality is also pretty solid. It weighs around 155 grams which makes it a perfect phone for those with small hands.

Hardware

Under the hood, the Moto G5 Plus packs an octa-core Snapdragon 625 processor clocked at 2.0GHz.

Additionally, the device comes with 3/4GB of RAM, an Adreno 506 GPU and 16/32GB of internal storage, which can be expanded via a microSD card (Upto 128GB).

The specifications look pretty convincing for the features that come packed under this price. Snapdragon 625 has been an impressive performer in most other phones, accordingly it should perform well in Moto G5’s case as well.

During my hands-on experience, the smartphone felt really smooth and did a pretty good job in handling multiple applications at once. I will be testing the in depth performance, gaming and heating in the full review.

Software

The Moto G5 Plus runs on stock Android 7.0 Nougat, which is upgradable to the latest version of the software. Users can also update their Moto G5 Plus to access integrated Google Assistant like Pixel phones.

Moto has always been in favour of neat and clean UI in their smartphones. If you love stock Android and simplicity, Moto will again impress you with the smooth and light user experience on Moto G5 Plus.

However, it comes with some additional features like ‘Chop-Chop’ for flashlight, twist wrist to turn on camera and more such gestures to make your experience better. I must say that Moto has always impressed me by keeping the UI simple and stacking features that are actually useful for users.

Camera

Camera specs of the Moto G5 Plus include a 12MP camera with an f/1.7 aperture. The rear camera is assisted by a dual LED flash and comes with full HD video recording support. On the front, you get a 5MP camera with an f/2.2 aperture.

One thing I learnt about the camera during my hands on experience is that it is surely one of the better sensors I have seen on a mid-range smartphone so far. The autofocus speed was swift and there was no delay in image processing. When used in low-light, the camera was still allowing a lot of light to enter the lens, resulting in decent pictures in limited light. It captures natural colours, and good amount of details in artificial lighting, so we can expect it to perform much better in natural light.

The rear camera has definitely improved a lot over the predecessor, but the did not show a major improvement. We will be testing the camera in detail, so we’ll advice you to wait for our full review for the final verdict on camera.

Verdict

The Moto G5 Plus is definitely an upgrade that we wanted to see on the G series device. It has filled in the gaps that were left unfilled by the G4 Plus. The metal body looks good, camera is surely a huge upgrade and the software is as classy as it has been. At this price point, the Moto G5 Plus will be a tough competition for the existing leaders in mid-range.

For the battery, connectivity, camera and other in-depth details, stay tuned for the full review.