Motorola phones priced at Rs 13,999 compete directly in the market with Realme 5 Pro and Samsung Galaxy M30s (Review). Not just this, Redmi Note 8 Pro (Review) is also available in the same price segment. Are the features and performance of the Moto G8 Plus better than other smartphones in this price segment? let’s know…
Moto G8 Plus design
The design of the Moto G8 Plus is exactly like the Motorola One Macro (Review), especially the arrangement of the camera sensors on the rear panel of the phone. The polycarbonate body looks good in the Cosmic Blue color variant. Apart from this, there is also a crystal pink variant of the Moto G8 Plus. The back panel of the phone looks like glass.
The phone is not very heavy but it is more than 9.09mm thick. The side is shiny and feels a bit slippery at times. The textured power button is positioned correctly, but the volume rocker is slightly higher. The SIM tray is on the left side of the phone and supports two Nano-SIM cards and the second slot supports microSD cards up to 512 GB.
The headphone jack has been given at the top of the Moto G8 Plus and the USB Type-C port at the bottom. The earpiece and bottom speaker work together to create a stereo effect. Motorola has provided a 6.3-inch IPS LTPS display in the Moto G8 Plus, Panda Glass has been used for scratch protection.
The Moto G8 Plus comes with a Full-HD+ resolution (1080×2280 pixels) and an aspect ratio of 19:9. The panel displays Vivid and Colors correctly. Brightness remains correct even when used outdoors and viewing angles are good too. You’ll find options for basic color adjustments in the Settings menu.
The bezel around the screen is not very thin. There is a waterdrop notch on the front panel in which the selfie camera has a place. The Moto G8 Plus comes with Moto Display, which is an ambient display mode that will show you missed notifications, battery level, and time on the lock screen.
Talking about the Moto G8 Plus camera, the rear camera found on the back of the phone is slightly raised. The fingerprint sensor has a place in the Moto logo on the rear panel. You can also use the face unlock feature, which works well in bright enough light. In the retail box, you’ll get a 15W turbo charger, a SIM eject tool, and a Type-C cable.
Moto G8 Plus specs and software
Moto G8 Plus is equipped with Qualcomm Snapdragon 655 processor. This chipset is used in Realme 5, Xiaomi Mi A3 (Review) and Redmi Note 8. Only one variant of Moto G8 Plus has been released, which is equipped with 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of storage.
On the phone, you’ve been provided with dual-band 802.11 AC Wi-Fi, Bluetooth version 5, dual 4G VoLTE, NFC, and support for three satellite navigation systems. Motorola has claimed that the Moto G8 Plus is waterproof, though it doesn’t come with an official IP rating.
The software is very clean and very close to stock Android. There is no bloatware on the phone and the default apps won’t bother you with spam notifications. The Moto G8 Plus ships with Android 9 Pie and our review unit runs on the September 2019 security patch. Digital Wellbeing and standard Android gestures are present.
The Moto app gives you the option to select Moto Actions and configure Moto Display. Moto Actions are shortcuts and gestures used to quickly turn on the camera and flashlight and take quick screenshots.
There’s also a Dolby Audio app that boosts the volume and quality of sound coming through your speakers, wired and wireless headphones. You’ll find some Google apps like Slides, News, and Sheets on your phone.
Moto G8 Plus performance and battery life
Speaking of daily use, the Moto G8 Plus handles everything well. Multitasking was also very smooth and we didn’t experience any heating issues. Due to the large screen of the phone, there may be some difficulties in reaching the top of the screen, but many gestures given on the phone will help you. The phone definitely got a bit warm during gameplay.
The benchmark numbers of the Moto G8 Plus are also very good. The Moto G8 Plus scored 170,004 points on Antutu, while it managed 34 fps on GFXbench’s T-Rex test. Thanks to the Moto G8 Plus’ Dolby audio, the sound from the phone’s speakers is very good.
The earpiece is quite loud as is the speaker at the bottom of the phone. Motorola’s 15W Turbo Charging feature is supported on the Moto G8 Plus. In our battery loop test, the Moto G8 Plus managed 14 hours and 10 minutes. With normal use, which included gaming, using the camera, and browsing the Internet.
The phone cooperated for more than a day. The turbo charger that comes with the phone can charge the Moto G8 Plus from 0 to 36 percent in half an hour, up to 70 percent in an hour, and a full charge in about two hours.
Cameras Moto G8 Plus
There are three rear cameras on the back of the Moto G8 Plus, the main sensor is 48-megapixel, its aperture is F/1.8. It will be backed by a 16-megapixel wide-angle camera. The phone also has a 5 megapixel depth sensor. The Moto G8 Plus also has a laser autofocus module and an LED flash.
The camera app is easy to use thanks to its simple design. In addition to the main shooting modes, additional modes like portrait, panorama, and night vision are offered in separate menus. You’ll also find some fun modes like Spot Color and Cutout on the Moto G8 Plus.
In daylight, the camera’s main sensor captures decent landscape and close-up photos. It also handles HDR well, as well as balancing light exposure. Colors look vivid but don’t show much pop and detail is captured well too.
While the phone saves 12-megapixel images by default, the phone doesn’t have the option to shoot at 48-megapixel resolution. RAW files can also be captured in manual mode. Close-ups were good, with details well captured.
Colors were also vivid and sharpness was good too. Close-up shots taken in low light also turned out well. You will also get night vision on the Moto G8 Plus. Colors were captured correctly but there wasn’t much improvement in detail. If you view the photo without zooming in, you will see the images fine.
The depth sensor does a good job of detecting the edge around the subject and blurring the background. The blur effect can be adjusted before and after taking the photo. The 16MP action camera can only be used for video recording and not still images, which is a bit disappointing.
In video mode, near the shutter button, you’ll find a button to access the wide-angle camera. Video captured with the Moto G8 Plus’s wide-angle action camera came out stabilized at 1080p 30 fps, but not 60 frames per second. Video quality was decent in daylight, and the electronic stabilization worked well too.
The video quality was not very good in low light, there were grains in the video. By switching to the main camera, you can set the resolution up to 4K at 30 frames per second but without stabilization. Video came in at 1080 resolution, 30 frames per second, electronically stabilized, and footage was decent with good color reproduction. FYI, let us tell you that there was a slight drop in quality in low light.
Moto G8 Plus has a 25-megapixel selfie camera, if you want, you can take selfies even at full resolution. Selfie came out fine in daylight, colors and details captured well. You can enable facial beauty mode that smoothes the skin texture.
Image quality was below average in low light. Details weren’t captured correctly either, as well as a hint of noise. While shooting with the selfie camera, you will get many shooting modes such as spot color, group selfie, portrait, and slow motion video.
our decision
Good features have been given in Moto G8 Plus, stereo speakers are also good. Battery life on the Moto G8 Plus is also solid, and camera quality was above average when shooting in daylight. Motorola One Macro (review), Motorola One Action and Motorola One Vision (review) smartphones from the Motorola One series are in the same price segment, compared to these phones we chose Moto G8 Plus for a better display and a faster processor.
Compared to Realme 5 Pro and Redmi Note 8 Pro available in the market, the processor that is included in Moto G8 Plus is not very powerful. Other smartphones that come in this price segment come with more powerful processors. Speaking of the Moto G8 Plus’s camera, it can’t capture wide-angle photos, and the camera’s low-light performance isn’t great either. The Moto G8 Plus isn’t the best all-around phone, but the screen and stereo speakers are decent.<!–
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