We have received the Moto G6 for review, which is a phone with a dual rear camera setup. The price starts at Rs 13,999 for the variant with 3GB RAM and 32GB storage. Remember that the previous model of the G series has been highly appreciated by customers and critics. Moto G6 has been launched at a time when there is tremendous competition in the price segment of Rs 20,000.
In this segment, we have liked handsets like Asus Zenfone Max Pro M1 and Redmi Note 5 Pro (Review) a lot. Let’s try to find out how strong a challenge the Moto G6 poses in comparison to these?
Moto G6 design
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With the Moto G6 and G6 Play, Motorola has ditched the plastic and metal body of the previous G series handsets and opted for a glass and metal design this time around. With a sleek and shiny curved glass back and a highly polished metal mid-frame, the Moto G6 looks a lot like last year’s Moto X4.
At 8.3mm thick, this phone is not the slimmest, but it is comfortable to use with one hand and at 167 grams, it is not too heavy either. However, this smartphone still feels a bit chunky and solid. During the review, we accidentally slipped the smartphone from our hands a few times. But it did not suffer any damage, except for a few scratches.
Unfortunately, Motorola has used Gorilla Glass 3 for front and back protection instead of the newer and stronger Gorilla Glass 4 or 5. The glass makes the device slippery in the hands and it is easily prone to fingerprints and other smudges.
Due to 18:9 display and thin bezels, most smartphone manufacturers have started placing the fingerprint sensor on the back. But Motorola has placed this sensor on the front. This capsule-shaped sensor is very small. We were initially a little skeptical about its usage and performance. But it turned out to be quite fast and accurate.
There is nothing on the left side of the smartphone. But on the right side there is a volume rocker and power button. They are easy to reach. The earpiece also works as a speaker. It produces loud sound, but it lacks warmth and clarity. There is a USB Type-C port and a 3.5mm headphone socket at the bottom of the phone. Many companies provide only micro-USB port in this price range. But the USB Type-C port in Moto G6 and Moto G6 Play is a good experiment.
Moto G6 specifications and display
This affordable Motorola smartphone uses the Snapdragon 450 processor, which is Qualcomm’s latest budget smartphone processor. The same processor is also part of the much cheaper Xiaomi Redmi 5 (Review) and Honor 7C (Review). The Moto G6 has two variants – one with 3GB RAM and 32GB storage is priced at Rs 13,999. The variant with 4GB RAM and 64GB storage will be available for Rs 15,999. Both variants can use a microSD card of up to 128GB.
The Moto G6 has a 3,000mAh battery that supports quick charging. Connectivity features include 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS/ A-GPS, USB Type-C and a 3.5mm headphone jack. It has space for two nano-SIMs and only one SIM can work at 4G speeds at a time. Many smartphones in this price range come with a hybrid slot. But the Moto G6 has separate slots for two nano-SIMs and a microSD card.
Motorola has finally embraced the 18:9 display trend with the Moto G6 and Moto G6 Play. The display isn’t borderless, but the presence of a fingerprint sensor on the front makes up for this shortcoming.
Moto G6 has a 5.7-inch full-HD+ IPS panel with 18:9 aspect ratio. Viewing angles are good. Colors are accurate. But sunlight legibility is average. The same can be said about the brightness level. Always On Display feature is available in Moto software. With its help, users will be able to reply to messages directly from the lock screen. Apart from this, there is also a blue light filter.
In our experience, Motorola’s own apps ran fine on the 18:9 display. But we had to stretch apps that did not support this aspect ratio.
Moto G6 performance, software, and battery life
Our experience with the Snapdragon 450 processor has been mixed. But the Moto G6 makes the best use of this hardware. Some credit must also go to Motorola’s clean and smooth software package. The Moto G6 handles daily tasks without any hassle. But the phone does lag occasionally. And it does get a bit warm during intensive workloads. On the other hand, it never slows down too much.
The Moto G6 handles games with aplomb, thanks to the Adreno 506 GPU. We did notice some lag when loading graphics-heavy games like Asphalt 8, but the gameplay was pretty smooth.
Like most smartphones today, the Moto G6 has built-in face recognition. But it is slow and inaccurate. During the review, the Moto G6 failed to recognise our face several times, even when there was ample light.
You get a near-stock version of Android 8.0 Oreo which is fast and smooth. It also has some useful features provided by Motorola, but still maintains the stock Android experience. However, the pre-installed apps like Facebook Lite, PhonePe, LinkedIn and Outlook do spoil the experience a bit. However, these can be deleted.
In our HD video loop test, the Moto G6’s battery lasted 8 hours and 40 minutes, which is considered poor. However, in normal use, the performance is quite good. The phone easily lasted the whole day. Talking about usage, during this time we ran Google Maps for two hours. We also searched social media apps like Twitter, WhatsApp and Facebook. Played games like Asphalt 8 and Subway Surfers. And also captured selfies and some pictures.
Motorola has provided a 15 watt turbo charger with the phone which fully charges the phone in about 1.5 hours. But the smartphone gets very hot during charging.
Moto G6 cameras
Moto G6 has two cameras on the back. A 5-megapixel secondary sensor is provided along with a 12-megapixel primary sensor. Moto G6 has a 16-megapixel sensor on the front panel. There is a dual LED flash on the rear and a single LED flash on the front panel.
The camera app has a number of features such as a Text Scanner mode that converts text written on an image into text, and a Spot Color mode. The phone also has a Pro mode that lets you manage white balance, ISO, exposure, shutter speed, and aperture.
The performance of the front and rear cameras is very average. The pictures taken at night with the rear camera look dark and muddy. The noise is also very high. In an attempt to reduce noise, the camera sharpens the pictures.
The colours are accurate in the photos taken in good light. But they don’t have the details we expected. The dynamic range is also a bit disappointing. In portrait mode, you will be able to capture bokeh shots which are of average quality and edge detection is very poor in them. The blur effect is also not very accurate.
The situation of selfies is also similar. The front flash performs well in adequate light, but it becomes weak in low light. In direct sunlight, the camera sometimes overexposes the shot. The front LED flash does help a little. You will be able to record 1080p videos with the front and rear cameras. Motorola’s electronic image stabilization does a good job of keeping the video stable. But there is a lack of detail in this too.
Our verdict
The Moto G6 looks great. It is compact and comfortable to use with one hand. Battery life is also commendable. Performance is decent and colours are accurate on the display, but it is not easy to use in bright sunlight. The cameras are of very average quality and face recognition is very slow and inaccurate.
The Moto G6 is priced very close to the Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro and the Asus ZenFone Max Pro M1, which come with more powerful processors and better cameras. The slightly cheaper Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 (Review) has hardware specifications that match the Moto G6. It is also a good option, especially in terms of value for money.
Interested customers can also consider the recently launched Realme 1 (Review), which is more powerful but lacks a fingerprint sensor and has average cameras.
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