Moto G4 Play Review – Practical smartphone with good battery life
The Motorola G4 Play is above all a practical device. The specifications are quite behind the competition, due to its old soc, mediocre screen and basic cameras. However, the software is smooth, if not too fast, and above all clean, as we have come to expect from Moto phones. The design does not contain luxurious materials such as glass and metal, nor is it striking in any way. The gray mouse is stiff and easy to hold. Moreover, the G4 Play is not too big and has a long battery life. If that’s what you’re looking for, only then is this phone a great choice.
Pros
- Good battery life
- Software is clean
- Space for SD card and second SIM card
- Practical design
Cons
- Old hardware
- Mediocre cameras
- Screen is a bit lacking
When Google held sway over Motorola, the lineup was manageable and limited. There were the Moto E, Moto G and Moto X. Lenovo has since taken over and it has maintained the same series, except… that there have been some expansions. For example, the Moto G series is split into the G4 Plus, G4 and G4 Play. The Moto X line seems to no longer exist, but the new Z series also has three devices: Z Force, Z and Z Play.
Play seems to be Motorola’s name for less powerful versions of the ‘basic’ device. However, the G4 Play is still a few tenners more expensive than the cheapest device from the Moto line-up: the E3. The biggest difference is the internal hardware. The E3 has 1GB of RAM and 8GB of storage, the G4 Play has 2GB of memory and 16GB of storage. And of course there is a different processor in it.
Also confusing: the G4 and G4 Plus are much larger phones, with 5.5″ displays. This G4 Play has a 5″ screen and may therefore be of interest to a completely different audience. Not everyone wants to carry a large phone in their pocket. The choice for really small devices is limited – the iPhone SE, Sony Compact series and some very cheap phones are the only ones that fill this gap – so you quickly end up with phones with a 5″ screen.
The G4 Play is for those who were also interested in the previous generations of Moto G. The hardware similarities are therefore great. In fact, the processor is exactly the same as that of the previous generation Moto G.
Design
If you let a kid draw a smartphone, the G4 Play is about the result. There is nothing special about the design of the G4 Play. Now it is also not fair to expect a groundbreaking design from a cheap smartphone.
| Device | Moto G Play | Moto G4 | Moto G 2015 | Moto G 2014 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Screen | 5.0″ | 5.5″ | 5.0″ | 5.0″ |
| Height | 14.44cm | 15.3cm | 14.21cm | 14.15cm |
| Width | 7.2cm | 7.7cm | 7.24cm | 7.07cm |
| Thickness | 9.9mm | 9.8mm | 11.6mm | 11.0mm |
| Weight | 137g | 155g | 155g | 149g |
For a phone with a 5″ screen, it is quite large. Lenovo has not really tried to limit the bezels and with smaller bezels, a 5.2″ screen could also have been fitted here. That also happened with previous generations; Moto Gs have large bezels, but because the 5″ screens are relatively small, the phones are easy to hold.
Big advantages of the design are in the practical application. Thanks to the curves on the side and the convexity at the back, it fits perfectly in the hand. The plastic on the back shows no fingerprints and is not easily affected by other dirt. Moreover, it does not accidentally slip off the couch and you have sufficient grip, even if you grab it quickly. In short, it is not a design that is intended to shine , but it does have practical use.
Screen
The screen is no wonder in most areas. It falls short, especially in the area of maximum brightness. With 389cd/m², it is indeed around the value of other mid-range smartphones, but it remains a loss if you receive a message on a nice day and you can hardly read it because the screen cannot be brighter.
The resolution of 1280×720 pixels is acceptable, although it won’t be too long before full-HD screens become commonplace in this price range. Those looking from a normal operating distance can hardly distinguish pixels, but in videos or during normal use, the difference is not life-size and it is also quick to get used to working with such a display.
The screen is set much too blue and that is clearly visible. In an attempt to make the white appear whiter, Lenovo has chosen to give the display a bluish tinge. Those who don’t know better won’t be bothered. However, if you want to see what images and videos are really supposed to look like, you’ll have to pick a different phone.
Battery
The G4 Play has a battery with a capacity of 2800mAh and that’s not bad for a device that, thanks to the dim screen and the low-powered processor, doesn’t demand much from its battery. The effect is clearly visible in our battery results and can also be translated into daily practice. Like last year’s Moto X Play, this is a great choice for those who want to get through the day with ease, especially with less intensive use.
With nine hours and fifteen minutes, the Moto G4 Play performs significantly better than many other phones in this price range. The video test is like the browser test, but with a fixed video that is repeated by the phone. This test is lighter because it does not require an internet connection. That’s why he lasts longer. That also shows; the G4 Play comes to almost eleven hours and that is a more than excellent result.
In PCMark’s Work test, the software performs everyday tasks such as opening and editing photos, and repeats until the battery dies. In addition, this phone lasts for a long time: almost nine hours. That is an impressive result.
The charger you find in the box? Throw it away or just use it next to your bed. There is so little power in the device that it takes almost five hours to charge. If you only charge at night, that’s no problem, but if you quickly top up during dinner to take the phone out all evening, you’ll find that it’s not enough. That can be done much faster; the phone charges as fast as any other phone in this price range with a good charger. If anything, it’s better than last year’s Moto E, which didn’t come with a charger at all in the box.
Software
The software has been one of the main selling points of Moto phones in recent years, and we’re glad to see that Lenovo has kept intact the almost untouched release of Android that Motorola put on its phones.
So we find Android as you can find it on a Nexus. There are changes. For example, the 4G logo is remarkably clumsy in the notification bar, presumably because of the low resolution of the screen. Lenovo has also added the Moto app, with some options. For example, it is possible to swipe from bottom to top across the screen to reduce the interface, for those who cannot reach the notification bar, for example. There is also Display, to display notifications without having to press a button. Moto devices have had that feature for years, and after Google previously built it into Nexus phones, Apple recently did something similar with iPhones. At the time, Motorola copied it from Nokia, which has had such a function on smartphones since at least the N95 from 2007.
Despite the light skin, we can’t ignore it; the G4 Play isn’t the fastest. Fortunately, Lenovo hides that with long animations, which the phone can conjure up smoothly on the screen almost without exception. This makes it pleasant to use. Thanks to the 2GB RAM, it keeps enough apps active in the background, so apps can always be opened quickly if you don’t use them a lot.
Hardware
The fact that the G4 Play is not the fastest is due to the fairly ancient soc for smartphone concepts. Qualcomm presented the Snapdragon 410 in December 2013 (!) and the first phones with the 410 came on the market the following year.
The 410 has four Cortex A53 cores at 1.2GHz and an Adreno 306 GPU. Lenovo has added 2GB of memory. That’s good to see, because one of the limitations of previous Moto Gs was that the standard version only had 1GB of memory.
The Moto G4 Play scores the same on processor power in this benchmark as its predecessor Moto G (2015) and that makes sense. He has exactly the same soc. It would therefore be strange if the computing power suddenly deviated. It was not a calculation miracle last year and in 2016 it is therefore lagging behind the competition.
The storage is a decent upgrade over last year’s Moto G. Not only is it 16GB as standard, but it’s also a lot faster. That doesn’t mean it’s really fast; compared to the competition, it performs at best reasonably in this area.
Despite the low resolution of the screen, you shouldn’t expect much from gaming. The GPU is simply not that capable. It was quite good two years ago, but anyone who buys this device now will see that modern games do not always run smoothly on it. The GPU is fairly old and really on the slow side for a smartphone in 2016.
Camera
You don’t have to buy the G4 Play for the cameras; that’s the abbreviated version. Now in more detail: the cameras of the G4 Play are in line with the rest of the hardware, not bad, but not the top of the market in this price range either.
The interface of the camera is well done, but you should know one thing; a swipe from the left opens the settings menu. This is not clear and the software only shows it the first time. You can view photos by swiping from right to left. A few settings are shown by default: timer, flash and HDR. You can adjust the exposure via the circle that appears when you focus. There is nothing else to set. On the G4 Play you will find no modes, no filters, and no advanced settings such as shutter speed and iso.
On the back is an eight-megapixel camera with an f/2.0 lens. Little else is known about the camera. There is a five-megapixel camera on the front. If Lenovo has used the same module as on other Moto G devices this year, it is an OV5693, with an f/2.2 lens in front of it. The rear camera is “mwah” at best. In good lighting conditions, it’s fine to take a snapshot, as long as no one is moving. If you zoom in, you immediately see the weakness. Details are smeared in an attempt to make things look a bit sharp and that’s downright ugly. It also shows little detail and has difficulty with exposure, even with HDR on. There are spots on every test photo that are too light or too dark.
The front camera is of the same cloth. In good light you can really take an acceptable selfie, although it is not something to write home about. In lower light, both cameras struggle with just about everything. That is somewhat disappointing, because the slightly more expensive Moto G4 and G4 Plus do have good cameras for their price ranges.
Conclusion
The G4 Play is clearly not a smartphone for the demanding user. In terms of screen, camera and hardware, it lags behind the competition and what is usual in this price range, just under 200 euros. The design is practical, but could also have been the design of a 2014 phone. It shares many features with last year’s Moto G, but doesn’t have the waterproofing.
However, he has a big advantage over the competition and that may be enough for many people; the battery life is excellent. It can easily last a day with almost all users. More importantly, if all you do is listen to music, navigate and do some social media, you won’t even have to worry about making it to the end of the day, which will come as a relief to many.
Where the first Moto G was a breakthrough in terms of value for money, the fourth iteration is no longer special in that regard. The competition has caught up with Motorola and this is what’s left. The G4 Play does not excel in anything compared to the competition, only in battery life.