It's easy to forget Motorola in the mix of top-flight smartphones today. While they make the only viable modular devices in the Moto Z lines, the Moto G6 is a perfectly viable option for anyone craving a sleek glass smartphone, dual-camera functionality and long battery life.
By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla
Motorola's G-line has evolved from an affordable and overachieving mid-range smartphone that became Motorola's best selling device specially in emerging countries transitioning from feature phones to smartphones. Unboxing the Moto G6 revealed a surprising premium Jet Black glass body, dual camera and thinned out bezels. Is this really a midrange smartphone?
Through the years, the Moto G line has added larger displays, better cameras, even larger batteries and more upscale materials.
The build-quality and fit and finish of the Moto G6 can rival that of the iPhone 8 or Samsung Galaxy S9. Moto G6 also has a face unlock feature in a phone that's three or four hundred dollars less than most flagships that showcase this feature.
There's also a fingerprint sensor enabled through a sliver at the bottom of the display.
The specs of the Moto G6 do not dissapoint. We have a phablet-worthy 5.7-inch Full HD display featuring an ultra-wide 18:9. This wouldn't be a Moto G without a significant battery and here we have 3000 mAh plus turbopower charging that gives hours of juice with just a few minutes of plugging in.
The biggest upgrade seems to be in the camera department. With dual-cameras the Moto G6 can shoot wide-angle selfies, requisite bokeh-licious portraits are no longer the sole domain of flagship phones. The Moto G6 has a lot of photo tricks up its sleeve including selective focus, selective black & white and spot color filters. Camera speed and shot-to-shot performance is quite slow, you can still get great pictures provided you're prepared and have the subject squarely in focus.
A.I. or artificial intelligence has also made it into the midrange. The Moto G6 camera can be used to recognize landmarks, objects as well as documents for quick OCR cutting and pasting. This feels like a gimmick at first, but since it is A.I., it is supposed to get smarter through time.
Moto G6 is powered by a Snapdragon 450 processor, it has 3 GB of RAM, 32 GB of onboard storage and it ships with Android Oreo.
Carrier-free unlocked US pricing for the Moto G6 is as follows
moto g6 – starting at $249 MSRP
moto g6 play – starting at $199 MSRP
Conclusion:
It's easy to forget Motorola in the mix of top-flight smartphones today. While they make the only viable modular devices in the Moto Z lines, the Moto G6 is a perfectly sensible option for anyone craving a sleek glass smartphone, dual-camera functionality and long battery life.
Given a more powerful processor and a larger or more premium display, the Moto G6 is a great choice for owners of older Moto G devices or anyone looking for a solid Android device with many premium features but without the high price tag.
Rating: 7.5 out of 10