Lenovo had launched the Moto G4 along with the Moto G4 Plus last month. The Moto G4 Plus was made available soon after the announcement. Now, the company has launched the Moto G4 in India. The Moto G4 comes only in the 16 GB model and it has been priced at Rs. 12,499. If you are looking to buy the device, you can go through the reasons to buy and reasons not to buy this device.
Lenovo Moto G4 Coverage
Moto G4 Unboxing, Quick Review, Gaming and Benchmarks
Lenovo Moto G4 Camera Review, Photo Samples, Comparison
How is Moto G4 Different From Moto G4 Plus?
Reasons To Buy The Lenovo Moto G4
Build and Design
Lenovo has continued to build on the good design principles adopted by Motorola. For the Moto G4, Lenovo has used a textured back cover to reduce slipperyness and improve the overall grip. Additionally, it makes the phone less of a fingerprint magnet compared to glossy or matte back covers.
The build quality of the polycarbonate shell is very good, too.
Dedicated microSD Slot
While the storage on the Lenovo Moto G4 is quite low at 16 GB, Lenovo has made up for it by adding a dedicated microSD card slot. Most device at this range usually use a hybrid SIM slot for a microSD card. The storage can be expanded up to 256 GB using the dedicated microSD card slot.
Display
The Lenovo Moto G4 comes with a 5.5 inch Full HD IPS LCD display with a resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels. It comes with a pixel density of ~401 ppi. The display comes with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection. The display is bright and colorful. The display is sharp and you can’t pick out any pixels.
Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow
Continuing the tradition, the Moto G4 offers almost stock Android experience. The device comes with Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow. There are no bloatware apps, skinned menus or other features that usually slow down the device. The Moto G4 comes with a thin layer on top of stock Android. The overall feel is similar to a Nexus device.
Motorolla has added some on its own features in the form of gestures. Users can use gestures to launch the camera and toggle the flash apart from silencing the device. As part of its battery saving features, you can opt to have notifications that fade in and out while the screen is off to save power. There is also a clock and weather widget. Another reason is that the device will get faster OTA updates compared to other devices.
Reasons Not To Buy The Moto G4
Limited 4G
While most of the phones come with dual SIM dual 4G support, the Moto G4 comes with dual SIM single 4G support. Meaning, you can only use 4G on the first SIM slot and the second SIM slot is restricted to 3G.
No Compass Sensor
Compared to the rest of its competition, the Moto G4 lacks the compass sensor. This is a letdown especially because it costs a little more than its competitors.
Camera
The Moto G4 comes with a 13 MP primary camera with f/2.0 aperture, HDR and dual LED flash. While this is not bad, the Moto G4 Plus is a better choice as it comes with a 16 MP primary camera with f/2.0 aperture, phase detection autofocus (PDAF), and laser autofocus and dual LED flash. Considering that the Moto G4 Plus is only priced 1,000 more than the G4, the downgrade in the camera department can be a big reason to not buy the Moto G4.
Heating Issues
Heating issues have become quite common on some recent Qualcomm processors. While this problem does not affect all Qualcomm processors, the Moto G4 (and the Moto G4 Plus) which uses a Snapdragon 617 SoC is affected by it. Lenovo is supposed to be releasing an OTA update to fix this problem, but until then, we are placing this issue as one of the reasons to not buy the Moto G4.
Battery
The Moto G4 comes with a 3,000mAh Non-removable Li-Ion battery. Despite coming with a 5.5 inch Full HD display, the Moto G4 comes with only a 3,000 mAh battery. Lenovo should have included a higher capacity battery given the phone’s size. Under normal usage, the Moto G4’s battery should last throughout the day so it won’t be a big problem if you are a regular user.
No Fingerprint Sensor
While the Moto G4 Plus came with a fingerprint sensor, the Moto G4 lacks a fingerprint sensor. Fingerprint sensor has become an important feature these days with most devices such as the Redmi Note 3 using this to attract buyers.
Low Internal Storage
The Lenovo Moto G4 only comes with low internal storage of just 16 GB. Although it comes with microSD expansion, other competing phones like the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 come with 32 GB storage for a lesser price.
No Waterproofing
While the 2015 Moto G was IPX7 certified and was fully waterproof, the Moto G4 is simply splash proof. This was obviously done to decrease costs.
