Gadgetory

the Moto G is about to get replaced by the Moto G the new iteration brings a few hardware bumps and much more customization to Motorola's best-selling smartphone and while we'll have complete impressions in next week's full review first let's take a look at what's changed and what hasn't between generations I'm Michael Fisher with PocketNow and this is moto G 2015 vs. moto G 2014 iteration is the name of the game when it comes to the mid-range and the Moto G bears that out the new phone is ever so slightly larger and more massive than the older one but it makes up for that with an ipx7 water resistance rating something last year's moto G lacked it's also got a more grippy back cover thanks to the fine line texturing and then there's moto maker last year's model made you swap back covers to add a little style but the new Moto G gives you the full suite of customization from accent color to custom engraving and you can still swap colors on the fly if you want to the five inch 720p display is the same size and resolution as last year it features cleaner cooler whites and slightly better dynamic range but it also seems to have lower saturation and contrast and less inky blacks honestly I prefer last year's panel under the hood there's now a Snapdragon 410 a 64-bit upgrade to last year's Snapdragon 400 that also includes an improved graphics processor and support for a wider range of LTE bands than its predecessor you also get more options for storage and RAM with the newer model up to 16 gigs and two gigs respectively up from eight and one and the microSD slot remains it's all powered by a nineteen percent larger embedded battery in the newer phone that helps it average about five hours of screen on time and almost half again improvement over what we averaged on last year's phone when it comes down to the details some things have improved while others have not the newer phone has much more subtle haptic feedback so it doesn't rattle like the older one when you type quickly that's good but the buttons at least on our review device are a mushy er and more awkward than last year the new plastic accent feels kind of chintzy the speaker and earpiece grills are no longer symmetrical and the bezels flanking the display are much thicker than before if that's the kind of thing you notice you might want to go for the black faceplate as it covers up some of those blemishes it's a much more straightforward story in software everything is better now we're using the higher-end version with two gigs of RAM so of course performance is zippier and apps stay in memory longer that's expected but much more interesting is that Motorola has ported more of the Moto software suite to the G this year that means moto display will automatically flash the time and your notification count when you pick up the phone it means you can launch apps like the camera and toggle functions like the flashlight with simple gestures and it means your phone can read text messages to you when it detects your driving or at home or silence your ringer when you're in a meeting or sleeping last year's Moto G could only do that last bit otherwise we're again looking at nearly bone stock Android on the third gen Moto G though here it's 5.1.1 to the older phones 5.2 that means a lot of improvements from memory management to notification settings making the newer phone even breezier right out of the box probably the biggest improvement on paper between the GS can be found in the camera not only does the newer phone bring a dual tone LED flash for better skin tone preservation it boosts the resolution from 8 megapixels to 13 by repurposing the sensor from the Nexus 6 and it's been further improved with the new IR filter to reduce glare plus the selfie camera around front has jumped from 2 megapixels to 5 what's all that mean out in the real world pretty nice improvements there's a market increase in clarity when you make the jump from the old G to the new one with less noise and slightly higher contrast in some cases in direct sunlight reds are less likely to blow out on the new which also does a better job of handling challenges like intense and backlighting HDR photos are also more impressive this year they're more colorful and lend a better sense of depth in low-light the sharpness advantage of the Moto G 2015 continues but in very dark settings we did run into problems focusing with the newer device problems we didn't experience as deeply on last year's phone same deal when we fired up that flash yes the new phone's module did a better job of preserving flesh tones but the result was often blurrier as though focus was taking longer and never quite getting there and on the selfie side we're happy for the higher resolution but the amount of light captured is way down all things being equal we'd certainly take the newer phone over the old one as far as the camera is concerned and considering the Moto G 2015 starts at the same price its predecessor did we're willing to give it a pass on a few of these issues the bottom line is it's a very solid camera upgrade for 179 dollar smartphone we've only spent a few days using the Moto G's side-by-side and again we'll have a complete verdict on the newer phone including video samples in the full review next week the main question we're trying to answer in this comparison is did Motorola improve on last year's model enough to justify you choosing the newer phone over the older one the answer is absolutely yes in some ways it's not as attractive and the camera bumps aren't as dramatic as you might expect but moto maker waterproofing and the additions to the Moto suite combined with all the other little improvements to make the new Moto G a much better buy even if you can find the older phone for cheaper for more on the Moto G Moto X and all the other products motorola unveiled in this week's new york city event subscribe to our channel here on youtube and put your ears under the latest edition of the pocket net weekly podcast as well as always keep an eye on pocketnow.com till next time this has been michael fisher captain two phones at twitter thanks for watching we'll see you next time