Motorola Moto G8 Plus Review

Last Update 2020-01-17

Motorola's popular G-series phones focus on providing the best possible experience at an affordable price. The Motorola G8 Plus brings more value with the versatile rear camera setup, minimal bezel, and efficient battery management. 

The handset has Dark Blue and Dark Red color options. It cost only $200 price for 4GB RAM and 64GB internal storage. The G8 Plus also comes at AU$ 270 in Australia, while United Kingdom users are buying this handset at £188 price.

Design

The Motorola G8 Plus has a plastic build, and the back panel is looking like a glossy finish with the camera module tucked into the top left corner and the Motorola logo aligned in the middle. The phone's logo area doubles up as a fingerprint sensor, which can unlock the phone quickly.

The cell phone measures 158.4 x 75.8 x 9.1 mm dimension (9.09mm thickness), and its weight is 188 grams, which is more than the Moto G7 Plus. The right side houses volume keys and an unlock button while the left bezel is home to a hybrid SIM card slot. On the top, it has a microphone and a 3.5mm audio jack, which can be used to connect earphones or headphones. On the bottom edge, there is a microphone, USB-C port, and a speaker grill. 

Display

The G8 Plus features a slightly bigger screen than the G7 Plus at 6.3 inches, an IPS LCD panel with a Full HD+ resolution of 1080 x 2280 pixels, and a U-shaped notch up top. The screen has a 19:9 aspect ratio with 400 PPI density. The handset offers an 82.5% screen-to-body ratio, which is decent for watching videos and playing games. The screen has coated with a layer of Panda Glass, which is similar to the popular Corning Gorilla glass solution for protection against drops.

In terms of display's maximum brightness, it provides up to 581 maximum nits brightness. The display of the G8 Plus is suitable for casual viewing and gaming, but we can't call it the better display as there are FHD+ AMOLED options available at this price like Realme x2.

Battery

An essential step up from the previous generation is the Moto G8 Plus' battery capacity. It packs a 4,000 mAh battery (while G7 Plus has 3,000 mAh), which is good. If you like watching videos, being on social media at all times, and playing games on your phone, the G8 Plus easily lasts for a day on a single charge. The phone allows spending 16 and half hours for web browsing, and it also gets 87h endurance rating. The handset takes over two hours for a full charge.

Software

The software build is base on Android 9 Pie, and the Moto custom features app also has a bunch more options. The Moto G8 Plus is upgradable to Android 10, and the brand is working hard at customizing Google's latest OS for their phones. The phone also provides a set of Moto Actions features, and it has a single elongated button in the center – clicking it once takes you to the home screen, a swipe up brings out the recent apps menu, swiping to the left acts as a back button while swiping to the right switches back to the last opened app. The quick switch works pretty well, but if you want to have the classic three-button navigation, you can tap on Button Nav Off.

The G8 Plus also offers other Moto actions – Flashlight on or off button, twist motion to launch the camera app, three-finger screenshot gesture, and accelerometer-based ringtone silencing. Unfortunately, there is an option for Always-on display. The handset comes with some usual apps such as Duo, Google Maps, Google Drive, File Manager, Calculator, Play Store, and Camera. Swipe down from the top; you'll get – Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Do Not Disturb, Flashlight, Dolby Smart Audio, Auto Rotate, Battery Saver, Mobile Data, and AirPlane mode. In the Settings, it has a Security and location menu that offers biometric features – fingerprint and Faces Unlock.

Performance

The Motorola G8 Plus draws power from the Snapdragon 665 Chipset. SDM 665 SoC is a mid-range Qualcomm's Chipset, made on an 11nm Octa-core processor (4x2.0 GHz Kryo 260 Gold & 4x1.8 GHz Kryo 260 Silver). The handset is available in 4GB RAM and 64GB onboard storage and packs an Adreno 610 GPU. Check out the multiple benchmarks of Moto G8 Plus.

Geekbench 5 (single-core)

Higher is better

Geekbench 5 (multi-core)

Higher is better

AnTuTu Scores

Higher is better

Rear Camera Setup

Motorola has upgraded the G8 Plus to triple camera setup. The rear camera setup of Moto G8 Plus houses a 48MP primary sensor with f/1.7 aperture, 16MP ultra-wide lens with 117 –degree Field Of View, and a 5MP depth sensor that assists in portrait mode. The primary 48MP camera can record videos in 4k at 30fps and Full HD at up to 120fps while the ultra-wide-angle can only record FHD videos.

The Motorola G8 Plus offers an electronic stabilization in place for the video, which is pretty good. For taking standard pictures, the quad pixel technology allows capturing amazing photos with natural colors and maximum brightness. The primary sensor captures sharp and colorful images in the daytime, but, in the night time, the photos are filled with grains and can't provide better details. In the camera app, a set of quick settings is available in the viewfinder for the HDR modes (Auto/On/Off), flash modes (Auto/On/Off), self-timer (Off/3s/10s) and Active Photos (Auto/On/Off). Activate the HDR mode you can capture beautiful images and also can save beautiful pictures with Portrait mode at blur background.

Front camera

Motorola Moto G8 Plus has a 25MP sensor with f/2.0 aperture and 0.9µm pixels on the front for selfie experience. It can record FHD videos at 30fps and 120fps as well. Captured selfies from the 25MP selfie sensor are good, and colors are mostly accurate.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Excellent battery life

48MP quad-camera setup

Excellent audio - both out of the stereo speakers and through the 3.5mm jack

Cons

No video stabilization in 4K or 1080p/60fps

IPS LCD instead of AMOLED display

The ultra-wide-angle camera can't be used for taking better photos.

Verdict

The Motorola G8 Plus has several significant improvements over its predecessor, such as 4,000 mAh battery, 48MP quad-camera setup, 25MP selfie shooter, and SDM 665 Chipset. The phone also offers stereo speakers and the flagship-grade audio quality. Compared to Motorola's One series models such as the One Macro, One Action, and One Vision, which all come within the same price range, we'd pick the G8 Plus for its better display and slightly faster SoC.

Alternatives

The Samsung Galaxy A50 is a viable alternative to Moto G8 Plus with 6.4 inches Super AMOLED display, triple camera setup, 25MP selfie sensor, and 4,000 mAh battery with 15W fast charging support. It also has a quicker Exynos 9610 Chipset (10nm) and an under-display fingerprint scanner. Bear in mind; it has a 25MP primary camera instead of a 48MP sensor, and Samsung A50 also costs more $40 for 4GB RAM + 64GB ROM. If you want to enjoy the Super AMOLED display and under-display fingerprint sensor, then you can buy Samsung A50.

On the other hand, the Realme X2 is also a batter choice for you with 6GB of RAM and 64GB ROM. The Realme X2 has a 64MP quad-camera setup on the back, and it also has a Super AMOLED display. The Realme X2 also has some exciting features over G8 Plus, such as under-display fingerprint sensor, 30W fast charging, and 32MP selfie shooter, but it costs $220 instead of G8 Plus's $200.