Motorola Moto G4 Plus Hands-on, First Impressions

It’s not only the flagship Moto Z that was brought by Motorola in their comeback in the Philippines. They also have the mid-range Moto G4 Plus for those who are willing to spend an average amount of cash for a new smartphone. Check out our initial impressions below.

The handset has a 5.5-inch IPS LCD equipped with a Full HD resolution. Its design is a fusion of the previous Moto G handsets and the new high-end Moto Z. The similarity to its more expensive brother lies in the square fingerprint scanner below the display. The earpiece and the 5MP front-facing sits on top.

The buttons for the power/lock key and volume rocker are situated to its right side while the left is voided of any. The frame of the G4 Plus is made out of polycarbonate and it’s really not that exciting to hold.

The side has the 3.5mm headphone jack smacked in the middle. You can see the familiar curved frame of the Moto G series here but sadly, the back is completely flat.

The bottom end has the micro-USB port for charging and wired connectivity. A slit for prying out the back cover can also be found here.

The back is utilitarian in approach with its matte black finish. The rear 16MP camera is encased in an elongated glass together with its dual-tone LED flash and Laser AF sensor. The dimpled Moto logo is present here just in case you’re missing that one.

As mentioned earlier, you can get access to the rear of the phone. The good news is the G4 Plus has two micro-SIM card slots plus a dedicated microSD card slot for expansion. The battery is sealed, though, so quick user replacement is out of the topic.

The handset is rocking a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 chipset clocked at a max of 1.5GHz. It’s paired with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. The phone runs Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow out of the box and it’s near-Nexus thanks to the absence of bloatware and any skin. In terms of battery, the G4 Plus has a 3000mAh cell with support for quick charging.

Motorola Moto G4 Plus specs:
5.5-inch Full HD IPS display, 401ppi
1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 octa-core CPU
Adreno 405 GPU
3GB RAM
32GB internal storage
up to 128GB via microSD
16MP rear camera w/ Laser AF & PDAF, dual-tone flash
5MP front camera
Dual-SIM
4G LTE
WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n
Bluetooth 4.1, A2DP, LE
GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS
Fingerprint scanner
microUSB
Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow
3,000mAh non-removable battery
153 x 76.6 x 9.8 mm
155 g

The Moto G4 Plus retails for Php13,999USD 239INR 20,223EUR 227CNY 1,737 and will be available through authorized dealers in the country. It’s not the only G-series to arrive as it has its Moto G Turbo Edition and G4 Play siblings exclusively available through Globe and Smart postpaid plans.

UPDATE (11/7/2016, 1:41PM): Changed “up to 256GB via microSD” to “up to 128GB via microSD”.