For more than a few years now, Moto’s “G” series has been about value. In 2020, that’s not letting up one iota.
You probably already know there’s an abundance of choice in smartphones in Australia, with much of that not just being about features and brands, but also price. Simply put, the amount of money you choose to spend on a smartphone can make for one of its most defining features, and with phones hitting into the thousands lately, there’s little wonder why this is such a big deal for consumers.
Australian smartphone buyers can run the full gamut of pricing when it comes time to buy their next phone, with models as little as $99 stretching all the way past $2500 depending on what exactly they want.
But one series of phones has represented pretty solid value for quite some time, consistently so.
Since practically its inception in 2013, the Motorola G familiarly known as the Moto G has been focused on value, with the G series expanding and changing over time. Reviewers may remember with fondness the G3, which was an affordable Moto with a degree of water resistance, something the company has backed away from in its G series ever since. There have been numerous G models in the years past, too, and the range has expanded to include plus-sized models, plus a model more focused on battery life, while letting a new range in the Moto E be about the budget.
This year, both of those series are back, as the Moto G returns a focus to value and battery life, bringing big screens, a big battery, and a pretty bargain-focused price to Australians looking for a new phone for not much dosh.
Moto’s G series is a two-prong effort in Australia this year, starting with the Moto G8, a 6.4 inch phone sporting 4GB RAM and 64GB storage, plus three cameras on the back, made up of a 16 megapixel F1.7 main camera, an 8 megapixel ultra-wide, and a 2 megapixel macro, with Ultra HD support, while the front-facing selfie camera is an 8 megapixel camera.
There’s a fingerprint sensor in the back and a 3.5mm headset jack included for folks who like both, but 4G, 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi, and a nice return to one of Motorola’s most missed features in the G series, water resistance. Granted, there’s not a lot of water resistance in the model, with only IPX2, which is more akin to dropping a glass of water on the phone and expecting it to survive.
The Moto G8 will also come with a big 4000mAh battery and a fairly affordable price, fetching $329 outright in Australia when it launches, and it won’t even be the most affordable Moto G this year.
Another model is popping up, the Moto G8 Power Lite, a similar model sporting a lower price at $279 and a 6.5 inch screen, three different cameras (16 megapixel F2.0, plus two 2 megapixel cameras for depth and macro), yet a bigger 5000mAh battery overall. With a thousand milliamperes more to offer, expect the confusingly named G8 Power Lite to offer a little more in the way of battery, even though it has a different processor and an older version of Android, with Android 10 on the standard Moto G8, while the Moto G8 Power Lite sports Android 9 Pie.
“Part of the Moto G8 family, the Moto G8 and Moto G8 Power Lite are Motorola’s latest mid-tier smartphones designed to deliver what Australians value most: a premium experience at an affordable price,” said Danny Adamopoulos, General Manager of Sales, for Motorola in our neck of the woods.
Android 9 Pie is also found on Motorola’s E6S, another notch in the budget E series, this one fetching a price of $199 when it launches in June.
Focused more on budgets than anything else, there’s a big 6.1 inch screen, 32GB storage, a 3000mAh battery, and two cameras on the back, with a 13 megapixel F2.2 camera plus a 2 megapixel depth camera for those portrait shots.
The Moto E6S is Motorola attempting to get enough of a phone in for a budget price, though previously the Moto E series has exhibited some pretty impressive battery life, so there’s clearly the same hope for this one.
However one thing you won’t see on any of these new Moto models is support for Near-Field Communication technology, the “NFC” that makes it possible for Google Pay to do its thing. No NFC means no mobile payment support on Moto’s G8, G8 Power Lite, or the Moto E6S, which may be a deal-breaker for some and force people looking for mobile payments to a wearable device like a smartwatch or smart band instead.
Locally, Australians can expect to find the Moto G8 at JB HiFi, Mobileciti, Officeworks, and The Good Guys this week from May 28, while the G8 Power Lite and Moto E6S will see release in June.
