There are no smartphones on the market that could not benefit from better battery life.
To discern how the Moto G and Moto G4 Plus compare to other smartphones phones with respect to battery life, we ran them through AnTuTu Tester's Battery test, a high-load benchmark that aims to drain the battery in a device as quickly as possible. The test sets the display brightness to high and cranks up workloads for the processor, graphics core, and memory, and runs through a number of real-world scripted workloads as well, including web browsing, gaming and video playback.
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Battery Life |
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How Long Did They Last? |
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The Moto G4's battery life shines largely thanks to its more modest 1080p FHD display. Pushing fewer pixels means the processor and GPU do not need to work as hard as in the 1440p QHD displays most flagships are sporting. That is also fewer pixels the display itself needs to power. We do see some discrepancy between the G4 and G4 Plus here, however. We suspect the G4 Plus is being pushed just a little bit harder thanks to its extra memory and its additional hardware features. We would not expect, and did not notice, any difference in real world usage. Either phone should last a full work or school day with plenty of power left to unwind and browse HotHardware to your heart's content.
The Moto G4 and Moto G4 Plus are both welcome entries into the greater Moto family. They succeed in providing a near-flagship quality user experience in most respects. They do lack the graphics chops necessary to shine in a lot of 3D applications and games, but they were never meant to. Moto instead doubled down on ensuring a smooth, lag-free experience everywhere else with meaningful quality of life improvements via Moto Actions.
Of course, the Moto G4 and G4 Plus are not perfect. Moto's chosen trade-offs, however, make sense. The plastic body is at least well-designed with tight tolerances and seems durable. It is important to note that the edges are prone to nicks and pitting from drops. Many users will likely pick up a case regardless. Motorola was wise to capitalize on the plastic backing via MotoMaker. MotoMaker allows buyers to customize the color of their phone through swappable backplates.
Performance-wise, we did not find any significant difference between the 2GB and 4GB memory models, though the extra memory will obviously come in handy if you're the typo to run a lot of apps and open a myriad of browser tabs simultaneously. While the base Moto G4 is excellent in its own right, we still give a slight edge to the Moto G4 Plus. The fingerprint sensor and upgraded camera with laser auto-focus are well worth the extra investment.
There has been some controversy over Lenovo's refusal to commit to monthly security patches. At this point, we do not know what update frequency to expect. The security patch level as we post this in August is from May 1st, a little over three months out of date. Still, Lenovo is not the only company putting off updates. If security is an absolute must for you, there might not be an alternative to Nexus.
Find the Moto G4 and Moto G4 Plus on Amazon, starting at $149
We feel the Moto G4 is deserving of serious consideration, even up against flagships. If you want a clean Android experience that works day-in and day-out, why pay more? We have enjoyed our time with this underrated duo and therefore extend our recommendation.
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Clean, near-stock Android
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Intuitive and useful Moto Actions
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Ultra-responsive UI
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Fast and accurate Moto G4 Plus fingerprint reader
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MicroSD expansion
- Price is easy on the wallet
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Unapologetic plastic construction
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So-so camera quality
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Low 3D rendering performance
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No NFC or Wireless Charging
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The Moto G4 and Moto G4 Plus are both welcome entries into the greater Moto family. They succeed in providing a near-flagship quality user experience in most respects. They do lack the graphics chops necessary to shine in a lot of 3D applications and games, but they were never meant to. Moto instead doubled down on ensuring a smooth, lag-free experience everywhere else with meaningful quality of life improvements via Moto Actions.
