Is the $179 Moto G Good Enough?

The need for smartphones has surpassed the stage wherein it is deemed a piece of equipment to determine social status; like almost anything else, those smart devices have become more of a necessity than a luxury. And within the long span of dominance of the smartphone manufacturers, the players of this thriving industry have noticed the presence of two markets that cater to the extremes of the general population in the hierarchy of social standing.

More often than not, establishing the winner in the smartphone showdown is all about incorporating powerful specs and innovative features to their products. And this is the primary reason for their unreasonably high price. At some point, there must be something that has to be compromised. A powerful device will cost a fortune, while a budget phone will be expected to perform poorly. It’s either you splurge to get hold of your dream gadget or just bear with a phone that is meant to give you nothing but disappointment.

If only there’s a way to meet halfway. Oh, and yes, there is, and it comes in the form of the Moto G. Perhaps, most of you have heard of this handset priced at $179 without a contract. It is definitely classified as a budget phone. Therefore, will the argument in which a low-cost phone is going to perform poorly be proven correct? Let’s take a close look at this one.

From afar, you would mistake the Moto G for the Moto X, a high-end smartphone by Motorola. It has soft, rounded corners and an elegantly curved posterior. However, once you take it on your hand, you will be able to notice the difference in their weight; the Moto G is heavier than the Moto X. It’s just expected that the latter looks more attractive, but the former still has a touch of sophistication, nonetheless. In terms of what lies inside, the Moto G is powered by a 1.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 400 processor and 1GB RAM, which is fairly decent considering its price. It boasts a 4.5-inch 720p panel that radiates accurate colors and a crisp display. And if you’re a sucker for over-the-top quality photos, you might not be swept away by the 5-megapixel camera of the device.

For storage space, you might find the 8GB internal storage, which cannot be expanded by an SD card, insufficient for your smartphone needs. To many, this is the major point of concern with this handset. It doesn’t support LTE, but if you are somewhere outside the U.S., this might not even be a problem since many countries have no LTE networks yet. The Moto G’s rear casing can be easily replaced with a wide variety of colors to suit your style.

The bottom line is, along with the low cost of the Moto G come the concessions in the hardware it is built onto. But you don’t have to worry because the people behind this smartphone kept the important aspects uncompromised, while they took out the inessential stuff. So, if you were to ask me if the Moto G, being priced at $179, is good enough, I would say it is; it definitely is.