While LG and Huawei launched their flagship smartphones today, Motorola/Lenovo launched its budget wonder in Barcelona: the Moto G5 and Moto G5 Plus. The handsets are a major upgrade over the Moto G4 in terms of build quality and camera performance.

The Moto G4 and G4 Plus were heavily criticised for their plastic build quality when most of the competition had already moved on to releasing phones with metal body. Thankfully, this time around, Motorola/Lenovo have learned from their mistake.

Moto G5

The Moto G5 features a design that is similar to its ‘Plus’ sibling but with a few compromises and changes. The handset features a removable rear panel that gives access its removable 2800mAh battery. It also features more bezels on the front which does make it look unattractive when compared to its Plus brother. Like with the Moto G4, the Moto G5 (and G5 Plus) feature a nano coating that makes them water repellent.

On the front, the Moto G5 features a 5-inch Full HD display that is protected by Corning’s Gorilla Glass 3. Below the display sits the physical home button that also integrates a fingerprint scanner.

As for the specs, the Moto G5 will be powered by an octa-core Snapdragon 430 chipset clocked at 1.4GHz. This will be paired with 2GB RAM, 32GB storage, a microSD card slot, and the usual array of sensors. On the connectivity front, the Moto G5 packs Bluetooth 4.2, LTE, Wi-Fi b/g/n, and dual-SIM slots. The handset will also sport a 13MP f/2.0 rear shooter with PDAF, 1.1um pixels, and an LED flash. A 5MP shooter at the front will be doing all selfie duties and will come with display flash feature.

https://youtu.be/ASpz0-PrQXs

Moto G5 Plus

The bigger, costlier, and more feature-packed and powerful of the two handsets announced today, the Moto G5 Plus features a 5.2-inch Full HD display on the front. While a step down in size from the 5.5-inch panel found on the Moto G4 Plus last year, the display on the G5 Plus has higher brightness levels, improved viewing angles, and color accuracy.

The Moto G5 Plus retains the same aluminium design as found on the Moto G5 but trades the removable back and battery for a larger 3000mAh battery with TurboPower charging. Like the G5, the Plus also features a physical home button in the front with an integrated fingerprint scanner.

Internally, the handset packs an octa-core 2GHz Snapdragon 625 chipset, an Adreno 506 GPU, 3/4GB RAM, 32/64GB storage, and a microSD card slot. Besides the usual connectivity options and sensors found on the Moto G5, the G5 Plus also packs NFC.

https://youtu.be/KRs9xfjXG8I

The major highlight of the Moto G5 Plus is its rear 12MP shooter. It features Dual Autofocus Pixels for fast autofocus times, large 1.4um pixels, and a f/1.7 aperture that should translate into the phone capturing some impressive photos. At the front, we are still looking at the same wide angle 5MP f/2.2 aperture shooter with display flash.

Both handsets run on a near-stock build of Android 7.0 Nougat with a few software enhancements from Motorola thrown in. The handsets come with a new feature called One Button Nav that transforms the bottom bezels into a virtual navigation bar. A swipe left on the bottom bezel takes you back, while a swipe right brings up the recent apps list.

Price and Availability

The Moto G5 and Moto G5 Plus will be available in the US, APAC, and other key markets from early March. The Canada/US version of the handsets will come with different configurations of RAM than the APAC/European version. The pricing of the Moto G5 starts from $189, with that of the Moto G5 Plus starting from $229.