Motorola has finally announced Moto G5 Plus at MWC 2017. It is the successor of the popular phone from last year, Moto G4 Plus. Moto G4 Plus was popular last year and competed with rivals successfully. Can we expect the same with Moto G5 Plus? Let us do a comparison of Moto G5 Plus and Moto G4 Plus and see the notable changes and predict if Moto G5 will rock.
Moto G5 Plus thinner with 7.7 mm thickness as compared to 9.8 mm thickness of Moto G4 Plus. The weight of both smartphones is equal to 155 grams.
Motorola has kept the same form factor but reduced the screen size. Moto G5 Plus has 5.2-inch Full HD display with Gorilla Glass 3 protection. Due to a reduction in screen size, the phone got better pixel density with same full HD display.
The position of the fingerprint sensor is same but it got improvement in design and this time it looks better. I didn’t like the previous design of fingerprint sensor in Moto G4 Plus and that looked weird. Moto G5 Plus comes in Lunar Grey, Fine Gold color options while Moto G4 Plus came with Black and White color options.
From the back, the phone has been changed a lot and this time it uses a circular camera module while the previous one had much simpler design
Moto G5 Plus comes with Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box.
Moto G5 Plus comes with Qualcomm MSM8953 Snapdragon 625 chipset with Adreno 506 GPU that upgrades over Qualcomm MSM8952 Snapdragon 617 with Adreno 405. So, the performance of Moto G5 Plus will be better. We get 2GB, 3GB, 4GB RAM models with 32GB, 64GB storage options. This time, Moto has dropped the 16GB storage model and that is an acceptable change.
The camera department has been improved a lot even if the megapixels count is lesser. Moto G5 Plus comes with 12 megapixels rear camera with dual LED flash and f/1.7 aperture. The Moto G4 Plus had 16 megapixels rear camera with dual LED flash and f/2.0 aperture. I hope you found the change in aperture size and hence Moto G5 Plus will offer improved photography experience.
The front camera remains the same and Moto G5 Plus has same 5 megapixels front camera with f/2.2 aperture that we found in Moto G4 Plus.
With LTE Cat 6, the connectivity has been improved and Bluetooth 4.2 has been used as compared to Bluetooth 4.1 in Moto G4 Plus. The battery of the phone remains same and Moto G5 Plus got 3000 mAh battery with fast charging support. While capacity remains the same, Snapdragon 625 saves lots of battery juice to give you better battery life.
See this table for side by side comparison for the quick overview.
| Moto G5 Plus | Moto G4 Plus | |
|---|---|---|
| Dimensions | 150.2 x 74 x 7.7 mm 5.91 x 2.91 x 0.30 in | 153 x 76.6 x 9.8 mm 6.02 x 3.02 x 0.39 in |
| Weight | 155 grams / 5.47 oz | 155 grams / 5.47 oz |
| Colors | Lunar Grey, Fine Gold | Black, White |
| Display | 5.2-inch FHD (1920×1080), IPS LCD, 424ppi Corning Gorilla Glass 3 | 5.5-inch FHD (1920×1080), IPS LCD, 401ppi Corning Gorilla Glass 3 |
| Software | Android 7.0 Nougat | Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow |
| Processor | Qualcomm MSM8953 Snapdragon 625 | Qualcomm MSM8952 Snapdragon 617 |
| GPU | Adreno 506 | Adreno 405 |
| RAM | 2GB/3GB/4GB | 2GB/3GB/4GB |
| Storage | 32GB/64GB, expandable up to 256 GB | 16GB/32GB/64GB, expandable up to 256 GB |
| Rear camera | 12 MP, f/1.7, autofocus, dual-LED (dual tone) flash, 2160p@30fps (USA)/ 1080p@30fps (EMEA) | 16 MP, f/2.0, phase detection & laser autofocus, dual-LED (dual tone) flash, 1080p@30fps, HDR |
| Front camera | 5 MP, f/2.2, auto-HDR | 5 MP, f/2.2, auto-HDR |
| Connectivity | microUSB 2.0, Bluetooth 4.2 with A2DP, LE, EDR, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, dual-band, WiFi Direct, hotspot, LTE Cat.6 | microUSB 2.0, Bluetooth 4.1 with A2DP, LE, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspotLTE Cat.4 |
| Unlock | Fingerprint scanner (front) | Fingerprint scanner (front) |
| Battery | 3,000mAh (non-removable), fast battery charging | 3,000mAh (non-removable), fast battery charging |
Final Words
While it does not look like a big upgrade, I see better performance and better camera experience this time. With the Chipset used in Moto G5 Plus also saves lots of battery juice, so the battery backup will also be better.
If you were looking to upgrade your Moto G4 Plus, Moto G5 Plus can be a good choice.
