Moto G5S Plus Review: Specs, Price and More: Mobiles have developed to a large extent and are much more than just a source of communications. With rapid developments in both software and hardware, these smartphones really merit the term smart in their name. And with the growing the digitalisation of every service, the demand for these phones has skyrocketed in every income sphere. This has led to revolutionise the mobile phone industry and has left with manufacturers to keep innovating while limiting the price or lose out to the competition. The non-stop innovation to develop something better than the rest has even led to high-end smartphones packing better specs than your laptop. The latest product from Motorola is the perfect mid-range high-end specs option that proves the market trend. And if you want to check out the hefty discounts available for this one, do check out the mobile offers on Flipkart and Amazon.
Moto G5S Plus
The very beginning of the Motorola stronghold in the Indian market started with the first generation of the Moto G, the phone was an instant it for a company resurrected from the dead by Google. It squashed away the Samsung Market dominant, so successful was the Moto G. It was the first mobile to have flash sales that ended in seconds long before the current trend of these sales. With such success, the company followed a simple model of enhancing a top product year after year with the G series that we see today.
Motorola is known for packing top-end specs and durability with features like water and dust resistance, and the G5S, an enhanced model of the fifth generation of the G series, lives up to the lofty expectations. The phone while priced a little higher than the competitors offers a durability that few competitors in the market can stand toe to toe with.
The powerful octa-core Snapdragon processor is a feature that would raise the excitement, while the stock Android experience on it 5.5-inch Full HD display is a major attraction, and not only for the Android lovers.
Moto G5S Plus Display:
Like the recent Moto G generations, the G5S Plus has a full HD 1080p display, leaving behind the ultra-high resolution one. But despite the large screen size of 5.5-inch, it’s sharp and easy to use.
The colour is very impressive and makes the phone beautiful, even if it may not match up to the saturated colours of the high-end devices. It’s not such a drawback even if you prefer true colours and the user is equipped with a choice to tweak the tone accordingly. One of those is the default Vibrant mode with the basic look of a high-quality display, while the standard mode brings the tone on par with sRGB, similar to monitors, but your eyes won’t be able to make out much of a difference.
The displays have excellent viewing angles with little to no loss of brightness at angles. The screen isn’t curved, in accordance with the body design, but is worth it thanks to aluminium body design that makes up for it.
Moto G5S Plus Camera:
The Moto G5S Plus is the first in the Moto G family to have a dual back camera. And while the high-end devices have the second camera to help with zooming while maintaining the quality, the dual 13MP on the G5S Plus works well too.
With auto-focus, it is quite easy to take the depth of field photos with the G5S Plus, basically blurring the background to enhance the image, giving you the feel of a DSLR lens.
While it might not exactly match up to the front-runner brands like Apple when it comes to Cameras, with outlining in both complicated and simpler objects. Although, for it’s low price compared to others, it pretty efficient and can produce some excellent photos.
The one shortcoming it has is the shutter lag which is actually significant enough. Even last year’s Moto G4 delivers better speed than the G5S Plus. It’s only half a second of a lag and may not affect everyday users. Although Lenovo would sort the fix with a software update.
Despite that, the G5S Plus has a camera that left us very satisfied considering its price. While you need to be careful about the exposure level for a good shot, the dynamic range enhancement leaves the competition much behind and the colours are quite amazing. The auto HDR mode makes it perfect for very bright situations too.
While the contrast isn’t as great as the high-end models, and low light photography is average with softer shots, the images are still workable though. The pro mode lets you play around with the settings if you don’t like the default, and it does result in significantly better pictures at times.
At the front of the device is an 8MP front camera coupled with a LED flash that gives decent images in the outdoors but no so indoors. While the flash right on your eyes isn’t the best experience but does actually work and there’s even face features enhancing softwares for all the Insta-freaks.
Build quality, body and design of the Moto G5S Plus:
While the brand may have tricked the users with the predecessors Moto G5 and G5 Plus having a significant part of the body made out of plastic while being billed as metal phones, this time Lenovo delivers. The Moto G5S Plus has a pure metal body, every bit of the shell and the body is aluminium, without a hint of any plastic.
The build takes this one to another league, leaving behind the predecessors, and is the best-looking model in the G series, as beautiful as the original Moto G was, this one’s truly astonishing.
The body is as good as some devices worth thrice the price of the G5S Plus, and there are some impressive extra features too, like the fast-enough fingerprint scanner below the screen and a MicroSD slot along with the dual sim slots, which gives it an added advantage over the market competition.
Moto like always also offers additional enhancements like using the scanner as a replacement for the on-screen keys, although it is optional. Despite the USB-C trend, the G5S Plus ships with a Micro-USB socket, which might be quite old fashioned, but works well in the Indian market.
The Moto G5S Plus offers fast charging with its turbochargers, offering 6 hours of battery backup in a mere quarter of an hour. The phone features a water repellent coating to save it from the occasional spills. As with all the other features of the phone, you don’t get it all, but you get enough to make this one stand out.
The operating system of the Moto G5S Plus:
One of the standout-features, the G5S Plus ships with an untouched Android Nougat, to offer the True Android experience. The phone is upgradeable to Android Oreo and uses the UI seen in the Google Pixel devices, instead of the standard Android UI. The major difference here is that to see the apps you don’t have to use a large icon, just a flick upwards would do.
A row of the recent most-used apps is pinned to the top of the apps menu, although the customizations are relatively low-key. The Moto Display features show you the notifications when the phone is in standby saving you the effort of unlocking the device, while the excellent gesture features are also included in the device.
Along with the already mentioned choice of replacing the soft keys with the scanner, there is also the Karate chop twice gesture to light up the torch or the quick-twist to start up the camera for a quick photo, or the option to reject calls or silent phones with gestures. All of these can be controlled with an on-device app.
The G5S feels fast and fluid with app load speeds as satisfying as the high-end devices. While a few apps like Facebook do face hiccups with crashes, however, these bugs would be cleaned out in the future updates.
Touch and sensitivity of the Moto G5S Plus:
The touch of the phone works smoothly with great response time. The front finger-sensor might be ergonomic to some and not to the others and even though the scanner isn’t much better than the competition, it works better if the screen is on. The stock Android really gives out any lags or delays and using the device is a pleasure.
Performance of the Moto G5S Plus:
Like the Moto G5 and G5 plus, the phone runs on a Snapdragon 625 chip, which while being a mid-range chipset, is one of the best options for a low price full HD phone. With A53 Octa-Cores, paired with a typical 4GB of LPDDR3 RAM instead of the faster DDR4 options, it is fine for an affordable device.
On Geekbench 4, the G5S Plus has an impressive score of 4312, which is surprisingly much better than the G5, despite both having the same hardware at the core. Although the score is quite average for phones with the 625 chip. The chip might not be very exciting but does better than the MediaTek chipsets when it comes to gaming and is an advantage over the competition.
Other specs of the Moto G5S Plus:
The 3000 mAh battery isn’t the best that you can ask for, but the overall backup is satisfactory. On average usage, the phone would last you a day or more. But with Lenovo Turbopower technology, the phone offers fast charging which is pretty fast in the initial 60% of the charging, although the remaining bit is pretty fast too.
The phone offers dual 4G sim support and a slot for a MicroSD card too, which keeps it above a lot of competition who are stuck at a hybrid slot. The phone offers an impressive 64GB of storage which is expandable to a huge 256GB.
The price range of the Moto G5S Plus:
The Moto G5S Plus is available on both Amazon and Flipkart and originally costs Rs. 16,999. If you’re quick enough to check the offers today on mobiles, you can get it for Rs. 13,999 on Amazon.
Pros of using the Moto G5S Plus:
Here’s what we found the best about the device after some days of usage:
- Top quality metal build with a premium feel
- Significantly improved all-metal shell and an ergonomically placed scanner.
- Sharp screen with customizable colour modes
- Stock Android with fluid performance
- Great speaker with clear output
- The Moto Gestures make the device fun to use.
Cons of using the Moto G5S Plus:
Here are a few things that we feel could have been better:
- The battery could have been better with a larger battery.
- The low-light photos were not anything special.
- The scanner works a little slow when the phone is on standby.
- The phone could have used the DDR4 RAM and performed slightly better at multi-tasking.
- The Shutter-lag is a disappointment that could have been avoided.
Expert critic review of the Moto G5S Plus:
TechRadar found the device satisfactory although they rued the shortcomings of the camera. Although the praised the build and the pure Android experience. Android Central called it a worthy upgrade from its predecessor and called it a steal.
How to buy the Moto G5S Plus:
Follow these easy steps to buy the Moto G5S Plus:
- Open Amazon website or the mobile app.
- Log in to your account or sign up for a new one.
- Search for the Moto G5S Plus.
- Choose the colour of your liking.
- Provide your details such as the delivery address and the contact number.
- Proceed to the payment
- Select your choice of payment method.
- Once the payment is successful, you will receive an SMS and email confirming your order.
The Moto G5S plus isn’t the best device available out there but it is certainly a fantastic one considering the price. The mobile offers a lot of top-end features with a mid-budget price and certainly has more strengths than weaknesses and has an advantage over most of the competitors in the market. The phone is a fantastic choice in our opinion.