Motorola seems to be bringing back the Moto G series back to life again with the Moto G8 Plus. Without much fanfare, Motorola yesterday announced the successor to the Moto G7 Plus, the Moto G8 Plus in India for Rs 13,999. Motorola's G series is aimed at taking on the Redmi Note and Honor's X series of phones, however, the last competitively priced Moto G smartphone was the Moto G5S Plus which arrived way back in August 2017. Motorola tried a different strategy for the Indian market; It made the Moto G series offline-centred and brought the brand new Motorola One series with Android One branding on board. And we all know- that strategy did not work out for the company. Yes, the Moto G series is the company's most loved lineup of all time and the consumers did not like what Motorola did to the series. The sales slumped and we did not even see Motorola's parent company Lenovo launching phones in the country for a long period of time.
Come mid-2019, Lenovo seems to have come up with a new strategy- focus on the online market. We have seen Lenovo launching some decent phones in the last few months, and now, it's the turn of Motorola. In H2 2019, Motorola has been very active with the One series; It launched the Motorola One Vision, followed by the Motorola One Action and the Motorola One Macro. And now, the company has made the global debut of Moto G8 Plus in India. The Moto G8 Plus is a mid-range smartphone, and for the first time in two years, a Moto G series smartphone is actually looking worthy on paper.
Moto G8 Plus: What it Offers to the Customers?
Motorola smartphones always offered a top-notch experience to the users. Despite the Moto G6 Plus priced at Rs 22,499, the phone delivered a performance which probably was way better than Vivo and Oppo smartphones available over Rs 30,000 back then. And the credit goes to software optimisation. But real-life experience is not everything. The Moto G6 Plus arrived with Qualcomm Snapdragon 630 SoC- not only the chipset was outdated, the competition offered better specs at relatively lower prices, which led to the downfall of Moto. And yes, we're talking about the Moto G6 Plus because the company did not bother to bring the Moto G7 Plus to the Indian market.
Moving onto the Moto G8 Plus, the phone sports a 6.3-inch Full HD+ display with 19:9 aspect ratio and teardrop notch on top. Underneath, it has the Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 chipset which we already saw on the likes of Xiaomi Mi A3, Redmi Note 8 and the Realme 5. The Moto G8 Plus comes in a single variant with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage. The phone also has a hybrid slot for storage expansion up to 512GB.
The highlight of the Moto G8 Plus is the triple camera setup present on the rear side. There's a 48MP Samsung GM1 shooter with f/1.79 aperture, 5MP depth sensor and a 16MP Action camera which comes straight from the Motorola One Action. On the front, the G8 Plus has a 25MP selfie camera. The phone runs a near-stock version of Android 9 Pie with some enhancements and it's backed by a 4000mAh battery with 15W fast charging support. The fingerprint scanner is placed on the rear side.
Is Motorola Trying to Make In-Roads into the Indian Market Again?
The Moto G8 Plus is not a spec-monster and especially when compared to the likes of Redmi Note 8 Pro and Realme 5 Pro, it does not stand a chance. But yes, it takes on the Xiaomi Mi A3 with its stock Android experience and the Action is something very unique in this segment and many might find it useful, actually. The solo variant of the Moto G8 Plus will retail for Rs 13,999 in India and it's pretty good pricing from the brand this time.
At the Rs 13,999, for the same specs, you can get the Realme 5 Pro which offers Snapdragon 712 SoC, 4000mAh battery with 20W fast charging and 48MP quad-camera setup with Sony IMX586 primary sensor. Investing a bit more will get you the best phone under Rs 15,000- the Redmi Note 8 Pro which offers MediaTek Helio G90T SoC, 64MP quad-camera setup, 4500mAh battery, 18W fast charging and more at Rs 14,999.
As said, the Moto G8 Plus is not a beast when it comes to specifications, but neither was any other Moto G smartphones released in the past. It was all about the pricing and user experience: Motorola messed with pricing over the last couple of years, and this year, it's back to the original Moto we know. Will you purchase a Moto G8 Plus at Rs 13,999? Let us know by commenting below.
