Motorola hasn't been at its best this year, at least in India. While the Moto G6 lineup might be a successful one in the United States, the same case doesn't apply to the Indian market because consumers are not ready to pay exorbitant prices. The best smartphone from Motorola to launch this year is the Moto G6, priced at Rs 13,999 for the 3GB RAM+32GB storage option and Rs 16,999 for the 4GB RAM+64GB storage variant. The Moto G6 sports decent hardware but the presence of Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 SoC has been a huge letdown for the smartphone and the company. However, there's a lot to like with the Moto G6, especially the design, camera and battery life on the smartphone are top-notch and on-par with the Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro.
Here are the five areas where the Moto G6 shines when compared to its competition.
1) Design
Ever since the release of the Moto X4, the Lenovo-owned company is focusing heavily on the design aspect. The Moto G6 series is all about the design- leaving the specifications behind, and the Moto G6 is no exception. Gone are the days of metal back, Motorola has gone with a glass back and metal frame that runs on the sides. The Moto G6 looks hugely similar to the Moto X4, which was the first smartphone from the company to sport a glass back.
The Moto G6 measures 8.3mm in thickness and weighs 167 grams. Coming to real life, the Moto G6 feels exceptional when taken into hands, but at the same time, it's slippery and is a fingerprint magnet. One thing you'll notice right after taking the handset into hands is how solid it feels. Design wise, the Moto G6 is the best looking smartphone under Rs 15,000, beating the likes of the Honor 9 Lite.
2) Display
The Moto G6 flaunts a 5.7-inch Full HD+ display on the front with 18:9 aspect ratio. With the Moto G6 series, Motorola has finally joined the newer aspect ratio (18:9) train. The panel itself is an IPS one, but it offers excellent viewing angles and colours. The sunlight legibility on the Moto G6 isn't the best in the price range, but it gets enough bright to view the text under bright sunlight.
3) Battery Life
The Moto G6 rocks a 3000mAh battery and Motorola has added support for fast charging as well. Inside the retail box, Motorola ships a 15W charger which charges the device from 0 to 100% in about 90 minutes. In real life, the battery performance on the Moto G6 is exceptional too. Thanks to the power efficient chipset inside, the 3000mAh battery on the G6 delivers a full-day worth battery life without breaking sweat. During my entire 10-day usage with the handset, the phone delivered over four and half hours of screen-on time with every charge, which is excellent for budget smartphone with 3000mAh battery.
4) Software Optimisation
Motorola is once known for rolling out software updates on a timely manner, but the scenario is a bit different these days as the manufacturer is struggling to seed software updates and security patch fixes too. The software updates section aside, but the no one can beat Motorola when it comes to software optimisation. The Moto G6 sails through all the applications and the Moto-exclusive features also work very well on this device. The Moto G6 has a front-mounted fingerprint scanner and we get the on-button navigation feature on the handset too.
5) Cameras
Lastly, we have the cameras on the Moto G6, which are exceptional to say the least. The Moto G6 rocks a 12MP primary shooter on the rear and it works in tandem with a 5MP secondary depth sensor. Images captured with the Moto G6 came out excellent with great amount of details and the colours are accurate too. One area where the Moto G6 struggles in the Portrait mode as the device struggles to blur the edges properly. Low-light photos also came out very well on the Moto G6. There's a 8MP shooter on the front, which isn't as good as the one seen on the Redmi Y2 or the Redmi Note 5 Pro, gets the job as the photos can be posted on social media.
On the whole, the cameras on the Moto G6 are decent, but the Portrait mode is a bit of a letdown. Also, the Moto G6 is the only device which comes close to the Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro under Rs 15,000 in terms of cameras.
