For a number of years now, Lenovo-owned Motorola has specialized in mid-range Android smartphones that combine decent specs and design with affordable prices. With the Moto G6, Moto G6 Play, and Moto G6 Plus, unveiled today at a special event in Brazil, that tradition continues.
Following on from the G5 and G5S series of handsets we saw last year, the three phones offer three different price points and levels of power for the discerning smartphone buyer. All come with elongated 18:9 aspect ratio screens.
The vanilla Moto G6, sitting in the middle of the line-up, comes with a 5.7-inch, 2,160 x 1,080 pixel display. Inside you get a Snapdragon 450 chipset, 3 GB or 4 GB of RAM, and 32 GB or 64 GB of storage. The battery is pegged at 3,000 mAh, and deep indigo, black, blush, and silver are your choice of colors.
The budget Moto G6 Play, available in deep indigo and silver, has the same 5.7-inch screen but a lower 1,440 x 720 pixel resolution, and a slower Snapdragon 427 chipset. That's matched with 2 GB or 3 GB or RAM, 16 GB or 32 GB of storage, and a 4,000 mAh battery.
One other feature unique to the G6 Play is that the fingerprint scanner is on the back rather than below the screen. It also uses a microUSB connector and charger rather than the USB-C on the other two phones.
Finally up at the top end is the Moto G6 Plus: it boasts a larger 5.9-inch screen, with a resolution of 2,160 x 1,080 pixels. It's the fastest of these three phones, coming with a Snapdragon 630 chipset and 3 GB, 4 GB, or 6 GB of RAM, as well as either 32 GB or 64 GB of on-board storage. The battery size is 3,200 mAh, and deep indigo and nimbus are the colors here.
The higher-end Moto G6 and Moto G6 Plus feature a dual-sensor, 12 MP and 5 MP camera setup around the back, while the Moto G6 Play sticks with a single 13 MP snapper.
All three phones have microSD slots, if you want to expand how much room you've got for your movies, photos, and other files, and keep the 3.5 mm headphone jack. Android 8.0 Oreo is on board.
Now none of those specs are going to trouble the best phones of 2018, but they fit the bill for users wanting an Android phone with respectable performance at a price that won't break the bank – and they don't look bad either.
For something even more affordable, Motorola also announced the Moto E5 and the Moto E5 Plus, another few rungs down on the smartphone ladder in terms of specs and price. That said, the E5 Plus can last a whole two days, according to Motorola, thanks to its 5,000 mAh battery.
As for pricing and availability, the Moto G6 will set you back US$249, while the Moto G6 Play will go for $199 – it's in this pricing that Motorola is really hoping to stand out, and that's a lot less than the super-powered flagships of 2018 will cost you.
The other phones are launching in Europe first, with US availability to be announced. The Moto G6 Plus will cost €299 (roughly $370 with a straight conversion), the E5 will set you back €149 ($185), and the E5 Plus is going to cost €169 ($210). All of these handsets should be going on sale in the near future, but exact dates have yet to be confirmed.
Source: Motorola