We have now reached the end of 2019 and the time has come to talk about Motorola Moto G8 Plussmartphone arrived in Italy in November, almost coinciding with Motorola One Zoom. Among the myriad of releases of this period, the launch of the smartphone has gone a little quietly, but we are still talking about the successor of that Moto G7 Plus which at the beginning of the year seemed to have marked the right path for Motorola’s mid-range smartphones .
Will the Lenovo brand have managed to make a worthy successor to that device? Let’s find out together in the review of Motorola Moto G8 Plus, smartphone sold at a recommended price of 269.99 euros (found at 259 euros on Amazon Italy, model 4 / 64GB).
Design and unboxing
By unboxing the sales package, in addition to the smartphone, there is a 12V / 1.5A (18W) TurboPower charger, the USB Type-C cable for charging, the pin for removing the SIM compartment (dual nanoSIM or nanoSIM + microSD), a comfortable transparent silicone cover and various manuals. In the front of the box there are the Motorola logo and the word “Moto G8 Plus”, while in the lower part there are all the relevant information on the device. In short, we are faced with the classic equipment that Motorola has accustomed us to, nothing new under the sun.
Turning to the smartphone, Motorola Moto G8 Plus shows the dimensions of 158.35 x 75.83 x 9.09 mm, for a weight of 188 grams. Ergonomics and grip are good, despite the fact that the device has a large display. We are on normal levels, in a market that increasingly focuses on large dimensions. All in all, you can safely use Moto G8 Plus with one hand.
Excellent materials, metal and glass, which guarantee a “premium” feeling and one above average construction solidity in the price range. Motorola has always been a guarantee from this point of view and here too the Lenovo brand has reconfirmed the goodness of its previous products.
The coloring we tested is called Cosmic Blue and we liked the light effects that the backcover creates. There is also a Crystal Pink variant for those who want more “bright” colors. The rear body does not hold much fingerprints and surely this is a plus.
The front of Motorola Moto G8 Plus features the classic “drop” notch screen, containing the front camera and the ear capsule. The edges are evident compared to other solutions on the market, but all in all we are talking about normal design.
Returning to the back of the device, the three photographic sensors peep out at the top left, accompanied by the LED flash and laser autofocus. In our view, the look of the camera this time is less iconic than that of the Moto G7 Plus and cannot get noticed in the crowded smartphone market. For the rest, of course, the inevitable fingerprint sensor positioned in the center that bears the Motorola logo. With regard to the latter, the unlocking speed is average. As usual, we preferred the quick Face Unlock, which is available on this Moto G8 Plus.
The speakers, the USB Type-C port and the first microphone peep into the bottom of the device, while the audio jack for 3.5mm headphones and the second microphone are located at the top. The SIM trolley is on the left, while the right side houses the power button and the rocker arm to raise and lower the volume. Summing up, Motorola Moto G8 Plus has a design in the norm, which is a bit lost in the myriad of products available on the market.
Technical features
Motorola Moto G8 Plus is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 octa-core processor operating at the maximum frequency of 2.0 GHz (4 x 2.0 GHz + 4 x 1.8 GHz), flanked by an Adreno 610 GPU and 4GB of RAM. A configuration slightly higher than that mounted by Moto G7 Plus, which instead had a SoC Snapdragon 636. In short, it is clear that the Lenovo brand has not focused on “brute force”. We then find 64GB of internal memory (expandable via microSD up to 512GB), sufficient for all types of use.
The screen is a 6.3-inch IPS LCD with Full HD + resolution (2280 x 1080 pixels), 19: 9 aspect ratio, “drop” notch and rounded edges. It is a panel very similar to that of the previous iteration, but in this case it is not bad. In fact, we are talking about a display with well-calibrated colors and an excellent maximum brightness. Unfortunately, there are still problems in terms of optimizing the aspect ratio, given that the choice to support the stock version of Android unfortunately results in the absence of a mode capable of “forcing” applications to run in full screen.
It follows that different software are still displayed in 16: 9 or 18: 9, not going to “fill” the parts of the screen next to the notch. The situation has certainly improved in recent months, since the developers of the applications are slowly adapting, but surely for some it may not be very pleasant to be able to view, for example, the contents of Twitch only in 18: 9 with “zoom” activated.
One of the aspects where Motorola wanted to renew its proposal, at least on paper, is the photographic sector. Moto G8 Plus mounts a 25MP front camera (f / 2.0), while on the back there is one triple camera 48MP (f / 1.7, main) + 16MP (f / 2.2, ultra wide angle 117 degrees, Action Cam) + 5MP (f / 2.2, for depth of field). The front camera records up to Full HD / 30fps, while the rear camera reaches 4K / 30fps. The Action Cam arrives at Full HD / 60fps.
We find all the classic features: Portrait, Sample color, Cinemagraphy, Panorama, Slow motion, Time-lapse and Night Vision. Obviously Google Lens is also present, able to scan the objects that are framed with the camera and providing more information about them. The novelty is clearly constituted by the Action Camera, which is activated in exactly the same way as One Action. On the latter there is very little to say, it is a niche feature that manages to record good videos, but it is certainly not that “killer feature” that makes the miracle cry. For more details on the functionality involved, we recommend that you consult our Motorola One Action review.
For the rest, the overall quality of the photos is average. In fact, although the photographic sector has been improved on paper, the final shots are very similar to those offered by Moto G7 Plus. The colors are well calibrated and the photo is good in the right light conditions, but in low light contexts they go to losing too many details. A pity the fact that the wide angle cannot be used for photos, but only for videos.
Excellent, however, the images captured by the front camera, which are slightly above the average of the price range. As for the videos, remaining in Full HD the stabilization is excellent, but we are on levels already reached by other medium range. Find some uncompressed photos in our Drive folder dedicated to Motorola Moto G8 Plus.
Speaking of autonomy, Motorola has finally implemented a 4000 mAh battery with TurboPower fast charge support, aligning with the competition. We often arrived in the evening with 30% remaining charge. In short, autonomy is certainly one of the strengths of the smartphone. In addition, TurboPower charging guarantees several hours of use in minutes.
Nothing to say about the connectivity sector, which is quite complete: 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 a / b / g / n / ac, NFC and Bluetooth 5.0. The shortcomings are the classic ones: wireless charging and waterproofing (here the smartphone is only water-repellent). We are also at a good level with regard to the audio sector, with very good general quality and support for Dolby Audio smart, which also allows you to set special presets (such as those related to Music and Cinema).
Software
Motorola Moto G8 Plus remained anchored in many ways to the previous model, even in the operating system, which is always Android 9 Pie almost stock version, with security patches dating back to September 1, 2019 at the time of writing. Nothing has changed since 10 months ago and there is still no certain information regarding the update to Android 10.
Some sources speak of a possible arrival by the end of the year, but at the time of the review, or several weeks after the launch of Motorola Moto G8 Plus on the market, everything is silent. The proprietary features are always the same, accessible from the classic Moto app.
Among these we find Moto Actions, which activates specific features, such as the flashlight, simply by moving the smartphone, and Moto Display, which allows us to have short previews of the notifications even when the screen is off. There is also the possibility of setting the usual dark theme.
Performance and benchmarks
Motorola Moto G8 Plus runs well in everyday life. Even applications that are generally considered “heavy” work well and run just as expected from a smartphone in this price range.
For benchmark lovers, the device has recorded a total of 174633 points on AnTutu. On Geekbench, however, it reached 314 points in single-core and 1413 points in multi-core. Average numbers, which however cannot compete with the competition. To give you a concrete example, Realme X2, smartphone that is located at about the same price as Moto G8 Plus, has recorded a total of 257545 points on AnTuTu. In short, Chinese companies are launching devices with off-scale performance in this price range and being able to keep up is really difficult. The difference is also felt in the general fluidity, smartphone in hand.
Gaming
We have chosen to test Call of Duty Mobile, Mario Kart Tour and eFootball PES 2020. We are talking about video games released quite recently, which could potentially give a hard time to a smartphone with this hardware.
In fact, Call of Duty Mobile runs smoothly and without lag only with details and FPS set to “High”, while trying to set “Very High” you start to see different drops and obstacles in the most complex situations to manage.
Mario Kart Tour and eFooball PES 2020, on the other hand, run very well and we have never had problems in this regard. Just a shame that Konami’s football doesn’t fit the smartphone’s aspect ratio, not covering the side of the notch.
