Moto G6: king of budget smartphones

To be honest, when I was told that I was to review the Moto G6, I wasn’t very excited. I simply hadn’t used one of their phones in a while and didn’t know what to expect. Boy, was I mistaken.

This phone is Motorola’s piece in the booming budget smartphone market. How do you make a phone which performs like a flagship, but still keep it affordable enough for everyone?

Design

Unlike most budget smartphones, the Moto G6 has an aluminium frame with Corning Gorilla Glass wrapping the phone. As a result, it should withstand minor bumps and scrapes.

Motorola opted to curve the phone in a similar way to the Galaxy S9. As a result, it feels incredibly comfortable in the hand. In fact, it doesn’t feel like a big screen phone with a 5.7-inch display.

The glass is a fingerprint magnet, but a quick swipe on clothing brings it back to normal. The design of this budget smartphone is simple, but fit in well with my life. There were times when I forgot it was in my pocket. Every part of the design is thoughtful and expertly executed.

Performance

My friends will call me a heavy smartphone user. I read books, watch movies, and draft blog posts on my phone. Sometimes I would be on a Skype call while having two other apps open side-by-side. No matter how far I pushed this phone, it didn’t slow down or jitter. It feels like Motorola did some heavy ‘under-the-hood’ optimisations to Android.

The 3GB of RAM onboard is significantly more than other budget smartphones. Most come with 2GB of RAM. When you combine this with the octa-core processor, you are left with a phone which flies through tasks.

Notably, this doesn’t come with annoying apps which are impossible to delete. It is close to a pure Android experience.

Battery life

As a heavy user, I got at least a day’s use out of this phone. On my ‘lighter’ days, it lasted one and a half days. The fast charger enabled me to get half a day’s use in 30 minutes.

I think you would need to play games at a loud volume in order to get less than a day’s use. Compared to other budget smartphones I reviewed for giffgaff, I am getting about 4 hours more per charge.

The only thing that stops the battery from being perfect is that it is non-removable. Over time batteries get weaker, and need replacing. This can cost a lot more money if it needs to be opened by an expert. Sadly, non-removable batteries are the direction the industry is going in.

Unique features

The fingerprint sensor is fixed at the bottom. I was surprised by how quickly it worked. A gentle tap is all it needs to unlock. It has this cool feature which disc the screen when you aren’t looking at it. The Moto G6 does this by detecting where your eyes are facing. This makes a big difference to the battery life.

You also get other standard features, such as NFC, HD video recording and more. I didn’t miss out on anything.

Final thoughts

The Moto G6 is the best budget smartphone I have ever had the pleasure of reviewing. The value for money is astonishing. In my opinion, this is the best budget smartphone on the market today. Motorola’s strategy is to offer more for less in order to capture new long-term customers. Why don’t you take advantage? You can get the Motorola G6 directly from the giffgaff store.