Motorola Moto G (2nd Gen) 8GB

When it comes to looks and design, the original Moto G didn't win any awards, but was applauded for its sturdy build. Its successor also follows the same ethics, which is commendable, considering that the new Moto G houses a bigger display, and yet manages to be 0.6mm thinner. Even in terms of weight, it tips the scale at 148g – just 5 grams heavier than the first-gen Moto G. As noted in our first impressions, we also felt that the weight is uniformly distributed across the whole device, and doesn’t feel bulky, which was a common complaint with its previous iteration.

As mentioned earlier, one of the major changes in the second-gen Moto G is in the display department. The handset sports a 5-inch display, which has pretty much become a standard for most Android smartphones these days. While the size has increased, the display resolution of 1,280 x 720 pixels remains the same, resulting in a lower pixel density as compared to the original Moto G. But in real-life usage, the pixel density of 294ppi is sufficient, with no visible pixelation. The display looks sharp and vibrant in all situations, and viewing angles are also great. However, we felt that brightness levels weren't adequate, especially outdoors where the screen turns extremely reflective.

Motorola was one of the first manufacturers which went ahead with stock Android as a differentiating factor, instead of the various customisations being added by other manufacturers. Not only do the offerings from Motorola featured stock Android, but the brand also promises quick updates for future Android releases. In fact, in some cases, the company's smartphones receive Android updates even earlier than Nexus devices.

The original Moto G was a near-perfect smartphone, but the one thing which went against it was its camera. The new Moto G aims to improve that aspect with its 8-megapixel primary snapper, instead of the 5-meg sensor in the original. However, the camera app's interface remains extremely minimal as before, with the main screen only giving you the option to switch to video, change cameras or flash. If you want to change settings, you have to swipe from left direction to right. This allows you to change to different modes like HDR and panorama. The camera autofocusses on a subject on its own, and you can tap on the screen to shoot. If you want to focus on a different part of the scene, you'll need to drag the focus circle accordingly. To zoom in on the scene, you simply need to drag your finger upwards. To capture images in burst mode, all you need to do is long-tap on the interface or long-press the volume rocker, which doubles up as a shutter button.

While the new offering sports a bigger display and better camera, it's exactly same as its predecessor as far as the core hardware is concerned. Performance muscle is provided by a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor clocked at 1.2GHz. The processor is complemented by an Adreno 305 GPU for handling graphics. The amount of RAM is also the same at 1GB. When the original Moto G was launched, this kind of hardware combo was considered a benchmark, but now things have changed drastically. Xiaomi's Mi 3 offers top-of-the-line specs with a quad-core Snapdragon 800 SoC and 2GB RAM (but isn't available to buy currently), while the ASUS Zenfone 5 offers a dual-core Intel chipset with 2GB of RAM. Several Indian vendors also offer octa-core devices in this price bracket.

The Moto G (2nd gen) packs in 2,070mAh battery – the same as its predecessor. During day-to-day usage, the smartphone lasted an entire day and then some. Even with the sparing use of navigation, data and playing a few games, it comfortably ran for the whole day. When it comes to a proper battery test, it ran a 720p video continuously with brightness and volume set to 50 percent for seven hours and 45 minutes, which is a tad better than average.