Motorola Moto G4 Play

Rating: 4/5

Review
A nice phone

This is a very decent phone in this price range. It has some slightly basic aspects, but it is nicely made and does the basics very well.

When reading this review, please bear in mind that I am in late middle age and that my use may not reflect yours. I don't game or tweet, for example, and I don't use data; I use the phone for calls and texts, music, checking email, some catch-up TV, occasional photos and occasional web browsing. This means that I cannot advise on detailed comparisons of technical specification and so on, but my personal view of the Motorola G4 is this:

The packaging is basic but it's OK. In it you get just the phone and a charger with a fixed lead, so you'll need your own micro-USB lead for data transfer.  There's also a simple but adequate user manual.

 
I think the phone itself is attractive: it is quite slim with a robust metal frame and sturdy plastic back. It's fairly heavy, but not excessively so and I find it very comfortable in the hand. It runs Android 6.0.1. The screen is pretty good to my eyes; it's a 5" screen with bright, true colours and very tolerant of viewing angle. Video, TV catch-up and so on look fine and everything works very nicely for me. It has just 2GB RAM and the processor is quad-core not octa-core, this makes no difference for my use; everything I want to do seems quick, smooth and pretty intuitive, but if you use apps with big memory or speed demands it may be something to consider. The internal memory is 16GB and you can expand with a micro-SD card; I use a 32GB card and it works fine.

Set-up was very easy. You take the back off to access the SIM and micro-SD card slots, and the replaceable battery (hurrah!). Apps install very quickly and simply. In use, everything I want works fine. Wi-fi connection was very straightforward as was syncing with my account. The battery lasts pretty well with my use. The speaker isn't great (as on most phones) but through headphones or an external speaker - both wired and via Bluetooth 4.0 - the sound is excellent. Both NFC and normal Bluetooth pairing are very quick and simple, and stable up to about 4 metres. The cameras aren't the greatest at 8mp and 5mp, but they're perfectly OK and other functions seem very good.

In summary, this is a good smartphone for the price which seems robust and works well. I can recommend it warmly if you're looking for a second phone, a starter phone for a young person – or if you just want a decent smartphone without particularly high-end specs which just does the job.