Motorola launched two smartphones last week: the $ 149.99 Moto E and $ 199.99 Moto G Fast. You can read our impressions of the Moto E here, but now it's time to talk about the Moto G Fast.
The G Fast is the third Moto G this year, and the most affordable at $ 199.99. It comes in one color and with 32GB of storage. With this phone, Motorola has focused on speed and performance, a change from the Moto G Power's focal point like battery life and the added bonus of the Moto G Stylus from, well, a stylus.
So now there are three different flavors of mid-range smart phones, an area Motorola has had a lot of experience with and, frankly, a lot of success.
But is the Moto G Fast worth $ 199.99? Let's see it.
Curved edge
The Moto G Fast bets on a sensible and ergonomic design that results in a plastic construction with a shiny finish on the back. The left and right sides at the back curl slightly forward, making it easier to grip.
The Moto G Fast comes in one color: Pearl White. It looks great and a silver band that connects the back to the front. We are delighted with the choice of USB-C for the G Fast, unlike the microUSB in the Moto E, because thanks to this it supports a fast charge of 10 watts. The main port also supports data transfers, of course.
You'll find a headphone jack on the top and the combination of SIM and microSD card slot on the left edge. The right side houses the power button and the volume control. On the back, you will find the three main cameras and the LED flash in the upper left corner. The cameras stick out slightly, but not by much. The Motorola logo is in the center and works as a fingerprint sensor.
At the front, there is a screen with a hole for the camera. The 8 megapixel front lens is located in the upper right corner. It is a fairly large chamber, made even larger by a black ring around the circumference. The bezels aren't that big around the screen, but the bottom one is thicker.
Overall, the Moto G Fast's 6.4-inch screen has a slightly sharper resolution compared to the Moto E, but they're almost identical except for the larger size.
The 720p HD display is fine for most use cases. We try to surf the web, watch a movie, stream YouTube videos, video calls, and answer lots of emails. While we were holding the cell phone at a normal distance, and the text was sharp and the colors good. Bringing it closer breaks that effect a bit but this is to be expected at 720p and on a cell phone of this price.
The Moto G Fast won't be as sharp as an HD 1080p smart phone or one with an AMOLED display, but at $ 199.99, it's in line with other mid-range smart phones. The iPhone SE is the exception, as it features a high-end 4.7-inch Retina display panel, but its price is higher too.
A three-camera setup
The Moto G Fast has that name because it is really fast, especially with the photos. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 chip with 3GB of RAM does double duty to power all three cameras and overall processing.
On the back, it has a 16-megapixel main lens, a 2-megapixel macro lens, and an 8-megapixel ultra-wide-angle lens.
The macro lens is a new trend in mobile photography, which Motorola fully embraces with this model. You'll need to be close to a subject, but the lens can capture a lot of detail. The wide angle has a 118 degree view.
And for what it's worth, the camera shutter on the Moto G Fast is much faster compared to the Galaxy A01 or Moto E. The same goes for changing camera modes, although it takes a few seconds longer when switching between the standard and ultra wide-angle lens.
Real-time rendering with the viewfinder seemed to be more accurate compared to the Moto E. Colors still look a little muted, but not as muted as the E. It does a much better job of rendering a photo with color accuracy and not produces the infamous Samsung effect, in which saturation is triggered.
This photo of a maple with the sun behind its leaves turned out well, both standard and wide-angle. You can see how much of the scene ultra-wide can capture:
The results when shooting with the macro lens were disparate. The colors didn't seem quite as accurate and even when taken up close, the photo lacked detail. You can see a blurred area around the petals and a high amount of noise.
Moto G fast can record videos up to 1080pHD, which is the minimum that a smart phone is asked for today. It takes a few seconds to focus, but once it does, it has a good amount of detail and color accuracy.
On the front, it has an 8-megapixel camera that's fine for selfies and video calls. By default, it has a skin softening function that does its job, but we prefer the more natural look that is achieved by turning it off.
Drums
Scrolling through app pages and multitasking was a noticeably faster experience than with the Moto E or Galaxy A01. He seemed more balanced on most tasks.
The apps we use on a daily basis worked quite well here. TikTok, Twitter and Instagram worked flawlessly alongside Outlook, Gmail, Slack, Trello or web browsing. Even games like Real Racing and Call of Duty Mobile performed admirably on the G Fast.
Motorola's experience is almost a clean version of Android. It's pretty efficient and you won't find much bloatware out of the box. Through the Moto app, you can activate Moto Actions, which are useful interface shortcuts.
Moto G Fast also stands out for autonomy. It has a 4,000 mAh battery that can be charged quickly, but does not support wireless charging. We subjected the Moto G Fast to the Underscored battery test, which consists of the device showing a video in a loop with Airplane mode activated and the brightness set to 50% until the battery runs out. The Moto G Fast lasted 26 hours and 45 minutes. That's really impressive, and in our tests, even with heavy use, the G Fast easily lasted a full day.
Summary
The Moto G Fast offers a very complete experience for $ 199.99. Sure, we would have liked to see a sharper screen and a sleeker design, but even with those limitations, it still stands out from the rest of Android smartphones in this same price range.
Compared to the Moto E, if you care about photography and don't mind spending $ 50 more, we suggest you go for the Moto G Fast. Along with a better set of cameras, you get a faster device, with a bigger screen and better battery life.
Note: The above prices reflect the price at the time of article posting.