Motorola Moto G8 Plus: the complete Review

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In recent times, Motorola has made a lot of talk about it with its foldable screen razr. Since not everyone has 1600 euros to invest in a smartphone, remember that the company is mainly present in the entry-level sector today with very competitive devices. The Moto G7 Plus, released earlier this year, had for example proved to us that we could have innovative smartphones at an affordable price. Motorola succeeds the same feat with its Moto G8 Plus? We tested the new device of the brand, marketed 279 euros.

The victory of pragmatism over originality

At the announcement of the Moto G8 Plus, a detail jumped to our eye. Motorola's new smartphone costs 50 euros less than its predecessor, which generally does not bode well. The builders do not usually make this kind of gifts to their customers.

Despite some notable improvements that we will come back to later (like autonomy), the Moto G8 Plus is all too often a regression compared to the G7 Plus. Its screen loses in brightness (481 cd / m2 maximum against 616 cd / m2, which can be constraining outdoors), its stereo speakers seem less powerful, his back gives up the glass for plastic and, most importantly, it loses its best feature: the super-fast charging. It takes 2:03 to fully charge a Moto G8 Plus with the charger supplied in the box against 45 minutes for a Moto G7 Plus. The brand made a pragmatic choice by eliminating what it did not consider indispensable. This is a mistake in our opinion, especially since the G7 Plus now costs almost as much as its "successor", 279 euros.

A pleasant grip

If the appearance low cost plastic does not bother you, the Moto G8 Plus is a nice smartphone to use. Its screen, a diagonal of 6.3 inches, offers stack what it takes to make the use to a possible hand. Motorola signs a nice product that only has its edges a little too thick at the top and bottom of the screen. This asymmetry does not pay homage to the designers of the brand.

The back of the device, whose design is more questionable (the quadruple smartphone vertical camera module occupies a huge space), houses an old-fashioned fingerprint sensor. Easily accessible to the index, it allows you to unlock your smartphone in a tiny time. It is in its interior that the Motorola logo has found refuge, as on the previous smartphones of the brand. It's clever.

Faced with a smartphone like the Xiaomi Redmi Note 7, the Moto G8 Plus still gives the impression of being a device of a lower range. Typing his nails against the shell of the smartphone makes a noise so hollow that we can only hate the plastic. At 279 euros, it is possible to do better.

Autonomy, great winner of this new generation

There is still a noticeable improvement on this new generation: Motorola understood that autonomy was an important point. The Moto G8 Plus has a battery with a capacity of 4000 mAh … against 3000 mAh on its predecessor. Our measurements in the laboratory confirm that Motorola has made the right choice, its new smartphone has withstood 14:02 to our versatile autonomy Review (it's 4 hours longer than its predecessor!). Same observation in video streaming, it is possible to watch 11:58 of series or movies without interruption on this device. Perfect in the era of Netflix, Disney + or YouTube. In communication, we were able to call 26 hours in a row with the smartphone. In short, that's fine. The Moto G8 Plus is a very enduring smartphone.

Another welcome change, the Moto G8 Plus embeds the Snapdragon 665 processor which is more powerful than the Snapdragon 636 G7 Plus. The navigation experience has improved and has always been satisfactory throughout our smartphone Review. It must also be recognized that the overlay of Motorola, very close to the pure Android Pixels, helps tremendously. The smartphone has 64 GB of expandable storage by Micro SD.

Four cameras: yes but

In its communication, Motorola is particularly highlighting the quadruple camera module of its Moto G8 Plus. The number of cameras on a smartphone has indeed become a significant marketing argument over the years … even if it does not really mean much. Unfortunately, Motorola is the perfect illustration. Of the four lenses on the back of the smartphone, two are useless. The smartphone's 5-megapixel depth sensor only serves to enhance the blur of the portrait mode (which an algorithm can do alone) and laser autofocus is not used for much. So we actually have a double camera module.

Where Motorola could have completed its main camera (48 Mpix sensor, lens opening at f / 1.7) an ultra-wide angle or a telephoto lens, the company made a more amazing choice: an action cam (16 Mpix, f / 2.2). This allows the smartphone to shoot horizontally as you hold it vertically. One still wonders what is the interest of such a function, especially if it comes at the expense of a more useful photo lens.

What about the quality of the "action cam" Moto G8 Plus? To our surprise, we must be rather satisfied with its quality even if the optical stabilization clearly shows its limits as soon as you go a little too fast. Without replacing a GoPro, the Moto G8 Plus still offers some fun perspectives if you hang it for example on a bike. We would have preferred anything more uses, such as an ultra wide-angle camera.

In terms of quality photos, the Moto G8 Plus delivers a correct quality, no more. The daytime photos are good but are not really dazzling, while those made at night often struggle to manage the variations of light. Car lights or lights at a window can easily trap the focus of the smartphone and distort the reality of colors. Let's still welcome the speed at which photos are recorded, there is clearly slower on the market.

If not the most versatile, the camera Moto G8 Plus is therefore correct. It is just a pity, in our opinion, to have chosen a quadruple camera module that is not very aesthetically pleasing to finally be content with a single photo lens.

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