Moto G8 Plus

Between the Moto G8 and G8 Plus, choose the former if you want a more affordable price. However, if what you desire is more battery, more screen resolution, or more camera power, the Plus variant is a better option.

The G line of Motorola seems to be quite crowded, including the G8, G8 Plus, G8 Power, G8 Power Lite, and G8 Power Play.

Display

Moto G8 Plus has a larger screen than the G7 Plus, standing at 6.3 inches. The display is interrupted by a U-shaped notch housing the selfie camera. Other specs of the IPS LCD screen are resolution of 2280 x 1080 pixels and Full HD+.

The 19:9 aspect ratio means you can view videos comfortably as most videos nowadays fit in that ratio. On the top, the display has a layer of Panda Glass, which works similarly to the common Corning Glass in protection against drops.

On three sides of the phone, apart from the chin, the bezels are quite narrow.

The Moto G8 Plus’s stereo system consists of a bottom speaker and a top speaker grill right above the notch.

The display leans toward the cooler color side but users can change the color scheme whenever they want with options including saturated, booster, and natural.

The brightness is lower than many other competing handsets but if you have no use for the high-quality displays, there is no complaint about that.

The screen is suitable for gaming and viewing all kinds of content but since there are some other phones with FHD+ AMOLED available for similar price, Moto G8 Plus’s screen isn’t the best.

The extensive Moto customization suite offers Attentive Display and Peek Display, which keeps the screen tuned on when you are looking at it and shows notifications respectively.

RAM

Moto G8 Plus has only 4GB of RAM so running games at high settings on it might be challenge. Unfortunately, there aren’t any other choice when it comes to RAM even if you are willing to pay for an upgrade.

Chipset

Moto G8 Plus runs on Qualcomm Snapdragon 665, which also powers some other mid-range devices. The chipset is supported by Adreno 610 and an octa-core CPU.

With the Snapdragon 665, the phone benefits from third-generation AI Engine, support for Vulkan graphics library, which means the phone will consume 20% less power than previous generations.

When you open PUBG, you will have low settings by default and if you try to increase those, expect to see lags and frame drops. So if you are a hardcore gamer, you might want to look elsewhere.

Battery

Moto G8 Plus draws power from a 4,000mAh battery and given its price, this is a decent power cell.

Under light use, the phone can last for two days with ease. However, if users stream videos and play games a lot on it, expect to see that time shrunk to one day. The phone also has a very sufficient power saving mechanism which closed apps which aren’t in use to prolong the life of the phone.

You will have TurboPower adapter and 15W fast charging with the Moto G8 Plus. To charge from 0% to 100%, it takes the phone around 150 minutes. That is quite slow but given the Moto G8 Plus’s price, you cannot exactly expect anything better.

Camera

Moto G8 Plus features a triple camera setup on the rear consisting of a main 48MP snapper with aperture of f/1.7, a 16MP ultra-wide angle lens with field of view of 117 degree, and a 5MP depth sensor for portrait shots. On the other side, there is a 25MP selfie camera with aperture of f/2.0.

The main cam is capable of recording 4K video at 30FPS or Full HD at 120FPS. The front and wide-angle camera can record 1080p video. Videos will have support from an electronic stabilization.

One thing you should know here is the ultra-wide angle lens, which is an action cam, not for shooting ultra-wide angle pictures. With this camera, users are able to record vertical video while holding the phone horizontally.

The quad-pixel tech of Motorola allows for susceptibility to light, which means your shots will be clearer and also brighter.

The main 48MP snapper can produce colorful and sharp pics, as long as you have enough light. However, in low light conditions, grains are to be expected and you won’t have many details.

Subjects in the foreground appear clear and detailed; however, whatever in the background is quite unclear. Those who find themselves in need of zooming into pictures will find this a letdown but if you are not one of them, there is not so much problem with it.

There are some differences between photos taken by Night Vision mode and regular mode in low light condition.

When it comes to taking pictures, Moto G8 Plus is quick with autofocus, courtesy of the laser autofocus system.

So overall, the cameras are decent and can produce natural looking pics in daylight, not so bad for a phone at this price bracket.

There is room for improvement with the dynamic range of the phone and picture contrast. However, software patches can easily fix these problems. In fact, the phone has received at least two of such software updates, which greatly improve its performance in low light conditions.

On the front, the selfie camera produces good enough portrait shots but users will have to tweak a little bit as the Moto G8 Plus usually use higher saturation for processed over-exposed pictures.

However, one letdown here is users cannot take picture from the wide-angle Action camera. It would be great if Motorola gave us that choice.

Those who love to record videos will find a whole new perspective opened up to them, a benefit not usually available on a budget smartphone. However, there is still confusion over why there is an ultra-wide angle lens but no option to take photos from it.

The absence of telephoto lens means you will have to make do with optical zoom, making photos look noisy and grainy.