O M, once unanimous when it came to cost-effectiveness, is no longer one of the best smartphone options on the market. Surpassed both in numbers and in features by its competitors, the smartphone from Motorola has gone up so much in price that it has become irrelevant. For those who like to play games on their cell phones, the situation has gotten even worse, as what was once a basic “good fight”, today is in the same price range as intermediate smartphones.
- The price
In 2013, the Moto G was king. A cheap smartphone (only R$ 649 in cash) with mid-range performance. In 2014, the price of Moto G2 went up a little, but still kept the public's interest by adding a bigger screen and front speaker.
However, in 2015, the price of Moto G3 reached an almost intermediate smartphone level. According to Motorola, the reason was the rise in the dollar. However, competitors kept the price of smarts similar to the Moto G and even put more features. The Moto G, on the other hand, kept much of the “face” of the 2014 model.
– O hardware
This is one of the biggest flaws in the Moto G 2015. The Moto G3 has hardware that evolves little compared to Motorola's most basic smartphone, the Moto E 2015. Yes, it's a Snapdragon 410 against a 200. But overall, the gain is almost imperceptible as there are few games that will differentiate a 306 GPU from a 302. To make matters worse, the Moto G kept 1GB of RAM.
Legend has it that there is also a basic version with 2GB of RAM and Snapdragon 410, but look for it in any physical store and you'll come across confused sellers who won't know how to pass this information on. At the time of the first Moto G in 2013, the choice was easy. He was one of the few to have 1GB of RAM against the competition that was still betting on 512MB of RAM.
AnTuTu 5 (Moto G Turbo Edition) Create column charts
To try to correct the error, the company launched in December the model with 2GB of RAM, called Moto G3 Turbo. But the price jumped from R$800 reais to almost R$1200 reais. In doing so, the price of the Moto G3 Turbo touched the Moto X Play. The latter is more powerful and a much more interesting option for gamers (particularly I think both are weak, I'll explain below). Internally, the Moto G3 Turbo and Moto X Play are identical. Both come with Snapdragon 615 with 8 cores. The difference is the clock, the Moto G3 Turbo has a clock of 1.5 Ghz against 1.7Ghz of the Moto X Play. From a hardware point of view, it doesn't make any sense to go wrong with the Moto X Play to buy the Moto G Turbo. It's a smaller screen, with a lower resolution, a more modest camera and so on. Even if the performance of some games is slightly better thanks to the Moto G's HD resolution, on the whole, it's worth having a device with a 5.5-inch FullHD screen and clocked at 200 MGhz more. Choosing the Moto G3 Turbo would only make sense if it was much cheaper than the Moto X Play.
– The competition
The Moto G3 has competition on all sides, and the vast majority of it is precisely “friendly fire”. starting with second generation Moto X. The intermediary launched in 2014 by Motorola, leaves both the Moto G3 Turbo and the Moto X Play in the dust when it comes to games. It's no small difference, the Moto X2 with Snapdragon 801 is much more powerful than Motorola's two recent smartphones. The GPU can still be an Adreno 330, but with 1GHZ more processing (the Moto X2 has a processor clocked at 2.5Ghz against 1.5Ghz of the Moto G3 Turbo), the Moto X2 has much better results in games.
3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited (Moto G Turbo Edition)
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But if R$ 1200 reais is a lot for you, you knew that there are cheaper competitors that easily dethrone the Moto G. The first of these is Quantum Go. Positivo's smartphone can be found with prices around R$900 reais. It might seem like a lot for a little-known brand, but this device surprises anyone with respectable performance and great build.
In addition to Motorola's own smartphones and Positivo's, there are also entry-level models from Asus and Xiaomi. The Zenfone 5 is still sold and can be found with prices around R$ 600 reais, in addition to it, there is also the Zenfone Go, which is basically the same redesigned device. Xiaomi's RedMi 2, on the other hand, has an “iphonian” presentation and an affordable price. The “Pro” model of the RedMi 2 is everything the Moto G should be, cheap and with 2GB of RAM.
– To buy or not to buy?
The conclusion is that Motorola did not know how to fit the Moto G3 into the market. The smartphone seems out of place compared to competitors and the 1GB of RAM offered in a model that costs around R$800 reais is ridiculous! The Moto G3 is an option that will only be purchased by those who do not understand technology. It's a shame that Motorola chose to deliver less for more, while competitors are doing just the opposite.
