Introduction
The Moto C Plus is the new affordable smartphone from Motorola and aims for the people who want excellent battery life, stock Android version, and faster 4G LTE connectivity. Does the phone meet our expectation? Kindly head over to the article below to find out, but before that, take a look on the key features as we go on to our review.
Motorola Moto C Plus specs:
5.0-inch HD IPS LCD screen, 1280 X 720 resolution
Android 7.0 Nougat
1.3GHz 64-bit MediaTek MT6737 quad-core processor
Mali-T720 GPU
5MPrear camera, autofocus with LED flash and f/2.4 aperture
2MP front camera, f/2.8 aperture with LED flash
16GB storage
2GB RAM
Dedicated microSD card support up to 32GB
Dual-SIM, Dual stand-by
4G LTE support
Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, A-GPS
144 x 72.3 x 10 mm
162g
4000 mAh non-removable battery
Colors: Pearl White, Metallic Cherry, Starry Black and Fine Gold
SRP: P6,299
Table of contents:
Unboxing
Like the former smartphones of the company, the new Moto C Plus comes in a rather basic retail package. Inside the small retail box, you will find the wall charger and a couple of papers, which includes the warranty, user guide and all the details about the phone.
Display & build
Motorola relies on a 5.0-inch IPS screen with an HD resolution (1280 x 720 resolution) for its Moto C Plus. That equals a pixel density of approximately 267 ppi. The screen is quite reflective even under cloudy condition. On a positive note, viewing angle stability is nice.
The sensors, as well as the front-facing camera and its paired LED flash, are located above the display. Below are the unlit capacitive buttons – back, home and the recent.
The rear panel lies the main camera sensor with dual-LED flash, the company’s logo and the loudspeaker.
There is nothing on the left side of the device. On the right side, however, is where the power or lock key and the volume button located.
Removing the back cover reveals the two nano-SIM card slots and the microSD card slot that support up to 32GB. The battery is surprisingly removable though. At the bottom, you’ll find the secondary microphone for active noise cancellation.
The 3.5mm audio jack is on the top side, with the standard microUSB port.
Software & UI
The home screen is the usual Android affair – you change wallpapers, add/remove home screens, use widgets, create shortcuts. The leftmost pane is reserved for Google Now. All the apps are stored in an app drawer (swiping the small arrow button on the home screen by upward), sorted alphabetically. There is no option for a custom order. At the above section, you’ll see the most recently used apps and to search an application.
The Motorola Moto C Plus boots the Android 7.0 Nougat. The company likes to use vanilla Android UI and adds just some improvements and thus is able to provide timely firmware updates.
Performance & Audio
The Moto C Plus is powered by a 64-bit MediaTek MT6737 chipset. The 4 Cortex-A53 cores are capped at 1.35GHz. And legitimately so as it delivers a decent performance in everyday use and quite adequate gaming as well. Do not expect any miracles in 3D gaming as the chipset is no powerhouse. Though, mobile games are pretty good at descending down the quality so we’re pretty sure you won’t have any issues with running any of the available game titles.
Naturally, we do our performance routine with some benchmark tests in order to get the performance score in a certain aspect. Please take note that the real-life usage of the phone is the one to determine the true performance. These benchmark applications are used for comparing smartphones.
Its sole horizontal loudspeaker on the back is sufficiently loud and crisp, but not spectacular. The audio quality is great and the sound is deep. Better yet, plugging in a pair of headphones causes a clear sound quality with slight distortion at its maximum volume.
Camera
On the rear of the Moto C Plus sits an 8-megapixel shooter with a f/2.4 lens and an HDR mode. We get a beautification mode for the back as well as the selfie camera. The rear camera produces ample detail results in the outdoor scene and in situations with a respectable amount of light but struggles heavily in low-light conditions. The HDR mode does a good job of extending the dynamic range, however, it is a matter of personal desire as to which type of image you pick.
Here are the samples:
The selfie camera is a 2-megapixel shooter. Disappointingly, the details are indistinct and blurred, most especially in the dark room scene using the accompanying LED flash. However, it is sufficient to get a respectable selfie pictures in well-lighted conditions.
Battery Life
The 4,000 mAh built-in battery in Moto C Plus is considerably strong and it should even be sufficient for a whole day of intense usage without the need for recharging. Filling up the humongous battery takes a quite long – 2 hours and 30 minutes to get a 100% full charge.
Verdict
We, therefore, conclude that, with the new Motorola Moto C Plus, the consumer opts for a nice smartphone that we can recommend in its price bracket. The device is pretty acceptable to hold despite being a quite weighty. The 720p screen is acceptable but shows a deficiency in using it under direct sunlight.
On the other aspect, the rear camera could be better in view of the price range. The unmodified stock Android version ensures a very good system performance using the latest version and the phone’s battery life exemplifies a favorable attempt and is very recommended for people that need long run times.
Pros
- Stock Android
- Dual-SIM connectivity
- Dedicated microSD slot
- 4G LTE support
- Speaker
- Above average battery life
Cons
- Rear camera could be better
- Sometimes, it gets laggy when using many applications
