The Moto G8 could be the best new smartphone for under $200

For a price of around €200, buyers of the Moto G8 also get a 4,000 mAh battery and Quick Charge technology. At the same time, Motorola is providing the new smartphone with a 10-watt quick charger, which at least allows it to recharge more quickly than with a conventional power supply unit. Android 10 is pre-installed at the factory, and the Moto G8 again comes with some exclusive software gimmicks, such as the hugely popular Moto Actions. These allow for extra gesture controls, such as taking a screenshot with three fingers or muting the phone by flipping it over, as well as the Google Assistant for processing voice commands. Google Lens also analyzes objects and spits out information in real-time. 

Processor, memory, and storage

For the low price, Motorola delivers only the small storage space of 64GB. However, this can be expanded by up to 512GB using a microSD card. Motorola's processor is the 11 nm chip Snapdragon 665, which was designed by Qualcomm in early 2019 primarily to improve AI processes. The Moto G8 is supposed to profit in the area of the camera, especially, from the middle-class chip. It consists of eight cores and clocks between 1.8 GHz and 2 GHz. There is no 5G for the chip, but the Snapdragon 665 supports LTE mobile communications with up to 600 Mbps download and 150 Mbps upload. Internally, 4GB of RAM is available for computing operations.

Display and design

The Moto G8 fits into the current conventional smartphone design. It's made of glass and iridescent color reflexes are used on the back. The camera is installed vertically on the upper left. As is typical for Moto, and the "M" in the fingerprint sensor is located in the middle. A punch-hole display catches the eye at the front, which has relatively thin bezels at the upper edge. The telephone receiver is integrated into the frame at the top. Motorola doesn't manage to keep the frame as narrow at the bottom. The display has a screen diagonal of 6.4 inches. Motorola calls this its "Max-Vision" display. The resolution of 1,560 x 720 pixels is only HD+. So, you can make considerable concessions on the IPS display for the price. The Moto G8 weighs 188 grams and is available in blue or white.

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Triple camera with laser autofocus

Especially the camera is a sales argument for Motorola at the G8. Lenovo's subsidiary uses three lenses here:

• 16-megapixel skin camera (ƒ/1.7, 1.12 µm)
• 2-megapixel macro camera (ƒ/2.2, 1.75 µm) minimum focus distance 2 cm
• 8 MP (ƒ/2.2, 1.12 µm) 118-degree ultra-wide-angle sensor
• Plus a laser autofocus

 

With the Moto G8, you can create and save photos in RAW format. In addition to numerous photo gimmicks such as the Bokeh effect or Auto Smile Shutter, Google Lens is also used as an assistant. On the front, the 8-megapixel selfie camera (ƒ/2.0, 1.12 µm) takes pictures and comes complete with beauty mode, group selfie mode or gesture-selfie option.

Availability and price

The Moto G8 is now available exclusively through Amazon at a price of €199.99