Event Coverage

First looks: The 5.2-inch Moto G5 Plus is carved out of aluminum

By Liu Hongzuo - 4 Mar 2017

First looks: the Moto G5 Plus at MWC 2017

Moto announced the Moto G5 and Moto G5 Plus at MWC 2017. Both are mid-range offerings catered to the budget-conscious smartphone users who still care about a phone's aesthetics. We take a look at the nicer Moto G5 Plus to understand what it offers.

According to Moto, the G5 Plus features a "precision-crafted metal design". The G5 Plus does look impressive enough to convince budget-conscious folks to grab one because of the aluminum on its back, but the rest of the phone seems plastic - sides, front, and all. It comes with a 7.7mm thickness that's actually slimmer than its predecessor. It feels compact for a budget offering, and it contributes to the premium vibe that the G5 Plus is gunning for.

That said, the device itself uses a Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor clocked at 2.0GHz. If you recall, our ASUS ZenFone 3 benchmark tests proved that the mid-range SoC was truly value-for-money in terms of performance, and this works greatly in the G5 Plus's favor - that is, until a newer mid-range processor decides to come along and replace the year-old Snapdragon 625.

The Moto G5 Plus also packs a rear camera that's decent for its price point. Specs-wise, it's a 12-megapixel, f/1.7 aperture shooter with dual-tone LED flash, supported by Dual Pixel Autofocus.

On it is a 5.2-inch Full HD (1,920 x 1,080 pixels resolution) IPS LCD display, which is supported by a 3,000mAh battery life. Charging and file transfers are done via the micro-USB port below. A fingerprint sensor can be found on the front, just below the display. The phone also supports additional storage via a microSD card.

Finally, it runs on pure Android 7.0 OS (Nougat), so you're getting the latest and the leanest without breaking the bank.

Come March 2017, the Moto G5 Plus will retail at US$229 (~S$320.60) for the 2GB RAM, 32GB variant, or €279 (~S$414.29) for the 3GB RAM, 32GB variant.

Note: This article was first published on Mar 1, 2017.

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