In my time writing about tech, I've spent untold hours using expensive smartphones. You know, the really nice ones that can sometimes cost upwards of a grand these days. For your money, you'll get metal and glass components that feel and look great, eye-popping cameras, brilliant screens…the works.
But, after spending a weekend in Nashville with the $250 Motorola Moto G6, I began to wonder why anyone would pay more than that for a phone. That's not to say that I haven’t felt the effects of Motorola’s penny pinching—I have. But are those momentary bouts of frustration balanced out by the low, low price? That’s a good question and, well, it depends.
I don’t remember an edict coming out that all phones must come covered in fragile glass, but since the iPhone and Samsung Galaxy phones began coating themselves in the latest Gorilla Glass, every phone maker has followed them into the shimmer of Shatter City. And so the Moto G6 has a similar polished metal frame and glass back (curved up on the sides) that's currently en vogue.
The G6 is comfortable to hold and doesn’t slip out of your hand (or slide off the table) too badly, but all the negative qualities of glass are here. Motorola is using Gorilla Glass 3, which is a few years older than version 5 that you'll find on high-end phones, which means it’s not as durable if it takes a tumble. It does a decent job repelling fingerprints, but if you're like me, you'll notice them anyway. Bottom line, you’ll want to invest in a good case for this phone.
On the front is another 2018 design trend. Motorola (owned by Lenovo) kept the G6’s dimensions about the same, but stretched the screen real estate vertically to make it taller—cramming the fingerprint sensor below and crowding the selfie camera and sensors up top. There’s no unneeded notch cutout on the screen, but the net result is more screen space. The 5.7-inch LCD is HD (2,160 x 1,080 pixels), which is more than adequate, and hardly distinguishable from premium, expensive phone screens.
There are a few other perks, too. Moto has added USB-C quick charging, which complements the 3,000mAh battery that’ll probably last you a little more than a day per charge, depending on your use. It also packs in a 3.5mm headphone jack and a MicroSD slot for more file storage (MicroSD cards have gotten quite affordable). The MicroSD slot lets Moto get away with equipping it with only 32 GB of storage, which isn't much these days. The G6 even has some protection against water, touting a "nano-coating" that's supposed to keep the phone dry. It's not up to the IP67 standard of pricier devices, but it's better than nothing.
Rounding out the internals are 3 GB of RAM and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 processor, which delivers consistent enough performance for most apps, but isn't the best choice for intensive 3D gaming. It's a few years behind the performance of top-notch 2018 phones in our benchmark tests.
My Moto G6 hasn’t had any major slow spells. Like the Moto X4, it’s always a tick slower than the most expensive phones on the market. Not a tick tock---just a tick, and its consistency makes the difference. Unless you’re taking photos.
The 12-megapixel rear camera on the G6 has an f/1.8 aperture, and even included a second 5-megapixel rear camera for “Portrait mode” and a few other features that blur the background and mess with depth-of-field effects. Like a lot of Android phones, none of these extra features work particularly well, but the main camera and 8-megapixel selfie cam do take decent photos in auto mode—just be sure to stand still and give the camera a little extra time.
Nashville, I learned, is known as the "Athens of the South" and is so proud of that Greek connection that it has a complete replica of the Parthenon, which looks amazing on a sunny day. Below are some shots I took around town.