Olympus Air Review: The Future of iPhone Cameras?

Every serious photographer knows this saying: "The best camera is the one you have with you." And for many of us—even those, like me, who love their DSLR—the camera we always have with us is our smartphone. This is why photography aficionados have long dreamt of using real, high-quality lenses on our phones. The Olympus Air seeks to make that a reality.

It's a go-between gadget that lets you use genuine camera lenses with your smartphone. The cupcake-sized Air has a 16-megapixel micro-four-thirds sensor, far larger than any sensor inside an iPhone or Android handset. Yet it relies on the smartphone as its viewfinder and control panel.

The concept offers a significant upgrade over any smartphone camera because of the versatile range of lenses it can use. Zoom lenses let you get closer to a subject (like San Francisco seagulls I snapped during testing), or lenses with an outstandingly shallow depth of field, for captivating portraits. Simply put, your phone isn't capable of capturing the shots that the Air lets you take.

But while the $300 Air's images impressed me over the last couple weeks, the device isn't yet all I've dreamt it would be. The Air connects to your phone over Bluetooth to give you control over camera settings and, simultaneously, over Wi-Fi to let you preview, capture and transfer photos.

Carrying around the 5.1-ounce cylinder and a few tiny lenses is a lot easier than dragging around my DSLR kit. But the built-in plastic phone grip never felt like it was securely holding onto my phone. There's also no built-in image stabilization. At times, the app that controlled the camera was slow in responding to my on-screen taps, and my photos came out blurry.

Olympus's app also often froze when I was moving around, or after taking a shot. So much so that I couldn't rely on the Air to take photos as quickly as I'd like. A few times, I missed the shot I wanted to take because of the lag.

And since the Air relies on a direct Wi-Fi link to my phone to operate, it was also tricky to keep the Air connected to my iPhone.

The Air's non-replaceable battery only lasted me about half a day while shooting. That's not bad for a short hike, but this makes it a camera you can't count on for a vacation or even a weekend away. I also had to use two different Air cameras during my review as the first one unexpectedly stopped connecting to my phone after a few days of shooting.

The Air was a blast to use, when it worked, but it isn't replacing my phone or my DSLR as my cameras of choice just yet. The Olympus Air represents a dream we photographers all have, of shrinking the greatness of DSLRs down to pocket size. But the issues I experienced make the Air feel more like a proof of concept than the future realized.

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Source: Olympus Air Review: The Future of iPhone Cameras?

Moto G (3rd Gen) Review – A Great Budget Phone Just Got Even Better

The budget Moto G has always been a good value, but some missing features might have held it back from consideration in previous generations. Not so with this year's model, which makes key upgrades while staying incredibly affordable for a quality, mid-tier smartphone.

The Moto G has a 5″ 720p 294 ppi display and runs on a decent 1.4 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 SoC. One of the biggest improvements here is in RAM — while the base model has 1 GB of RAM and 8 GB of storage, there is also a 2 GB RAM/16 GB of storage model available, which is the one really worth looking at (both come with a microSD slot supporting cards up to 32 GB). With apps taking advantage of more processing power and requiring more system memory to run, 1 GB of RAM can really hamper the performance of a phone if you run multiple apps at once. 2 GB is a huge upgrade, and one that won't cost too much extra in this case. When it comes to benchmarks, the system earned a Quadrant benchmark of 14451 . In general performance is good and the phone is capable of handling everyday tasks well.

Another key upgrade is in connectivity — specifically, LTE comes standard. That joins 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 LE, and GPS — no NFC for smartphone wallet aficionados, though.

The cameras have also gotten significantly upgraded, with the new Moto G featuring a 13 MP f/2.0 rear camera with auto-focus and dual LED flash and a 5 MP f/2.2 front camera. But those specs aren't just good on paper – Motorola has really improved the rear camera. Photos tend to be accurate and sharp, especially in daylight where they suffer from little noise. That said, even indoor shots are pretty good and above average at this price-point. You'll be hard pressed to find a better smartphone camera under $200. And like with its predecessor, the camera app snaps photos quickly with a just a tap on the screen.

The battery is now 2,470 mAh, which Motorola says should last 24 hours on mixed usage. So far in real world use, the battery has indeed been lasting a full day for us.

The last big upgrade is IPX7 water resistance, which means you can actually submerge it in water without damaging the phone. Combine that with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protecting the screen, and you have a pretty durable phone — much more so than other budget phones at this price.

Like before, you can get backs and flip shells in a variety of colors for the Moto G, which you can also customize using the Moto Maker. The Moto G is available now in the United States, and starts at $180 (it's also launching now in 60 other countries across North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia Pacific at varying prices). That said, with just 1 GB of RAM, the $180 version isn't that great of a value — the 2 GB configuration starts at $220, and seems like a much better deal. Other companies like Asus and Xiaomi are making phones with better specs for a slightly cheaper price, but the customization options and the durability that the Moto G is promising might be worth the little extra.

Verdict

Motorola has improved the Moto G everywhere it needed improvement. To that effect, the camera is vastly better, it's now waterproof, the battery capacity has been increased, and the build quality feels even more premium this time around. As a matter of fact, the more you use and hold the Moto G, the more difficult it is to believe that it's considered to be a budget phone.

So if you're looking for a fun phone, that is also well rounded, but you don't have a lot of money to spend, you can't go wrong with the Moto G. All in all, a great budget phone just got even better.

The Good: Curved back makes it easy to grip and hold, build quality looks and feels more premium this time around, backplates are customizable and removable, the phone is IPX7 certified and waterproof, very good display, camera has been improved and now is above average for its price-point, great battery life.

The Bad: Battery is not removable, no NFC.

Source: Moto G (3rd Gen) Review – A Great Budget Phone Just Got Even Better

OnePlus 2 first impressions: Brings in some design finesse and an improved camera

OnePlus 2 was launched amidst much fan fare considering it was the first virtual reality launch of a smartphone ever. The phone packs in some impressive specifications and also has prices starting from Rs 22,999 for the 16GB version. The OnePlus 2 will launch in India on August 11. So before we start talking about performance numbers, here is a quick first impressions about the latest flagship phone from OnePlus which it has already touted as '2016 Flagship Killer'.

Build Quality and Design

The OnePlus 2 has redesigned the edges to some extent but the rear side makes you feel at home. The sandstone black cover, which is now easily removable, has that familiar coarse feeling. The phone has a slightly curved design on the back which helps with the grip. The edges have got a metallic treatment with champfering on the edges to give it that classy look.

On the right hand side towards the top portion, you have the power/standby and volume rocker buttons. The top edge has the 3.5mm audio jack and at the base you have the USB Type-C port in the centre surrounded by two speaker grilles – which is new. On the left hand side you have notifications notch called the Alert slider, which has a nice feedback to it. It lets you control notifications by sliding it from bottom to top.

The OnePlus 2 comes with a 5.5-inch display and at the base of it you have a fingerprint scanner. It is not a button per se, but it has a clear rounded rectangular marking. This is surrounded by two soft keys which light up when the phone is on. On the rear side, the camera is placed bang in middle with a dual LED flash unit on top and the laser autofocus system below the 13MP rear camera.

Display

OnePlus has stuck with the 5.5-inch full HD display for the OnePlus 2 instead of going for the QuadHD display. OnePlus makes use of an IPS panel and the display looks as good as the OnePlus One. The display looked sufficiently bright although glossy. We will need to watch movies on it to check for any backlight bleeding and use it in sunlight to test its legibility in bright outdoor situations.

Chipset, RAM, StorageThe OnePlus 2 comes with impressive internal specifications. It is powered by Qualcomm's flagship Snapdragon 810 SoC which has a quad-core Cortex A57 and a quad-core Cortex A53 and has the Adreno 430 GPU. This is paired with 4GB of RAM for the 64GB storage variant. The 16GB storage variant OnePlus 2 will come with 3GB of RAM. These are topline specifications, and naturally when using the review unit over a day, we did not notice any lag or slow down. Of course, we will be doing the complete real world testing of the phone.

OS, ConnectivityUnlike the OnePlus One, the OnePlus 2 has no Cyanogen branding on its rear side. This is because, the phone comes with Android 5.1 with OnePlus's own OxygenOS skin atop it. The OxygenOS skin looks quite similar to stock Android Lollipop design and has a few refinements, such as the frequently used apps and contact list on the left most swipe.

The OnePlus 2 supports a dual 4G nano SIM card slot which is accessible on removing the rear cover. Thanks to the slots located under the cover, you do not need a pin to remove the SIM card slots, you can just slide them using your nails. Apart from this, the phone supports Wi-fi 802.11 ac, Bluetooth 4.1, GPS with A-GPS, GLONASS and so on. One omission on the connectivity front is NFC, which could have been easily paired with the fingerprint sensor to verify NFC payments. Although this is a niche market segment in India and not really relevant, globally that is not the case.

With the USB Type C connection, the OnePlus 2 will be the first phone to be selling with that connector in India.

Camera

OnePlus 2 has really spruced up the camera department. You now get a 13MP rear camera with a pixel size of 1.3 microns. Also the camera will come with an optical image stabiliser to help you take stutter free images and videos. We will need to see if this is as impressive as the one we had seen on the LG G4. Another impressive feature on the rear camera is the laser auto-focus mechanism. This should help improve the focus acquisition speed. However, the real test of the rear camera will lie with low light photography, which is was really not impressive at all on the OnePlus One. On the front you have a 5MP camera for your selfies. The camera user interface is quite different from the one seen on OnePlus One as well.

BatteryThe OnePlus 2 comes with 3,300mAh Li-polymer non-removable battery which is a bump up from the 3,100mAh battery that was seen on the OnePlus One. Ideally, one should be able to pull of a days worth of usage on regular use, but we will need to confirm that only after reviewing the phone. Also the OnePlus 2 does not come with the Qualcomm QuickCharge feature.

ConclusionThe OnePlus 2 has certainly got off to a good start, after Carl Pei announced the price of Rs 24,999 for the 64GB storage variant of the phone. Considering the price of Rs 31,000 was doing the rounds of online forums before the launch date, this is a welcome change. However, we will have to see how OnePlus has tackled the apparent heating issues associated with the Snapdragon 810 SoC. There are lot of new things to try out on the OnePlus 2 such as the finger print scanner, interchangeable back and home softkeys, the improved camera and so on. You will have to check back for the full review of the OnePlus 2 which we have already started working on.

Tags: OnePlus 2, OnePlus 2 camera, OnePlus 2 features, OnePlus 2 India launch, OnePlus 2 India price, OnePlus 2 invites

Source: OnePlus 2 first impressions: Brings in some design finesse and an improved camera

Smartphones with DSLR-quality cameras are coming sooner than you think

Smartphones have forever changed the way we look at photography. Putting a camera in the hands of every Tom, Dick and Harry has unfortunately meant that many now forego the quality of a standalone camera in exchange for the convenience of a smartphone camera.

Don't get me wrong – mobile cameras have come a very long way in a relatively short amount of time. They've evolved incrementally along with other smartphone components like displays and mobile processors but there's still plenty of room for improvement.

Those that don't pay close attention to the smartphone industry would be forgiven for not realizing that most subsystems in a mobile handset have hit a ceiling. Just as we've seen in the PC industry, smartphone processor clock speeds climbed and climbed until a certain point where it was no longer feasible to keep boosting the operating frequency.

Striving to push the envelope even further, handset makers are now focusing on the multi-core approach and optimizing / refining chips to get the most out of them. The same can be said about mobile displays as we've now reached a point where cramming more pixels in the same size screen is futile. Even storage is less of a concern these days as the industry continues to steer us in the direction of the cloud.

What I'm trying to say is that many of the key selling points of smartphones over the past several years are no longer advantages. Regardless of what flagship you buy today, it's going to be packed with a processor and graphics chip that's plenty capable, it'll have a stunning display and it probably won't have a ton of onboard storage.

Simply put, processing power, displays and storage capacity is no longer exciting. Consumers need something new to lust over and advanced mobile camera technology is what needs to deliver the wow.

We've been hearing for the better part of a year that Apple is developing mythical technology that'll bring DSLR-like quality to the iPhone's camera. I say mythical because there are plenty of skeptics, and rightfully so – the small sensor inside a smartphone just can't produce the same quality image as a larger sensor in a true digital camera. But what if you simply add more sensors to the equation?

That's the idea behind Light, a Palo Alto-based mobile camera startup that recently wrapped up a $25 million round of funding led by Formation 8. Other contributors include StepStone Group LP, Bessemer Venture Partners, CRV, Foxconn, GlobalFoundries CEO Sanjay Jha and CrunchFund.

Light's plan is to add a large array of cameras – anywhere from six to 11 – to the rear of a smartphone. When a photo is captured, it would be done so across all cameras and is stitched together on-the-fly using Light's software. The end result is a photo with up to 52-megapixels although the pixel count isn't what's most impressive.

The company's implementation is also capable of optical zoom, from 70mm to 150mm, using what's called folded optics. The entire camera system has its own Qualcomm application processor and although it requires a bit of real estate inside a phone, the trade-offs sound as though they'd be worth it.

Space is only a concern in smaller handsets. Bigger phones, like the iPhone 6 Plus, would have no problem accommodating the necessary hardware according to Light co-founder and CEO Dave Grannan.

The multi-camera approach sounds very similar to what Linx – the Israeli-based company that was recently scooped up by Apple – has been working on. Regardless of which implementation ultimately wins out, one thing is for certain: vastly better smartphone cameras aren't very far away.

Lead image courtesy Pexels

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Source: Smartphones with DSLR-quality cameras are coming sooner than you think

Sony Launches Xperia M5 And Xperia C5 Ultra, Both Focused On Camera Performance

Sony announced two new mid-range phones, the "super mid-range" (as Sony called it) Xperia M5 (the successor to the Xperia M4 Aqua) and the "PROselfie" Xperia C5 Ultra (successor to the Xperia C4).

The Xperia M5 is close to Sony's Z-series in both style and specs. It comes with the same "OmniBalance" design language, a 21.5 MP camera on the back, a 13MP camera on the front (one of the highest-resolution selfie cameras right now) and a Mediatek Helio X10 (MT6795) SoC.

The Helio X10 has a 64-bit octa-core CPU that can go up to 2 GHz in clock speed and a PowerVR G200 GPU clocked at 700 MHz. The chip can also support both 4k decoding and encoding at 30fps.

The Xperia M5 brings a 5" 1920 x 1080 display, 3 GB of RAM, 16 GB of storage with microSD expansion support (up to 200 GB), LTE, Bluetooth 4.1, NFC, and a 2,600 mAh battery, which Sony claimed will give the device "up to two days of battery life." Many of these features were seen on Sony's flagships not too long ago.

The highlight of this "super midrange" device is most definitely the high-end rear and front cameras. Sony seems to have finally put a major focus on its cameras, which is something it should've done a long time ago considering its sensors are some of the very best in the smartphone industry, and most of the other major mobile OEMs use them.

"We are pleased to present two new products that highlight Sony's advances in camera technology," said Tony McNulty, Vice-President, Value Category Business Management at Sony Mobile Communications.

"We understand that camera capabilities are important to smartphone users, so we ensured that Sony's existing camera brilliance was once again surpassed in the new Xperia C5 Ultra and Xperia M5 without compromising on other features across design and performance."

However, Sony has been outpaced by its own customers so far when it comes to overall picture quality from their phones' cameras, so we'll see just how well this new smartphone performs.

The rear camera brings a "hybrid" autofocus system (Phase Detection AF for faster shutter speed and Contrast Detection AF for higher precision), which cuts down the autofocus time to one quarter of a second, and an f/2.2 lens that supports 3200 ISO, making it better in low-light environments. The front-camera also comes with autofocus support and a filter to smooth the skin in selfies.

Last but not least, the Xperia M5 is dustproof and waterproof thanks to its IP65 and IP68 ratings.

The Xperia C5 Ultra is a new offering from Sony's lineup of mid-range mobile devices that puts a strong focus on the front-camera and on taking great selfies. Sony calls it the "PROsefie" smartphone.

The device comes with a 13MP camera on the back and one on the front. Both have Sony's Exmor RS sensor and support HDR for both pictures and video. The front camera also brings a 22 mm wide-angle lens to capture a bigger frame in the picture. Both cameras support 1080p video recording.

The Xperia C5 Ultra comes with a larger 6" screen with Full HD resolution, an octa-core 1.7 GHz processor (Mediatek MTK6752) with the Mali-T760 MP2 GPU, 2 GB of RAM, 16 GB of storage along with support for up to 200 GB microSD cards, Bluetooth 4.1, NFC, FM radio with RDS, LTE (not available in all markets), and a 2,950 mAh battery, which Sony also claimed it lasts up to two days on a charge.

Both devices will run Android 5.0 out of the box, which is one version behind other smartphones at this point in time, and they will come in single-SIM as well as dual-SIM variants. The two devices will be available in "selected countries across emerging markets" starting in mid-August.

Xperia M5: with fast focusing Hybrid AF camera technology

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Source: Sony Launches Xperia M5 And Xperia C5 Ultra, Both Focused On Camera Performance

Troubleshooting Samsung Galaxy S4 Camera Issues

Welcome to our focused troubleshooting series aimed at resolving Samsung Galaxy S4 camera issues. Despite being 2 years old already this phone still has one the best 13 megapixel rear camera in the market today.While photos taken from this phone generally come out looking quite good there are instances when issues occur. These issues are what we will be trying to fix today.

We will be addressing five problems sent us by our readers seeking our assistance. These problems generally concern the phone camera. We will be providing the troubleshooting steps that needs to be done which hopefully will lead to a resolution.

If you own a Galaxy S4 or any other Android device for that matter then feel free to contact us using this form. We will be more than happy to assist you with any concern that you may have with your device. This is a free service we are offering with no strings attached. We however ask that when you do contact us try to be as detailed as possible so that an accurate assessment can be made and the correct solution can be given.

If you would like to browse the previous parts in this series then check out this link.

Aside from sending us an email you may also reach us at our Facebook and Google+ social media accounts.

S4 Lines Showing In Recorded Video

Problem: I recorded a video. After pressing stop and playing it back, all I see are colorful lines . is there anyway to salvage the video?

Solution: Try copying the video file to your computer then play it from there. If the lines are not present then the video file does not have an issue. The problem may be with the app you used in playing the video file in your phone. Try to clear the cache and data of this app and see if it lays back the file without any problem.

From any Home screen, tap the Menu key.

Tap Settings.

Tap the More tab.

Tap Application manager.

Swipe to the All screen

Tap the desired application

Tap Clear data and then tap OK.

Tap Clear cache.

If the problem persists then try using a different video player app.

If however the video file still plays with lines on the computer then it can't be saved anymore.You will need to check your camera app, the camera itself, and the microSD card (if you store your recorded videos here) to resolve this issue.

S4 Incorrect Data When Playing Recorded Video

Problem: So basically i recorded a video where i paused the recording and played it again and it was about 3 minutes but when i try to access or watch it it doesn't work and says file has incorrect data. Is there a way to access the video or watch it?

Solution: You should try to wipe the cache partition of your phone as this issue may be caused by corrupt temporary data.

Turn off the device.

Press and hold the following three buttons at the same time: Volume Up key, Home key, Power key

When the phone vibrates, let go of the Power key but continue to press and hold the Volume Up key and the Home key.

When the Android System Recovery screen appears, release the Volume Up and Home keys.

Press the Volume Down key to highlight 'wipe cache partition.'

Press the Power key to select.

After the the cache wipe is complete, press the Power key to select reboot system now.

Press the Power key to select. The phone will automatically restart after the cache is wiped.

If the issue persists try using a different video player app.

S4 "Cannot connect to the camera" Error

Problem: When i switch to the front camera the app crashes and says "can not connect to camera" there were no issues with the phone until i installed the latest stock kernel. I don't really want to roll back… but i haven't tried

Solution: You should try to clear the cache and data of the camera app first.

From the Home screen, tap Menu.

Choose Settings.

Tap Applications Manager.

Swipe to choose All tab.

Choose Camera.

Tap Force Stop button.

Tap Clear Data button.

Reboot the phone.

If the problem is still present then proceed with wiping the cache partition of your phone.

Turn off the device.

Press and hold the following three buttons at the same time: Volume Up key, Home key, Power key

When the phone vibrates, let go of the Power key but continue to press and hold the Volume Up key and the Home key.

When the Android System Recovery screen appears, release the Volume Up and Home keys.

Press the Volume Down key to highlight 'wipe cache partition.'

Press the Power key to select.

After the the cache wipe is complete, press the Power key to select reboot system now.

Press the Power key to select. The phone will automatically restart after the cache is wiped.

Finally, if the problem still persists backup your phone data then do a factory reset.

Turn off the device.

Press and hold the following three buttons at the same time: Volume Up key, Home key, Power key.

When the phone vibrates, release the Power key but continue to press and hold the Volume Up key and the Home key.

When the Android System Recovery screen appears, release the Volume Up and Home keys.

Press the Volume down key several times key to highlight 'wipe data / factory reset.'

Press Power button to select.

Press the Volume down key until 'delete all user data' is highlighted.

Press Power button to select and start the master reset.

When the master reset is complete, 'Reboot system now' is highlighted.

Press the Power key to restart the device.

S4 Unsupported Format On Photos

Problem: I bought a second hand Samsung galaxy s4 . The guy said he had it for about a year. When I got it I restore factory settings. I put in a 16G memory card. Everytime I take pictures with the camera I see unsupported format for most of the pictures.

Solution: Try using a different microSD card and see if you still get the same error message. The reason behind this is that if your microSD card is faulty and the photos you take are stored directly to this card then there is a chance that you will be getting this error message.

Since this is a second hand phone you should also consider doing a factory reset. Make sure to backup any data you may have on the device first.

Turn off the device.

Press and hold the following three buttons at the same time: Volume Up key, Home key, Power key.

When the phone vibrates, release the Power key but continue to press and hold the Volume Up key and the Home key.

When the Android System Recovery screen appears, release the Volume Up and Home keys.

Press the Volume down key several times key to highlight 'wipe data / factory reset.'

Press Power button to select.

Press the Volume down key until 'delete all user data' is highlighted.

Press Power button to select and start the master reset.

When the master reset is complete, 'Reboot system now' is highlighted.

Press the Power key to restart the device.

S4 Camera Not Working After Software Update

Problem: Hi there, Firstly thanks for reading thru. Mine is a Samsung S4. I had an offer for a software update. I did update my fon. Possibly it was a lollipop. Not sure. From then on my camera ( both front & rear) is not working. I did all 3 methods that are displayed in the google pages including factory setting & tried to rectify my fon. -but alas NO change. it s not working.. !! Pls help me me & guide me. Thanks in advance.

Solution: Since the factory reset failed to resolve the issue you may want to try rolling back to the previous software version. Take note that there is no official way of doing this. You will have to perform this method manually. You need a program called Odin installed in your computer and the correct firmware version file of your phone. Instructions on how to do this can be found at several of the popular Android forums online.

Engage with us

Feel free to send us your questions, suggestions and problems you've encountered while using your Android phone. We support every Android device that is available in the market today. And don't worry, we won't charge you a single penny for your questions. Contact us using this form . We read every message we receive can't guarantee a quick response. If we were able to help you, please help us spread the word by sharing our posts with your friends.

Source: Troubleshooting Samsung Galaxy S4 Camera Issues

Moto G (3rd gen) First Impressions: Improves on camera, battery and is water resistant

Motorola launched its 3rd generation Moto G at an event in New Delhi on 28 July. Although we were expecting many more devices to be launched in India, it was only later in the day with events across New York City, London and Sao Paolo, that Motorola released the third gen Moto X in two variants – Moto X Play and Moto X Style. Moto G has always had a certain pull factor considering it was the first phones two years go, that set the ball rolling for affordable well specced handsets. We had a chance to play around with the device, and here are our first impressions.

Build Quality and Design

Motorola has made minor changes in design in the front and a significant one behind. On the front, in place of the metallic grille which stood out on the earpiece speaker and base, you now have two depressions. The bezel on the top and bottom certainly looks thicker for a 5-inch phone. Power/standby and volume rocker button is located on the right-hand side. On the top you have the 3.5mm audio jack in the centre and the base has the microUSB port for charging and data transfer. Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection on the display is a plus.

On the rear side is where you will see major design language changes. For starters, the removable rear-cover is textured and gives a good grip. There is a single silver-gray column which has the 13MP rear camera at the top, followed by the dual LED flash unit below it and at the base you have the dip which has the Motorola logo.

While it looks great, you need to ensure that you have locked the rear cover properly, after removing it. Considering the phone comes with an IPx7 certification for water resistance, you don't want to have any gaps between the column on the rear side and the rear cover, due to faulty cover closing. On opening the rear cover, you are presented with a completely sealed phone with just slots for SIM cards and the microSD card on the top portion.

DisplayMotorola has gone with the same 5-inch HD display that was seen on the Moto G (2nd generation) along with the Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection. The display looks decently well and only on very close observation will you notice pixellation. But holding at an arms distance, the display is quite crisp. It comes with the Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection, just like its predecessor. There are two cuts – on the top for the earpiece speaker and the base for the audio speaker. Overall a pleasant display without any noticeable colour tinge.

Chipset, RAM, Storage

This was one area where were looking for some major upgrade, but Motorola has bumped up the chipset from Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 on the Moto G (2nd gen) to Snapdragon 410 which has a 1.4GHz quad-core processor, Adreno 306GPU and this comes paired with either 1GB RAM (for 8GB storage variant) or 2GB RAM (for 16GB storage variant).

While on paper it is the same chipset as the entry level Moto E, Motorola has bumped up the speed on the Cortex A53 processor. As a result the operation of the phone was quite smooth. Add the fact that you get a clean stock Android OS, and there was no slowdown of the device as such while browsing, switching applications and other tasks. However, we will have to run benchmarks and use it in real world use case scenarios, to see if the phone is consistently better than other Snapdragon 410 chipset sporting handsets.

OS, ConnectivityThe Motorola Moto G comes with Android 5.1.1 and like the previous iterations, there is no skin atop this OS. Motorola does have its proprietary features such as Moto Display, Quick Capture and Chop Twice. Moto Display lights up only that portion of the display that is needed, Quick capture lets you shoot a quick photograph by just flicking your wrist and activating the camera. Chop Twice is a new feature which has been introduced with this phone and it basically lets you activate the torch light by making a chopping gesture – this is quite a nifty gesture to activate torchlight.

The Moto G 3rd gen is a dual-SIM phone and supports 4G SIM cards as well. It supports Wi-fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS with A-GPS, GLONASS along with the regular set of sensors such as accelerometer and proximity sensor.

Camera

This is one area that has been improved with a 13MP rear camera with an f/2.0 aperture and a 5MP front camera. The 2nd gen Moto G had an 8MP rear camera and 2MP front camera – which was good enough for a budget phone at the time. Apart from boosting the megapixel count (mind you that does not immediately equate to a better image quality) the phone comes with a dual-tone LED flash unit. The focus and exposure ring adjustments have also got a boost once you turn on the camera. We will need to test this camera and see how it performs vis-a-vis the Xiaomi Mi 4i camera.

Battery

The 3rd gen Moto G comes with a 2,470mAh non-removable battery which is a big bump from the 2070mAh battery we had seen with the Moto G (2nd gen). While on paper that is impressive we will need to run real life tests on it to see how it performs.

ConclusionMotorola Moto G (3rd gen) has a good feature set overall. But the presence of a Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 SoC, which is also seen on its entry level phone Moto E, may be a deterrent to some. But we can only give a complete verdict on the performance after using it in the real world. In terms of camera, battery, OS experience, the Moto G certainly has the goods. But the price point it will be selling at – Rs 11,999 for 1GB RAM/8GB storage and Rs 12,999 for 2GB RAM/16GB storage – is flooded with phones and some of them with impressive overall performances as well. Will the Moto G be able to keep up and do an encore of its first outing? We will have to wait a while to find that out.

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Source: Moto G (3rd gen) First Impressions: Improves on camera, battery and is water resistant