In the last few months, Motorola has returned to the smartphone spotlight with the Moto X and the Moto G. While the X currently isn’t available in the UK (though there’s a hotly-tipped press event in London this week), the Moto G follows the underrated Razr, Razr Maxx and variants that have been released since 2011, eschewing the Droid slider in favour of the candybar handset while stepping away from the carbon-fibre of the Razrs. In short, there’s a new design style in town.

Not content with a new look, Motorola are pricing the Moto G very aggressively, coming in at around GB£135 on the street, unlocked and off-contract. The Nexus line has always been competitively priced and it might be Motorola is following suit at the entry-level. I hesitate to say budget, because you’ll see that the Moto G is anything but.

Motorola lent GNC one of the pre-production handsets to GNC for review and as you’ll see from the photos, there are a few markings on the face of the phone that won’t be present on the retail versions, but otherwise, it’s what will be shipped. I’ve been using it for a couple of weeks so let’s take a look at the Motorola Moto G.

Specwise, it’s a 4.5” 1280 by 720 HD screen powered by a Qualcomm 1.2 MHz quad-core A7 processor supported by an Adreno GPU, There’s 1 GB RAM and a choice of 8 GB or 16 GB of storage. Comes with Android 4.3 out of the box with a guaranteed upgrade to KitKat (4.4) that according to some websites is already being pushed out. A 2070 mAh battery keeps the Moto G going. It’s a world-wide phone, with CDMA and  GSM variants, but no LTE. Dimensions are 66 x 130 x 11.6 mm (6.0 mm at the narrowest point) and weighs in at 143g.

The Moto G looks good, black with chrome accents, Gorilla Glass screen and a curved replaceable back. It fits nicely into the hand and the curved back reminds me a little of the Palm Pre and its pebble design cue. The back pops off and replacement coloured backs (shells) are available for around GB£10 for those wishing to customise and there’s a flip door cover version for around GB£20 – they’re all bright and funky.

There’s definitely a bit of weight to the phone but it feels reassuring rather than heavy. The right-hand side has the on/off button and a volume rocker. There’s a micro-USB socket at the bottom and 3.5 mm audio jack at the top. The back has the rear-facing camera with flash and there’s an interesting little dimple in the back.

Powering the phone up reveals two things….first the screen is tremendous and second that Motorola haven’t strayed too far from the stock Android experience. Although not a full 1080 HD screen, the 720 in 4.5″ gives a high pixel density and apps look good. Colours are strong and vibrant, and slightly richer than on the LG Nexus 4. Blacks are black and contrast is good. There’s definitely nothing to worry about here: it’s one of the best screens on a phone. No budget screen here.

Returning to the user interface, anyone familiar with a Nexus device will be totally at home. It’s all fairly standard and what Motorola has done is to tweak some of the standard apps and include a few value-adding apps which you can use or not use, as you wish.

Assist – this is a personal assistant-type app that sets up rules for when the phone needs to be quiet, based on driving, meetings or sleeping. Similar apps are available in the store but the Motorola version is clean and simple. Nice touches include exceptions so that although you might be sleeping and the phone quiet, if a call comes in from your wife or child, the rule is overruled and the call comes through.

Motorola Migrate – this app helps transfer information from an older phone to the Moto G. It covers text messages, call history, SIM contacts, media and volume settings. Innovatively uses wifi and QR codes.

Moto Care – AT first glance, this looks like a mundane help and FAQ app, but it’s considerably more, providing useful suggestions and live chat with a Motorola rep should you need it.

FM Radio – The Moto G has an FM radio built-in and there’s an app for that as well. I haven’t used an FM radio in years but if it’s something you need, the Moto G has it. As with many similar devices, the headphones act as the FM antenna so you need to have them plugged in for the radio to work. That’s a bit of a problem if you normally use Bluetooth headphones…

Moving on to the camera, I found that the camera had both pros and cons. The camera was good when the scene was well-lit and the colours came out strongly. In these circumstances I thought the camera was better than the Nexus 4. Here’s an outside shot of a nearby building plus a screenshot of a zoomed-in area.

As much as the camera worked well in good light conditions, the Moto G was almost unusable in low light conditions. The autofocus struggled to lock on and nearly all the low light shots I took were blurry. A little disappointing but perhaps something that can be fixed via an app update.

Returning to the fundamental function of a mobile phone, i.e. the ability to make and receive phone calls, there are no problems here. Call quality was excellent and both participants could hear each other well, even in areas of relatively low signal strength.

Using Geekbench 3, the Moto G clocks in at 1152 on the multicore test and the LG Nexus 4 scores 1630. In real world use, Moto G is quick when running an app: I had no problems playing Ingress, Cut The Rope, Where’s My Water?, Plants v Zombies, etc. The 1 GB (v 2 GB in the Nexus 4) meant that switching to a previously-run app sometimes necessitated the full relaunch of the app. I notice it because I’m used to the Nexus but I suspect many owners will never even realise.

Overall, this is a great entry level phone and is excellent value for money. It’s an all round solid performer that easily outclasses the lower end of the market, especially the Samsung Galaxy phones, such as the Ace and the Y. The only quibble is with the low-light abilities of the camera and regardless, you’d be an idiot to buy any other off-contract phone unless you really need the bigger screen of a Nexus 5 or an HTC One. Motorola have set a new standard and the Moto G deserves to succeed.

Thanks again to Motorola for providing the Moto G for review.