Motorola Moto G5S Review: Is the Mid-Range Moto Worth It?

Motorola Moto G5S Review: Is the Mid-Range Moto Worth It?

A Closer Look at the Moto G5s!

Motorola launched the G5s Plus and its smaller brother — the G5s — towards the end of 2017; with the latter arriving at Unbox HQ late last month. Motorla has stuck to their guns and gets the basics down right, but will that be enough to entice a very discerning market to have a look at their device? Let’s find out.

Motorola Moto G5s specs

  • 1.4GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 octa-core processor
  • Adreno 505 GPU
  • 3GB of RAM
  • 5.2-inch Full HD IPS display; 1080×1920 resolution, 424 ppi, Corning Gorilla Glass 3
  • 32GB of expandable storage (up to 256GB)
  • 4G, LTE
  • Dual SIM (Hybrid)
  • 16-megapixel rear camera, f/2.0 aperture, PDAF, LED flash
  • 5-megapixel front camera, f/2.0 aperture, LED flash
  • GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS
  • WiFi, Bluetooth
  • Fingerprint scanner
  • 3000mAh battery with support for fast charging
  • Android 7.1 Nougat

A Moto Device Through and Through

The Moto G5s follow the same design cues as recent releases from Motorola but that, thankfully, means that you’re also getting the same standards in build quality with a splash-resistant body that’s made out of aluminum. The device still sports a 16:9 display so it’ll feel a little chunkier in the hand if you’ve handled a phone that comes equipped with an extended aspect ratio.

While they retain a lot of the good things with their devices in the Moto G5s that, unfortunately, means you’ll have to take the not so good bits too.  Yup, the huge protrusion for the rear camera array is back. We understood having it for models that you could connect Moto Mods on but we feel that it’s rather excessive for their mid-range devices; making it prone to scratches if you aren’t careful.

Display at 16:9 and Doing Just Fine

As mentioned earlier, the Motorola Moto G5s still sports a display with a 16:9 aspect ratio that measures in at 5.2-inches. It may not live up to typical display standards but what it lacks in screen real estate is made up by having good pixel density with its Full HD resolution (424 pixels per inch to be exact). Aside from that, you’re seeing the same performance out of the usual IPS LCD panel in terms of color, contrast, and brightness.

To complement the display, you’ve got a single speaker on the bottom of the phone and it performs rather well with little to no distortion at max volume. It doesn’t get quite as loud as other phones we’ve tried recently but if that’s to make sure you’ve got better audio, we’d take that trade-off.

Processing Package for the Basics

At the core of the Motorola Moto G5s is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 processor with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of expandable storage. While the 430 is still a staple in many devices in this price point, we can’t help feel that it’s a little lacking for people who need a little bit more power for their smartphones. It can still handle browsing the web and the usual suite of social media apps but falters a little when you need to multitask. Also, note that Antutu has just patched their app to show a different scoring system.

Asphalt 8 at Medium Settings. Average of 29 fps.
Vainglory at High Settings. Average of 44 fps.

Hardcore mobile gamers may also be disappointed with the capabilities of the Moto G5s. While you can play NBA 2K18 at the lowest settings, it’s frame rates are hardly stable even at the lowest settings. You can play Vainglory at the highest settings quite smoothly. The same can be said about playing other popular mobile MOBA’s available on the Google Play Store.

Call quality and connectivity weren’t an issue with Motorola Moto G5s and the fingerprint scanner unlocks the phone at a decent speed with a good margin of error as well.

Nearly Stock Android Is the Best

What we’ve always appreciated with Moto devices is that it ships with a pretty clean version of Android. There are a couple of pre-installed apps out of the box but they can be easily uninstalled. While you are getting Android Nougat 7.1.1 our of the box, most devices from Motorola are also slated for an upgrade to Android Oreo soon. Unfortunately, this doesn’t mean that we didn’t encounter hiccups. Apps would crash every now and then but a software update should easily solve that problem.

Mid-range Phone, Middling Camera

We talked about the rear camera earlier but let’s get down to the details of its actual performance. You’ve got a 16-megapixel rear camera with an aperture of f/2.0, phase detection autofocus, and a LED flash. The resulting photos from the rear cameras are pretty much what you’d expect from a phone at this price point. Colors are pretty accurate but details are not quite as sharp as you’d like them to be and lacking in dynamic range. As expected, you lose even more detail in low-light conditions.

The 5-megapixel front camera does a decent job for the most part but its really best to stay where there’s a lot of light though you do have a dedicated flash unit for taking selfies too.

Enough Juice to Last

The Moto G5s comes with a 3000mAh battery and we were having a little trouble getting synthetic benchmarks to run on the device. It does, however, have enough juice to last your typical 8-hour work day with the need for a little top up to make sure you get home with the device still powered on. We managed a screen on-time of 3 hours and 30 minutes from fully topped up to about 3-percent, which isn’t so bad and what you’d typically see on devices with the same battery capacity.

Verdict: Facing a Tough Crowd

The Motorola G5s may not have the newfangled 18:9 aspect ratio for its display and many may get turned off by the fact that it’s still running a Snapdragon 430 but it still has a few things going for it — great build quality, a clean version of Android, and enough power for day-to-day tasks. If you are a power user, however, it may lack that zip you’re looking for.

As with most devices in the mid-range segment, however, the main concern for Motorola is its competition and their offerings. It’s a pretty tough race in this price point and, given the sensitivity of local consumers, many may choose to save a little extra to get more features out of a device.

You can check out the rest of our recent reviews by clicking on the links below.

Bluboo S1 Unboxing, Initial Review: Slim Bezels, Dual Camera For Not Much Money

Cherry Mobile Flare S6 Selfie Hands-on, Quick Review: Affordable Selfie Shooter

5 Power Tips for the OPPO F5

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