Lenovo has revealed its first phones under the ‘Lenovo Moto’ brand, which will take over where the Moto G (third-generation) left off.
Perhaps the most significant difference in the new Moto G4 and G4 Plus phones, compared to the Moto G, is in the screens. The second- and third-generation Moto G both used 5″ displays with 1280 x 720 resolution, but Lenovo has upped this to 5.5″ and 1920 x 1080 (with Gorilla Glass 3). Processing power, camera and RAM have all also been improved.
A 16MP rear camera with hybrid (laser and PDAF) autofocus is installed. This uses an Omnivision Purecell Plus sensor, with 1.3µm pixels and an f/2.0 aperture. The front camera is a 5MP device with an 84º field of view.
Android 6.0 runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 617, which uses eight Cortex-A53 cores (1.53GHz) and an Adreno 405 GPU. RAM is 4GB and storage is 64GB on the top model, although phones with 2GB and 3GB of RAM and 16GB or 32GB of storage are also available. All phones will feature a micro-SD slot.
There are only minor differences in the Moto G4. It isn’t any smaller, but RAM is fixed at 2GB and only 16GB and 32GB models are available. There is also no fingerprint sensor.
Both phones use a 3,000mAh battery with fast charging support, although only the G4 Plus is supplied with a so-called Turbo Charger. They are also customisable with Motorola’s Moto Maker website.
Lenovo will begin to sell the phones in June, for £135 ($195) (G4) and £160 ($230) (G4 Plus), ex VAT.
Alongside the G4 phones, Lenovo will release a budget model in the UK called the K5, which will cost £105 ($150) ex VAT. It appears to be a renamed version of the Vibe K5, which was released in January.
Despite being aimed at the low end of the market, the K5 has a metal chassis (unlike the standard plastic bodies of the Moto G4 models), holding a 5″ display with 1280 x 720 resolution. The back can be removed for access to the (removable) battery. The phone also has dual SIM and micro SD slots.
An eight-core Snapdragon 415 processor, with 2GB of RAM, runs Android (5.1 in the pre-production models, although an upgrade is expected). Storage is 16GB.
Analyst Comment
The decision to launch these phones so close together is an odd one on Lenovo’s part. With the K5’s decent specs for its price, plus dual SIM slots and a metal body, there is likely to be some cannibalisation of Moto G4 sales. (TA)
