Introduction
Far removed from the Moto G that got the series started in 2013, the Moto G8 Plus we have for you today aims to keep up with the times with a big display, large battery and Quad Bayer cameras.
The all-plastic midranger that goes for €270/£240/INR 14,000 packs a 6.3-inch FullHD display (an LCD and not an OLED). Powering that is a generous 4,000mAh cell, a sizeable upgrade over the G7 Plus' 3,000mAh capacity. And for the first time on a G-series phone, the G8 Plus sports a Quad Bayer camera, or Quad Pixel as Motorola calls it. In fact, there are two of those - a 48MP one on the back and another 25MP one for selfies.
The Moto G8 Plus has an unusual twist on the above general formula too. Like its brother from another lineup, the Moto One Action, the Moto G8 Plus has a dedicated ultra wide-angle video camera that's rotated 90 degrees - so you can hold the phone in portrait, and still capture correctly oriented video.
Spicing up the specsheet is the presence of stereo speakers - a welcome sight in this segment, and a feature carried over from the G7 Plus. Similarly to this predecessor, the G8 Plus comes in a single 4GB/64GB trim level, though it does one up the G7 Plus with a newer and more efficient Snapdragon 665 chip. It has lost the dedicated microSD slot, however - if you get the dual SIM version, that is.
Motorola Moto G8 Plus specs
- Body: Plastic frame and back; Dark Blue, Dark Red color schemes; 158.4x75.8x9.1mm, 188g.
- Display: 6.3" LCD, 1080x2280px (~400ppi), 19:9 ratio.
- Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 (11nm), octa-core CPU (4x2.0 GHz Kryo 260 Gold & 4x1.8 GHz Kryo 260 Silver); Adreno 610 GPU.
- Memory: 6GB RAM; 64GB storage, shared microSD slot.
- OS: Android 9.0
- Rear camera: Main: 48MP Quad Pixel (Qad Bayer filter), 1/2" sensor size, 0.8µm pixel size, f/1.8 aperture, PDAF, laser AF; 2160p@30fps video recording. Ultra wide: 16MP, 14mm, f/2.2 - dedicated video camera (1080p). Depth sensor: 5MP, f/2.2. LED flash.
- Front camera: 25MP, 0.9µm, f/2.0.
- Battery: 4,000mAh Li-Po; 18W TurboPower charging (QuickCharge based).
- Connectivity: Single/dual nano SIM ; Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac; Bluetooth 5.0 + LE; NFC (market dependent); GPS, BDS, Galilleo, GLONASS; USB-C (USB 2.0); 3.5mm headphone jack.
- Misc: Rear-mounted fingerprint sensor; stereo speakers.
The G8 Plus runs Android 9.0, and we would have liked to be seeing Android 10 on phones that launch this time of the year, particularly ones with relatively light software customizations like the Moto's. It's also rubbing us the wrong way that you can't really take photos with the ultra-wide cam - that's a level of dedication to video that seems limiting for the user. Anyway, let's see what you're getting.
Motorola Moto G8 Plus unboxing
The Moto G8 Plus arrives in a rather unusually styled box. The plain lid has a prominent bat logo and the phone's name printed on it, nothing out of the ordinary. But on the bottom, where most phones have specs and regulatory labels and whatnot, there's a photo of the handset. The key hardware is listed on the right, the left holds the trademarks, while the IMEIs and stuff are on the short side.
A box is just a box, and it's what's on the inside that counts. There's an 18W TurboPower-branded adapter that's rated at 5V/3A, 9V/2A, and 12V/1.5A, and a USB-A-to-C cable to go with it. There is no headset of any sort which is a bummer.
On a positive note, there is a clear silicone case that fully covers the perimeter of the phone and also has a lip on the front to distance the display from the tabletop if you happen to leave your phone face down - by accident, of course.
Design and 360-degree view
The Moto G8 Plus' design marks a departure from the last several generations of G-series handsets and their big, circular, centrally placed camera clusters. Instead, it adopts the aesthetic we've been seeing on recent One series units with cameras in the top left corner, and the G8 Plus looks, in fact, just like the One Macro.
That means an oversized separate camera module and a joint assembly where the rest of the cameras are clumped together with some auxiliary camera-related elements.
We must point out that the Moto G8 Plus' rear poses for a five-camera setup at first glance. You'll easily dismiss the flash and bring the count to four, which is still not the case. The autofocusing laser emitter and receiver pair are accented with a circle making this impostor harder to spot.
In fact, it's a trio of cameras, if that. The lone module up top is the video-only ultra wide-angle module. The 48MP main camera is the top module in the cluster, with the depth sensor right below it.
Our review unit is in the Dark Blue colorway, which starts as nearly black on top fading to a deep purple towards the bottom. The Dark Red color scheme is nowhere as dark but still sports a gentle gradient.
Regardless of your choice of color, the Moto G8 Plus has a glossy plastic back that accumulates fingerprints as glossy plastic backs do. This one, however, thanks to the particular colors tends not to display grease too prominently - it's there, it's just not all that visible.
The M-logo, on the other hand, is quite visible. As Motorola likes to do it when it gets a chance, it's stamped on the fingerprint reader, a most natural pairing of design and functionality. The sensor itself is nicely placed, so you'll likely need no finger gymnastics to operate it. So top scores for ergonomics on the Moto G8 Plus.
The same goes for the other hardware controls on the Moto - the textured power button on the right side of the phone is where your thumb expects to find it, and the less frequently used volume rocker is above it.
Other key bits along the plastic frame include the card slot on the right, which takes two nano SIMs or a nano-SIM and a microSD card. The primary mic flanks the USB-C port and one of the loudspeakers on the bottom of the phone, while the secondary mic is up top keeping the headphone jack company.
Controls on the right • Card slot on the left • USB-C on the bottom • 3.5mm jack up top
Over on the front, the 6.3-inch display is surrounded by some reasonably sized bezels - for a phone in this segment, that is. The chin is meatier, and it'll likely bug some folks that there's more material on top than there is on the sides, but such is life.
On a positive note, the top bezel houses a proper second speaker that's also an earpiece if you're still using your phone as an actual phone. To its right is the ambient light and proximity sensor window, which you can see if you look closely.
The front-facing camera eats into the display a little, placed into a U-shaped notch. Is anyone still bothered by notches?
The Moto G8 Plus measures 158.4x75.8x9.1mm and weighs in at 188g, making it quite a chunky unit. It is, indeed, one of the thicker phones we've had in a while - both going by the numbers and subjectively in hand.
In terms of footprint and weight, it's virtually identical to key rivals like the Realme X2 and the Redmi Note 8. Lighter options are available, like the 166g Galaxy A50, and the P30 lite is both lighter and more compact (159g, 5.5mm shorter, 3mm narrower and 1.7mm thinner).
6.3-inch FullHD LCD on the Moto G8 Plus
The Moto G8 Plus is equipped with a 6.3-inch display, a 0.1-inch bump in diagonal over the one of the G7 Plus. It's an IPS LCD with a 1080x2280px resolution in a 19:9 aspect ratio with a pixel density of 400ppi.
In terms of brightness it does okay, though LCDs should be able to go brighter than the 581nits we got out of the Moto G8 Plus in adaptive brightness mode. If you're operating the slider on your own, you'll get 477nits. The numbers are nearly identical to the ones we measured on the G7 Plus. Contrast is reasonably good as well, around the 1500:1 mark, though the blacks do exhibit a noticeable glow in the dark if you're viewing the display off-axis. And if you have a mostly white content showing, you'll see that the display is dimmer around the extreme edges along its entire perimeter.
| Display test | 100% brightness | ||
| Black, |
White, |
||
| 0.317 | 477 | 1505:1 | |
| 0.395 | 581 | 1471:1 | |
| 0.332 | 473 | 1425:1 | |
| 0.469 | 590 | 1258:1 | |
| 0.39 | 464 | 1190:1 | |
| 0.446 | 486 | 1090:1 | |
| 0 | 494 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 690 | ∞ | |
| 0.311 | 473 | 1521:1 | |
| 0.475 | 631 | 1328:1 | |
| 0.331 | 450 | 1360:1 | |
| 0.453 | 600 | 1325:1 | |
| 0.371 | 498 | 1342:1 | |
| 0.421 | 585 | 1390:1 | |
| 0.337 | 514 | 1525:1 | |
| 0.39 | 580 | 1487:1 | |
| 0 | 432 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 410 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 548 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 424 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 551 | ∞ | |
| 0.369 | 485 | 1314:1 | |
| 0.498 | 661 | :1 | |
Color reproduction is consistently off on the Moto G8 Plus, regardless of which of the three color modes you choose. Be it Natural, Boosted, or Saturated, you can expect a strong blue shift of the white and grays, to the tune of a DeltaE of 12. That is not so bad - it's not a color accurate screen but it's not a deal-breaker.
The default Saturated got us an average DeltaE of 6.3 against DCI-P3 targets while in Natural we measured an average DeltaE of 5.3 for our sRGB test swatches - the best result in our testing.
Motorola Moto G8 Plus battery life
A key step up from the previous generation is the Moto G8 Plus' battery capacity - 4,000mAh vs. the G7 Plus' 3,000mAh. Add the more efficient chipset into the mix (11nm vs. 14nm) and we were expecting a meaningful improvement in battery life.
Indeed, that's what we got. The Moto G8 Plus posted very respectable numbers in both of our screen-on tests with 16 and a half hours of Wi-Fi web browsing and 14 and a half hours of looping videos offline. The close to 27 hours of voice calls are decent too, though not strictly impressive.
In the end, the Moto G8 Plus posted an Endurance rating of 87 hours. Compare that to the 59h rating of the Moto G7 Plus and the old phone's 11 hours on the web, less than 10 hours of video and 19 hours of talk time.
Our battery tests were automated thanks to SmartViser, using its viSer App. The endurance rating above denotes how long a single battery charge will last you if you use the Moto G8 Plus for an hour each of telephony, web browsing, and video playback daily. We've established this usage pattern so that our battery results are comparable across devices in the most common day-to-day tasks. The battery testing procedure is described in detail in case you're interested in the nitty-gritty. You can check out our complete battery test table, where you can see how all of the smartphones we've tested will compare under your own typical use.
Using the supplied adapter, the Moto G8 Plus takes over two hours for a full charge (2:06h), and you'll be looking at 36% half an hour into the process. It's not the fastest charging around is what we're saying.
Loudspeaker
The Motorola Moto G8 Plus has a stereo speaker configuration. It's a common solution in which the earpiece doubles as a second speaker, but there's a twist in that it handles its respective channel on its own. Typically, earpieces only carry the mid/high frequencies of one channel, while the 'primary' loudspeaker handles the other channel's mids and highs and all of the lows. Well, there's a strict left-right separation on this Moto.
It's quite a loud setup too, easily placing in the Excellent category in our three-track test. It's particularly good with voices too, cranking out decibels while remaining nicely clean. It's not as impressive in the low register, so don't go expecting much bass, even as smartphones go.
| Speakerphone test | Voice, dB | Ringing |
Overall score | |
| 66.2 | 68.3 | 73.6 | Good | |
| 65.6 | 70.9 | 79.5 | Good | |
| 64.8 | 71.2 | 82.2 | Good | |
| 65.6 | 71.5 | 81.8 | Good | |
| 68.5 | 72.7 | 81.0 | Very Good | |
| 68.9 | 71.3 | 82.7 | Very Good | |
| 67.7 | 71.4 | 84.3 | Very Good | |
| 66.5 | 71.9 | 85.3 | Very Good | |
| 71.9 | 72.7 | 80.7 | Very Good | |
| 70.6 | 74.8 | 81.2 | Very Good | |
| 70.8 | 72.4 | 84.9 | Excellent | |
| 71.5 | 73.8 | 83.1 | Excellent | |
| 73.5 | 71.3 | 85.8 | Excellent | |
| 78.8 | 72.9 | 81.3 | Excellent | |
| 78.9 | 74.5 | 79.8 | Excellent | |
| 79.5 | 74.9 | 80.4 | Excellent |
Audio quality
When we connected an active external amplifier to the Moto G8 Plus’ 3.5mm audio jack, it delivered impressive audio output. It reproduced the track with perfect accuracy while maintaining very high volume levels.
Even more impressively, the output was almost unchanged when we plugged in our standard testing headphones. Even the stereo separation was barely affected - something very few phones can match. Loudness remained among the highest around, too, adding up to a stellar performance here. Great job, Moto!
| Test | Frequency response | Noise level | Dynamic range | THD | IMD + Noise | Stereo crosstalk |
| +0.02, -0.01 | -93.2 | 93.2 | 0.0017 | 0.051 | -94.2 | |
| +0.02, -0.01 | -93.1 | 93.0 | 0.0035 | 0.037 | -83.8 | |
| +0.03, -0.03 | -91.6 | 91.7 | 0.0039 | 0.011 | -91.8 | |
| +0.03, -0.03 | -92.2 | 92.2 | 0.0042 | 0.027 | -84.8 | |
| +0.03, -0.03 | -93.3 | 93.2 | 0.0046 | 0.029 | -69.4 | |
| +0.02, -0.03 | -93.4 | 93.3 | 0.0034 | 0.0084 | -93.7 | |
| +0.02, -0.01 | -93.7 | 90.7 | 0.0015 | 0.0098 | -93.0 | |
| +0.53, -0.22 | -90.6 | 88.8 | 0.0048 | 0.302 | -50.8 | |
| +0.05, -0.04 | -92.6 | 93.5 | 0.0026 | 0.072 | -58.7 | |
| +0.03, -0.01 | -85.8 | 86.8 | 0.0012 | 0.014 | -76.2 | |
| +0.05, -0.01 | -81.1 | 82.7 | 0.0068 | 0.059 | -52.0 |
Motorola Moto G8 Plus frequency response
You can learn more about the tested parameters and the whole testing process here.
A few Moto custom bits over Android 9.0
The Moto G8 Plus isn't on the Android One branch like the phones in the One series, so it has a bunch more options in the Moto custom features app. Other than that, it's mostly a stock-ish looking affair. The software build is still based on Android 9.0 Pie, however - there's no 10 just yet.
The G8 Plus has its own take on gesture navigation, same one Motos had since before Google came up with the pill. The Android 10's strip implementation now looks similar to the one on the Motos from 2018 - who's leading the way now, Google?
They call it One Button Nav, and it's a single elongated button in the center - tapping it once takes you to the home screen, a swipe up brings out the recent apps menu, swiping to the left acts as a back button while swiping to the right quickly switches back to the last opened app. The quick switch works pretty well, which is not always the case with Android's native implementations. If, on the other hand, you want to have the classic three-button navigation, you can switch One Button Nav off.
Other Moto actions include a karate chop for toggling the flashlight on or off, twist motion to launch the camera app, three-finger screenshot gesture, accelerometer-based ringtone silencing, and lift to unlock - if you have face recognition enabled.
Moto Display consists of just two options on the Moto One Actions, and the more important one is Peek Display - the not-always-on display. It'll display notifications and let you interact with them right there on the lockscreen plus it'll wake up when you pick up your phone. Another feature, Attentive display, will keep the screen on as long as you are looking at it.
One Button Nav • Moto actions • Peek Display
All of these aside, the rest is pretty much Android 9.0 Pie as Google intended it to be - well, there's also the greenish hue of the quick toggles.
Lockscreen • Homescreen • Folder view • App drawer • Task switcher • Quick toggles
As you'd expect, the Security & location menu contains the available biometric features - fingerprint and face unlock. Both seem to work pretty well but keep in mind that the face unlock feature works only with the front-facing camera without any additional 3D scanning tech so the fingerprint remains the more secure biometric unlock method. Which is fine, because it's fast and reliable.
Biometrics
Synthetic benchmarks
The Moto G8 Plus is powered by the Snapdragon 665 - a midrange Qualcomm chip, made on an 11nm manufacturing process. It packs an octa-core CPU in a 4x2.0GHz Kryo 260 Gold & 4x1.8GHz Kryo 260 Silver arrangement and an Adreno 610 GPU. A single RAM and storage configuration is offered - 4GB and 64GB is what you get, and that's it.
Running our usual set of benchmarks on the Moto G8 Plus, we got virtually the same results out of it for single-core CPU performance as we did from other phones with the Snapdragon 665. The Snapdragon 675-powered handsets do offer a considerable boost in single-core performance. They do also offer some improvement over the Moto G8 Plus under multi-core loads, but it's not as dramatic.
GeekBench 5 (single-core)
Higher is better
- vivo V17 Pro
509 - Samsung Galaxy A60
507 - Motorola One Zoom
501 - Nokia 7.2
336 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 8
315 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T
315 - Motorola Moto G8 Plus
314 - Realme 5s
314 - Nokia 6.2
276
GeekBench 5 (multi-core)
Higher is better
- vivo V17 Pro
1657 - Nokia 7.2
1425 - Samsung Galaxy A60
1410 - Motorola One Zoom
1409 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T
1402 - Realme 5s
1373 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 8
1339 - Motorola Moto G8 Plus
1325 - Nokia 6.2
1255
It's a similar distribution in Antutu, where the S665 bunch is relatively tightly grouped together, while the S675-equipped Moto One Zoom flies the S675 flag somewhat in front of them.
AnTuTu 8
Higher is better
- Motorola One Zoom
180000 - Motorola Moto G8 Plus
168699 - Realme 5s
168635 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T
167395 - Nokia 7.2
164484 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 8
161572 - Nokia 6.2
140736
When it comes to graphics, the Moto G8 Plus delivers decent performance, though once again the Snapdragon 675's more powerful Adreno 612 GPU gives the phones that have it a bit of an edge over the Moto. And then the Snapdragon 670 devices (of which we've only seen the Pixel 3a XL) score even higher still. That's because the S670 has an even more powerful Adreno 615 GPU - yes, Qualcomm's product nomenclature makes all the sense.
GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)
Higher is better
- Google Pixel 3a XL
20 - vivo V17 Pro
17 - Motorola One Zoom
15 - Samsung Galaxy A70
15 - Motorola Moto Z4
15 - Samsung Galaxy A60
15 - Nokia 7.2
15 - Motorola One Action
14 - Samsung Galaxy A50
14 - Motorola Moto G8 Plus
13 - Xiaomi Mi A3
13 - Realme 5s
13 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 8
13 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T
13 - Motorola Moto G7 Plus
10 - Nokia 6.2
10
GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)
Higher is better
- Xiaomi Mi A3
27 - Realme 5s
24 - Google Pixel 3a XL
19 - Motorola Moto Z4
14 - vivo V17 Pro
14 - Motorola One Action
13 - Motorola One Zoom
13 - Samsung Galaxy A70
13 - Samsung Galaxy A60
13 - Samsung Galaxy A50
13 - Nokia 7.2
13 - Motorola Moto G8 Plus
12 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 8
11 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T
11 - Motorola Moto G7 Plus
9.7 - Nokia 6.2
9.2
GFX 3.1 Car scene (1080p offscreen)
Higher is better
- Google Pixel 3a XL
11 - Samsung Galaxy A50
9.2 - Nokia 7.2
9 - vivo V17 Pro
8.8 - Motorola One Zoom
8.1 - Samsung Galaxy A60
8.1 - Samsung Galaxy A70
8 - Motorola Moto Z4
7.2 - Motorola Moto G8 Plus
7.1 - Xiaomi Mi A3
7.1 - Realme 5s
7.1 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 8
7 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T
7 - Motorola Moto G7 Plus
6.3 - Nokia 6.2
6.3
GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)
Higher is better
- Xiaomi Mi A3
13 - Realme 5s
12 - Google Pixel 3a XL
11 - Nokia 7.2
8.1 - Motorola Moto Z4
8 - Samsung Galaxy A50
8 - Samsung Galaxy A60
7.3 - vivo V17 Pro
7.3 - Motorola One Zoom
7.1 - Samsung Galaxy A70
7 - Motorola Moto G8 Plus
6.5 - Motorola Moto G7 Plus
5.9 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 8
5.9 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T
5.9 - Nokia 6.2
5.7
3DMark SSE 3.1 Unlimited
Higher is better
- Google Pixel 3a XL
1748 - Nokia 7.2
1427 - Samsung Galaxy A50
1353 - vivo V17 Pro
1221 - Realme 5s
1140 - Xiaomi Mi A3
1131 - Motorola Moto G8 Plus
1128 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T
1128 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 8
1126 - Samsung Galaxy A60
1123 - Samsung Galaxy A70
1112 - Motorola One Zoom
1107 - Motorola Moto Z4
1044 - Nokia 6.2
998
All in all, the Moto G8 Plus is a noticeable performance upgrade over the Moto G7 Plus and sits well against key rivals. Having said that, there are Snapdragon 670 and 675 competitors, and those do offer some performance gains. And that's before taking into account the Snapdragon 700-series devices, which you can find for Moto G8 Plus money in some parts of the world. So if you're after the best performance for the price, perhaps this Moto shouldn't be on top of your list, but it's easily powerful enough.
One Action meets One Vision
The Motorola Moto G8 Plus has a camera setup that's a blend of the hardware you'd find on the One Action and the One Vision. It takes the One Action's concept - a main camera, aided by a depth sensor for portraits, and an ultra wide angle module rotated 90 degrees to be used solely for video capture. The ultra-wide comes from the Action, the depth sensor is the same between all three, and the Vision shares its main unit with the G8 Plus.
So the Moto G8 Plus' main cam is a 48MP Quad Pixel unit (that's Quad Bayer outside the Moto realm) with a 1/2" sensor and 0.8µm pixels that the phone bins 4-into-1, making 12MP images. In fact, there isn't an option on the Moto G8 Plus to even shoot in 48MP, which is a bit weird compared to other makers' implementations, but it's how Motorola does it (it was the same on the One Vision and Moto Z4). The lens on this camera has an f/1.7 aperture, and even if it's not specified anywhere (not even in EXIF data), we'd put its equivalent focal length at around 26mm.
The ultra wide-angle cam has a 16MP sensor behind an f/2.2 aperture lens with a 14mm equivalent focal length. The imager on this one is rotated 90 degrees so that it sees the world in landscape when you've got the handset in portrait. That way you can hold the phone in a more natural and stable manner and still end up with correctly oriented clips.
The one caveat here is that you can't use the ultra wide-angle camera for photos, outside of the 3MP shots you can grab only while recording video with it. We were confused by this seemingly unnecessary limitation on the Moto One Action and it doesn't make much more sense to us now either.
Then there's the 5MP supplementary camera for gathering depth data, which you can't use on its own either. If you're only counting three cameras on a back that has you believing there are four upon first glance, you're correct. The fourth camera-like circle has the laser emitter and receiver for the laser focusing of the main cam's optics (there's phase detection too). The flash wasn't going to fool anyone it's a camera, but it's nestled in the same cluster.
For selfies, you get another Quad Pixel camera, this one 25MP nominally. The sensor is behind an f/2.0 aperture lens that has a fixed focus. Being a Quad Bayer type of module, the selfie cam takes 6MP images by default, but this one can be set to output 25MP shots.
Motorola has been installing its own custom Camera app on the otherwise mostly stock Android software, and that's the case on the Moto G8 Plus as well. It's straightforward and functional with a swipe action for switching between stills, video, and assorted modes (tapping on the icons works too). Swiping up and down in the viewfinder works for digital zoom as opposed to the fairly common rear/front camera toggle - you'll need to use the button in the bottom left for switching between those.
A set of quick settings is available in the viewfinder for the HDR modes (Auto/On/Off), flash modes (Auto/On/Off), self-timer (Off/3s/10s) and Active Photos (Auto/On/Off). There's also a shortcut to the settings menu right in the viewfinder.
Camera UI
The Manual mode is accessed from another toggle in the viewfinder - not the extra modes. It lets you dial in your own ISO (100-3200), shutter speed (1/6000s-1/3s), or exposure compensation (-2EV to +2EV in 1/3EV and 0.5EV increments), as well as pick a white balance by light temperature (with markings for common light types) and manually adjust focus - all pretty standard. There's also a tiny live histogram.
Image quality
Coming off the Moto One Vision and One Zoom, which both have essentially the same primary cams as the Moto G8 Plus, we expected a little more than what we got out of this one. It's not bad; it's just that we were consistently getting narrower dynamic range than what we're used to seeing from other 48MP cameras and what we experienced with the other similarly equipped Motos. On a positive note, the G8 Plus does get the colors just right and captures good detail, even if a lot of noise does still make it to the final image.
Camera samples, main camera
It doesn't get better for the Moto G8 Plus in low light, where its limited dynamic range becomes even more pronounced, and you can expect severely blown-out highlights and relatively noisy, albeit well-exposed shadows. It also routinely struggles with focusing in the dark. It does manage to hold on to color very well, so there's that at least.
Low-light samples, Photo mode
Night mode helps immensely with dynamic range leaving you with much better-developed highlight areas. Shadows don't get too much of a boost, but that's okay as they were bright enough in photo mode to begin with. One disadvantage of night mode is that it introduces a general softness to the photos, but if you stick to fit-to-screen magnification, you'll be alright.
Low-light samples, Night mode
Portraits
The portraits from the Moto G8 Plus have excellent subject separation and natural-looking background blur, which you can also tweak - before and after the fact. The one issue we have with the portraits is that they don't get the HDR processing, so the phone struggles in harsh light.
Portrait samples
Selfie camera
The Moto G8 Plus takes okay 6MP selfies, but if 6MP isn't enough for you, the 25MP mode won't leave you excited either. Unlike the Moto One Vision that has the same selfie cam, the Moto G8 Plus' 25MP images look more like upscaled 6MP ones as opposed to offering any more detail.
Selfie samples, 25MP
The 6MP selfies are decent when there's plenty of light, though even then the Moto's HDR algorithms don't seem to be doing a spectacular job and dynamic range is pretty narrow. The level of detail isn't great either, and there's a prevalent softness all-around. Colors are mostly accurate, except in less than ideal light where you might end up with a bit of desaturation.
Selfie samples, 6MP
Portraits aren't half-bad in terms of subject separation, even without a second camera. As is the case with the rear-cam portraits, however, there's no HDR in portrait mode.
Selfie portrait samples
Video
The Moto G8 Plus' main camera can record video up to 2160p at 30fps with 30 and 60fps modes available in 1080p resolution. The ultra-wide camera that's only there for video can do 1080p at 30fps and 60fps with a slight crop for the higher frame rate. Stabilization is only available in 1080p at 30fps on either camera.
Video is encoded at a relatively generous 50Mbps for 4K30 (we'd call 42Mbps the 'standard') and 20Mbps for 1080p/30fps (17Mbps being the average), and 20Mbps is about what 1080p/60fps is allotted as well. The ultra-wide cam's bitrates are the same 20Mbps as well. Audio is recorded in stereo at 320kbps regardless of video mode.
The clips coming out of the main cam don't differ much in terms of color and dynamic range between the three main modes - colors are on the cool side, but generally okay, and dynamic range is average at best. 1080p/30fps is towards the top end of the spectrum when compared with rivals in terms of sharpness and detail - it's pretty good indeed. 1080p/60fps is noticeably mushier, as is typically the case. 4K footage is nothing more than okay - contrasty details are relatively well defined, but the grass is rendered in a watercolor fashion.
The ultra-wide cam has a substantially warmer color reproduction compared to the main one, and we can't say this one is more accurate either. Dynamic range isn't any better, not that we'd have expected it, and there isn't much of a difference whether you're shooting in 60fps or 30fps. 1080p/30fps is decently detailed as ultra-wides go, and 1080p/60fps is softer - neither has us going 'wow', but that's sort of the norm for ultra-wide videos, even more so from a phone in the Moto's class.
Stabilization is okay from the main cam, ironing out the global shake introduced from walking. For finer movement, it's less effective, and you can see some minor trembling.
The ultra-wide cam smooths things out better, aided by the inherent advantage of its shorter focal length. We also didn't observe those micro jitters we mentioned about the main cam's output.
Competition
What Motorola could be seeing as the Moto G8 Plus' key selling point might actually make it stand out the wrong way - every single competitor has an ultra wide-angle camera, and they all can take at least 8MP still images and record video, while the Moto only really uses for video. Just how important is that one particular camera really, and how does the Moto hold up in the areas where it matters?
A Redmi Note 8/8T quickly springs to mind as an immediate rival, offering much the same package with a few extra niceties here and there including a dedicated memory card slot and an IR blaster. The Redmi would also be our pick for image quality, plus it has a slightly better display. The Moto counters with a nice stereo speaker setup and superior audio quality. Battery life and performance is a tossup between the two, and as for the choice between the Moto's vanilla Android vs. the Redmi's MIUI - to each their own.
A Huawei P30 lite is also a viable alternative if you're not fixated on the stock software look. It's a tangibly more compact one, and pocketability alone could settle it if that happens to be what you're after. Plus, you won't be sacrificing battery life along with the 30-gram savings. The P30 lite doesn't have 4K recording at all, and the Moto's average 4K videos are still better than none, but on the other hand, the the photos the P30 lite captures are superior. Oh, and the Huwei phone comes with 128 gigs of storage as standard, next to the G8 Plus' only 64GB option.
The Galaxy A50 sports an AMOLED display that is superior to the Moto's across the board. It also goes well with its more powerful GPU (slightly, but still) so it makes for a better gaming phone in this price range. The G8 Plus is actually the better cameraphone of these two, offering better image quality and 4K capture out of the box (the A50 needs a third-party app for the latter). Again, battery life is great on both, though the A50 can't match the Moto's web browsing endurance.
Perhaps our favorite phone of this bunch, though admittedly some 10% more expensive than the Moto G8 Plus, the Realme X2 brings an AMOLED display and a vastly more powerful Snapdragon 730G chipset. Realme's overall endurance leaves the G8 Plus behind, and on top of that, the X2 charges up almost twice as fast. Oh, and the Realme X2 takes better pictures and videos than the Moto G8 Plus too. On the other hand, it's not necessarily available everywhere the Moto is, and not everyone's willing to go with a relatively new online brand.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T • Huawei P30 lite • Samsung Galaxy A50 • Realme X2
Verdict
The Moto G8 Plus brings several major improvements over its predecessor. Chief among those is the battery life, which is now among the better ones in class. The newer, beefier, yet more efficient chipset is also appreciated, as is the move to Quad Bayer cams, even if they do appear underutilized. Then there are the stereo speakers, which you can't really find elsewhere for the money, and the flagship-grade audio quality.
Having said that, there are bits about the Moto G8 Plus that make it hard to recommend wholeheartedly. It's the display that has us put off the most, and the ultra-wide video camera doesn't really get us excited either. If you have the option to go for a Redmi Note 8T, which is cheaper, or the Realme X2, which is an overall better phone, you need to be seriously hung up on the G8 Plus' audio prowess to choose Moto.
Pros
- Excellent battery life, particularly where it matters most - screen-on tasks.
- Strong audio showing - both out of the stereo speakers and through the 3.5mm jack.
- Vanilla Android with some functional Moto enhancements on top.
- Unique ultra wide-angle camera concept, potentially useful to the right audience.
Cons
- While it does get reasonably bright, the display has several flaws (bluish whites in all modes, black illumination when looking it at an angle, and uneven backlighting along the edges).
- No video stabilization in 4K or 1080p/60fps.
- The ultra wide-angle camera can't be used for taking photos.
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