Moto G5S Plus Review 2018
Moto G5S Plus Review 2018
Not everyone wants, needs, or can afford a flagship-class smartphone, so we're grateful to have a market with no shortage of mid-range phone options. But while those budget-priced offerings from some manufacturers feel like afterthoughts, other phone-makers have earned well-deserved reputations for putting our real quality low-priced handsets that have us coming back for more, year after year.
That's very much the case with Motorola, and while the brand experiments with modular hardware for its flagships, the affordable Moto G line has represented a more accessible alternative since its first iteration debuted back in 2013.
Today we're checking out one of the latest entries to this well-respected series, the Moto G5S Plus. With dual cameras and a metal body, does this phone manage to still feel pretty premium despite a wallet-friendly price tag? Let's take a look.
In the box:
Moto G5S Plus
USB standard-A to micro-USB cable
Wall charger
SIM tool
Read-me booklet
Safety guide
Design
A high-quality metal build elevates the Moto G5S Plus out of budget-phone territory
Moto G5S Plus Review
There are few smartphone brands nailing consistent design language like Motorola, and with that big camera circle around the back, perched atop the company's iconic “batwing” logo, it's easy to recognize a Moto phone at just a glance.
The Moto G5S Plus fits right into this aesthetic. The handset has a metal construction, with its back and sides showing off some of that handsome aluminum, interrupted by a few antenna lines top and bottom. The back is dominated by that prominent camera circle housing the phone's dual 13MP sensors.
On the right side we find the volume rocker and textured power button, while the only feature on the left edge is the combination SIM/microSD slot. Up top, an analog headphone jack works to make the case for its continued existence, while down below we've got the speaker grille, a mic hole, and the phone's USB port. Somewhat inconveniently, that's a micro-USB connection, and while we have a bad feeling such ports will continue to live on in the low- and mid-range space for a generation or two to come, the spread of USB Type-C can't happen soon enough.
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+ 9 images
Front view | Side view
Motorola Moto G5S Plus6.04 x 3 x 0.37 inches
153.5 x 76.2 x 9.5 mm
5.93 oz (168 g)
Motorola Moto G5S Plus
Motorola Moto X45.84 x 2.89 x 0.31 inches
148.35 x 73.5 x 7.99 mm
5.75 oz (163 g)
Motorola Moto X4
Nokia 66.06 x 2.98 x 0.33 inches
154 x 75.8 x 8.4 mm
5.96 oz (169 g)
Nokia 6
Samsung Galaxy A5 (2017)5.75 x 2.81 x 0.31 inches
146.1 x 71.4 x 7.9 mm
5.61 oz (159 g)
Samsung Galaxy A5 (2017)
To see the phones in real size or compare them with other models, visit our Visual Phone Size Comparison page.
The face of the Moto G5S Plus is largely taken up by its 5.5-inch screen, which we'll look further into in just a moment, flanked by the phone's fingerprint scanner below and earpiece and front-facing camera hardware up top – which includes the welcome rarity of a front-facing LED flash.
Display
Exceptional brightness helps this screen stand out
Moto G5S Plus Review
The screen on the Moto G5S Plus is pretty typical: nothing fancy here like curved edges or an extra-tall aspect ratio. Instead, we get a perfectly ordinary 5.5-inch LCD with a 1080 x 1920 resolution. While that's the biggest display on any of the Moto G5-series handsets, they all share the same 1080p resolution, making this also the least pixel-dense in the process. Thankfully, at this size we're still compact enough that it never becomes a problem, and the panel here looks nice and sharp.
Brightness isn't bad at all, and while the limit is a little conservative when you're manually adjusting screen output, in auto-brightness mode the phone's right up there with the higher-performing phones we've recently analyzed, including the iPhone X. That can make the G5S Plus a smart choice for users who will be spending a lot of time outdoors.
Interface and Functionality
Moto software continues to impress with quality gesture controls
Image: 1 of 11
Lenovo ships the Moto G5S Plus with Android 7.1 Nougat, augmented with the familiar Moto Android flair that sticks pretty close to stock while also adding in some fun and useful new interactions. Like plenty of other Moto phones we've checked out, the G5S Plus enjoys a nice variety of powerful gesture controls, including possibly our favorite on any device: double-chop for flashlight.
We also get to tap into the flexibility of the phone's fingerprint scanner for an optional one-button nav mode, treating a tap on the scanner as “home,” and swiping left or right across as “back” and “multitask.” Once you get around the brief learning curve, it's a speedy way to navigate apps without cluttering up the screen with here-and-gone-again virtual buttons.
In addition to the gestures, we also get control over the Moto Display for screen-off notifications. The only slight hiccup for all of this is the somewhat unintuitive way the settings for these options are hidden in the Moto app, rather than living in system settings with all the other controls.
Processor and Memory
Smart performance balancing keeps costs down and promotes long battery life
Mid-range phones have come a long way, and for the past few years especially, they've been powered by some really decent silicon – and while far removed from the number-crunching abilities of a flagship device, mid-rangers these days are absolutely not hurting for the performance needed to get the vast, vast majority of smartphone users through their days without issue.
Moto G5S Plus Review
Here, the Moto G5S Plus runs the stalwart Snapdragon 625 chip, balancing solid performance with some of the lowest power requirements around. For our tests, we're looking at the phone in its 64GB storage / 4GB RAM configuration. There's also a 32GB/3GB option, but considering how there's only $50 separating these two, it can make a lot of sense to go for the better-equipped hardware.
Performance is right in line with other phones using this kind of hardware makeup – devices like the BlackBerry KEYone. And while that doesn't add up to silky-smooth frame rates for hardware-intensive games, it will give you all the web browsing, social-media posting, and video consumption you want without breaking a sweat.
Not everyone wants, needs, or can afford a flagship-class smartphone, so we're grateful to have a market with no shortage of mid-range phone options. But while those budget-priced offerings from some manufacturers feel like afterthoughts, other phone-makers have earned well-deserved reputations for putting our real quality low-priced handsets that have us coming back for more, year after year.
That's very much the case with Motorola, and while the brand experiments with modular hardware for its flagships, the affordable Moto G line has represented a more accessible alternative since its first iteration debuted back in 2013.
Today we're checking out one of the latest entries to this well-respected series, the Moto G5S Plus. With dual cameras and a metal body, does this phone manage to still feel pretty premium despite a wallet-friendly price tag? Let's take a look.
In the box:
Moto G5S Plus
USB standard-A to micro-USB cable
Wall charger
SIM tool
Read-me booklet
Safety guide
Design
A high-quality metal build elevates the Moto G5S Plus out of budget-phone territory
Moto G5S Plus Review
There are few smartphone brands nailing consistent design language like Motorola, and with that big camera circle around the back, perched atop the company's iconic “batwing” logo, it's easy to recognize a Moto phone at just a glance.
The Moto G5S Plus fits right into this aesthetic. The handset has a metal construction, with its back and sides showing off some of that handsome aluminum, interrupted by a few antenna lines top and bottom. The back is dominated by that prominent camera circle housing the phone's dual 13MP sensors.
On the right side we find the volume rocker and textured power button, while the only feature on the left edge is the combination SIM/microSD slot. Up top, an analog headphone jack works to make the case for its continued existence, while down below we've got the speaker grille, a mic hole, and the phone's USB port. Somewhat inconveniently, that's a micro-USB connection, and while we have a bad feeling such ports will continue to live on in the low- and mid-range space for a generation or two to come, the spread of USB Type-C can't happen soon enough.
VIEW MORE
+ 9 images
Front view | Side view
Motorola Moto G5S Plus6.04 x 3 x 0.37 inches
153.5 x 76.2 x 9.5 mm
5.93 oz (168 g)
Motorola Moto G5S Plus
Motorola Moto X45.84 x 2.89 x 0.31 inches
148.35 x 73.5 x 7.99 mm
5.75 oz (163 g)
Motorola Moto X4
Nokia 66.06 x 2.98 x 0.33 inches
154 x 75.8 x 8.4 mm
5.96 oz (169 g)
Nokia 6
Samsung Galaxy A5 (2017)5.75 x 2.81 x 0.31 inches
146.1 x 71.4 x 7.9 mm
5.61 oz (159 g)
Samsung Galaxy A5 (2017)
To see the phones in real size or compare them with other models, visit our Visual Phone Size Comparison page.
The face of the Moto G5S Plus is largely taken up by its 5.5-inch screen, which we'll look further into in just a moment, flanked by the phone's fingerprint scanner below and earpiece and front-facing camera hardware up top – which includes the welcome rarity of a front-facing LED flash.
Display
Exceptional brightness helps this screen stand out
Moto G5S Plus Review
The screen on the Moto G5S Plus is pretty typical: nothing fancy here like curved edges or an extra-tall aspect ratio. Instead, we get a perfectly ordinary 5.5-inch LCD with a 1080 x 1920 resolution. While that's the biggest display on any of the Moto G5-series handsets, they all share the same 1080p resolution, making this also the least pixel-dense in the process. Thankfully, at this size we're still compact enough that it never becomes a problem, and the panel here looks nice and sharp.
Brightness isn't bad at all, and while the limit is a little conservative when you're manually adjusting screen output, in auto-brightness mode the phone's right up there with the higher-performing phones we've recently analyzed, including the iPhone X. That can make the G5S Plus a smart choice for users who will be spending a lot of time outdoors.
Interface and Functionality
Moto software continues to impress with quality gesture controls
Image: 1 of 11
Lenovo ships the Moto G5S Plus with Android 7.1 Nougat, augmented with the familiar Moto Android flair that sticks pretty close to stock while also adding in some fun and useful new interactions. Like plenty of other Moto phones we've checked out, the G5S Plus enjoys a nice variety of powerful gesture controls, including possibly our favorite on any device: double-chop for flashlight.
We also get to tap into the flexibility of the phone's fingerprint scanner for an optional one-button nav mode, treating a tap on the scanner as “home,” and swiping left or right across as “back” and “multitask.” Once you get around the brief learning curve, it's a speedy way to navigate apps without cluttering up the screen with here-and-gone-again virtual buttons.
In addition to the gestures, we also get control over the Moto Display for screen-off notifications. The only slight hiccup for all of this is the somewhat unintuitive way the settings for these options are hidden in the Moto app, rather than living in system settings with all the other controls.
Processor and Memory
Smart performance balancing keeps costs down and promotes long battery life
Mid-range phones have come a long way, and for the past few years especially, they've been powered by some really decent silicon – and while far removed from the number-crunching abilities of a flagship device, mid-rangers these days are absolutely not hurting for the performance needed to get the vast, vast majority of smartphone users through their days without issue.
Moto G5S Plus Review
Here, the Moto G5S Plus runs the stalwart Snapdragon 625 chip, balancing solid performance with some of the lowest power requirements around. For our tests, we're looking at the phone in its 64GB storage / 4GB RAM configuration. There's also a 32GB/3GB option, but considering how there's only $50 separating these two, it can make a lot of sense to go for the better-equipped hardware.
Performance is right in line with other phones using this kind of hardware makeup – devices like the BlackBerry KEYone. And while that doesn't add up to silky-smooth frame rates for hardware-intensive games, it will give you all the web browsing, social-media posting, and video consumption you want without breaking a sweat.
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