Motorola has been on a roll lately, releasing a flurry of devices in its relatively new One series. The Moto One Vision, One Action, One Zoom, and One Macro were all released in the span of half a year, making a strong statement in the mid-range niche across the globe. Well, Motorola today announced the Moto G8 Plus, which is technically not a member of its One family, but carries some very strong DNA resemblances to all aforementioned devices. We’ve had a unit on us for a few hours already and are ready to share our initial impressions!

Design & Display

Starting off with the design, Motorola has not swayed from the tried and proven design formula introduced with the One Vision – a fully plastic body with spell-binding paint job, a rear capacitive fingerprint scanner, and a notched display is what you get. Despite the lack of any “premium” build materials, the device feels great in the hands and is sufficiently grippy. It’s a bit on the thicker side, but I actually prefer it that way as it has a satisfying heft to it. We got he Cosmic Blue version, and while it’s definitely a fingerprint magnet, it’s definitely nice to look at, especially when hit by sun rays at a certain angle.

Interface and functionality

Alas, the Moto G8 Plus comes with Android 9 out of the box. That’s a shame considering that Android 10 has been out for nearly two months already, but what can you do. Speaking of the interface, it has all the nifty bells of Motorola phones – Moto Actions, Moto Display, Attentive Display (keeps it on as long as you’re looking at it), and many others are part of the software experience. I find them quite useful, but something I don’t like are Moto’s custom gestures – they utilize a single bottom-positioned pill button that is used to go back, access your recent apps, switch between your last two used apps, and so on. I find this implementation inferior to just about any other gesture-based interface, and its only saving grace is the fact that the pill takes less space on your screen than the default three-button navigation. Hopefully, all this will change once Android 10 rolls out.

Performance

Camera

Despite having three camera sensors at the rear, the Moto G8 Plus doesn’t allow you to shoot ultra wide-angle or telephoto images. The main camera has a 48MP camera with the very large aperture of f/1.7 and quad-pixel technology, while the other two cameras are a 5MP depth sensor and a ultra-wide action video cam that has the very nifty ability of letting you shoot landscape videos while you’re holding the phone in portrait orientation. You know, just like the stuff we saw on the Moto One Action. Cinemagraphs, Slow-Mo videos, Spot Color, and many other different camera modes are available here as well.

How do the images turn out? We’ll let them speak for themselves.

Expectations

I’m liking the G8 Plus so far. It’s embodying all the best aspects of both the Moto G series of old and the new One series, pairing a very affordable price tag of EUR269 with an intriguing yet not very versatile camera setup, not-too-shabby performance, and modern design. However, the device struggles from a slight identity crisis – despite donning the Moto G8 Plus name, it strikes me as more akin to being a Moto One Action Plus of sorts. The display is a bit underwhelming, but overall, not a bad device for the relatively low price tag.