Moto G4 vs Moto G4 Plus vs Moto G (Gen 3): What’s the Difference?

Motorola’s Moto G series has been one of the most popular smartphone ranges in the company’s lineup. The company last year claimed to sell 5.6 million units in the country buoyed led by strong sales of the Moto G seriesalong with other Moto smartphones.

Recently, Motorola’s fourth generation Moto G smartphones – Moto G4 Plus followed by Moto G4 – went on sale in the country. The new Moto G smartphones are the successors to the Moto G (Gen 3) that was unveiled last year. We compare the new Moto G4, Moto G4 Plus, and Moto G (Gen 3) smartphones and see what the major differences in these handsets are. The older Moto G (Gen 3) is still available to purchase in India.

(Also see: Moto G4 vs Moto G4 Plus vs Moto G Gen 3)

Under the hood, the last year’s Motorola Moto G (Gen 3) featured a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 (MSM8916) processor clocked at 1.4GHz with an Adreno 306 GPU. The new Moto G4 and Moto G4 Plus are powered by the same 1.5GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 (MSM8952) processor coupled with an Adreno 405 GPU. The Moto G (Gen 3) came in 1GB and 2GB RAM options while the Moto G4 Plus comes in 2GB and 3GB of RAM options. Notably, the Moto G4 comes with just 2GB of RAM option.

The new Moto G4 and Moto G4 Plus run Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow out-of-the-box while the Moto G (Gen 3) came with Android 5.1.1 Lollipop at launch. The Lenovo-owned company back in March released the Marshmallow update for the Moto G (Gen 3).

In terms of storage, the Moto G (Gen 3) came in 8GB and 16GB storage options while supported expandable storage via microSD card (up to 32GB). Both the Moto G4 and Moto G4 Plus supports expandable storage via microSD card (up to 128GB). The only difference between the two smartphones is that the Moto G4 comes with 16GB storage while the Moto G4 Plus comes in 16GB and 32GB storage options.On the screen front, the Moto G (Gen 3) came with 5-inch HD display while both the Moto G4 and Moto G4 Plus come with upgraded 5.5-inch full-HD display. In the camera department, the Moto G (Gen 3) and Moto G4 sport 13-megapixel rear camera with dual LED flash. The Moto G4 Plus, on the other hand, packs a 16-megapixel rear camera with advanced options such as laser auto-focus and phase detect auto-focus (PDAF). All the three smartphones support 5-megapixel front-facing camera.

One of the biggest highlight features of the Moto G (Gen 3) was its water resistant feature with IPX7 certification. Motorola however has gone back to its water repellent nano-coating capability on the Moto G4 and Moto G4 Plus smartphones.

The Moto G (Gen 3) was backed by a 2470mAh non-removable battery while the new Moto G4 and Moto G4 Plus have received bump in battery and now pack a 3000mAh battery. The new Moto G4 and Moto G4 Plus, unlike the Moto G (Gen 3), support fast charging and come bundled with TurboPower chargers that claim to offer up to 6 hours of power in 15 minutes of charging.

One of the biggest additions to the Moto G family has been the fingerprint scanner which is embedded on the home button of the Moto G4 Plus. Unfortunately, the feature is limited to only the Moto G4 Plus. The Moto G4 and Moto G (Gen 3) do not pack a fingerprint scanner.

To refresh on the prices, the Motorola Moto G4 has been launched in India at Rs. 12,499. The Moto G4 Plus was priced at Rs. 13,499 for its 2GB RAM/ 16GB storage variant, and Rs. 14,999 for its 3GB RAM/ 32GB storage variant.

The Moto G (Gen 3) recently also went on sale via Amazon India, and was available at Rs. 9,999 for the 8GB inbuilt storage model, while the 16GB model is priced at Rs. 10,999.