As technology develops, software evolves to take advantage of new features and capabilities, and older devices become obsolete and slow – or maybe simply won’t work at all.
My HTC One M9 is now nearly five years old, but still quite quick and, crucially, still has enough headroom in its 32gb of storage for what I want to put on it (I use an SD card for music and photos). However, the battery has become unreliable and going out for a day without an external power pack is not a good idea. Time for an upgrade.
Given that 32gb, an octa-core processor and 3gb of RAM do me just fine, did I need an equivalent flagship costing the wrong side of £600? Looking at present-day specs, I thought not. I’ve been looking at alternatives for some time and eventually landed on the Moto G range, which has always had a good reputation. Just as I was preparing to get the credit card out, along came the Moto G8 Plus. It has 64gb of storage, a similar octa-core processor and 4gb of RAM – so, even though a step backwards in terms of range, it would still be an upgrade on the HTC and, at £239.99, not a bank-breaker.
It’s early days yet, but I’m impressed. It’s definitely at least a sprightly as the HTC, and probably a little more so. Would it keep up with your one-grand monster? Probably not. Would it stumble of games? No idea – I only play FreeCell. Is the camera top-flight? Not according to the reviews I’ve read and I haven’t used it in anger yet, but since I use an SLR for serious stuff, I’d be surprised if it isn’t perfectly satisfactory. The front and back are plastic – there’s no glass or metal, but I keep my phones in a wallet case, so I think it’ll survive.
What does impress is the light touch to the Moto-isation. It’s almost pure Android – you don’t get a branded media player or gallery, for instance, but the payback is a heck of a lot of your 64gb real estate left. I’m rattling around in it. There is, though, a Moto app that allows a lot of personalisation of layouts and gestures and this makes it possible to set quite a few things the way you like them. No–one seems to offer the swipe-to-unlock of the HTC*, but with a fingerprint reader (very quick to react), this is perhaps obsolete anyway. You can also choose between one and three-button navigation – I’m sticking to three, but have a feeling I may switch to one eventually. You can also choose between a link to the app drawer in the dock at the bottom of the screen or a fifth app pinned there. As I’m used to swiping up on the HTC to get at the app drawer, I’ve gone for the extra icon.
Included items are a reasonably powerful charger (it’s plug-in only – don’t expect a wireless option for this price!) and a gel case/cover. There are no headphones, but you’ve got a drawerful of those already, haven’t you? Oh, and it comes with Android 9 (Pie) out of the box.
The device is very new and not a lot of shops have stock yet, so you may need to go online to buy one. Also, don’t expect any discounts or incentives this early in the model life.
If you’re looking for a practical phone that won’t be subject to industrial-scale app usage, but also won’t break the bank, it’s looking good so far.
* Turns out the G8 does have a form of that after all.
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