First look at Moto G (3rd Gen)

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

London - Motorola's Moto G is an unlikely success story but also a great example of how to create the perfect smartphone for the most number of potential users. Initially created as an entry-level and emerging market model to cover countries and price points out of reach of the Moto X, the Moto G has turned into the company's biggest moneymaker and most popular handset in a matter of two years.

In Canada, Moto G will be available from Bell Mobility, Koodo, TELUS or Virgin Mobile starting July 31, or at Wind Mobile in the coming weeks. Hit jump for our first impressions.

Generation 3 of the Moto G closely resembles the Moto X line in terms of look and some materials. With similar-looking rubber backplates and the same dimple plus camera and flash section looking almost identical to the more expensive lines.

The availability of more colours and combinations as well as the option for some customers to use Moto Maker to create their own Moto G to mix and match colours and accents as well as select various coloured shells to make their device feel truly personal.

Moto Maker variants can allow choice of the face color (White or Black), rear color (10 choices), accent color (10 choices), and add optional engravings and extra shells. The choices are limitless.

I found the Moto G (3rd Gen) to feel more cohesive and have a better build quality than previous versions. The reason for this is that everything is a bit tighter because it needs to be. Moto G now features water resistance and a pretty high-level at that.

Capable of surviving splashing and getting dropped in sinks, toilets (hey, it happens!) and aquariums, the Moto G will survive immersion for up to 30 minutes. This is something that we've only seen on higher-end flagships (Xperia Z, Galaxy S5) which isn't even offered on the Moto X Style and Play.

The Moto G now has a 5-inch display although the resolution is still 720p which is ample at best. The new 1.4GHz 64-bit Snapdragon 410 quad core processor seems to be the best tradeoff between power and battery life. I found my interactions with the Moto G (3rd Gen) to be generally snappy and lag-free.

Running Pure Android without any unnecessary apps, overlays or widgets makes using the Moto G a real pleasure. All of my most used apps installed and ran great on the new Moto G although, coming from a larger capacity device, I'll likely need to pop in a larger microSD card to supplement the meagre 8GB onboard storage.

The Canadian version of the Moto G comes with 1GB of RAM and 8GB of onboard storage, similar to the previous version. 16GB versions sold abroad also have double the RAM at 2GB which is probably a better option for future proofing your device a bit longer. 

The 13 megapixel camera on the Moto G (3rd Gen) is a huge upgrade. Not only does it inherit the Nexus 6's sensor, it has better flash control for more accurate colours in flash photography. 13 megapixels is impressive and generous for a mid-range device and while I haven't tested the camera extensively yet, It is relatively quick to deploy and appears to focus quite quickly.

The Moto G (3rd Gen) comes with an even larger 2,470mAh battery, which should compensate for the slightly larger screen size and deliver the expected day and a half of battery life under mixed use. 

With an SRT of CAN $199, the Moto G continues to be one of the best options for a contract-free 4G-LTE capable smartphone which can deliver long-battery life and which now has been made more rugged with improved water resistance. Stay tuned for a full review in the coming weeks.