Lenovo launched the much awaited Moto G5 Plus smartphone in India today, at an event held in New Delhi. The Chinese phone-maker is banking on the mid-range smartphone in the competitive Indian market. The two variants of the device are priced at ₹14,999 and ₹16,999.
Originally launched at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona last month, the Moto G5 Plus is an incremental update over the Moto G4 without too many changes. One noticeable difference is the new phone's metal body, replacing the plastic body in the earlier iteration. There are also subtle differences in design. The look of the rear camera casing and the front fingerprint sensor are more in line with Moto Z's design. The company has made the phone 7 mm thin.
The G5 Plus has a 5.2-inch full HD LCD screen powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor, that can also be found in the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 and the Blackberry KeyOne. The G5 Plus has 3 GB of RAM and 16 GB of internal memory. There is another variant with 4 GB RAM and 32 GB internal memory as well. The lower end variant is priced at ₹14,999 and the higher end variant is priced at ₹16,999. The storage is expandable till 128 GB through MicroSD card.
The phone has a 5 MP front camera and its rear camera gets an improved 12 MP sensor with a f/1.7 aperture for supporting low light photography. It also has a dual pixel autofocus for faster capturing. The G5 Plus packs a 3,000 mAh battery which supports turbocharging, but doesn't have a USB C port.
The G5 Plus will come with Android Nougat 7.0 out of the box, which means that it can host Google Assistant. It would also have signature Moto experience software tweaks such as shake for the camera.
The phone will be available exclusively on Flipkart with a buyback guarantee offer. The sale begins tonight at 11.59 PM. The e-commerce portal is offering various launch day offers including a free pair of Moto Pulse 2 headphone.
In what is becoming a neck and neck race with rival Xiaomi, the Moto G5 Plus is Motorola's big bet to keep Lenovo at the second spot in the Indian smartphone market. Xiaomi already has a head start, having launched the Redmi Note 4 in January and selling a million units in a short span of time.