Moto G4 Plus review: Tuned up

Performance

As already mentioned, Motorola's take on an upgraded "Plus" device for this generation of Moto G phones is mostly confined within the bounds of a new camera and a fingerprint reader. There is also the addition of a 4GB RAM option for some extra cash, but sadly, that seems to be the only hardware improvement Motorola has decided to offer.

That definitely leaves the G4 Plus at a performance disadvantage, even within its modest $250 or so price range. The Snapdragon 617 SoC is part of the older generation, you can mostly tell by the old Adreno 405 GPU. The CPU clock speed is lower compared to the chipset that replaces it - the 625. Not to mention that the latter has the major advantage of being made on an efficient 14nm process. The G4 unfortunately doesn't get to enjoy any of that even in its Plus variant.

There are still, however, a couple of silver linings to enjoy, or at least be content with. For one, there is the undeniable speed bonus that comes with using a vanilla Android ROM. Just like the G4, its plus sibling is very snappy while performing most everyday tasks. If you opt for 4GB of RAM, you get some extra multitasking wiggle room as well.

As for the other "win", of sorts, while quite underwhelming performance-wise, the Adreno 405 does, at least support OpenGL ES 3.1. As will become quite clear from the GPU tests, it can't really do much with it in terms of 3D rendering, but the latter is a prerequisite for running Android 7 Nougat. That means the Moto G4 and G4 Plus still have an update path lined up for the future, when a lot of more powerful older devices are currently left lacking any support from Qualcomm on the matter and will likely be missing out on the fresh Google goodness.

The 5.5" 1080p segment is fairly popular and includes high-profile devices like the Xiaomi Redmi 3 and the Meizu m3 Note. We have tested Redmi 3 with both the Helio X10 chipset and the Snapdragon 650. The Meizu m3 note has Helio P10, which sits below the X10. The Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016) packs an Exynos 7870, while the Oppo R7s uses an older Snapdragon 615 chipset. These, along with some other devices we picked out as mostly price rivals of the G4 Plus, provide a few excellent points for performance comparison across the board.

AnTuTu 6

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 5
  131758
• LeEco Le Max 2
  129461
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 4
  85162
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  76186
• Vivo V3Max
  76170
• ASUS ZenFone 3 ZE552KL
  62632
• Huawei P9 Lite
  52768
• Oppo F1 Plus
  51299
• Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016)
  49094
• Lenovo Moto G4
  46949
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (Helio X10)
  45474
• Motorola Moto G4 Plus
  45190
• Meizu m3 note
  44898
• Huawei Honor 5X
  35469
• Lenovo Vibe K5
  33414
• Oppo F1s
  30657
• Samsung Galaxy J5 (2016)
  27487

You can see the power of the A72 cores used in the the Redmi note 3 (Snapdragon 650) in the single-core test. They are about twice as fast as the A53 core of the Moto phone. Then there is the Snapdragon 820 inside the Xiaomi Mi 5 and LeEco Le Max 2, which are both on a whole different level performance-wise.

For multicore performance, however, the eight A53 cores in the MediaTek version of the Redmi note 3 come out ahead.

GeekBench 3 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 5
  5358
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 4
  5166
• Meizu MX5
  5110
• LeEco Le Max 2
  5026
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (Helio X10)
  4537
• Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016)
  4140
• Vivo V3Max
  3978
• Huawei P9 Lite
  3799
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  3695
• LG Nexus 5X
  3527
• Oppo F1 Plus
  3242
• Lenovo Moto G4
  3182
• Motorola Moto G4 Plus
  3085
• Huawei Honor 5X
  3053
• Meizu m3 note
  3028
• Oppo F1s
  2967
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (S615)
  2880
• Lenovo Vibe K5
  2493
• Moto G (3rd gen) 2GB of RAM
  1589
• Samsung Galaxy J5 (2016)
  1437

GeekBench 3 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 5
  2305
• LeEco Le Max 2
  2118
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 4
  1596
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  1543
• Vivo V3Max
  1238
• Huawei P9 Lite
  899
• Oppo F1 Plus
  857
• Meizu m3 note
  807
• Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016)
  745
• Motorola Moto G4 Plus
  722
• Lenovo Moto G4
  713
• Oppo F1s
  706
• Huawei Honor 5X
  705
• Lenovo Vibe K5
  616
• Samsung Galaxy J5 (2016)
  471

Moving over to the GPU, the Adreno 405 did fine in the 720p days, but it always struggled on 1080p. Games definitely won't run at the full resolution of the G4's screen, but will have to upscale instead.

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 5
  45
• LeEco Le Max 2
  44
• LG Nexus 5X
  16
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 4
  15
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  14
• Vivo V3Max
  14
• Meizu MX5
  10
• ASUS ZenFone 3 ZE552KL
  9.9
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (Helio X10)
  8.5
• Huawei P9 Lite
  7.8
• Oppo F1 Plus
  7
• Lenovo Moto G4
  6.5
• Motorola Moto G4 Plus
  6.4
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (S615)
  5.8
• Huawei Honor 5X
  5.6
• Meizu m3 note
  5.4
• Oppo F1s
  5.1
• Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016)
  4.9
• Lenovo Vibe K5
  4.8
• Samsung Galaxy J5 (2016)
  1.8
• Moto G (3rd gen) 2GB of RAM
  1.7

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 5
  43
• LeEco Le Max 2
  28
• LG Nexus 5X
  17
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 4
  15
• Vivo V3Max
  14
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  14
• Oppo F1s
  10
• ASUS ZenFone 3 ZE552KL
  9.7
• Meizu MX5
  9.5
• Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016)
  9.5
• Lenovo Vibe K5
  9.4
• Huawei P9 Lite
  8.3
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (Helio X10)
  7.9
• Oppo F1 Plus
  7
• Lenovo Moto G4
  6.8
• Motorola Moto G4 Plus
  6.6
• Huawei Honor 5X
  6.1
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (S615)
  5.8
• Meizu m3 note
  5.4
• Moto G (3rd gen) 2GB of RAM
  3.9
• Samsung Galaxy J5 (2016)
  3.8

As already mentioned, the Adreno 405 is pretty much helpless when it comes to OpenGL ES 3.1 rendering. However, it might just hold the key to a Nougat update in the future.

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 5
  30
• LeEco Le Max 2
  28
• LG Nexus 5X
  11
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 4
  9.5
• Vivo V3Max
  9.4
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  9
• Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016)
  7.2
• ASUS ZenFone 3 ZE552KL
  6.2
• Meizu MX5
  4.8
• Huawei P9 Lite
  4.6
• Lenovo Moto G4
  4.2
• Motorola Moto G4 Plus
  4.1
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (Helio X10)
  4
• Oppo F1 Plus
  3.3
• Meizu m3 note
  2.5
• Oppo F1s
  2.4

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 5
  29
• LeEco Le Max 2
  15
• LG Nexus 5X
  11
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 4
  9.4
• Vivo V3Max
  9.1
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  9
• ASUS ZenFone 3 ZE552KL
  6.2
• Oppo F1s
  6
• Huawei P9 Lite
  4.9
• Meizu MX5
  4.7
• Lenovo Moto G4
  4.5
• Motorola Moto G4 Plus
  4.4
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (Helio X10)
  3.9
• Oppo F1 Plus
  3.3
• Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016)
  3.2
• Meizu m3 note
  2.5

GFX 3.1 Car scene (offscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 5
  17
• LeEco Le Max 2
  16
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 4
  5.4
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  5.3
• ASUS ZenFone 3 ZE552KL
  3.4
• Huawei P9 Lite
  2.8
• Lenovo Moto G4
  2.6
• Motorola Moto G4 Plus
  2.6

GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 5
  17
• LeEco Le Max 2
  8.8
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  5.5
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 4
  5.4
• ASUS ZenFone 3 ZE552KL
  3.4
• Huawei P9 Lite
  3
• Lenovo Moto G4
  2.8
• Motorola Moto G4 Plus
  2.8

Basemark X shows that even the Helio X10 chipset (with a PowerVR G6200 GPU) is a bit faster. The G4 Plus still mostly holds its own within its price range.

Basemark X

Higher is better

• LeEco Le Max 2
  33874
• Xiaomi Mi 5
  33110
• LG Nexus 5X
  16609
• Vivo V3Max
  15430
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  14717
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 4
  13666
• ASUS ZenFone 3 ZE552KL
  10494
• Meizu MX5
  10403
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (Helio X10)
  8540
• Huawei P9 Lite
  7681
• Lenovo Moto G4
  6932
• Motorola Moto G4 Plus
  6380
• Oppo F1 Plus
  6204
• Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016)
  5383
• Huawei Honor 5X
  5009
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (S615)
  4802
• Meizu m3 note
  4567
• Lenovo Vibe K5
  4263
• Samsung Galaxy J5 (2016)
  2180
• Moto G (3rd gen) 2GB of RAM
  1866
• Oppo F1s
  419

Basemark X (medium)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 5
  35292
• LeEco Le Max 2
  27147
• Vivo V3Max
  26128
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  23643
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 4
  23300
• ASUS ZenFone 3 ZE552KL
  21251
• Huawei P9 Lite
  15754
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (Helio X10)
  15359
• Oppo F1 Plus
  14843
• Lenovo Moto G4
  11860
• Meizu m3 note
  11604
• Motorola Moto G4 Plus
  11566
• Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016)
  11199
• Huawei Honor 5X
  10107
• Oppo F1s
  9740
• Lenovo Vibe K5
  9020
• Samsung Galaxy J5 (2016)
  4157

The Lenovo Moto G4 Plus is definitely fast enough for daily use and most apps will be happy with it. Some would have benefitted from the more powerful A72 cores used in newer chipsets, but it's really the games that take a hit. The Adreno 405 will deliver lower level of graphical effects than what you get from similarly priced 5.5" 1080p phones. This applies even more to the G4 Plus, since its price hike of about $50 over the regular G4, place it in an even more competitive price segment. You can definitely find some extra graphics oomph elsewhere for that kind of money.