Motorola Moto G5 preview: First look

Camera

The Moto G5 has a 13 megapixel rear camera with f2.0 aperture, phase detection autofocus and single LED flash. It can also record 1080p 30fps video and 540p 120fps slow motion video.

The Moto camera

The camera application is largely unchanged from last year and a big step up from Motorola camera app of yore. The interface is well-laid out with a settings tray on the left. You have to change mode with a button on the right. We wish there was an option to start recording video instantly from the photo mode without switching to a separate video mode as it wastes valuable time when you're in a hurry, especially since you can't even swipe quickly to switch and have to fiddle with tiny buttons on screen (which you probably can't even see on this phone if you're out under the sun). The camera app also has a panorama mode and a pro mode. The app will default to the standard rear camera photo mode when you start it regardless of which mode you left it in.

Motorola Moto G5 camera samples

The image quality on the Moto G5 is generally very good. Images taken in daylight had great colors, contrast and sharpness with very little noise and plenty of detail. The images don't look over sharpened or over processed in any way. The autofocus is quick and the tap to focus works well with a convenient exposure compensation ring. Low light images come out a bit dark but look decent nonetheless.

HDR Off • HDR On

The dynamic range isn't phenomenal. Fortunately, the HDR mode helps with this some times. Unfortunately, it can get a bit too aggressive other times.

The video recording quality is acceptable, too. The 1080p videos are reasonably sharp with a fair amount of detail in them. Surprisingly, there is also an HDR mode for video, which works remarkably well. There is also electronic image stabilization available, which is useful if not particularly exceptional and better than nothing. It can be disabled if you wish to reclaim some of the lost sensor output.

The slow motion mode also works well and you get sliders to mark the point in the video that you want to slow down. Unfortunately, it's only 540p and only 120fps, which is only just better than nothing.