Motorola has always been a prominent player in the affordable smartphone category, but now other companies have fast risen to popularity as well. Xiaomi, Meizu, Coolpad and Micromax are a few smartphone brands that have become a favourite in the budget smartphone space, prompting Motorola to get back in its game.
Lenovo-owned Motorola launched its fourth generation of Moto G series, Moto G4 and G4 Plus, in India on Tuesday. The Moto G4 Plus brings quite a competition to its rivals in the market. We are going to compare the Moto G4 Plus against the popular rivals, Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 and Lenovo ZUK Z1, to get a better understanding of which handset is worthy of its price.
Lenovo ZUK Z1 and Moto G4 Plus are priced in a closer range. Moto G4 Plus comes in two variants, 2GB RAM+16GB storage and 3GB RAM+32GB storage, priced at Rs. 13,499 and Rs. 14,999, respectively. Lenovo ZUK Z1 is priced at Rs. 13,499 while the Redmi Note 3 (3GB+32GB) costs Rs. 11,999.
Display
There is a tie between all the three smartphones in this category. Xiaomi Redmi Note 3, Moto G4 Plus and the ZUK Z1 come with the same display sizes of 5.5 inches and screen resolutions of 1920x1080 pixels. As for the differentiators, the Redmi Note 3 offers 178-degree viewing angle with Sunlight display tech and night mode. Lenovo ZUK Z1 boasts of anti-fingerprint coating, display polariser coating and GFF whole-bonding process. Finally, the Moto G4 Plus has a Corning Gorilla Glass 3 shield.
Camera
The intense competition in the smartphone market has led companies to offer premium features at minimal cost. Cameras have grown to become an integral part of smartphones and most often become the deciding factor. All the three phones in this comparison have impressive camera configurations.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 sports a 16-megapixel rear-facing camera with PDAF, dual-tone LED flash, dual ISP and HDR and a 5MP front-snapper with 36 smart beauty profiles that can deliver good selfies.
Motorola Moto G4 Plus has a 16MP primary camera with OmniVision Pure Cel Plus sensor, PDAF, dual LED flash, professional mode and a 5MP front-facing camera with wide-angle lens.
Lenovo ZUK Z1 comes with a 13-megapixel Sony EXMOR RS sensor with 1.2µm, dual LED flash, OIS, 5-physical lens and f/2.2 aperture. On the front side of the device, there is an 8MP snapper with 1.4µm pixel, OV8865 sensor equipped with OMniBSI-1 technology.
While the ZUK Z1 offers an impressive selfie camera, the Redmi Note 3 and Moto G4 Plus have good-quality primary cameras.
Under the hood
Lenovo ZUK Z1 comes powered by a 2.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor, paired with 3GB RAM and 64GB storage, which clearly helps it become one of the best performing handsets in this price range. Comparatively, Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 650 CPU, which is backed by 3GB RAM and 32GB storage, and the Moto G4 Plus runs Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 octa-core processor with 3GB RAM and 32GB expandable storage.
Battery and software
Lenovo ZUK Z1 appears to have the biggest battery, of 4,100mAh, which the company claims to offer up to 38 hours of 4G talk time. Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 also seems to have an almost identical battery unit of 4,050mAh, which according to the company can last up to 14 hours on GPS navigation. Moto G4 Plus packs a 3,000mAh battery with TurboCharging technology, which the company claims, delivers six hours of runtime with just 15 minutes of charging.
All the three phones are based on Android, but only the Moto G4 Plus runs the latest Marshmallow update. Lenovo ZUK Z1 has Cyanogen OS 12.1 and the Redmi Note 3 runs MIUI 7, both ROMs based on Android Lollipop.
Add-ons
All three smartphones have fingerprint scanners, dual SIM slots and 4G LTE support. While ZUK Z1 offers a USB Type-C port, the other two phones in this comparison have the standard microUSB charging slots.
Conclusion
Lenovo ZUK Z1 appears to be the clear winner and totally worth the price tag it comes with. Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 has the advantage of a lower price and offers specs that are almost equivalent to its high-priced rivals.
