DxOMark: Moto G4 Plus camera rivals Nexus 6P and iPhone 6s

Offering a relatively fast, fluid Android experience there’s always been a lot to like about the Moto G series, though early iterations weren’t without a few weak points — the camera being one of them. This started to change with the Moto G 2013, which we felt provided impressive daylight shots, but pretty awful low light ones. What about the Moto G4 family? According to DxOMark, we’re in for a treat this time around.

While DxOMark hasn’t reviewed the base Moto G4 or the G4 Play camera just yet, they did take a thorough look at the Moto G4 Plus. Their verdict? The camera scored an 84 out of 100, the exact same score as the Nexus 6P and the iPhone 6s, two phones that are highly regarded for their high quality camera experience.

Before we go into more detail about DxOMark’s finding, let’s briefly run through a few of the key specs regarding the Moto G4 Plus’ camera package. The G4 Plus features 16M OmniVision sensor equipped with phase detection autofocus and laser autofocus, as well as an f/2.0 aperture and a fairly large sensor size. The front camera, on the other hand, is a 5MP shooter with an 84-degree wide field of view and a f/2.2 lens. On paper, the Moto G4 Plus sounds pretty good, but the even better news is that this camera package seems to live up to its promise.

In particular, the G4 Plus excels at still photography. Video is fairly decent too but not quite as high-marked, which is pretty typical of most smartphones on the market. Some of the cameraphone’s biggest strengths include fast and accurate autofocus, the ability to take good indoor shots even in low-light (though with some expected visible luminance noise), great color and white balance, and solid HDR results – when it works.

Clarifying the HDR situation, the G4 Plus automatically determines when to use HDR. Most of the time this works out well, but sometimes the camera fails to kick the mode in and therefore it results in a somewhat inconsistent HDR experience. Some of the camera’s other weaknesses include a loss of shadow detail, slight blue colorcast on some outdoor photos, and occasional autofocus inaccuracies in low-light conditions when recording video.

(image samples from DxOMark)

At the end of the day, the Moto G4 Plus looks to have one of the best – if not the very best – camera experiences you’ll find on a budget-priced smartphone and is ranked in the top ten for best mobile phone cameras at all price ranges. Of course, those who choose the Moto G4 with its 13MP camera, or the G4 Play with its lowly 8MP camera, can expect a much less impressive result. Still, it’s great to see that Motorola continues to step up it camera game.

Based on the initial DxOMark findings, are you impressed by the new Moto G4 Plus? Share your thoughts down in the comments. Also hit up the source link below to get a closer look at the official DxOMark report.