Smartphones have long outperformed feature phones in mobile phone market mostly because of the availability in low price. Android gained relatively large share of the smartphone market exactly for the same reason. But when it comes to competition, how does a low cost Android phone compare to its competitor’s low cost smartphone?
In today’s comparison, we’re going to take Motorola’s Moto G — the new budget-friendly Android phone by Motorola that mimics the looks of Moto X — and Nokia Lumia 625 — a Windows phone that manages to be within most people’s budgets.
Design
It’s needless to say that Moto G looks 90% the same as Moto X, the first phone as a result of Motorola-Google partnership since it happened. However, due to the costliness of the device, Moto X didn’t sell well, at least not up to the mark the companies hoped for. That’s why Motorola prepared an identical-looking Moto G that manages to pack some really nice feature in an incredible price range.
Although it doesn’t offer Moto X’s complex customization options, Moto G still comes with a lot of brightly colored shells — or back covers — that you can swap to give your phone a refreshing look. Not just that, headphones, flip shell and other accessories are also available in matching colors — red, white, yellow, purple, etc — to show off your true preference in color in style.
As far as bright colors are concerned, there is no doubt about Nokia Lumia’s presence in the industry. These Lumia devices are undoubtedly the turning point of the industry that brings back the colorfulness into gadgets — which was later followed by Apple in their iPhone 5c devices and now in Moto X and sequentially Moto G. Lumia 625 is no different. If brightly colorful is your thing, both Lumia 625 and Moto G will please your eyes.
And not just your eyes, both the phones have a nice curvy back that is a pleasure to touch on. Lumia 625, however, looks slightly more rounded in the corners than Moto G; not exactly what a bar-phone lover would like. But then again, both Moto G and Lumia 625 have rounded corners.
Hardware
Motorola did not deny the fact that Moto G is — and it’s supposed to be — a budget phone. However, probably for the first time in a long time, a low-end, low-cost Android phone has managed to catch reviewers’ eyes. On the hardware side, Moto G not only does outperform Lumia 625, it also outperforms most other phones that have been available at this price range.
With 4.5-inch IPS display panel and a pixel-per-inch of 329, Moto G blows up Lumia 625’s 4.7-inch (bigger) display that only sports 199 ppi. On the resolution count, Moto G has 1280×720 pixels while Lumia 625’s bigger display sports only 800×400. However, it’s worth mentioning that due to the designing of Windows Phone 8, the crappy resolution on Lumia 625 wouldn’t really bother you much. But it’s definitely not something you’d want to compare next to a Moto G.
On the processor front, Moto G sports 1.2 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor and 1 GB RAM while Lumia 625 packs a dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor clocked at 1.2 GHz with 512 RAM. Both devices are available in 16 GB internal storage although Moto G also starts with an 8 GB version. It’s important to note that, Moto G lacks an external SD card slot, something Android users would definitely want, especially on the 8 GB version, while Lumia 625 happily lets you swipe in a microSD card for extended memory.
Camera
A lot of people would swear by the camera of Nokia Lumia devices. But do all Lumia phones offer superior camera?
The low-end Lumia phones do not offer a camera that’s as good as the high-end ones. That makes us conclude the fact that both Moto G and Lumia 625’s 5 MB camera on the back are somewhat the same. Lumia 625 misses Nokia’s “pro” camera app while Motorola packs Moto G with its own camera application, not the one found in Nexus devices, with most-used features such as HDR and slow-mo video.
However, in terms of the speed of snapshots, or shutter lags, Moto G still lags a little behind Lumia 625. So, if you want to take snaps at a fraction of seconds, Lumia 625 might be your thing. But then again, do remember that it’s not Lumia 1020 we’re talking about.
Software
This is where the biggest difference comes in between Lumia 625 and Moto G. Nokia Lumia 625 is powered by Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8. Moto G, on the other hand, is powered by Google’s Android 4.3 Jelly Bean. Motorola already promised Android 4.4 KitKat for this device before January.
Without going into the debate over Android vs Windows Phone, it’s safe to say that low-end Windows Phones have been long praised of being stable; at least more stable than those of low-end and low-hardware Android phones. Motorola’s Moto G does change the fact, as it doesn’t have any noticeable lag with Jelly Bean, and with KitKat, it’s supposed to be even smoother now that Google announced that KitKat is compatible with low-profile devices. That puts both Lumia 625 and Moto G on par.
And that’s when your preference comes into matter.
If you find yourself heavily invested into Google ecosystem — Gmail, Calendar, Maps, Hangouts, Google+, Chrome, Drive/Docs, etc — then Android is undoubtedly the best choice for you. No question asked. If you, however, have ‘privacy concerns’ and prefer Outlook, Bing, SkyDrive, OneNote and other Microsoft products, you would be better off into Microsoft’s territory with Wiindows Phone 8. For what it’s worth, official apps for these services are also available on Android as well.
That means, if you dive into Moto G, you gain access to an already mature app store with enough apps. If you go the Lumia 625 way, you will have access to an app store that’s significantly new and is growing at a really fast pace. But for the time being, you might miss the apps that you most need for your day-to-day work.
The Verdict
Since we do not know what you need for your day-to-day professional and personal work, it’s up to you to decide whether you want to go down the Microsoft way or Google way. These are two separate ecosystem and it really depends on where you want to put yourself into.
Moto Go, or Android in general, puts you in control. You can enhance your experience by unlocking bootloader, flashing custom ROM, kernel, or less geeky way of installing different launchers fresh off the Play Store to feed your UI preference. With Windows Phone 8, or Lumia 625, or any other Lumia for that matter, really, you are stuck with one single user interface.
Price
Motorola Moto G: $179
Nokia Lumia 625: $239
So, the choice comes down to you. You now know the technical differences, you know the difference in ecosystem, you can figure out how the ecosystem can affect you and choose the best budget smartphone that you want.
But before you go, please take a moment and let us know what it is that you choose. Lumia 625 or Moto G? Why, and why not?
