Moto G Vs Nexus 4: Which is a better Android smartphone?

The Motorola Moto G is a feature-packed yet affordable smartphone that can easily outrun other mid-range smartphone offerings from its top-tier rivals in the race. Not only does if offer better hardware but also runs almost stock Android on top, which reminds us of the LG Nexus 4. So at almost half the Nexus 4′s price, do we see the Moto G as a perfect replacement of the last generation Nexus model?

Design: The Moto G flaunts a beautiful design, which is certainly not exclusive or new, but is attractive for its price. In addition to that, it is available in a number of bright and appealing colored shells, which add value to the overall appearance of the phone. The LG Nexus 4, on the other hand, looks good with a smooth and clean design, and looks premium with its glass back. But the glass back makes the Nexus 4 more fragile while the Moto G comes across as being extremely sturdy.
Display: The LG Nexus 4 brings a 4.7-inch 768×1280 pixels resolution display with a pixel density of 331ppi and comes with Corning Gorilla Glass 2 protective glass on top. The Moto G, on the other hand, comes with a slightly smaller display at 4.5-inch with 720p resolution (320ppi), which is both vibrant and crisp, and offers good viewing angles as well. And on top of that, it offers the Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection which is obviously better than the older generation one seen on the Nexus 4. Now considering this, the Moto G in our books has a better display than the Nexus 4.
Hardware: Both the phones are powered by Qualcomm’s chipsets. The Moto G has a Snapdragon 400 quad-core Cortex-A7 processor clocked at 1.2GHz, which is coupled with 1GB of RAM, while running at the Nexus 4′s heart is a Snapdragon S4 Pro quad-core processor with each Krait core clocked at 1.5GHz with 2GB of RAM, which makes it more powerful among the two smartphones, but at a comparatively higher price point.
Talking about the internal storage, both the Nexus 4 and Moto G comes sans mircoSD card support, but offer additional memory on cloud. Both the phones come with 8GB and 16GB of internal storage.
Software: This is one area where the Nexus 4 dominates. Being a Nexus smartphone, it was one of the first devices to get updated to Android 4.4 KitKat and the same can be expected with future updates as well. The Moto G meanwhile offers Android 4.3 Jelly Bean. Having said that, Motorola has started rolling out the Android 4.4 KitKat update, which should be available on the Indian dual-SIM variant too.
Camera: The Moto G sports a 5-megapixel rear camera while the Nexus 4 gets an 8-megapixel rear snapper. Both of these come with auto-focus, flash and other regular editing and camera features. In addition to that, the Moto G supports HDR video recording as well. The Moto G’s camera might not come as good as the 8-megapixel camera on the Nexus 4, but none of the two phones have camera as their USP and are just mediocre in terms of performance. Both the phones come with a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera as well.
Additional Features: The Moto G comes with an array of additional features like nano-coating for waterproofing the phone’s external as well as internal parts, dual-SIM compatibility and others. You can read more about these here. The Nexus 4, on the other hand, does not come waterproof and support single SIM only. Though, it does offer wireless charging support, but the absence of a wireless charging port will not really affect Moto G’s performance or features. Then there is the things about battery – our Nexus 4 barely lasts for half-a-day while the Moto G promises a much higher battery performance, which seems to be the case during our initial use of the device.
Taking all these factors into account, the Moto G comes across as a better smartphone and comes at almost half the price of the Nexus 4. The Moto G is available at a ridiculously low price point starting from Rs 12,499 for 8GB variant, while the Nexus 4 still costs approximately Rs 22,490 on most online retail stores. The only reason to go for the Nexus 4 would be for the guarantee of receiving future Android updates before other third-party brands. If that is not one of your priorities, the Moto G offers more bang for the buck.