Motorola has launched the Moto G6 alongside the more powerful G6 Plus and cheaper but long battery life-toting G6 Play. 

It's a little over a year since we first clapped eyes on the G5 range Plus Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. 

You can also read how the Moto G6 compares to the G6 Plus and G6 Play, but here we are looking at how the standard Moto G6 compares to the Moto G5

Motorola Moto G6 vs Moto G5: Design

  • G6 is bigger and heavier
  • Both have 3.5mm headphone jack 

The G5 range saw a more premium finish debut to replace the rather plasticky nature of the outgoing G4. The G6 improves on this again with a premium-looking design that belies its mid-range price point. 

As with the G5, the G6 features a front-mounted fingerprint sensor and a circular camera array. This time, however, there's a dual-camera inside the circular housing. 

The signature "M" sits underneath the rear camera, and there is a 3.5mm headphone jack on both models, too. Micro-USB sits at the bottom of the G5, but this has been upgraded to USB-C on the G6. 

  • The Moto G5 measures 144.3 x 73 x 9.5mm and weighs 144.5g.
  • The Moto G6 measures 153.8 x 72.3 x 8.3 mm and weighs 167g.

Motorola Moto G6 vs Moto G5: Display

  • The display has been upgraded from 5 to 5.7-inches
  • G6 features a Full HD+ resolution

The Motorola Moto G5 has a 5-inch display with a Full HD resolution, resulting in a pixel density of 440ppi. As with the other new G6 handsets there's some serious size upgrades. Here the standard G6 boasts a Full HD+ display with an 18:9 aspect ratio.  

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Motorola Moto G6 vs Moto G5: Camera

  • G5 has 13MP rear cameras, 5MP front cameras
  • G6 has 12MP and 5MP dual-rear cameras

The Motorola Moto G5 has a 13-megapixel rear camera with phase detection autofocus, an aperture of f/2.0 and 1.1µm pixels. On the front, there is a 5-megapixel camera with a f/2.2 aperture and 1.44µm pixels, along with a display flash. 

On the new G6 there's a dual rear camera - 12MP & 5MP, f/1.8. The front camera has also had an upgrade and it's now 8MP as well. 

The cameras feature modes and enhancements including group selfie mode, landmark recognition, object recognition, portrait mode, spot color, face filters, panorama, manual mode, beautification mode, manual mode and face filters. There are also timelapse and slow motion modes, too. 

In terms of video, the G6 has a maximum video resolution of 1080p Full HD up to 60fps. 

Motorola Moto G6 vs Moto G5: Hardware

  • No NFC on either, so no Android Pay
  • G4 has bigger battery
  • G5 has more RAM

The Motorola Moto G5 has the Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 processor under its hood, supported by 3GB of RAM and 16GB of storage, which is expandable via microSD. The new G6 upgrades to the Snapdragon 450 with either 3 or 4GB of memory. There are two options - 32GB and 64GB and that has to be the key reason for a jump in price - see below. 

The G6 reverts to the 3,000 mAh battery we had on the Moto G4 - the G5 downsized with a 2,800mAh battery on board, charged via Micro-USB as we mentioned previously.

Both handsets support fast charging, which Moto brands as TurboPower (you have to say that in an Austin Powers voice).

As we also mentioned, both have a fingerprint sensor and 3.5mm headphone jack but no NFC.

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Motorola Moto G6 vs Moto G5: Price

The Motorola Moto G5 started at £169 last year but Motorola has clearly decided to take its popular handset upmarket slightly with more storage for starters. The G6 will go on sale in the UK from 2 May at a starting price of £219. The G6 Play does start at £169, however, so there is still an option at that price point. 

Motorola Moto G6 vs Moto G5: Conclusion

The Motorola Moto G6 makes several improvements on its predecessor, mainly in terms of design. The new device is much more premium, whilst also offering a bigger display, more storage, camera improvements and, of course, there's now a dual camera. The G6 still represents great value when you look at it compared to last year's model. 

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