The G6, G6 Plus and G6 Play have been announced and look set to take the budget crown once again. The G5 and G5 Plus were two of our favourite budget phones in 2017 

As you'll see, the handsets are slightly more premium than before with a glass-back that's rather like the mid-range Moto X - but there's a lot more to this trio of handsets than just the way they look, with plenty of new features for very reasonable prices. 

Motorola G6 release date and price

  • On sale in early May
  • UK networks yet to confirm they will be stocking

We were expecting the new Motorola devices to be unveiled at Mobile World Congress (MWC) in late February but it didn't happen. The G6 range has now been announced, however, with a G6 release date of the first week of May.

We're yet to see how this shakes down from retailers and networks, but the prices aren't as cheap as earlier versions of this handset.

The G6 Play will be priced £169 (€199), the G6 will be priced £219 (€249), the G6 Plus will be priced £269 (€299). The Plus is a little more expensive than we were expecting and poses some questions for the rest of the Motorola range; it's getting quite crowded with the Moto E Series and Moto X available as well. 

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Droid Life

Moto G6 design and dimensions

  • Moving the design more upmarket

With the G6, Motorola has upgraded the design of the G Series handsets considerable. The earlier generations could be plasticky. That was OK considering the price point but the game has changed and with others like Samsung and Honor giving low to mid-rangers much more premium designs, Moto has had to follow suit. 

So you now get that Moto X-like glass back and designs that - to most people - won't look far off of flagship level quality; phones that cost many hundreds of pounds more.

The cheapest model, the G6 Play features a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner in a similar fashion to the recently leaked E5. On the G6 and G6 Plus it is front-mounted.

The Moto G6 handsets will be available in Sterling Blue, Indigo Blue, Silver and Fine Gold.

Here are the Moto G6 range sizes: 

 

Moto G6 Plus

Moto G6

Moto G6 Play

Screen size

5.9-inch

5.7-inch

5.7-inch

Dimensions

153.8 x 72.3 x 8.3 mm

154.4 x 72.2 x 9 mm 

160 x 75.5 x 8.0mm

Weight

167g

167g

175g

Moto G6 specs 

  • Based around the Snapdragon 450 platform
  • G6 Play will have a bigger battery

The G6 Plus plays on its name as the largest of the three, with a 5.9-inch screen at Full HD+ resolution. It boasts a 3,200mAh battery too. 

The G6 has a smaller 5.7-inch screen size - the same as the third handset, the G6 Play, but with the same Full HD+ resolution as the G6 Plus. It's got a slightly smaller battery, too at 3,000mAh - it isn't as physically big, after all. 

The G6 Play is the cheapest and most basic model with the same size 5.7-inch display as the standard G6 but with a 720p HD+ resolution instead. The Play does have a large 4,000mAh battery though.

Motorola Moto G6 specs news and release date plus G6 Plus and G6 Play Everything we know so far image 4
Droid Life

Motorola usually reserves the "Play" brand for phones with a long battery life so we were expecting this. All three phones will have 18:9 aspect ratio displays.

There are other ways that the G6 Play skimps on features to hit its low price point - it doesn't have USB-C, for example, while the other two do (microUSB instead). It also only has a single rear camera, while the others have dual cameras. 

The G6 Plus is the most powerful in terms of platform used, opting for the octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 630 and 4 or 6GB of memory. Storage is 128GB. Indeed, the G6 Plus' prowess extends to other specs as well; it has Bluetooth 5.0 while the others stick with 4.2, for example. Shame it doesn't have the massive battery from the G6 Play. 

The standard G6 has either 3 or 4 GB of memory and 32 or 64GB of storage. It's based around the Snapdragon 450, while the G6 Play opts for the Snapdragon 430 and has 3GB of memory and 32GB of storage. 

All three handsets deliver a bunch of other features, including a 3.5mm headphone jack and splash-proof build. All have expandable microSD storage, too. The phones also run Android 8.0 Oreo and feature Moto TurboPower fast charging. 

Moto G6 cameras

  • Dual cameras for the two more expensive models

The most obvious change from the G5 smartphones is the addition of a dual-lens rear camera for the G6 and G6 Plus, both of which protrude from the back panel in a similar way to the Moto X4

Cameras range from a single 13MP snapper in the Play, to a dual rear camera system in the G6 (12MP & 5MP, f/1.8), and a more advanced dual camera (12MP & 5MP, f/1.7, like in the Moto X) in the G6 Plus. 

Motorola Moto G6 Specs News And Release Date Plus G6 Plus And G6 Play Everything We Know So Far image 2
Pocket-lint

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 depending on the model.

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

Now why not check out Moto X5 news, rumours and release date: everything you need to know