Moto G hands-on video demo

A £135 Android smartphone that packs a quad-core processor and 720p screen

The Moto G is the latest affordable smartphone from Motorola. In the past Motorola's attempts to dominate the affordable market have had mixed results, with phones such as the 2012 Motosmart and the Defy Mini offering below-average performance that made their smart features all but useless.

One year on Motorola has moved to fix this, adopting the same strategy as its parent company Google and loading the £135 Moto G with a host of top-end components, traditionally only seen on much more expensive handsets. Chief among these are a quad-core 1.2Ghz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor and a sizable 4.5in 1280x720, 329ppi display.

The only obvious shortcoming is its use of Android 4.3 Jelly Bean, which puts it one step behind the latest 4.4 KitKat version seen on the Google Nexus 5. But with an update promised "very soon", this may not be a problem for long. Check back with V3 later for a full review of the Motorola Moto G.