Thanks to intense competition in the segment, there’s no shortage of well-rounded mid-range smartphones in the market today. And of these, Moto G5S Plus is definitely one of the best handsets out there.
Riding on the success of the G5S Plus, Lenovo-owned Motorola recently launched a new smartphone – the X4. With a starting price of Rs 20,999, Moto X4 is a bit more expensive than Moto G5S Plus. That said, it also comes with a lot of extras such as IP68 rating and premium glass construction.
As far as the cameras go, Moto X4 includes a dual-camera setup at the back. But is it really any good? In other words, if you don’t really care about things like glass design and just want a mid-range smartphone that offers a good photography experience, should you just get the G5S Plus, or stretch your budget a little and go for the X4?
Read our detailed camera comparison of Moto X4 and Moto G5S Plus to find out.
Camera Specifications
| Moto G5S Plus | Moto X4 | |
| Rear | Dual 13 MP + 13MP, f/2.0, AF, Dual-LED flash | Dual 12MP (f/2.0, PDAF) + 8MP (f/2.2, No AF), Dual-LED flash |
| Front | 8MP, f/2.0, LED flash | 16MP, f/2.0, LED flash |
As it’s obvious from the table detailed above, the cameras on Moto G5S Plus and Moto X4 differ quite a bit.
It’s worth noting that both smartphones offer full manual mode that can be used to tweak everything from ISO values to White Balance. For our test run, we stuck with the default (Auto) settings only.
DAYLIGHT IMAGES
Images captured in daylight conditions from both smartphones come out to be very good. There is sufficient amount of detail visible when the images are not zoomed in. However, zooming in to 100% reveals the differences in image quality.
Without zooming in, Moto G5S Plus’ photos appear to be better. However, zooming in on the photos turns things into Moto X4’s favor. The camera(s) on the X4 do a much better job at capturing fine details and colors. And even though the G5S Plus’ images aren’t bad, daylight photos from the X4 are definitely better overall.
Winner: Moto X4
HIGH DYNAMIC RANGE (HDR) IMAGES
In this case too, directly looking at the photos side-by-side doesn’t reveal much. So we zoomed in our test shots to spot the differences.
Moto G5S Plus does capture details in HDR images well, but not better than Moto X4. High Dynamic Range photos taken by Moto X4 come out to have very good levels of sharpness and look very bright. We found details and color reproduction to be proper too. Unfortunately, both smartphones often tend to overexpose lighter areas of images with HDR mode enabled.
Winner: Moto X4
LOW LIGHT IMAGES
There’s no need to zoom in to draw a conclusion as to which one of Moto X4 and Moto G5S Plus performs better in low-light conditions.
As is visible in the comparative shots above, the Moto X4 is better. The smartphone’s cameras produce very good low-light images. Ample amount of details and realistic color production are visible. Unfortunately, there’s a noticeable amount of noise in the shots.
Moto G5S Plus, on the other hand, fails to capture details in dimly-lit conditions as well as Moto X4 does. Some areas in the photos look washed out and colors appear overexposed. Though it’s worth mentioning that noise levels aren’t really that high.
Winner: Moto X4
SELFIES
Considering how just about everyone out there loves taking selfies, any comparative review of smartphone cameras can’t be considered complete without taking into account the selfie shooters.
As you can see in the comparative selfies above, the X4’s front-facing camera is way better than that of the G5S Plus. Whether we talk about the normal mode or the ‘beauty’ mode, Moto X4 wins over Moto G5S Plus with flying colors. The former’s selfie camera is capable of capturing amazing-looking images that don’t show too much distortion, even after zooming in. Details are preserved as well.
On the other hand, Moto G5S Plus’s front-facing snapper manages just about average selfies. Resulting images aren’t very bright and lack saturation. The ‘beauty’ mode does add some enhancements, but they aren’t enough to take on the selfies managed by the X4.
Winner: Moto X4
CONLCUSION
Both Moto G5S Plus and Moto X4 are good all-rounders. The G5S Plus is certainly one of the best (overall) smartphones currently available under Rs 20,000. And while the X4 does go over the Rs 20K mark, its camera experience is certainly better than that of the G5S Plus. Then of course, there are other things like premium-looking design and IP68 rating as well.
So if you’re looking for a mid-range smartphone that offers a good imaging experience, which one of the two you should go for? The answer is simple – Moto X4.
Compared to Moto G5S Plus, Moto X4 produces better photos with better details, sharpness and more realistic colors. Even the front camera on the Moto X4 is also better than that on the Moto G5S Plus. And we think it’s certainly worth the extra cash.
Which one of Moto X4 and Moto G5S Plus do you like better? Do let us know in the comments below.