I haven’t done any product reviews and never thought I would do one until now. That being said, this is not a product review per se but the thought process that was involved in me making the decision to buy the Moto G8 Plus. This is in no way a comprehensive review of the technical details of the Moto G8 plus.

A few months back I had written a blog post titled WHY Matters, where I talked about a book called Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek. In that book, there was a point being driven over and over again, page after page. The point was that people don’t buy WHAT you do, they buy WHY you do it.

This quote intrigued me and changed my perspective on a lot of things. The reason you buy a product is not because of the mere features and the utility value that it brings to the table (although that does have a part in the consideration). A more important factor that is involved in the decision process of buying something, is the question of what does having it say about the owner.

We all know that our actions define us. Or if you want to get it from the mouth of Batman, “It’s not who I am underneath, it’s what I do that defines me”. Although I don’t quote movie superheroes a lot in my posts, this is something that I agree with because this is, in fact, the truth. When it comes to buying a particular smartphone, that is a decision that you made based on your values and core beliefs.

So before we begin with the nitty-gritty details, let me give you some background on the type of smartphone user I am.

My Background

To begin with, I do not play video games on my phone. In fact, it’s been months since I’ve played any video game for that matter. So I am not someone who needs the latest Snapdragon processor with the best Adreno GPU, with several gigabytes of memory. That being said I do enjoy using hardware and software that is quick and lag-free.

Most of my use cases with my smartphone would include looking up work notifications, sending emails and texts, listening to music, podcasts and audiobooks, reading books, writing text documents, watching YouTube, testing Android applications built by me, taking Video calls, sharing posts and stories in all social media sites,.. and the list goes on (only while making this list do I realize how much I am dependent on my phone ^_^;). Some deal-breaker use cases include using the Nike Run Club app to track my runs. This means that I need to have a smartphone that is waterproof to at least some level since you never know when it is going to start showering.

With this base-level knowledge in mind, let us get into the WHY part.

Why Moto?

I do not know the exact WHY behind the Moto company mainly because I am fairly new to the Moto game. That being said, Moto has done a bad job of marketing its purpose in the online world. There are fewer than 20 videos in the Motorola YouTube channel considering it to be a company that has its origins in 1928, about 91 years ago. Given that, you can always tell the purpose behind a product from the product itself. Many of the smartphones from Moto stand out in terms of what they try to achieve. When many smartphones today focus on having the fastest and biggest processors and storage inside the phone, Moto phones focus on targeting a niche audience.

What is that niche you ask? Here are my thoughts:

• People who want a stock Android experience
• People who do not want the fastest mobile on the market
• People who like to play with their phones (referring to Moto actions here)
• People who want good cameras on the front and back, but not something that beats every smartphone camera out there
• And finally, people who want it to be an inexpensive good phone

Why G8 Plus?

The Moto G8 Plus is the latest entry to the mid-range line-up of the Moto family. My last phone before purchasing this was the Moto G5s Plus which I can say stood the test of time.

First things first, let’s be real. The real reason a person on a budget would buy a phone is because of the price. The Moto G8 Plus comes at the same price point but as a much more featured device.

First of all, it has a 25 MP Quad Pixel front camera. This is a big deal considering the 5 MP front camera that I was using for my YouTube videos until now. The back camera is not any less good either, as it is a 48 MP Quad Pixel camera with Night vision. Having said that, the meaning of Quad Pixel is that, though the image is captured using a 48 MP sensor, 4 pixels are joined together to form a sharper 12 MP image. So the output would only be a 12 MP image. At the end of the day though the real-world experience is what matters.

Ultra-Wide Action Camera

There is also an extra ultra-wide action cam with stabilization in-built. This is great since I can now capture running moments from my FoV without it being shaky videos.

Here is my first YouTube video making use of this feature:

Apart from the camera it also has a Full HD+ 6.3″ display which is great for watching videos. It also comes with stereo speakers unlike other smartphones with a single speaker on one side. Also, the entire thing is powered by a 4000 mAh battery. Overall a good YouTube binging machine.

I am going to skip the rest of the details as you can find it in dedicated smartphone reviewing sites. At the end of the day, this might not be the best smartphone money could buy, but it’s definitely a product that satisfies a specific niche market.

I would also like to know what YOUR favorite smartphone brand is, and WHY, in the comments below.

That’s all for me today.