Motorola Moto G5S Hands-on, First Impressions

Last year, we reviewed one of Motorola’s new smartphones, the Moto G5S Plus. This time we’re taking a look at its smaller sibling, the Moto G5S. Armed with a Snapdragon 430 chipset, 5.2-inch HD display, and 4GB RAM, check out our first impressions of this device.

The Moto G5S has plenty of similarities to the Moto G5S Plus including the design and build. It has a metal unibody with rounded corners and glossy chamfered edges.

The front houses the 5.2-inch Full HD display which equates to 424ppi. Above it is the earpiece, the 5MP front camera, sensor, and LED flash. Down below is the fingerprint scanner. Mounted on top of it is Corning Gorilla 3 that slightly curves at the edges.

Found on the left is the hybrid tray that can accommodate two nano-sized SIM cards or a microSD card on the second SIM slot.

On the right are the metallic power/lock and volume buttons that provide a silent but satisfying click when pressed.

Placed up top is the 3.5mm audio port, while down below are the micro USB port, loudspeaker, and the main microphone.

Flip it on its back and you will see the familiar protruding camera module, but instead of having two cameras found on the G5S Plus, this one only uses a 16MP PDAF camera. Also found here is the dual-tone LED flash, secondary microphone, and antenna bands.

The Moto G5S may have an outdated design, but it’s a pretty device nonetheless. The Fine Gold color is eye-catching and exudes premium quality. In the hands, it’s solid and easy to grip. The matte finish at the back repels fingerprints and smudges very well. Sadly, just like the G5S Plus, it doesn’t come with a jelly case or screen protector in the package.

Powering the device is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 octa-core processor and Adreno 505 GPU. This is an entry-level device compared to the Snapdragon 625 but it has 4GB RAM to handle plenty of background tasks. A quick AnTuTu benchmark yielded a score of 46,750. As for its software, it’s running on an almost stock Android 7.1.1 Nougat.

The Moto G5S is priced at Php10,999USD 187INR 15,889EUR 179CNY 1,365. Stay tuned for our full review.

Motorola Moto G5S (XT1797) specs:
5.2-inch Full HD 1920 x 1080 IPS Display @ 424ppi, with Corning Gorilla Glass 3
1.4GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 Octa-Core processor
Adreno 505 GPU
4GB RAM
32GB storage
up to 128GB via microSD
16MP PDAF rear camera, f/2.0, LED flash, 8X digital zoom, active viewfinder
5MP with wide-angle lens front camera, f/2.0
Dual-SIM on select models
LTE
WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n
Bluetooth 4.2
GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS
Fingerprint scanner
Water repellent nano-coating
Android 7.1.1 Nougat
3,000mAh battery with TurboPower Charger
150 x 73.5 x 9.5 mm
157 g
Lunar Grey, Fine Gold