Moto C Plus- The Smartphone of 2017 But Still Popular in 2023

Moto C Plus is an android smartphone that Motorola Mobility LLC introduced in June 2017. Compared to contemporary smartphones, you can consider this phone as way backdated from several aspects such as camera, design, display, hardware, etc. The surprising fact is, even in 2023

The phone is still being sold on several e-commerce websites. And at a significant rate!

What is the secret behind it?

Let’s get introduced with the detailed breakdown of this smartphone that will make you compelled to believe a classical statement - End of the day quality matters!

What’s in the Box of Moto C Plus?

This device is also known as Motorola Moto C Plus. Unboxing this device is almost typical. But the fun fact is, the unboxing experience will be satisfying to you compared to the contemporary smartphone unboxing. If you are a tech-savvy person, then you surely know one particular thing regarding smartphones nowadays. And that is-

Most of the smartphone brands are in competition to reduce their box size by removing headphones and charging adapters from the box.

As the phone is not the recently released smartphone, you won’t have to be surprised by experiencing it. After the unboxing, you will get -

• The smartphone itself
• The charging adapter (10W)
• The USB Type-B data cable
• A basic quality headphone
• 4000mAh removable battery
• The warranty Card
• Instruction manual and some other papers (That you will never open and read!)

So, what’s the catch here? I think Motorola provided all the things you need with the phone. That indicates there is no need to spend extra bucks after buying this phone.

First Impression of Moto C Plus- Design and Look

The Moto C Plus price in India is 6999Rs. As you live in 2023, the phone will not give a premium feel when you will grab the phone with your hand for the first time. There are mainly two reasons behind this-

1. This is a low-budget smartphone (If you consider contemporary devices)
2. The design language is about four years old

On the other hand, the phone is fully plastic built. So that cheap feeling is expected while you will be using the phone. The back panel is mat finished, which is not a fingerprint magnet at all! That is an excellent advantage for sure.

By the way, I want to express some key points that will help you to get an overall idea of the smartphone.

Oval Shaped and Small Sized

For ensuring the convenience of your using, Motorola introduced this phone in oval-shape. The moment when the phone was released, this was the trend. But still, it is usable as your daily driver if you consider using a smartphone that will allow you to enjoy better one-hand usability.

Circular-Shaped Rear Camera Housing

The phone comes with a single lens in the rear segment that is an 8MP rear camera. Below the lens, an LED flash will allow you to capture bright photos in low-light conditions. The whole setup is placed with the circular-shaped camera housing, which has bright a significant improvement in the design language.

Front Facing Camera with LED Flash

As your selfie shooter, Motorola has added the 2MP selfie camera at the front panel. Yes, considering the megapixel, this is really low. But surprisingly, it can take decent photos. I will share the samples later. The front LED flash is not that useful, but it may help you a little bit to capture your face in low light conditions.

The Physical Overview

Considering the visual perspective, the phone is super handy to use. Compared to contemporary smartphones, the dimension of this phone is small-sized. The positions of the important segment of this phone are perfect as well. After all, you will get the overall setup that is convenient to use as your daily driver.

Let’s have a look at the physical overview of this phone.

Dimension: 144 x 72.3 x 10 mm

Power Button and Volume Rocker: Side Mounted

Loud Speaker Position: Lower Back Area

Audio Jack Port Position: Top-left corner

Rear Camera Housing: Top-middle position in the back panel
Front Camera Housing: Next to the earpiece

Moto C Plus Specification

The Real-Life Performance

After getting the physical overview info and the detailed specification of this phone, you can easily figure out that this phone’s real-life performance is at the primary level as expected. But I want to explain in more detail so that you can make a proper decision before making a purchase.

Rear Camera Performance

What about the performance of the Motorola C Plus Camera? As mentioned before, in the rear segment, you are getting an 8MP single-lens shooter whose aperture is f/2.2. Considering the present time, this setup is inadequate. But it can capture decent photos, as you can expect from an 8MP lens. I have taken several pictures with this device in daylight condition and found the following things in the footages common.

• The color was vibrant but not that impressive
• The images were enough saturated
• Distortion of details
• Sharpness was decent
• The color tone was quite accurate, but sometimes the phone struggles to retain the accuracy in this case
• Dynamic range is average
• Focus hunting issue

Considering the lens and aperture’s power, the rear camera’s overall performance is good in daylight conditions. Let’s have a look at the sample.

Selfie Camera Performance

As your selfie shooter, Motorola C Plus mobile is offering you a 2MP lens in the front panel with an f/2.8 aperture. That means, compared to the selfie cameras of contemporary smartphones, this lens is not capable of capturing enough light while you will be taking the photo of your face with it. That is the story of pen and paper. But the real-life experience was a little bit different for me.

In real-life performance, the following things were noticeable and mentionable.

• Can take wide-angle pictures
• Dynamic range is not impressive
• Color accuracy is not that decent
• Almost accurate details
• Low-light performance is ok (Considering the MP)
• The detail in low-light conditions is not good enough (as expected)

The fun fact is, there is no way to expect great photos in 2023 with a 2MP selfie shooter. But considering the capacity of the lens, it can do a good job overall.

Hardware Performance

Moto C Plus is powered by the Mediatek MT6737 chipset, built-in 28nm architecture with 64bit support. To support the processor, 1GB Ram is set on the motherboard. For making the graphics rendering task done (especially while you are gaming), the Mali-T720MP2 GPU is included.

Considering all of these, you can get basic-level performance from the phone. But for the convenience of your understanding, I want to express this phone’s overall performance from all possible aspects.

• Multi-tasking 

The device can handle light multitasking. But suppose you consider using super heavy apps such as Facebook, Messenger, and  WhatsApp, etc. In that case, your phone will definitely struggle to handle the task. My recommendation will be to install the lite version of these apps instead, if available.

But basic level multi-tasking with this phone is good.

• Gaming

In straight and disappointing words, this phone will not satisfy you at all, if you are a hardcore gamer. For your convenience of understanding, I want to include some points here.

Graphics During Gameplay: Average

Lagging Issue: Highly noticeable while heavy-gaming

Heating Issue: Significant

Frame Drop: Significant while heavy-gaming

FPS: 25FPS most of the time

The info indicates you will not get a seamless experience when you perform heavy gaming with this device. Instead, In this case, you can play games such as Subway Surfer, Temple Run, Angry Birds, etc.

If you need any futher suggestions regarding the games you can play with this device seamlessly, I have made a detailed discussion about 10 games that you can play even if you are high! Check that out!

Battery Backup

You already know from the detailed specification, Moto C Plus comes with a 4000mAh battery as the power backup. Now the question is, how much backup can you expect from this setup? Well! There need some points to be noted before making a proper statement regarding this. 

1. The display size is 5 inches, with 720p HD resolution
2. The phone is powered by Mediatek MT-6737
3. The  display is in the lowest PPI and touch-sampling-rate

All these points indicate it will consume less battery power compared to the other contemporary smartphones. But yes, the display is made with TFT technology, which is a bummer.

On the other hand, most users will use this phone only for calling, basic-level internet browsing, and light gaming. In that case, you can get more than one day of battery backup with full charge.

But if you are a heavy gamer or media content consumer, you can pass the entire day for sure.

Advantages of This Phone

Though it is 2023, you can still enjoy some advantages from this phone that can influence you to buy it.

• 4000mAh Li-Po battery
• The back panel is matte finished
• The whole body is not fingerprint magnet at all
• The Moto C Plus battery is removable
• Suitable for rough and tough usage
• Stock Android
• One-hand usability is great

The Disadvantages

Compared to the present time, this phone holds some disadvantages as well. Such as- 

• The phone is fully plastic-built
• TFT screen in the display panel, which has screen negativity issue
• Only the accelerometer sensor is included in the phone
• Camera performance in the low-light condition is not decent
• The processor is Quad-Core

Read More: Samsung Galaxy S21 Review: The Lite Version of S21 Ultra

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Are you being poked with some random questions in your mind? If so, then read the following questions and answers.

Q-Is a proximity sensor absent in a Moto C Plus?

• The answer is YES. And this is one of the major disadvantages of this phone. The phone comes with only one sensor, and that is an accelerometer sensor.

Q- Is Moto C Plus a good choice?

• There is no straightforward answer to the question. The fact is, the answer depends on your user behavior. In this case, the valuable suggestion should be, list down your needs first and check if Moto C Plus can meet your needs or not.

But now another question comes, what needs can this phone meet? Well, check the following list; you will get an approximate idea.

• Great Durability
• Decent battery backup
• Great one-hand usability
• Basic-level multitasking
• Basic-level gaming

The list actually indicates if you want a phone that will only be used for receiving important calls, moderate media content watching, and basic-level gaming, then you can consider this phone suitable for you.

Q- Which​ is a better smartphone: Moto C Plus or Redmi 4?

• Both are best for different use cases. Considering the specs, both of these devices are almost identical. But from some points of view, Redmi 4 is better compared to Moto C Plus. 

For example, Redmi 4 comes with a 5MP front camera, where Moto C plus is offering you only 2MP. If this issue is sensitive to you, then you should consider Redmi 4 for buying.

Q- Is Moto C plus 4G?

• Yes, the phone supports dual SIM. One SIM slot supports 4G technology. You can enjoy 4G facilities by inserting any 4G SIM in the slot.

Final Thought

As you know, this is 2023. So there are plenty of options to choose appropriate smartphones at this price range. The question is, choosing Moto C Plus in 2023 will be a worthy decision or not?

Well! The fact is, there are very few devices that hold great brand value and offer such spec at this price range. But if the brand value doesn’t matter to you, then my suggestion will be to go for other smartphones that will offer you better specs and performance.

After all, the device is made for rough and tough day-to-day usage. If you decide to play heavy games and capture decent photos, this phone is not for you.