I got my hands on one of the recently released Moto G5s.
The G series is Motorola’s less expensive smart phone line.
But as we’ve found over the years, price is not an indicator of durability.
Pulling it out of the box, the phone felt extremely light and I feared greatly for the
safety of this phone.
Shortly afterwards though, I realized that the G5 has a removable battery that needed
to be put inside the phone first.
This doesn’t happen as often anymore.
With most manufacturers sealing everything shut these days, this was a welcome change.
With the battery actually inside the phone and the weight of the device restored – let’s
get started.
[Intro]
As always, scratch test first.
The hardness level gives a general idea of how scratch resistant the screen is going
to be.
The majority of smart phones have tempered glass which means it scratches at a level
6.
Some phones, like the Honor 6X, have some kind of weird weaker hybrid glass.
And there are phones with plastic screens and sapphire screens.
But this Moto G5 scratches at a level 6 which is where the majority of all flagship phones
are at, so we’re off to a good start.
The fingerprint scanner has a thin rubber coating over the top of the pad.
It’s not a button – just a touch pad.
With normal wear and tear I think the rubber coating will keep away most cosmetic scratches.
But even with the deeper more harmful gouges, the fingerprint scanner continues to read
and function like normal.
Another success for Motorola.
Not every phone survives this one.
The 5 megapixel front facing camera is protected by that same tempered glass that covers the
screen.
So no worries about that scratching; my razorblade does no damage.
If we move over to the ear piece slot, it has a thin piece of vinyl covering the speaker,
but it won’t pull out with my tweezers so I doubt it will ever fall out on its own like
some of the older iPhone 4’s used to do.
But if it ever gets dirty you have to be super careful while cleaning it out.
Now Motorola has advertised this G5 as their first G series phone with metal built in.
Pictures can be deceiving and an advertisement is, well, and advertisement.
But my razorblade only tells the truth.
The razorblade of truth is currently telling us that the bottom section of the removable
back panel is made of plastic.
The whole area surrounding the micro USB slot is plastic.
Up at the top next to the headphone jack, which always gets bonus points for me, is
also made of plastic.
The only part that appears to be metal is the center back segment of the phone.
Now one of the reasons I started this YouTube channel 5 years ago was because the best and
most environmentally friendly way to recycle a cell phone is to just keep it alive and
useful as long as possible.
And to make a long lasting phone, manufacturers need to make them durable.
The Note 7 was an incredible environmental fiasco.
One of the many ways to help the environment is to not throw away useful things – especially
broken cell phones.
They are usually worth money and someone somewhere can fix them and keep them circulating.
Never throw away a cell phone – always recycle it.
Hopefully my channel has helped with that.
Long story short, the center back panel is metal.
The camera lens is scratch resistant glass just like it should be.
It doesn’t look like Motorola has cut any corners so far, so let’s keep going.
The sides of the phone are made from plastic.
Even the power and volume buttons are made of plastic.
So I wouldn’t get too excited about this being an all metal device.
The majority of the surface area is plastic.
Speaking of heat, my lighter tells us that the screen is AMOLED or LCD.
And by the heat killing the pixels temporarily, turning them black, we know it’s an LCD.
It did last about 15 seconds before reacting though, and that’s pretty good.
An AMOLED screen, like most Samsung phones have, would turn white and not recover like
this LCD screen just did.
Now the ultimate test of structural integrity and durability is the bend test.
Pressing from the back of the phone, the screen does protrude quite prominently out of the
removable rear panel.
But it does not shatter or break.
The phone is still functional at this point.
When pushing from the screen side, there is less flex to the phone, and this inexpensive
device from Motorola does not kick the bucket.
The screen did stop functioning for a brief second, but a simple turning it off and back
on again fixed that issue.
Since the majority of the phone is plastic, no permanent damage was done during the bend
test.
It is not stuck, bent out of shape the HTC U Ultra that costs 4 times as much.
The Moto G5 passes my durability test.
It might not have the premium feel of a more expensive phone, but it is a device that can
physically stand the test of time.
And having a removable battery will help extend the life of this phone far into the future.
Since batteries are usually the first thing in cell phones to die of natural causes.
I’ll be reviewing this phone from the inside with a repair video in the very near future.
So if you love reparability, sustainability, or just seeing technology from the inside,
you’re in the right spot.
Thanks for watching.
I’ll see you around.