Motorola returned to the handset business, late   last year  after a  brief hiatus -- and the Moto G was the low key message that announced its Second Coming: a phone that put all the razzmatazz of  its earlier Razr days behind it and  settled for what we in India would call paisa vasool  or value  for money. The MotoG is a good phone with those with  upwardly mobile aspirations  who want to graduate from a feature phone to a big brand smart phone without   having to pay a stiff upgrade price.
It is generally recognized in India that Rs 10,000 is a sort of  lakshman rekha beyond which  many millions of  phone users cannot afford to look  no matter how attractive the product.  Currently available at  many online stores At Rs 12,499 for the 8G version, the MotoG is just shy of this  number but I'm guessing, prices will fall some more, now that the pricier Moto X has hit the shops.
The MotoG is well powered for its class of smartphone -- the Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 1.2 GHz quad core chip  allows a level of multi processing that  is usually demanded by more productivity-oriented smartphones.  The Dual SIM and dual camera may not cause too  many gasps these days -- but the 5 megapixel rear camera  comes with Flash -- a rarity in many pricier makes( there is a 1.3 MP front camera).
The 720 p HD display is crisp and using my   5 MBPS Wifi network I got  smooth video at best YouTube qualities.
The in-built  storage  is either 8 GB or 16 GB  and the RAM is 1 GB but the absence of a micro SD slot for expansion is rather strange. One can run out of storage pretty  fast with  today's heavy video files.
As smart phones today go, the MotoG is surprisingly  small  and light and the Android 4.3 OS opens the door to a host of additional apps.
Indian phones  are giving global brands  a good run for their money with aggressively priced  smartphones. But I think Motorola  will find enthusiasm even in this end of the market with its  global reputation for quality. MotoG won't  let them down.

Anand Parthasarathy/ May 2 2014