Are you surprised the G8 Plus is a mostly brilliant budget phone? You shouldn't be. It was going to take something monumental to screw up the formula Motorola has carefully crafted over eight generations. The streamlined design is now more in keeping with Moto's other phones, while camera image quality and battery life have both taken big steps up over the G7 Plus. That Motorola has managed to drop the price in the process is a big win, too. Even so, there's a lot more competition at this more affordable end of the smartphone spectrum than there was when the G series was in its infancy. If you're happy to spend only a little more (and put up with a heavily customised version of Android), the Xiaomi Mi 9T packs in a bit more bleeding-edge tech for your cash, and the Honor 20 Lite gives camera fans a bit more flexibility for stills shooting. Not quite the default option under £250, then - but you'd be foolish to leave it off your shortlist.
An above-average effort in almost every area; Battery life that goes and goes; Pure Android and decent budget performance;
Not the clear-cut value champ of previous years; Auto brightness can be a bit keen;