Motorola introduces special edition Moto G5S and Moto G5S Plus

The first line of Motorola's blog post introducing the new Moto G5S and G5S Plus is telling: "We're all about innovating fast so we can always provide the best features to consumers."

This is a company that has debuted eight phones so far in 2017, and today is bringing two more to the table. The Moto G5S and Moto G5S Plus, besides being difficult to say without swallowing one's tongue, are so-called special editions of the already-released Moto G5 series.

Starting with the G5S, it gets a screen size bump up to 5.2 inches, along with a battery boost to 3000mAh — coincidentally, the same as the Moto G5 Plus. It also gains an improved 16MP rear camera with Phase Detection Autofocus, plus a wide-angle front-facing camera with LED flash, along with a standard outlay of 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. The phone is also made from a single piece of aluminum now, instead of a combination of metal and plastic. Unchanged is the processor, a Snapdragon 430, and the charging port — it's still Micro-USB. It's going to retail for 249 EUR in the fall, and it's not coming to the U.S.

The G5S Plus is slightly more interesting. Not only is it coming to the U.S. this fall for an undisclosed price, but it benefits from a larger 5.5-inch screen, up to 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, along with dual 13MP cameras, one color and one monochrome — just like the Moto Z2 Force.

Its 3000mAh battery is unchanged from the Moto G5 Plus before it, as is the 2GHz Snapdragon 625 processor; this is very much a camera play. Also unchanged is the lack of NFC (😢), which is absurd given that this is a more expensive special edition. Seriously, Moto?

Motorola plans to sell the Moto G5S Plus unlocked in the U.S., and will likely have some carrier announcements to go along with that messaging. In Europe, it will sell for 299 EUR later this year, too.

See at Motorola

Daniel Bader

Daniel Bader was a former Android Central Editor-in-Chief and Executive Editor for iMore and Windows Central.