A few years ago, it was easy to answer the question "what budget smartphone should I buy". For years, the answer was always Motorola’s G series. The Moto G has long been the Toyota Corolla of smartphones; inexpensive, well built, reliable. But after testing ever phone under $500 I could get my hands on, I think there is a new winner in the category.

Motorola still make fantastic mid- to-low end phones, but it's facing stiff competition. For the last few years, it's been out marketed by flashier iPhone-inspired Chinese handsets from Oppo and Huawei, which offer better looking hardware and often superior cameras.

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This new breed of midrange phones aren't for everyone. Huawei of course, faces some pretty tough scrutiny these days, warranted or not. Oppo's hardware always feels better designed than its price suggests, but I can never get past the blatant rip off of iOS software; it just makes the handsets confused and confusing to use.

Motorola can lean on brand recognition and their reliability; the hardware never fails, and unlike many Android based phones Motorola continues to push out software and security updates to their handsets. But even here, Motorola might be in trouble.