Of course, there are superior devices available if your budget is a little higher. However, Motorola recently seems to have developed a habit of putting new products “on sale” and either never terminating that initial deal, or in the case of the Moto G 5G, gradually raising that discount. The Moto G 5G has even been as cheap as $300, despite having an MSRP of $400 and being offered for sale at $350 at launch. Alternatively, if you’re prepared to settle for a trimmed-down model from T-Mobile with only 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage, one can be got for even less, all for the weirdly precise price of $222.
Moto G 5G (2022) review: Design
All of Motorola’s current design principles are clearly visible in terms of appearance. Even though features like the robust body, headphone port, and matte plastic shell are only found on the company’s more cheap phones, it would be difficult to distinguish the Moto G 5G from a group of other G series phones. The back of the device features the Motorola logo in the center, a camera bump with three vertically positioned lenses, and letters designating the 50MP main camera. The volume rocker with an embedded fingerprint reader is located on the right side, directly above the power button. While Google was able to install a fingerprint sensor into the Google Pixel 6A’s screen, the integrated fingerprint reader in the Moto 5G’s power button is quick and consistently reads well.
Moto G 5G (2022) review: Display
The 6.5-inch screen of the Moto G 5G has a dismal 720p resolution, which isn’t really impressive. Simply put, details on this screen don’t seem as good as they do on a higher-res display. It is also an LCD, which doesn’t provide a richer viewing experience than an OLED panel but helps somewhat smooth out movements thanks to its 90Hz refresh rate. Using the display to enter messages—something that any of us performs roughly a million times a day—was the largest issue I had with it. When I use the default Gboard keyboard, it frequently registers erroneous double taps, causing me to repeatedly backspace to remove superfluous letters and undesired periods during the course of writing a single text. You can buy this smartphone from its official website
Moto G 5G (2022) review: Software
All of this hardware and software is powered by a 5,000-mAh battery, which has a very good chance of lasting two days. On a day where I used the phone’s screen for just over 5 hours at a 90Hz refresh rate and medium brightness, I still had roughly 30% of the battery left. I spent a lot of that time watching YouTube, making video calls, surfing the web, and texting. On less busy days, when I just occasionally glanced at the phone, I’d finish with around 50% of the day still to go. Although I haven’t performed a thorough battery test on the phone, the Samsung Galaxy A03S, which costs $160 and has a 720p display and a MediaTek processor, has a comparable battery life (but that phone only includes 32GB of storage space; I did experience some performance lag while using it).
Moto G 5G (2022) review: Camera
You should have realistic expectations about the camera before you buy a cheap smartphone like the Moto G 5G. It can’t take pictures as well as a flagship camera phone, plain and simple. Even with these expectations in mind, I was a little disappointed with the Moto G 5G’s cameras. You receive a 50MP primary sensor with an f/1.8 aperture that yields 12MP images in terms of camera hardware. Additionally, there is a 2MP depth sensor for portrait photography and a 2MP macro camera, both of which are not very useful.
Moto G 5G (2022) review: Battery life
Although we’ll discuss it later, Motorola’s charging rates are a different story, but I can’t help but appreciate the 5,000mAh battery. It has the same size as many Moto G gadgets, and just like the others, it lasts forever. The Moto G 5G’s battery life meets Motorola’s claim of two days. While connected to Verizon’s network and surfing at 5G speeds, I was able to travel anywhere between a day and a half and two days without needing to recharge. The performance suffered a little when Spotify and Google Maps were used at the same time during lengthy car trips, but it’s still quite difficult to drain the battery in less than a day.
Moto G 5G (2022) review: Price and availability
You should expect some big compromises when paying $300; performance may not be top-notch, but hey, it’s just that much. In exchange for your $500 investment, you get several worthwhile upgrades and even a few nice-to-haves. However, phones seem to have the worst of both worlds at $400: a basic experience at a price that is much higher than that of the $300 entry-level phone. That pretty much sums up the issue with the Moto G 5G in 2022. It performs well, especially the 6GB RAM model I tested. It has a battery that lasts a very long time; I found it difficult to deplete it much lower than 50% in a day. However, I don’t think it’s $100 more expensive than the OnePlus Nord N20 or the Samsung Galaxy A32.
Moto G 5G (2022) review: Verdict
If you’re just searching for a cheap phone that can store all of your music, videos, apps, games, photographs, and more, that may be all you need to know. The $429 iPhone SE, which has just 64GB of storage, is far superior than other phones in its price range in terms of storage capacity. Additionally, the Moto G 5G includes 6GB of RAM to improve performance, and a microSD card can be used to expand storage. The Moto G 5G’s storage capacity is without a doubt its top feature this year. The phone’s 6.5-inch 720p screen, 90Hz refresh rate, 5,000 mAh battery.
