I tested Motorola’s new budget phone and I was surprised by what you get for less than $200

Motorola's low-cost Moto G series has carved out a nice little space for itself, providing bargain-hunters with low-cost devices that deliver big results in a few key areas. The standard Moto G is of particular interest to people searching for a dependable budget phone, considering its usual asking price of around $200.

The Moto G (2025) doesn't reinvent the wheel too much from previous editions, excelling in the ways that past models have — this phone lasts a long time on a charge — and making the usual set of trade-offs you'd expect from a phone this cheap. But along the way, there are some surprises, as the 2025 edition addresses a key complaint with Motorola's software support for its G phones while also producing better photos than I've come to expect from a phone this inexpensive.

Some issues I've seen in past Moto G models remain, but for the most part this new version takes more decisive step toward being the kind of low-cost phone you can depend on. My Moto 5G (2025) review explains how.

Moto G (2025) review: Specs

Moto G (2025) review: Price and availability

The 2025 edition of the Moto G keeps the same bargain basement price of last year's model — $199 for a phone with 4GB RAM and 128GB of storage. It's on sale as of January 30 through Motorola, with additional availability at Best Buy and Amazon.

Expect the Moto G (2025) to arrive at wireless carriers in the coming months. Motorola says the phone will be offered through T-Mobile, Metro by T-Mobile, AT&T, Cricket, Straight Talk, Total Wireless, Walmart for Verizon, Boost Mobile, XFinity Mobile, Consumer Cellular, Google Fi Wireless, Spectrum, UScellular and Optimum Mobile.

Moto G (2025) review: Design

I continue to appreciate how Motorola doesn't just churn out hunks of plastic for its budget lineup, instead putting some thought into the look of its low-cost phones. The vegan leather back that I've enjoyed on recent models returns for the 2025 edition and the camera bump rises up ever so slightly from the back panel. It looks a lot more integrated into the Moto G's design than phones that cost a whole lot more than this one.

In fact, I enjoy the feel of the vegan leather back so much, it's almost jarring to touch the plastic frame, though perhaps I'm more used to using the higher-end devices in the Moto G lineup like the Moto G Stylus (2024) and its aluminum frame. Nevertheless, the Moto G (2025) also offers screen protection in the form of Corning Gorilla Glass 3. Motorola says the phone is "water repellant," which means it can survive a splash or spray, but don't go dropping it into sinks or swimming pools.

You unlock the phone through a fingerprint sensor on the right side of the phone that also doubles as a power button. I found the reader to be a little finicky at first, though the more I used it, the more likely I was to unlock the Moto G without a problem. If I have a lingering complaint about the design, it's the placement of the button, which happens to be right where I grip the phone. Holding the Moto G at my side, I could feel the haptic feedback from the fingerprint reader trying and failing to scan the wrong finger and inevitably locking me out of my own phone. Thank heavens for easy-to-remember PINs.

My review unit came in Forest Gray, which will satisfy those who like their phones in darker hues. There's also a Sapphire Blue option. The vegan leather back does a good job at repelling fingerprints, though the Moto G's display seemed to smudge pretty easily.

Moto G (2025) review: Display

Motorola increased the size of the LCD panel on its Moto G phone, opting for a 6.7-inch screen instead of the 6.6-inch display on the Moto G (2024). Even with the extra screen space, you still have to contend with a thicker bezel at the top and bottom of the display than you might experience on other phones released in this day and age. It doesn't make things feel cramped, but it does keep the display from being as aesthetically pleasing as a panel this large should be.

A bigger problem is that Motorola didn't really address one of the biggest flaws with the low-end Moto G phone — its display just isn't very bright. We couldn't get an HDR reading with our light meter when testing the Moto G (2025) display, but with adaptive brightness enabled, we got a peak reading of 960 nites. That's better than the CMF Phone 1 by Nothing (748 nits) under similar circumstances, though that phone's HDR content shines very brightly. SDR content on the Google Pixel 8a hit 1,379 when we tested that midrange phone.

At least the colors are reasonably vibrant on the Moto G panel. Watching "Conclave" on the screen, Cardinal Lawrence's red vestments stood out amid the gloomy corridors of the Vatican. Just make sure you're watching videos head-on, as the viewing angles on the Moto G (2015) display can be pretty unforgiving.

Testing backs up my impressions of the color quality on the Moto G display, with the default Vivid mode capturing 131.2% of the sRGB color spectrum and 92.9% of the more demanding DCI-P3 range. Those numbers are fairly consistent with what we recorded with the Pixel 8a, costs $300 more than Motorola's phone.

As for color accuracy, the Delta-E rating of 0.23 for the Moto G is a shade better than what we see from the Pixel 8a (0.24) and CMF Phone 1 (0.25) in their default settings. (The closer to zero, the more accurate the colors.) Switching to Natural mode, the CMF Phone 1 tops the Moto G, but only barely — 0.20 versus 0.21.

Moto G (2025) review: Cameras

While nothing's really changed with the camera setup on the Moto G for this year — as with last year's version, you get a 50MP main camera and a dedicated 2MP macro sensor — the camera array is a bit bigger on the 2025 version. One of those new additions is an ambient light sensor while the other is a more prominent flash that doubles as a flashlight. Completing the cameras up front is a 16MP selfie cam, doubling the megapixels from the 2024 phone.

In short, the Moto G's camera setup doesn't aspire to be anything greater than a camera that's there when you need it for taking reliably shareable photos. Given that remit, it's perhaps unfair to do camera comparisons with the Google Pixel 8a, the best camera phone available for less than $500. But that's the device I have on hand, and comparisons with the Google device can give us a better sense of whether the new Moto goes above and beyond the call of duty when capturing photos.

The Moto G certainly gets off to a good start with this photo of some huevos rancheros. I've been using the Pixel 8a for a lot of photo face-offs lately, and I've noticed that Google's photo processing tools sometimes give images a blue cast, especially when there's a lot of light streaming in from windows. As a result, the colors are a bit too cool in the Pixel 8a's rendition of this breakfast dish.

In contrast, the Moto G produces a whiter fried egg, topped by more colorful drizzles of salsa. You can see greater detail in the corn tortillas, too.

Curiously, sun and shadow proves to be a bit of a curveball for Motorola's cameras, as we can see in this look at a carved statue. The right half of the rancher's face is nearly entirely lost in shadow in the Moto G shot, a problem the more balanced Pixel 8a photo doesn't run into. You could argue that colors are brighter throughout much of the Moto G image, particularly the red in the plaid shirt. But there are too many darks spots in the Moto G photo to make the case that it's better than or even equal to what the Pixel 8a produces.

There's no dedicate zoom lens on the Moto G — hardly a surprise on a sub-$200 phone. But you can tap on a 2 button within the camera app to get a shot that approximates a pretty decent 2x zoom. This mural looks a lot more colorful and detailed in the Moto G version compared to the Pixel 8a which looks a little washed out. (Google's phone doesn't have a zoom lens either.) The Walt Whitman quote on the right side of the mural is a little hard to make out in the Moto shot, but overall, it's a better image than what the Pixel 8a produced.

Push beyond a 2x zoom, and you take your chances with the Moto G (2025). The colors are way off on that unfurled flag captured at the max digital zoom of 8x — red, white and blue becomes cranberry, off-white and navy — and if you zoom in for a closer look, a lot of noise has crept into the picture. The Pixel 8a relies on Google's Super Res Zoom to keep the stars and stripes looking sharp on the flag, and the whole image is lot less fuzzy.

I snapped a portrait of my daughter at a challenging time of day for camera phones — just before sunset — which might explain why neither image looks as sharp as I would hope. I would argue that the Pixel 8a shot is at least serviceable, while the Moto G badly misses the mark. The bokeh effect is not applied with much precision, as it's caught too much of my daughter's hair in the blur. Her skin tone is off too, with the right side of her face taking on an unnatural rosy glow.

At night, the Moto G photos don't turn out too badly, though the Pixel 8a's attempt to capture some decorative banners outside a restaurant look brighter and have fewer problems with shadows. The Moto G did a handle a light bulb on the left side of the photo, without over-exposing the shot, so credit where credit is due.

One thing to note about photos shot with the Moto G's Night Vision mode — they take a noticeably long time to process, requiring you to hold your camera steady the whole time. What might take a Pixel 8a a couple of seconds to capture and apply night effects to a photo will take three times as long on the Moto G. As a consequence, you're less likely to keep the phone steady during photo processing, raising the risk of a blurry final image.

I've questioned the need for macro lenses in the past, and I'll admit to not seeing the point again with the Moto G's macro sensor. While the close-up of a camellia taken by the Moto G captures more detail on the petals with less darkness at the center of the shot, I don't think it's that much better than what I photographed with the Pixel 8a, a phone with no built-in macro features. There was some stiff wind blowing the flower as I took these photos, so that may explain some of the blurriness, but who's going to always have ideal conditions when shooting marco images?

When I tested the Moto G's selfie cam, I noticed that the phone chose to strip out the late afternoon shadow falling across my face. But this enhancement came at the expense of realistic skin tone and accurate colors. Yes, the brim of my hat casts a shadow over my eyes in the Pixel 8a's version, but it's a much more natural-looking photo. And everything from the speckled gray felt of my cap to the blemishes on my face look more like they do in real life when it's the Pixel processing the photo.

So yes, as you might imagine, the Moto G does fall short of the Pixel 8a in most phot settings, and I wish the cameras on this budget performed with greater consistency. But the Moto G does handle color well and you'll get decent photos from it when you stick to the basics and don't try to get too fancy with portraits or close-ups.

Moto G (2025) review: Video

The main camera on the Moto G can capture FHD video at 30fps, while that macro sensor can grab HD video, also at 30FPS. That's not particularly unusual, but what is, at least in a phone at this price, are a couple of video effects features that can put a nice gloss on your adventures.

You can shoot time-lapse videos with the Moto G (2025), with stabilization applied to your footage in post-processing. That means shaky video should be a thing of the past, even when you're capturing video on the move.

Moto G (2025) - time lapse - YouTube

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I gave the timelapse feature a try while walking along a waterfront at a particular brisk and bouncy pace. I'm not going to pretend it's particular compelling footage, and there are a few hiccups in there, but the result is a fairly steady shot. In the hands of a more capable videographer, you could really produce some compelling high-speed footage of a night on the town.

The Moto G also boasts a slow motion mode where you can capture footage and adjust the beginning and end points of when the slow-motion effect kicks in. I gave it a try, tossing an orange with one hand and shooting footage with the other, and the impact of the orange suddenly slowing down mid-flight impressed me when I viewed it on the Moto G screen.

Moto G (2025) - slow motion - YouTube

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Unfortunately, when I exported the video, the entire clip rendered in slow motion. I don't know if that's by design or an error, either from the software itself or how I was using it. The end result is less impressive than what I saw on the phone's display, so I hope there's a workaround that I just overlooked.

Moto G (2025) review: Performance

By now you should expect the Moto G phones to not pack a lot of power, particularly when we're talking about such a low-priced device like the standard Moto G. The MediaTek Dimensity 6300 silicon running the show debuted nearly a year ago, providing the power for midrange devices. It appears to be a modest improvement over the Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 powering last year's Moto G.

Indeed, Geekbench numbers measuring CPU performance are slightly better for the 2025 version of the Moto G compared to its predecessor. The Moto G (2025) multicore test result of 2,107 tops the 1,791 turned in by the Moto G 5G (2024), though last year's phone has the better single-core result. Nothing Phone's CMF Phone 1, which uses a MediaTek Dimensity 7300 chipset, posted better single core and multicore results (2,161 and 6,386, respectively).

In graphics testing, the Moto G (2025) pumped out 8.2 frames per second in 3DMark's Wild Life Unlimited benchmark, topping its predecessor by 32%. The CMF Phone 1 dusted both Moto phones with an 18.8 fps result.

In everyday use, the Moto G (2025) can handle the basic tasks that most of us use our phones for, and it can even play some graphically intense games. The PUBG first-person shooter performed well enough on the new Motorola phone, albeit with a few stutters in some of the cut scenes. I also played Marvel Contest of Champions with some measure of success, even if I've had more responsive gameplay sessions.

Basically, the Moto G (2025) runs about as well as you can expect a phone in this price range to run, for good or for ill. If the phone didn't exceed expectations in this particular category, at least it didn't fall below them, either.

Moto G (2025) review: Battery life and charging

Whatever else you think about the Moto G series, you have to concede that Motorola has figured out how to pack a lot of battery life into its most affordable phones. At any point, you can look at our best phone battery life list and expect to find a Moto G device there — especially now that the 2025 edition of the Moto G will soon be joining that list.

Thanks to the 5,000 mAh battery keeping the phone powered up, the Moto G (2025) posted an average time of 18 hours and 32 minutes on our battery test, where phones surf the web continuously over cellular until they run out of power.

We managed to record that time with the display set to a default rate that adapts between 60Hz and 120Hz depending on the on-screen activity. Turning off the adaptive refresh rate extended battery life by another 11 minutes, though curiously, so did locking the refresh rate at 120Hz, which is supposed to consume more power. Our takeaway here is that no matter what setting you use on the Moto G display, you're going to get multi-day battery life out of normal usage.

For the record, the Moto G (2015) outlasted its predecessor by a little less than 4 hours on our test. This phone is easily the least-expensive device on our list of long-lasting phones with only the $239 CMF Phone 1 getting close with its own 14 hour and 47 minute result.

Forget about wireless charging on a phone this cheap, but the Moto G (2015) does offer 30W charging speeds — faster than both the iPhone 16 and Galaxy S25, for what that's worth. A half-hour of charging got the Moto G to a 53% charge, a little shy of the iPhone 16's 57% mark in that same time.

Moto G (2025) review: Software

Give credit to Motorola for listening to its customers. For years, the phone maker's been taking fire for limited software support on the Moto G series, particularly when other Android phone makers are offering longer periods of software and security updates, even on lower-cost devices.

The Moto G (2025) takes a step in the right direction, with Motorola now promising two OS upgrades alongside three year of security patches. If you bought the 2024 edition of the Moto G, you could only count on a single Android update. Considering that the Moto G (2025) ships with Android 15 already in place, that means you'll be in the pink through Android 17.

Other phone makers offer more. The Galaxy A35 from Samsung gets four years of Android updates, plus two years of security support, though it does cost $200 more than the Moto G. The $199 Galaxy A16 introduced at the start of this year has upped the ante with six year of software and security support, though.

We could knock Motorola for remaining behind the pace set by others with software updates, or we could acknowledge that the carrier is taking a step in the right direction. Let's go with the latter for now.

Moto G (2025) review: Verdict

While I wish Motorola would have used a brighter display for this year's version of the Moto G and while the performance won't wow anyone, these are the sorts of things you expect from a phone in this price range. What you don't expect is a phone this cheap to have such a decently performing camera, as the Moto G (2025) produced some genuinely good images. If it could do that on a more consistent basis, it would be a no-brainer budget buy.

Still, it's a reasonable option for phone buyers on a budget thanks to the longer-lasting battery in this year's version and more extensive software support from Motorola. As with any phone this cheap, you make some sacrifices, but the list of trade-offs the Moto G requires get smaller with each new edition.