The Moto G Power (2025) promises long battery life — I found out if it could deliver

Typically, you know what you're getting with Motorola's G Series of budget phones, and that's been particularly true of the Moto G Power offerings. Past models have promised long-lasting battery life in a low-cost package, and on that front, the latest edition — the Moto G Power (2025) — certainly lives up to expectations.

But lately, Motorola has been throwing a few surprises our way with its Moto G phones. A switch to a vegan leather back a couple generations ago has given the Moto G devices the kind of flair typically lacking from budget phones. And I found myself surprised last month when I tried out the super-cheap Moto G (2025) and found it had much better cameras than I'd expect from a sub-$200 phone.

The Moto G Power (2025) is supposed to be a step up from the base Moto G. Does it also contain its share of surprises. Yes — though, as my Moto G Power (2025) review reveals, not every surprise is a positive one.

Moto G Power (2025) review: Specs

Moto G Power (2025) review: Price and availability

The Moto G Power (2025) costs $299 — that gets you a phone with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, though a microSD card slot lets you expand capacity to 1TB if you prefer. Like other Moto G phones, this one comes with a RAM boost feature that lets you allocate unused storage space as virtual memory, though opinion is divided on whether that causes a noticeable performance improvement.

You can buy the Moto G Power through Motorola, Best Buy and Amazon right now. Eventually, Motorola says the phone will also be available through T-Mobile, Metro by T-Mobile, Cricket, AT&T, Straight Talk, Total Wireless, Walmart for Verizon, USCellular and Consumer Cellular.

You can get the phone either in Slate Gray — the understated color of my review unit — or Leaf Green.

Moto G Power (2025) review: Design

You'll get a more durable handset with the 2025 edition of the Moto G Power, compared to past versions of this phone. For this year's offering, Motorola added MIL-STD-810H drop certification as well as IP68 and IP69 water resistance. Those latter specs mean the phone can go underwater and even withstand a powerful spray without suffering damage. That's a level of durability not usually found in phones at this price.

Other design features remain in place from recent Moto G phones, and that's to the Power's benefit. Like other Motorola budget devices, this one sports a vegan leather back that's pleasant to hold on to, and the rear camera array blends subtly into the back of the phone. Top and bottom speakers produce excellent sound, and the fingerprint sensor built into the side power button that gave me some trouble when I reviewed the Moto G (2025) worked flawlessly here.

Motorola has really elevated the look and feel of budget phones with the Moto G series — something that's continued with the Moto G Power (2025). The days of accepting an unremarkable of plastic in exchange for a low price tag are long gone when you turn to Motorola.

Moto G Power (2025) review: Display

I'm used to the displays on Moto G series phones not being particularly bright — that's a trade-off you make for a cheaper phone. But this year's Moto G Power is dim even by those low standards. We got a reading of 521 nits from the Moto G Power in SDR mode, which falls well short of the 960-nit reading we got from the Moto G (2025). Samsung's Galaxy A35 produced an SDR reading of 895 nits while the Google Pixel 8a outshone all those budget phones with a 1,378-nit result.

To keep the screen visible under all circumstances, I had to crank up the brightness and disable the adaptive brightness setting so that the Moto G Power screen wouldn't dim if the ambient lighting changed. That allowed me to stream the WWE Royal Rumble on Peacock in relative comfort, though I had to make sure that I was viewing the screen head on, as the Moto G Power's 6.8-inch LCD panel doesn't afford the best viewing angles.

Consistent with other Moto G phones, you've got a fairly thick bezel at the top of the display and a slightly thinner, though still noticeable one at the bottom. That makes even a 6.8-inch panel feel pretty confined.

At least the colors on the Moto G Power screen look vivid, whether it's the day-glow spandex worn by those WWE wrestlers or the red vestments Ralph Fiennes dons in "Conclave." The Moto G Power captured 136.9% of the sRGB color spectrum in its default Vivid model, which is consistent with the readings we got from the Moto G (131.2%) but slightly behind the Galaxy A35 (140%).

The color accuracy on the Moto G Power matches that of the Galaxy A35, as both phones tallied a Delta-E rating of 0.23. That's slightly more accurate than the Pixel 8a and its 0.24 Delta-E score. (Numbers closer to zero are better.)

Moto G Power (2025) review: Cameras

The Moto G Power (2025) features a 50MP main camera accompanied by an 8MP ultrawide sensor on the back with a 16MP selfie cam up front. These specs are unchanged from the 2024 version of the phone, where camera performance was one of the weaker areas cited in our Moto G Power (2024) review.

I don't know if Motorola is using better photo-processing algorithms, but I think the cameras on this year's model produce better shots on average. There's still a tendency to produce soft details in images, and you take your chances if lighting's unfavorable, but for the most part, the Moto G Power produces reliably solid photos — certainly good enough for a $299 camera phone.

Comparing the Moto G Power's performance to that of a Samsung Galaxy A35, both phones did a decent job photographing this sculpture of a dog on a bright sunny day. I like the darker tone of the Moto G Power photo, though the dog's snout gets a little over-exposed due to the sun's glare. The Galaxy A35 handles that better, producing a sharper outline. The ice plants also stand out a little more in the A35 image.

However, the Moto G Power has a flair for color, which I found out when taking a photo of some peppers at the grocery story. That top row contains both yellow and orange peppers — a distinction that's a lot more clear in the Moto image. The green and red peppers have a richer tone, too.

The adeptness with color continues when I switched over to the ultrawide camera. That houseboat on the right has a deeper shade of pink in the Moto G Power image, and the ice plants are a more vibrant green, too. The Galaxy A35 loses a little detail on the paneling of the middle houseboat, but that stands out more in the Moto G Power photo.

Where the Moto G Power starts running into trouble is when you try out some of the specialty modes. Using the macro mode on both phones, I tried to get a close up of an arum lily. While the Moto G Power captures some detail on the petals, the yellow spadix is out of focus, and the whole shot is overly dark. The macro image captured by the Galaxy A35 looks much better.

The Moto G Power's cameras are at their least reliable at night. A mural lit by a streetlight takes on a garish yellow tone that almost makes it look like I'm shooting the photo through a filter. Contrast that with the Galaxy A35 photo where all the colors appear like they should. I tried multiple night shots with the Moto G Power, and most came up on the short end of any comparison.

There's no dedicated zoom lens on the Moto G Power, so you're relying on a digital zoom when you go in for close-ups. The results at 2x are generally all right, even if I prefer how the Galaxy A35 handled the colors of buildings in this zoom shot of the Oakland skyline. I do appreciate how the Moto G Power keeps things relatively focused at 2x, though the more you zoom in, the more noise creeps into your shot. Use the zoom sparingly if you opt for Motorola's budget phone.

I don't think all the speciality modes on the Moto G Power fall flat. The camera phone took a relatively good portrait shot of me with a nice artistic background blur and natural skin tones. That said, a bit of my beard on the left side got caught in the background blur, a problem the A35 didn't run into. Still, it's not a bad shot captured by the Moto G Power.

I'm less impressed with the selfie cam on Motorola's phone. The image is far too warm, and my skin has taken on an overly reddish hue. The Galaxy A35 takes a more natural looking self-portrait and doesn't indulge in some of the face-smoothing that the Moto G Power indulges in.

Clearly, there are better camera phones out there than the Moto G Power, though most of them will require you to pay more than you would for Motorola's phone. If top-performing cameras aren't something you're willing to pay up for, the shooters on the Moto G Power will do a decent enough job in most situations.

Moto G Power (2025) review: Performance

By now, we should all know the drill with the Moto G series. To keep costs down, Motorola turns to a dependable system-on-chip that's not necessarily a powerhouse but reliable enough to deliver steady performance for basic tasks. The Moto G Power (2025) follows that script to the letter.

In fact, the Moto G Power uses the same MediaTek Dimensity 6300 found in the recently released Moto G (2025), and if you remember from our testing of that phone, you'll see that the MediaTek silicon powers Motorola's latest G devices past benchmark results for the 2024 phones, but well short of handsets like the Nothing CMF Phone 1, which relies on a faster Dimensity 7300.

The telling result is that the Moto G Power also trails the Galaxy A35 in both Geekbench tests of the CPU's power and 3DMark Wild Life Unlimited graphics testing. True, Samsung's phone costs $100 more than the Moto G Power, but the A35 is also using an older Exynos 1380 chipset. Turns out the "Power" in the Motorola' phone's name has more to do with staying power than longevity, as we'll see in just a moment.

That said, I didn't experience any hiccups playing PUBG Mobile, a first-person online shooter, and the Moto G Power didn't falter when switching between apps. If your performance needs are pretty basic, the Moto G Power gets the job done, but don't expect anything more than that.

Moto G Power (2025) review: Battery life and charging

The reason to turn to the Moto G Power over other low-cost phones has been the battery life, and that remains the case with the 2025 edition. Like last year's model, the Moto G Power (2025) runs on a 5,000 mAh battery, and it makes the very most of that power pack when it's put through our battery test.

We set each phone's display to 150 nits and then have it surf the web continuously over cellular until the device runs out of power, as we time how long that takes. In the Moto G Power's case, that turned out to be 17 hours and 13 minutes, with the display refresh rate at its default setting, alternating between 60Hz and 120Hz. That's around 7 hours better than the average smartphone and a 4 hour improvement over the time turned in by the Moto G Power (2024).

While the new Moto G Power's result ranks among the best phone battery life that we've tested in the last 18 months, it's not Motorola's longest-lasting phone. That would be the Moto G (2025), which beats the Power by more than an hour and costs $100 less to boot.

The 30W wired charging on the Moto G Power (2025) got the drained phone to 53% after 30 minutes. More impressive is the fact that the Moto G Power includes wireless charging support, something a lot of budget phones skip out on. I was able to charge the Moto G Power on a wireless pad, but do note that Motorola's phone lacks MagSafe magnets, so there won't be a secure fit.

Moto G Power (2025) review: Software

The Moto G Power ships with Android 15 pre-installed. While Moto G phones used to get a single year of software support, Motorola now offers two operating system upgrades and three years of security support. That's still not as generous as other phones — the Galaxy A35 gets four years of software support with one extra year of security coverage — but it's a step in the right direction from a phone maker that's been stingy with support in the past.

Moto G Power (2025) review: Verdict

It's the same old story with this generation of the Moto G Power as it has been for older versions of the phone — without spending a lot of money, you can get a device that can go multiple days without needing a charge. The extended software support and added durability add to the appeal of the 2025 phone over previous iterations.

But I have to admit I was surprised that the the Moto G Power's calling card — its epic battery life — is actually trumped by the cheaper Moto G (2025). Considering that phone has a lower price tag with the same MediaTek chipset as the Moto G Power, bargain hunters who aren't swayed by the Power's better durability, ultrawide lens and wireless charging support may decide to save the $100 and get a phone that lasted longer in our tests.