Motorola Moto G Power 5G (2023) Review: Close but No Cigar

Every yr, I get increasingly more confused with Motorola’s Moto G collection of smartphones. The firm has been churning out these price range telephones for a decade. Originally, there was a easy development system: The Moto G was adopted by a Moto G (2nd Gen), then by a Moto G (third Gen). Then the corporate began introducing variants, from a Moto G5 Plus to a Moto G6 Play, which was nonetheless logical.

Now, the 2023 lineup consists of 5 gadgets: the Moto G Play, Moto G 5G, Moto G Stylus, and the Moto G Power 5G. Oh, and do not confuse any of these with the 2022 fashions, a lot of which have the identical title. I used to be in the midst of testing the brand new Moto G Power 5G ($300) when the corporate introduced the brand new Moto G Stylus ($200) and Moto G 5G ($250), all launching this month. That places this handset towards the highest of the lineup. While the Power is kind of practical, there are some questionable selections that make it exhausting to wholeheartedly suggest, to not point out the opposite nice choices at this worth.

Power Up

The number-one enchancment on this telephone over its predecessor is efficiency. Due to a lackluster processor, the Moto G Power 2022 bizarrely delivered a extra laggy expertise than the Power that got here earlier than, but the corporate has remedied this. The new Moto G Power 5G 2023 has the MediaTek Dimensity 930 with 6 gigabytes of RAM, and my benchmark checks present a leap—this is among the best-performing Moto G telephones up to now.

I’ve not had points utilizing this telephone for nearly all of my day by day duties, whether or not I’m sending my accomplice a humorous meme from Reddit, attempting to take care of my Duolingo streak minutes earlier than midnight, or taking part in a fast sport of Dead Cells on the practice. That’s to not say you will not see stutters. They’re pretty widespread truly, but there is not any cripplingly irritating efficiency right here. It’s solely when you want to rapidly juggle a number of apps that you simply may really feel a twinge of annoyance.

Arguably even higher is battery life. I used to be capable of eke out two full days of common use with the 5,000-mAh cell, par for the course on most Moto G handsets, although it isn’t as nice because the three-day battery life on the 2020 mannequin. But hey, I’ll take something over a single day of juice.

There’s a 6.5-inch LCD display screen right here, and my huge paws discover it largely OK to make use of with one hand, but it is positively a two-hander for most individuals. I didn’t discover too many faults with the display screen. It’s sharp (1080p), moderately colourful, and vivid sufficient to learn on sunny days (some squinting required). It will get a bit of dim when seen at an angle. While it is good that there is a 120-Hz display screen refresh fee to make all interactions really feel fluid, the on a regular basis stutters you will see when scrolling apps like Reddit or Twitter kinda kill the impact.

I’m going to fireplace off a couple of perks, despite the fact that there is a good likelihood you won’t care about them in any respect. First, there is a headphone jack for the anti-wireless crowd. There’s sub-6 5G help, and I had no points connecting to AT&T’s service in New York. There’s 256 GB of inner storage—kudos to Motorola for truly growing this; most flagship telephones nonetheless begin at 128 gigs—and a microSD card slot in case you wish to develop it much more. There’s a dependable capacitive fingerprint scanner embedded within the energy button, and this telephone runs the newest Android 13 working system. Oh, and there is a charger included within the field.

Power Down

The digital camera is not a powerful level on this telephone. There’s a main 50-megapixel sensor you will use for all of your primary pictures. During the day, it may possibly take some decently sharp pictures. Some pictures are oversaturated, and at different occasions, the sensor can battle with high-contrast scenes, just like the solar poking out behind a constructing. Low mild is satisfactory, even with Motorola’s Night Vision mode. My accomplice’s pores and skin tone at a moody restaurant was a bizarre pinkish hue. I did handle to get a good shot of my pup on his nighttime stroll. (Thankfully he stood nonetheless!)