Motorola Moto G Power 5G (2023) Review

Motorola touts the large battery and exceptional speakers as the main selling points of the $299.99 Moto G Power 5G. The phone makes vast improvements over its predecessor by introducing 5G, upgrading the display, and retuning the speakers, though it costs $100 more. It enters a competitive segment, with the OnePlus Nord N30 5G and the reduced-price Google Pixel 6a both selling for the same $299. If you suffer from battery anxiety and are shopping in the $300 price range, we recommend the Moto G Power 5G for its extended battery life and fine performance. However, the Editors’ Choice-winning Nord N30 offers a more appealing design, better cameras, and similar battery life for the same price.

A Simple Design and a Speedy Screen

The Motorola Moto G Power 5G for 2023 won’t impress you with its style. The rather plain design is available in Mineral Black or Bright White. (We evaluated the black model.) It has a plastic back with a matte finish that is a little slippery, though not so much that you’ll drop it. A small camera array adorns the top left corner of the phone’s rear panel, and there’s a simple Motorola logo in the middle. The mid-frame is plastic too, which is typical for phones at this price. One aspect we like about the Moto G Power 5G’s look is the 83.6% screen-to-body ratio. Motorola made a sleek device with relatively slim bezels.

The phone measures 6.42 by 2.94 by 0.33 inches (HWD) and weighs 6.53 ounces. That’s in line with the OnePlus Nord N30, which is 6.5 by 3.0 by 0.3 inches and 6.88 ounces. Last year’s G Power was larger and heavier, at 6.6 by 3.0 by 0.4 inches and 7.2 ounces.

Motorola boosted the quality of the screen over last year’s Moto G in a big way. It measures the same 6.5 inches across the diagonal but jumps from 1,600 by 720 pixels to 2,400 by 1,080 pixels. That improves the pixel density from 269ppi to 405ppi, creating a much sharper experience as a result. Motorola also sped up the refresh rate from 90Hz to 120Hz. This is a faster refresh rate than we typically see in budget phones, though the numbers have been creeping upward this year. The N30 has a 120Hz screen, while the 6a has a slower 60Hz screen.

(Credit: Dave LeClair)

We found the screen to be quite solid with decent brightness. Visibility decreased when used outside in direct sunlight, but we could still see the phone enough to use it. There’s a small hole at the top of the screen for the selfie camera.

As for the phone’s controls, you’ll find a 3.5mm headphone jack, a USB-C port, and a speaker on the bottom edge. The combined SIM/microSD card slot is positioned on the phone’s left edge. The right side holds the volume controls and a power button. The power key doubles as a fingerprint reader, which we found to be accurate in testing.

Like many of Motorola’s low-end devices, the G Power 5G for 2023 features a minimal IPX2 rating. Motorola has sprayed the internal circuits with a nano-coating of a water-resistant material. The phone can handle light splashes and light rain, but not water jets or submersion in water. In other words, be careful with it.

While there’s nothing wrong with Moto G Power 5G’s design, it does little to stand out from the crowd.

Affordable Performance

The G Power 5G makes a significant jump from MediaTek’s Helio G37 processor to the Dimensity 930. This is a higher class of processor from MediaTek that delivers across the board for Moto’s midrange handset.

The Dimensity 930 chip has a pair of high-performance Cortex-A78 cores at 2.2GHz and six efficiency Cortex-A55 cores at 2.0GHz. Motorola is selling two versions of the phone: one with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, and another with 6GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. The unlocked model we tested had the larger memory and storage options on board. It’s possible some carrier versions will have the lesser allotments. The phone supports microSD memory cards up to 1TB.

We ran the phone through the PCMark Work 3.0 test to see how it handles daily activities like photo editing and number crunching. It put up a sky-high score of 11,945, notably higher than the Snapdragon 695-powered Nord N30, which got 10,245. The Google Tensor G2-powered Pixel 6a nabbed 9,558, showing that the Moto G Power 5G runs a bit faster.

In terms of raw processor performance, we use the GeekBench 5 benchmark. The Moto scored 638 on the single-core test and 1,907 on the multi-core test. That demolishes the score put up by last year’s Moto G Power, which was 181 and 975. The N30 scored 688 and 2,044, and the Pixel 6a tallied 1,018 and 2,601. The Moto G Power fell a bit behind others in its price range on this test.

(Credit: Geekbench, GFXBench, PCMark)

The phone struggled to maintain a high frame rate in the GFXBench test, where it averaged just 6.4fps. This benchmark assesses GPU and gaming performance. The Nord N30 just barely beat it with 7.8fps while the Pixel 6a’s result of 24fps clearly leads the pack. The Dimensity 930’s IMG BXM-8-256 GPU isn’t a top-of-the-class polygon pusher, so our expectations weren’t very high to begin with. By way of comparison, top phones like the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra can hit 60fps.

Real-world performance is stellar. It’s surprising how smooth and fast everything feels. It’s one of those rare instances where we forgot we were using a budget phone, which is really the ultimate praise we can give the handset.

Motorola’s G Power series has always been about putting the best possible battery life in your pocket. While the Moto G Power 5G offers solid battery life, it actually decreased when compared to its predecessor. The phone has a 5,000mAh battery, which is the same capacity as many competing phones these days. We tested the phone by streaming a YouTube video over Wi-Fi with the screen brightness set to the maximum. It lasted 13 hours and 35 minutes, a drop of two and a half hours from the 2022 G Power’s 16 hours and 7 minutes. We can likely attribute this change to the higher-tier processor, the much higher pixel density of the new display, and the addition of the 5G radio. Even so, the G Power 5G’s results best those of most budget handsets like the N30 and 6a, which respectively lasted 11 hours and 18 minutes, and 12 hours and 55 minutes.

The phone supports 15W wired charging, but ships with only a 10W charger in the box. It doesn’t support wireless charging at all, but we don’t expect that feature at this price point. Recharging the 5,000mAh battery takes 2 hours and 14 minutes with the included charger.

Welcome to 5G, G Power

One of the most significant drawbacks of last year’s Moto G Power was its lack of 5G connectivity. Thankfully, the new phone supports the essential 5G airwaves, including mid-bands n2, 5, 41, 71, and 77. It doesn’t support n260 and 261 mmWave spectrum, though, so the absolute fastest 5G networks will remain out of reach

We tested the phone’s connectivity in a place with a robust T-Mobile signal against the OnePlus Nord N30, as it’s similarly priced and offers full support for T-Mobile.

(Credit: Dave LeClair)

When under strong 5G coverage, the G Power 5G achieved download speeds of 747Mbps and upload speeds of 76Mbps. The Nord N30 achieved 729Mbps down and 78Mbps up when tested in the same spot.

We then moved to an area on the edge of T-Mobile’s 5G service to see how the phones performed under weak signal conditions. Motorola’s phone reached just 1.2Mbps down and 0.3Mbps up, while the OnePlus notched 1.1Mbps down and 0.4Mbps up.

Based on our test results, we can say that the Moto G Power 5G and Nord N30 have similar 5G performance, with speeds in the same range when tested under the same network conditions. That’s good news for Motorola’s new phone.

(Credit: Dave LeClair)

Wi-Fi connectivity is essential, and we tested it in much the same way. First, we put the two phones right next to our Wi-Fi 6E router (though the Moto G Power and Nord N30 only support Wi-Fi 5) and ran speed tests to see if there was a discernable difference. The G Power 5G reached 326Mbps down and 232Mbps up, and the Nord N30 hit 275Mbps down and 227Mbps up.

We took both phones to the edge of our router’s range and ran the same speed tests to see which was better at using a weak Wi-Fi signal. In this test, the Motorola hit 11Mbps down and 2Mbps up compared to the Nord N30’s 9Mbps down and 2Mbps up. Overall, Wi-Fi performance was similar across the two devices.

The G Power 5G doesn’t include any special calling features, but we tested call quality and the phone’s speakers just the same. We found that calls sounded fine for both us and the person on the other end. Things became a little muddier when there was a lot of background noise, but we were happy with call quality overall. In terms of volume, the earpiece peaked at 85.3dB and the speaker peaked at 88.9dB, which is what we expect to see compared to other phones. For example, the Nord N30 peaked at 78.3dB and at 93.1dB for the earpiece and speaker, respectively.

Regarding sound quality when listening to music, we’d call the speakers average. While playing “Silent Shout” by The Knife, we didn’t hear much bass, as is typical for smartphone speakers. Still, it sounded passable and on par with other affordable phones we’ve tested. Motorola really hyped up Dolby Atmos support, but it doesn’t seem to pay off much, as the sound quality isn’t much better than other phones we’ve tested.

Finally, the phone supports Bluetooth 5.3, which offers the latest range and speed for accessories such as wireless headphones. Unfortunately, there’s no NFC, so you won’t be able to use this handset for mobile payments.

Cameras That Do the Job

(Credit: Dave LeClair)

The Motorola G Power features a solid 50MP primary camera with an aperture of f/1.8 that’s able to capture 1080p video at 30fps. Stills bin down to 12.5MP by default. Secondary cameras are sorely lacking here: Rather than pack the ultrawide and telephoto cameras we prefer to see, the G Power 5G has just a 2MP depth sensor to assist with portraits and a 2MP macro camera for close-ups. Around the front, you get a 16MP selfie camera at f/2.4 that will also capture 1080p video at 30fps.

Main camera, indoors, portrait mode (Credit: Dave LeClair)

Main camera, outdoors (Credit: Dave LeClair)

Main camera, 0.5 zoom, outdoors (Credit: Dave LeClair)

Regarding the quality of the photos, the primary camera will capture decent-looking pictures in good lighting. However, like many affordable phones, the cameras struggle as soon as the lighting gets iffy. The same is true with quickly moving subjects; it struggles to focus and produce sharp results. The phone features Motorola’s Night Vision photography mode, but the images captured with it are just okay. They certainly don’t rival photos taken with Google’s Night Sight on Pixel phones.

Front camera, indoors (Credit: Dave LeClair)

The selfie camera is good enough to do the job if the lighting is good. It won’t impress you all that much, but it captures plenty of detail and colors appear vibrant. We noticed a drop in quality and increased noise in poor lighting.

Videos captured with the Moto G Power 5G look good in 1080p. While it would be nice to have 4K video or even 1080p at 60fps, neither is common for phones in this price range, so we can’t knock Motorola to hard.

Only One System Upgrade

The Moto G Power 5G ships with Motorola’s relatively clean Android 13 installation, but perhaps more preinstalled apps and bloatware than we like to see (though most of it is removable). For example, preinstalling games is almost always a no-no, though it’s not a dealbreaker.

(Credit: Motorola)

Everything runs smoothly, which is all we can ask for from a budget-friendly phone. My UX offers customizations you won’t find on non-Motorola phones. For example, there are a number of gestures you can use to perform quick actions, such as twisting your wrist to launch the camera, which will save some time.

While Motorola offers a decent three-year upgrade policy for security updates, the company will provide only one Android OS upgrade (Android 14) for the G Power 5G. While this isn’t ideal, it’s fairly standard for affordable phones to offer fewer updates. You’ll be in the same boat if you opt for the Nord N30 5G, but the Pixel 6a still has two major system upgrades and four years of security updates left.

Power and Performance on a Budget

The Moto G Power 5G is a good budget-friendly phone. It has a simple design with a fast screen, fine performance numbers, and better-than-average battery life, but the cameras don’t impress, and competing phones have better upgrade paths. The Pixel 6a offers excellent performance and packs one of the best cameras for the price, while the Nord N30 5G posts similar numbers across the board in a more appealing piece of hardware with better cameras. If you absolutely need a long-lasting battery, the Moto G Power 5G 2023 has you covered, but if you can give up an hour or so of uptime, the rapid-charging OnePlus Nord N30 5G is our Editors’ Choice pick in this segment.