While not as flashy as flagship phone announcements, it’s always worth keeping an eye out for new phones in the budget range that are released. Motorola was the long-time king in this space, but was nearly dethroned by manufacturers like Samsung and OnePlus, with particularly strong efforts at the budget market.
So while he may no longer be the only king, that doesn’t mean he’s throwing in the towel. In fact, far from it. Motorola has announced his two new smartphones under $300, Moto G Power 5G (2024) and Moto G 5G (2024). Here’s everything you need to know.
Moto G Power 5G (2024)
Leading the way is Motorola Moto G Power 5G (2024). While far from the tech powerhouses at the other end of the price spectrum, Motorola put up a strong fight and packed in some great features you’d expect from a $300 smartphone.
Let’s start with the phone’s namesake feature: the battery. The G Power (like the Moto G below) benefits from a huge 5,000mAh battery cell, and when combined with the lower power specs, the battery life is: day to dayIt’s not time. But that hasn’t changed much from last year. have What has changed is the charging speed. Motorola got a little mad and threw in 30W fast charging support. This is faster than the charging speed of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 or Galaxy S24. That’s slightly faster than the Apple iPhone 15 Pro. Motorola also introduced his 15W wireless charging. The charger only delivers 10W out of the box, but it’s worth investing in a faster charger to increase speed.
Design-wise, these hardly pass for more expensive phones, but they’re still pretty good. The new Moto G Power has a vegan leather back, and while the bezels are thicker than most other phones (there’s quite a chin under the display), it still looks reasonably good. The G Power also comes with its most premium port, his 3.5 mm headphone jack. The display is a 6.7-inch LCD panel with a resolution of 2400 x 1080 and an adaptive refresh rate of 60-120Hz.
Powering the phone is a Dimensity 7020 processor, so its dynamic refresh rate likely won’t be as smooth as a more powerful phone, and while it’s probably capable, it won’t be comparable to flagship processors. I don’t. Still, when combined with 8 GB of RAM, you get good performance, especially when used with Motorola’s RAM Boost, which uses up to 8 GB of storage as additional RAM. When it comes to storage, the Moto G Power 5G comes with 128GB, which is quite a number.
Cameras on cheap phones can be hit or miss, and you won’t know what the Moto G Power 5G’s camera will be like until you use it. However, the 50-megapixel main lens is certainly a good sign, and uses quad-pixel technology to further enhance the light reaching the camera. It comes with an 8MP ultra-wide-angle lens, which may or may not be worth it. Historically, adding extra lenses to cheap phones tends to be a bit of a waste, but we’ll have to wait and see.
Motorola Moto G Power 5G (2024) will launch with Android 14, but it is unclear whether there will be further updates after that. Prices are also reasonable, starting from $300. Moto G Power 5G (2024) will go on sale from March 22nd in Cricket and will be available elsewhere thereafter. It will be available for purchase unlocked starting March 29th.
Moto G 5G (2024)
The Motorola Moto G 5G (2024) is the second of two new Motorola devices, but don’t make the mistake of thinking this means it’s smaller. At just $200, the Moto G 5G is affordable and well-positioned to dominate the budget cell phone market.
In many ways, the Moto G 5G is the Moto G Power above, but slightly toned down. But that’s not a bad thing. Because Motorola simply abandoned an element that wouldn’t be greatly missed. For example, the Moto G has a 50MP main lens as its more expensive sibling, but lacks its additional 8MP ultra-wide-angle lens. There’s a 2MP macro lens instead, but this doesn’t really impact the experience.
It looks similar to the G Power, but is slightly smaller and has a 6.6-inch LCD panel and 720p resolution. It has the same 60-120Hz refresh rate, as well as Dolby Atmos support and the same vegan leather back panel. It also has a 5,000mAh battery, so you can expect a similarly long battery life even without fast charging capabilities. However, it still charges at 18W, so it’s not slow at all. It’s just not as fast as the G Power.
It is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 and has 4GB of RAM. This is obviously low, but can be doubled using RAM Boost. I’m very happy to have 128GB of storage. Android 14 is included as standard, but again there is no information about updates.
The specs are clearly lower than the Moto G Power 5G (2024), but there’s a good reason for this. It’s the price. The Motorola Moto G 5G (2024) starts at just $200 and will be available from T-Mobile and Metro by T-Mobile starting March 21st, and other retailers after this date. It will be available for purchase unlocked, but not until May 2nd.
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