A lot of Motorola’s success over the previous few years has been due to its budget-friendly lineup. The corporate noticed substantial success in 2024, rising its market share by 20%, whereas Samsung and Apple each misplaced market share, and that is primarily as a result of firm having a Razr-sharp focus on what it does finest.
Enter the Moto G 2025, the unassuming $200 telephone that is surprisingly competent. Final yr’s Moto G 5G 2024 was a fairly horrible telephone, even for the low value, however Motorola has turned issues round and addressed almost each grievance I had with out elevating the value for this yr’s mannequin. It is a success story few may hope for in an period of excessive inflation and tariff wars.
Moto G 2025: Value, availability, and specs
The Moto G 2025 is on the market universally unlocked at Amazon, Finest Purchase, and Motorola.com as of January 30, 2025. The telephone retails for $199.99 and comes with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage.
A swath of U.S. carriers will even provide the telephone within the coming months, together with T-Cell, Metro by T-Cell, AT&T, Cricket, Straight Speak, Whole Wi-fi, Walmart for Verizon, Increase Cell, XFinity Cell, Client Mobile, Google Fi Wi-fi, Spectrum, UScellular, and Optimum Cell.
Motorola will launch the Moto G 2025 in Canada on Could 2 at Motorola.ca and choose carriers.
| Working System | Android 15 with Hi there UI |
|---|---|
| Processsor | MediaTek Dimensity 6300 |
| RAM | 4GB |
| Storage | 128GB |
| microSD card assist | ✅ |
| Show | 6.7-inch 120Hz LCD, 1604 x 720 |
| Safety | IP52, Gorilla Glass 3 |
| Connectivity | 5G, Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 5.3, USB Kind-C, 3.5mm, NFC, FM radio, Twin SIM (1 bodily, 1 eSIM) |
| Battery | 5,000mAh, 30W wired charging |
| Rear digital camera 1 | 50MP, f/1.8, 0.64μm pixel dimension quad-binned to 1.28μm, PDAF, 1080p/30 video |
| Rear digital camera 2 | 2MP macro, f/2.4, 1.75μm, 720p/30 video |
| Rear digital camera 3 | Ambient gentle sensor |
| Entrance digital camera | 16MP, f/2.4, 1.0μm quad binned to 2.0μm, 1080p/30 video |
| Dimensions | 167mm excessive x 76.3mm vast by 8.1mm thick |
| Weight | 193g |
| Colours | Forest Grey, Sapphire Blue |
Moto G 2025: What I like
In contrast to final yr’s telephone, the Moto G 2025 stunned me at almost each flip. I like holding this telephone due to the vegan leather-based again, and the design feels lighter than it really is. It is also a tad bigger than final yr’s Moto G 5G mannequin, which could irritate a couple of individuals.
The 120Hz LCD display has been notably improved over final yr’s mannequin and now options a superb daylight mode that robotically kicks in every time it detects extra-bright gentle. This makes it extremely simple to see outdoors, which was a obtrusive weak level final yr.
The LCD display can be tremendous eye-friendly. It makes use of full DC dimming with no PWM at any brightness degree, no dithering, and no different nonsense. Not everybody loves the way in which an LCD display seems to be when in comparison with an OLED however there is not any denying they’re friendlier on the eyes, particularly for anybody delicate to flicker.
Efficiency, particularly in video games, is surprisingly glorious. I performed Minecraft with my son a number of occasions utilizing this telephone and was impressed with how a lot better it ran the sport than the Nintendo Swap may. Different titles like Asphalt Legends Unite run tremendous nicely, too, making this a surprisingly good cellular gaming machine.
Battery life is really glorious and can at all times deliver you thru a full 24 hours of use. Many customers will discover that two or three-day battery life is achievable, and absolutely charging will take simply over an hour with one among our favourite chargers.
The Moto G 2025 gives microSD card assist for expandable storage in addition to a 3.5mm jack for wired headphone utilization. The IP52 assist is healthier than final yr’s providing, however the actual enchancment is the Gorilla Glass 3 on the entrance, which ought to assist defend it long-term a lot better than the earlier glass Motorola used.
As with all Motorola telephone, you may shortly fall in love with the Moto G 2025’s fast gestures and actions. Double-chop the telephone to toggle the flashlight, double-twist it to launch the digital camera, double-tap on the again to launch a customized app, and extra. These are small issues however they add as much as huge comfort and shortly flip into muscle reminiscence.
The remainder of Motorola’s Hi there UI (on prime of Android 15) can be very unbelievable, incorporating a few of the finest elements of AOSP and different skins below one roof. In lots of conditions, Motorola offers you a option to customise between varied UI paradigms, together with splitting the notification shade and fast toggles, a number of house display customization choices, and a shocking quantity of lock display customization, too.
Motorola can be providing 2 OS updates and three years of bimonthly safety updates for the Moto G 2025, making it one of many best-supported finances telephones obtainable.
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The digital camera has considerably improved high quality over final yr’s Moto G 5G 2024, delivering the perfect digital camera expertise I’ve seen on any budget-friendly Motorola telephone.
All the pieces from dynamic vary, wonderful particulars, noise in low gentle, and white stability have been considerably improved over final yr’s telephone. Once more, that is all with no value enhance and together with different {hardware} enhancements. Motorola actually did a bang-up job right here.
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Apart from common high quality enhancements, Motorola has additionally notably improved the seize pace from the Moto G 2025’s digital camera in comparison with earlier Motorola telephones on this line. Most pictures are taken immediately with little to no delay, whereas final yr’s mannequin typically took a full second or two after urgent the shutter button earlier than you’d even hear the seize noise.
Likewise, low-light photographs are taken a lot sooner this time round, often taking a second or two to seize a long-exposure shot, whereas the Moto G 5G 2024 may take 5 entire seconds to seize the identical scene. Motorola’s digital camera software program can now be thought of really nice and does a superb job of utilizing AI to know the scene and robotically choose the perfect image after a seize.
Moto G 2025: What I do not like
The primary time you do absolutely anything on the telephone feels sluggish. Whether or not it is launching an app, beginning the digital camera, and even simply knocking down the notification shade, there is a degree of lag that occurs the primary time round. This provides the preliminary impression of a particularly sluggish telephone however, fortunately, it isn’t an impression that lasts over time.
Final yr, the Moto G 5G 2024 was sluggish all the time, an issue that was additional aggravated by the RAM Increase function Motorola created to assist gadgets with low portions of RAM. This yr, I can fortunately report that RAM Booster works a lot better, possible partially as a result of change from Qualcomm to MediaTek. Qualcomm makes nice high-end chips however struggles to make an honest low-end one whereas MediaTek has been the star of this class for years.
Now, do not get me fallacious. You are going to must have a bit extra persistence with a $200 telephone than you’ll with one thing twice its value. Apps will take a bit longer to open than these telephones, however they’re often wonderful as soon as they’re up and operating.
Motorola’s refreshed Hi there UX continues to be a superb expertise, however I nonetheless hate the multitasking UI. It nonetheless makes use of the very inefficient AOSP-style design discovered on Pixel telephones and is solely one of many worst methods to shortly change between apps you may discover anyplace. I am hoping Motorola will tweak this sooner or later and provide prospects the choice for one thing higher. The corporate gives a number of totally different UI tweaks, together with a denser Fast Toggles UI if you need it, and you actually ought to tweak this historic design subsequent.
Apart from this, it is troublesome to nitpick some other negatives. IP52 is simply splash-resistant, so that you should not deliver your Moto G within the pool. The telephone prices pretty shortly with a 30W charger, and whilst you’ll want to purchase one individually, it is a small value to pay for holding the telephone’s value low.
Lastly, I would like to see Motorola ditch the macro digital camera in favor of an ultrawide digital camera. I am unsure how many individuals use macro mode regularly, however I would wager an ultrawide digital camera can be extra fashionable.
Moto G 2025: Competitors
As inflation continues to rise, the variety of $200 telephones has dwindled right down to only a handful. We have already awarded the Moto G 2025 the finest telephone below $200, so the rest right here goes to be worse for one cause or one other.
The CMF Cellphone 1 stays my favourite telephone within the below $300 value class however which means you need to pay $80 or extra to get this improve. It is bought a greater show, sooner processor, higher cameras, and a singular, customizable construct that you simply’re positive to like, however it solely works on T-Cell in the USA. Internationally, it is a a lot better purchase and my go-to suggestion for budget-tier telephones.
The Moto G Energy 2025 gives higher water and dirt resistance, double the RAM, and a barely larger display. These aren’t minor upgrades, particularly the IP68/IP69 score which makes it one of many few elite telephones to carry such a potent ingress safety score. It is $299, although, so 50% greater than the Moto G 2025.
The Samsung Galaxy A15 5G stays within the $200 vary and gives a vibrant AMOLED display, however it’s not appropriate for people delicate to PWM dimming. It is also bought a decrease refresh charge than the Moto G 2025’s display, has a slower processor, and the cameras aren’t nearly as good as Motorola’s, however Samsung will replace this telephone till Android 18 is on the market, plus additional safety updates on prime of that.
Moto G 2025: Do you have to purchase it?
Motorola has efficiently turned issues round and made the perfect $200 telephone you should purchase right this moment. Its value flies within the face of inflation and delivers upgrades over final yr’s fairly terrible mannequin, all whereas holding the value the identical. All the pieces from the cameras to total system efficiency, show high quality and brightness, and even an extended software program replace promise to make this the telephone to get at this value vary.
In a shocking flip of occasions, the Moto G 2025 ended up being the most effective finances telephones Motorola has ever made because of nice design, spectacular cameras, glorious battery life, and three years of nice software program updates.
