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 12 months’s Moto G 5G 2024 was a fairly horrible telephone, even for the low worth, however Motorola has turned issues round and addressed practically each criticism I had with out elevating the worth for this 12 months’s mannequin. It is a success story few may hope for in an period of excessive inflation and tariff wars.
Moto G 2025: Worth, availability, and specs
The Moto G 2025 is out there 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 supply 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 Might 2 at Motorola.ca and choose carriers.
| Working System | Android 15 with Good day UI |
|---|---|
| Processsor | MediaTek Dimensity 6300 |
| RAM | 4GB |
| Storage | 128GB |
| microSD card help | ✅ |
| 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 mild sensor |
| Entrance digital camera | 16MP, f/2.4, 1.0μm quad binned to 2.0μm, 1080p/30 video |
| Dimensions | 167mm excessive x 76.3mm large by 8.1mm thick |
| Weight | 193g |
| Colours | Forest Grey, Sapphire Blue |
Moto G 2025: What I like
Not like final 12 months’s telephone, the Moto G 2025 stunned me at practically each flip. I really like holding this telephone due to the vegan leather-based again, and the design feels lighter than it truly is. It is also a tad bigger than final 12 months’s Moto G 5G mannequin, which could irritate a number of folks.
The 120Hz LCD display has been notably improved over final 12 months’s mannequin and now options a superb daylight mode that routinely kicks in at any time when it detects extra-bright mild. This makes it extremely straightforward to see outdoors, which was a evident weak level final 12 months.
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 appears to be like when in comparison with an OLED however there is no denying they’re friendlier on the eyes, particularly for anybody delicate to flicker.
Efficiency, particularly in video games, is surprisingly wonderful. I performed Minecraft with my son a number of instances utilizing this telephone and was impressed with how a lot better it ran the sport than the Nintendo Change may. Different titles like Asphalt Legends Unite run tremendous properly, too, making this a surprisingly good cellular gaming machine.
Battery life is really wonderful 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 totally charging will take simply over an hour with considered one of our favourite chargers.
The Moto G 2025 affords microSD card help for expandable storage in addition to a 3.5mm jack for wired headphone utilization. The IP52 help is healthier than final 12 months’s providing, however the actual enchancment is the Gorilla Glass 3 on the entrance, which ought to assist shield it long-term a lot better than the earlier glass Motorola used.
As with all Motorola telephone, you may rapidly 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 large comfort and rapidly flip into muscle reminiscence.
The remainder of Motorola’s Good day UI (on high of Android 15) can be very improbable, incorporating among the finest components 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, plenty of residence 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 funds telephones obtainable.
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The digital camera has considerably improved high quality over final 12 months’s Moto G 5G 2024, delivering the very best digital camera expertise I’ve seen on any budget-friendly Motorola telephone.
Every part from dynamic vary, advantageous particulars, noise in low mild, and white steadiness have been considerably improved over final 12 months’s telephone. Once more, that is all and not using a worth improve and together with different {hardware} enhancements. Motorola actually did a bang-up job right here.
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Other than 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 12 months’s mannequin generally 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 would possibly take 5 complete seconds to seize the identical scene. Motorola’s digital camera software program can now be thought-about actually nice and does a superb job of utilizing AI to know the scene and routinely choose the very best 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 flattening the notification shade, there is a degree of lag that occurs the primary time round. This provides the preliminary impression of an especially sluggish telephone however, fortunately, it is not an impression that lasts over time.
Final 12 months, the Moto G 5G 2024 was sluggish all the time, an issue that was additional aggravated by the RAM Increase characteristic Motorola created to assist gadgets with low portions of RAM. This 12 months, I can fortunately report that RAM Booster works a lot better, possible partly as a result of change from Qualcomm to MediaTek. Qualcomm makes nice high-end chips however struggles to make a good low-end one whereas MediaTek has been the star of this class for years.
Now, do not get me unsuitable. You are going to must have a little bit extra persistence with a $200 telephone than you’ll with one thing twice its worth. Apps will take a little bit longer to open than these telephones, however they’re often advantageous as soon as they’re up and operating.
Motorola’s refreshed Good day 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 just one of many worst methods to rapidly change between apps you may discover wherever. I am hoping Motorola will tweak this sooner or later and supply clients the choice for one thing higher. The corporate affords a number of completely different UI tweaks, together with a denser Fast Toggles UI if you need it, and you actually ought to tweak this historical design subsequent.
Other than this, it is troublesome to nitpick another negatives. IP52 is simply splash-resistant, so that you should not deliver your Moto G within the pool. The telephone expenses pretty rapidly with a 30W charger, and when you’ll want to purchase one individually, it is a small worth to pay for protecting the telephone’s worth low.
Lastly, I might 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 frequently, however I might wager an ultrawide digital camera can be extra common.
Moto G 2025: Competitors
As inflation continues to rise, the variety of $200 telephones has dwindled all the way down to only a handful. We have already awarded the Moto G 2025 the finest telephone below $200, so anything right here goes to be worse for one cause or one other.
The CMF Telephone 1 stays my favourite telephone within the below $300 worth class however meaning it’s a must to pay $80 or extra to get this improve. It is bought a greater show, sooner processor, higher cameras, and a novel, customizable construct that you simply’re certain to like, but it surely solely works on T-Cell in the USA. Internationally, it is a a lot better purchase and my go-to advice for budget-tier telephones.
The Moto G Energy 2025 affords higher water and dirt resistance, double the RAM, and a barely greater 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 affords a vibrant AMOLED display, but it surely’s not appropriate for folk delicate to PWM dimming. It is also bought a decrease refresh price 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 out there, plus additional safety updates on high of that.
Moto G 2025: Must you purchase it?
Motorola has efficiently turned issues round and made the very best $200 telephone you should buy right now. Its worth flies within the face of inflation and delivers upgrades over final 12 months’s fairly terrible mannequin, all whereas protecting the worth the identical. Every part from the cameras to general system efficiency, show high quality and brightness, and even an extended software program replace promise to make this the telephone to get at this worth vary.
In a shocking flip of occasions, the Moto G 2025 ended up being the most effective funds telephones Motorola has ever made due to nice design, spectacular cameras, wonderful battery life, and three years of nice software program updates.
