The vast quality range of inexpensive smartphones makes them somewhat of a gamble. As a result, choosing one that fits both your needs and your budget may seem like an insurmountable challenge. With the Moto G Power 5G, a low-cost smartphone that offers quality in the majority of areas with only a few outliers, Motorola is fortunately here to help.
The Moto G Power 5G has generally been a positive experience for me, but the places where it needs to cut corners to be so reasonably priced are undoubtedly apparent. Although they are excuseable when you consider how much they cost, I didn't always want to have to keep that in mind when using this otherwise reliable phone.
Moto G Power 5G: design
The Moto G Power 5G's design is surprisingly lightweight yet being quite typical for most smartphones. Its overall measurements are 163.06 x 74.8 x 8.45mm, and it only weighs 185g. The G Power 5G is very compact and lightweight, making it simple to swiftly tuck into a purse or tiny pocket.
It has an entirely flat 6.5-inch display with a moderately thick top and bottom bezel and an in-display selfie camera. The G Power sports two cameras, a depth sensor, and a torch on a raised camera island on its back. The Motorola logo is imprinted into the plastic in the middle of the phone's back.
The Moto G Power 5G's major buttons are all located on the right side of the device. It can be challenging to discern without seeing if you're hitting the right button due to the proximity and size of the volume up and down keys. Obviously, that's a minor gripe, but it can be a little inconvenient to try to change the music volume while doing housekeeping or engaging in other activities with your phone in your pocket. The lock button, which serves as both a lock button and a fingerprint sensor, is located just below the volume buttons.
The fingerprint sensor is, in short, a bit of a mixed bag. After first setting it up, I had some trouble with it; the sensor wouldn't read my finger until I went into the settings and rescanned it. After that was resolved, the scanner was operating around 80% of the time, but a new problem then emerged. My pointer finger always lands on the lock button when I take up the phone, which instantly unlocks it. While that's not a horrible feature when I want the phone to unlock, it makes it difficult to access any of the other lock-screen features or just quickly peek at the time or a notice.
Moto G Power 5G: screen
As was already noted, the Moto G Power 5G has a 6.5-inch Full HD LCD screen with a hefty top and bottom bezel. While LCD displays simply cannot compete with OLED screens for their richer colours and deeper blacks, the Moto G Power still offers something in terms of overall smoothness thanks to its 120Hz refresh rate. The high refresh rate manages to keep the screen feeling snappy and quick the majority of the time, even though the colours aren't as sharp as those available in devices with OLED screens that are similarly priced. The smartphone's 2400 x 1080p resolution and 405 ppi (pixels per inch) give images a clean overall appearance.
Although the bezel gets substantially thicker towards the bottom of the phone, I never really noticed it as a problem. With more affordable devices, there are trade-offs that must be made, and the Moto G Power 5G's bezel wasn't particularly large because it never interfered with functionality or the overall feel of the screen. It doesn't feel like the display is being hindered too much by the narrow bezel on the sides of the phone.
Moto G Power 5G: software and performance
Android 13 is used by the MediaTek Dimensity 930 processor in the Moto G Power 5G. This is undoubtedly a case of getting what you pay for in terms of performance. The performance of the G Power is serviceable, which is the nicest thing I can say about it. There are undoubtedly occasions when performance suffers, such as when you are using a lot of background apps or playing games that need a lot of processing power. However, the performance as a whole is good and respectable.
You should like using the Moto G Power 5G as long as you don't expect it to be a workhorse device that can multitask between intricate programmes and perform graphically demanding games well. You might want to search elsewhere if you're seeking for something with more strength. Although I didn't experience any outright app crashes, there were a few occasions when apps abruptly stopped operating and needed to be closed and restarted in order to resume operation. Even while that's certainly not ideal, problems like that are to be expected when phones like the Dimensity 930 have less powerful processors.
Moto G Power 5G: cameras
The Moto G Power 5G has three cameras in total: a 50MP main camera, a 2MP macro camera, and a 16MP front-facing selfie camera integrated into the display. I was pleasantly pleased by how nicely the cameras on a $300 smartphone work. The three lenses have some obvious drawbacks, like the inability to catch fine details on things at a medium distance, but overall, they perform well enough for the G Power to be regarded reliable.
The three lenses in the Moto G Power 5G function best in ideal, natural light, like most smartphone cameras do. The phone will be able to accurately and easily record memories whether you're taking pictures outside throughout the day or in other well-lit settings. However, regardless of how well-lit the far things are, if you're counting on it to capture high-quality images of them, you'll probably be dissatisfied because the zoom produces grainy images. This is due to the fact that there is just digital zoom—no telephoto zoom.
Moto G Power 5G: battery and charging
With a 5,000mAh battery, the Moto G Power 5G can last the entire day without having to stop at a charger. When it comes to heavy and light phone users, I'd say I fall square in the middle, and using the G Power, I never had any problems with running out of battery in the middle of the day. The G Power's battery life generally started to go below 20% as I was getting ready for bed, so I wouldn't take it on a weekend vacation without a charger.
If you use the right charging brick and outlet, the phone can be charged from zero to one hundred percent in roughly 90 minutes, even though 15W USB-C charging isn't the fastest on the market. Your battery life will probably be significantly less if you're using the phone for more battery-intensive activities like playing games, streaming material, or using Google Maps than if you're just casually texting and checking social media every now and then. Despite this, the Moto G Power 5G continues to keep a charge very consistently.
Moto G Power 5G: price and availability
The Moto G Power 5G is available in two different configurations, one with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage and the other with 6GB RAM and 256GB of internal storage. The 6GB RAM/256GB storage model is the only one for which I have been able to locate listings. For $300, you can get it straight from Motorola, or you can pay the same price at most major electronics sites like Amazon and Best Buy.
