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 greatest.
Enter the Moto G 2025, the unassuming $200 cellphone that is surprisingly competent. Final yr’s Moto G 5G 2024 was a fairly horrible cellphone, even for the low worth, however Motorola has turned issues round and addressed practically 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 accessible universally unlocked at Amazon, Greatest Purchase, and Motorola.com as of January 30, 2025. The cellphone retails for $199.99 and comes with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage.
A swath of U.S. carriers will even provide the cellphone within the coming months, together with T-Cell, Metro by T-Cell, AT&T, Cricket, Straight Speak, Whole Wi-fi, Walmart for Verizon, Enhance 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 Hiya 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 Sort-C, 3.5mm, NFC, FM radio, Twin SIM (1 bodily, 1 eSIM) |
| Battery | 5,000mAh, 30W wired charging |
| Rear digicam 1 | 50MP, f/1.8, 0.64μm pixel measurement quad-binned to 1.28μm, PDAF, 1080p/30 video |
| Rear digicam 2 | 2MP macro, f/2.4, 1.75μm, 720p/30 video |
| Rear digicam 3 | Ambient gentle sensor |
| Entrance digicam | 16MP, f/2.4, 1.0μm quad binned to 2.0μm, 1080p/30 video |
| Dimensions | 167mm excessive x 76.3mm huge by 8.1mm thick |
| Weight | 193g |
| Colours | Forest Grey, Sapphire Blue |
Moto G 2025: What I like
In contrast to final yr’s cellphone, the Moto G 2025 stunned me at practically each flip. I really like holding this cellphone due to the vegan leather-based again, and the design feels lighter than it truly is. It is also a tad bigger than final yr’s Moto G 5G mannequin, which could irritate a number of individuals.
The 120Hz LCD display has been notably improved over final yr’s mannequin and now options a superb daylight mode that routinely kicks in at any time when it detects extra-bright gentle. This makes it extremely simple to see exterior, which was a obvious weak level final yr.
The LCD display can also 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 best way 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 cellphone 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 actually glorious and can all the time carry 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 one in every 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 best than final yr’s providing, however the true 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 every Motorola cellphone, you will shortly fall in love with the Moto G 2025’s fast gestures and actions. Double-chop the cellphone to toggle the flashlight, double-twist it to launch the digicam, 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 shortly flip into muscle reminiscence.
The remainder of Motorola’s Hiya UI (on high of Android 15) can also be very implausible, incorporating among the greatest components of AOSP and different skins beneath one roof. In lots of conditions, Motorola provides you a option to customise between numerous UI paradigms, together with splitting the notification shade and fast toggles, a lot of dwelling display customization choices, and a stunning quantity of lock display customization, too.
Motorola can also be providing 2 OS updates and three years of bimonthly safety updates for the Moto G 2025, making it one of many best-supported price range telephones out there.
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The digicam has considerably improved high quality over final yr’s Moto G 5G 2024, delivering the very best digicam expertise I’ve seen on any budget-friendly Motorola cellphone.
All the pieces from dynamic vary, tremendous particulars, noise in low gentle, and white stability have been considerably improved over final yr’s cellphone. Once more, that is all with out a worth enhance and together with different {hardware} enhancements. Motorola actually did a bang-up job right here.
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Except for normal high quality enhancements, Motorola has additionally notably improved the seize pace from the Moto G 2025’s digicam in comparison with earlier Motorola telephones on this line. Most images are taken immediately with little to no delay, whereas final yr’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 may take 5 entire seconds to seize the identical scene. Motorola’s digicam software program can now be thought of actually nice and does a superb job of utilizing AI to grasp 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 cellphone feels sluggish. Whether or not it is launching an app, beginning the digicam, 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 a particularly sluggish cellphone however, fortunately, it is not 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 Enhance function Motorola created to assist gadgets with low portions of RAM. This yr, I can fortunately report that RAM Booster works a lot better, probably 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 have to have a bit extra endurance with a $200 cellphone than you’ll with one thing twice its worth. Apps will take a bit longer to open than these telephones, however they’re often tremendous as soon as they’re up and operating.
Motorola’s refreshed Hiya 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 shortly change between apps you will discover anyplace. I am hoping Motorola will tweak this sooner or later and provide prospects 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’d like it, and you actually ought to tweak this historical design subsequent.
Except for this, it is tough to nitpick another negatives. IP52 is barely splash-resistant, so that you should not carry your Moto G within the pool. The cellphone fees pretty shortly with a 30W charger, and whilst you’ll want to purchase one individually, it is a small worth to pay for protecting the cellphone’s worth low.
Lastly, I would like to see Motorola ditch the macro digicam in favor of an ultrawide digicam. I am unsure how many individuals use macro mode frequently, however I would wager an ultrawide digicam could be extra widespread.
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 greatest cellphone beneath $200, so anything right here goes to be worse for one motive or one other.
The CMF Cellphone 1 stays my favourite cellphone within the beneath $300 worth class however which means it’s important 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 positive to like, but it surely solely works on T-Cell in the US. 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 mud resistance, double the RAM, and a barely greater display. These aren’t minor upgrades, particularly the IP68/IP69 ranking which makes it one of many few elite telephones to carry such a potent ingress safety ranking. 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 people delicate to PWM dimming. It is also bought a decrease refresh fee than the Moto G 2025’s display, has a slower processor, and the cameras aren’t pretty much as good as Motorola’s, however Samsung will replace this cellphone till Android 18 is accessible, 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 cellphone you should buy right this moment. Its worth flies within the face of inflation and delivers upgrades over final yr’s fairly terrible mannequin, all whereas protecting the value the identical. All the pieces from the cameras to total machine efficiency, show high quality and brightness, and even an extended software program replace promise to make this the cellphone to get at this worth vary.
In a stunning flip of occasions, the Moto G 2025 ended up being top-of-the-line price range telephones Motorola has ever made because of nice design, spectacular cameras, glorious battery life, and three years of nice software program updates.
