CES isn’t usually a big show for smartphones, but that doesn’t stop Motorola from giving the entire Moto G lineup a major refresh to start the year, along with a new version of Motorola’s most affordable 5G phone.
With the arrival of the new Moto G family and the new Moto One 5G Ace, Motorola is getting a range of brands new phones for almost every price range under $ 400.
Motorola has revived the Moto G Play, which starts at $ 170, as the most affordable handset of the bunch, and while fairly basic, it has most of the essentials covered. You get one 6.5-inch 1600 x 720 (yes that’s HD, not full HD) screen, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 460 chip, 3GB RAM, 32GB storage, a microSD card slot, and a decent sized 5000 mAh battery.
There’s also a fingerprint sensor built into the Motorola logo on the back, and what looks like dual cameras, but it is a-The Moto G Play has a 13 MP main camera and a 2 MP depth camera to aid in portrait shots. And to top it all off, the Moto G Play has a relatively sturdy matte plastic back with some light water resistance meant to protect against small spills or rain.
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Next we come to what is arguably my favorite phone of the bunch, the Moto G Power, which keeps the same 5,000 mAh battery used in the Moto G Play, but adds slightly better specifications. Depending on where you get it, the G Power is available in two configurations: a $ 200 model with 3 GB RAM and 32 GB storage, or a $ 250 model with 4 GB RAM and 64 GB storage.
Regardless of which configuration you choose, the G Power also has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 processor, a slightly larger 6.6-inch 1600 x 720 screen, a microSD card tray and three rear cameras (48 MP main camera, 2 MP macro and a 2 MP depth camera). For me, the G is Power hits the budget sweet spot and is able to cover most bases without adding a lot of extra frills, although I would have liked Motorola to have an ultra wide angle or telephoto camera instead of that macro lens.
Then there is the Moto G Stylus, that starts at $ 300 and does its best be one much cheaper alternative to the high end from Samsung Galaxy Note line. That’s because, while a stylus is included (stored in a handy slot on the side of the phone), it doesn’t have buttons or additional wireless features like those of Samsung’s S-Pens.
T.o support all your drawings and notesTo accommodate the needs, Moto has refreshed the Moto Notes app and enlarged the G Stylus screen to a 6.8-inch FHD + display, with the GSTylus also gets a little performance slouch from it the G Power with a Snapdragon 678 chip and standard 4 GB RAM and 128 GB storage. However, with a smaller 4,000 mAh battery (and a larger screen), you shouldn’t expect the G Stylus’s battery life to match that of its cheaper siblings.
In the back, however, the G Stylus gets three real cameras: a 48 MP main camera, 8 MP ultra-wide camera and 2 MP macro camera (plus a fourth depth sensor). And instead of one rear-mounted fingerprint sensor, both the G Power and G Stylus get side-mounted fingerprint readers located just below the power button and the volume rocker on the right.
Finally, while it’s not technically part of the Moto G family, there’s also the new Moto One 5G Ace. Starting at $ 400, the Moto One 5 Ace is now Motorola’s cheapest 5G phone and $ 100 less than the original Moto One 5G (launched last fall), although it comes with the caveat that it only supports sub-6 Ghz 5G and not the faster ones mmWave 5G. Apart from that one small detail, the rest of the specifications of the Moto One 5G Ace looks pretty good for the money. It comes with a Snapdragon 750G chip, 4 GB RAM, 64 GB storage and a large 5000 mAh battery, with some retailers also offering a model with 6 GB RAM and 128 GB storage.
On the front, there’s a 6.7-inch 2400 x 1080 FHD + display and a 16MP selfie camera (which the G Stylus also gets), while on the back it has a similar camera setup to the G Stylus , with a 48 MP main camera, 8 MP ultra-wide camera and 2 MP macro camera.
All in all, with the new Moto One 5G Ace and Moto G family, it seems Motorola is looking to gobble up even more of the cheap and mid-range phone market. Moto may have made one phone too many because when you look at their specs and features, there aren’t as many differences between models as you might expect.
But there are some nice consistencies between all these phones, including the retention of a 3.5mm audio jack, a generally clean take on Android, and improvements to many basic apps and features, like the Moto night camera mode.
However, I still find it strange that while the Moto One 5G has NFC support, which you need to use apps like Google Pay, Motorola skipped adding NFC to one of the cheaper Moto G handsets. But perhaps even more disturbing is that all of these phones will arrive with Android 10 and not Android 11, which officially launched in September. And while Moto says it will provide an update to Android 11 sometime in the future, that’s the only major Android update any of these phones are scheduled to get, which is a real setback for anyone thinking about getting these phones longer. than to hold for a year. .
But if you’re looking for a new budget phone, Moto starts the year by offering you a lot of options. The new Moto G family and the Moto One Ace 5G will be available unlocked from a number of retailers starting January 14.