Unexpectedly Excellent: A Moto G 2025 Review

The Motorola Moto G 2025: A Budget Smartphone That Surprises

Motorola has built a strong reputation for creating affordable smartphones, and the Moto G 2025 continues this tradition. Priced at just $200, this phone offers impressive performance and features that surpass expectations for its price point. This review analyzes its strengths and weaknesses, compares it to competitors, and ultimately helps determine if it’s the right phone for you.

Moto G 2025: Price, Availability, and Specifications

The Moto G 2025 launched on January 30, 2025, and is readily available unlocked from major retailers like Amazon, Best Buy, and Motorola’s official website. It’s priced at a very competitive $199.99. The base model offers 4GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage.

Numerous US carriers also began offering the Moto G 2025 in the months following its initial release including, but not limited to: T-Mobile, Metro by T-Mobile, AT&T, Cricket, Straight Talk, Total Wireless, Walmart (Verizon), Boost Mobile, Xfinity Mobile, Consumer Cellular, Google Fi Wireless, Spectrum, UScellular, and Optimum Mobile. The phone was released in Canada on May 2nd, 2025, through Motorola.ca and several Canadian carriers.

Here’s a summary of the key specifications:

Moto G 2025: What I Like

The Moto G 2025 pleasantly surprised in several areas:

• Design and Feel: The vegan leather back provides a comfortable grip and a premium feel, while the phone remains lightweight despite its larger size compared to its predecessor. The increased size is a positive for many users who want a more comfortable screen-sized phone.

• Display: The 120Hz LCD screen is a significant upgrade, offering a smooth user experience noticeably better than the previous iteration. The improved sunlight mode ensures readability even in bright outdoor conditions. Furthermore, the LCD screen’s use of full DC dimming makes it significantly easier on the eyes and is less likely to trigger eye strain in susceptible individuals, a feature often missing in superior OLED screens.

• Performance: Gaming performance is impressively smooth, handling demanding titles like Minecraft and Asphalt Legends Unite without significant lag. This makes the Moto G 2025 a surprisingly capable mobile gaming device for its class.

• Battery Life: The 5,000mAh battery delivers exceptional battery life, easily lasting a full day and often extending to two or three days depending on usage. The quick charging capabilities (with a compatible charger, sold separately) make a full charge achievable under 60 minutes.

• Features: The inclusion of microSD card support for expandable storage and a 3.5mm headphone jack are appreciated additions. The improved IP52 rating provides basic water resistance, not full submersion capabilities, and the Gorilla Glass 3 enhances screen durability.

• Moto Gestures: Motorola’s signature quick gestures (flashlight toggle, camera launch, custom app launch) remain a convenient and time-saving addition to the user experience.

• Software: The Hello UI, based on Android 15, is highly customizable, offering a blend of stock Android and user-friendly enhancements. It provides extensive options to personalize the home screen, lock screen, and notification settings.

• Software Support: Motorola commits to providing two OS updates and three years of bimonthly security updates – a commitment that places the Moto G 2025 ahead of many budget phones in terms of long-term support.

• Camera: Camera performance has improved remarkably, offering better dynamic range, detail, low-light performance, and white balance compared to the previous generation. Image capture speed is significantly faster compared to last year’s model, particularly in low light. Motorola’s AI-powered scene recognition improves shot quality.

Moto G 2025: What I Don’t Like

Despite its numerous strengths, the Moto G 2025 is not without shortcomings:

• Initial Lag: The phone can exhibit some initial lag when performing tasks for the first instance. This initial slowness is less noticeable after extended use.

• Multitasking UI: The multitasking UI, while improved, still retains a design that lacks efficiency for quickly switching between apps. A superior design has been seen in many other competing budget phones.

• Macro Camera: The macro camera is not a necessary feature for many smartphone users. An ultrawide camera would be a more practical addition for most people.

• Water Resistance: IP52 splash resistance is limited, meaning the phone is not suitable for immersion in water.

Moto G 2025: The Competition

The Moto G 2025 faces competition within its price range, but these alternatives typically compromise in other areas:

• CMF Phone 1: This is arguably a superior phone at under $300, boasting a better display, faster processing, improved cameras, and a customizable design. However, its availability in the US is limited to T-Mobile only.

• Moto G Power 2025: This phone provides greater water and dust resistance (IP68/IP69 rating), more RAM, and a slightly larger screen making it one of the most resilient budget phones available. However, it comes at a significantly higher price of $299.

• Samsung Galaxy A15 5G: Remains in the $200 price range, offering a vibrant AMOLED display. However, it suffers from PWM dimming (potentially causing eye fatigue), lacks a 120Hz refresh rate, has slower processing power, and the cameras fall short of those on the Moto G 2025. Nonetheless, it does offer longer software support until an Android 18 update.

Moto G 2025: Should You Buy It?

The Moto G 2025 successfully addresses the shortcomings of its predecessor while maintaining the same affordable price of $200. The combination of significant improvements in camera quality, performance, display, and battery life, coupled with long-term software support, makes it a compelling choice. The initial lag is a minor inconvenience that fades with usage. Overall, at its price point, the Moto G 2025 is a highly recommended budget Android device.