Motorola’s original Moto G was a big hit, as well as one of the best-sold Android phones in history. Its star has faded under Lenovo ownership, but it’s still a decent range of budget phones. The 2025 models have arrived, although there’s a few downsides you’ll want to know before buying.
Motorola has just launched a pair of new Moto G phones, the Moto G 2025 and the Moto G Power 2025. The former features a 6.7-inch display, 5G connectivity, and a 5000 mAh battery with 30W TurboPower charging. Its camera system includes a 50MP main sensor with AI-powered night vision, a 16MP front camera, and a 2MP macro lens.
The base Moto G is powered by a MediaTek Dimensity 6300 and uses RAM Boost, which allocates local storage and uses it as RAM—we don’t know how much actual RAM this packs, which isn’t a great sign. You might want to disable RAM Boost if you do get this as the “virtual RAM” it provides is slower (since it uses actual storage rather than RAM) and might actually result in worse day-to-day performance than what you’d get by just using the RAM you have. Features like these are used as a band-aid by some manufacturers to advertise more RAM than what the phone actually has. You’re better off with a phone that actually has a decent amount of RAM in the first place.
The Moto G Power steps up with a larger 6.8-inch display and a decent 5,000 mAh battery that supports both 30W wired and 15W wireless charging. Motorola doesn’t say what chipset it uses, but the G Power has traditionally had lower-end hardware than the base model, so it might be a less-powerful chip. Its camera array consists of a 50MP main sensor with optical image stabilization, an 8MP ultrawide/macro lens, and a 16MP selfie camera. The phone has passed MIL-STD-810H certification tests for durability and includes IP68 and IP69 underwater protection, along with Corning Gorilla Glass 5 on your screen—not exactly the “latest and greatest” as it was introduced 9 years ago and there’s been a few revisions since, but it’s certainly better than the Gorilla Glass 3 panel on the standard Moto G.
Both models feature 120Hz refresh rate displays with 1000 nits of brightness for clear visibility in various lighting conditions. The phones run on Android 15, so you do get the latest Android version here, but Motorola didn’t mention anything about how many updates it’ll commit to releasing for these phones. We’ll take that to mean that the current update policy applies—Moto G phones typically only get one major update (Android 16 and that’s it) and two to three years of sporadic security updates. This has historically been Motorola’s weakest point for its mid-range and budget phones and it really, really needs to step up here. Samsung’s Galaxy A16 5G will get six years of major Android updates, so while these Moto G phones will probably last a year, Samsung’s entry-level phone for 2025 will stay updated right up to 2031.
There’s also another big issue with Motorola phones at large, and that’s the fact that it might be banned in the US. The final ruling on this matter should take place in April, and if the decision is upheld, these two phones might only enjoy a whopping three months on store shelves. Certainly, not a good omen if you’re considering to buy this or any other Moto phone currently in retailers. Hopefully, this will get sorted out eventually, but Motorola still has tons of other issues to polish even then.
The Moto G 2025 will be available for $199.99 on store shelves and through major carriers on January 30th, closely followed by the Moto G Power 2025, which will release on February 6th at the price of $299.99. The good part is that they’re not absurdly expensive, but we’ll have to see how good these phones actually are once they hit store shelves, and whether you can get better deals elsewhere. At least so far, they don’t look great.
Source: Motorola
