Although many modern Motorola smartphones cost around $200, the Moto G62 5G comes in exactly at that sweet spot (actually, you’ll get 1p change). Many people would consider it as an option because it is reasonably priced and is 5G-ready.
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All You Need to Know moto g62
It’s an inexpensive phone with a smooth 120Hz display, a 50Mp camera, a sturdy construction, 5G connection, and the brand’s pristine software. Is it worth it to pay the inevitable 5G tax, and does it manage to stand out in a crowded market?
Design & Build:
- Clean, solid plastic construction
- Stereo sound, a 3.5mm connection for headphones, and a USB-C port
- Power button with fingerprint reader on the side
Motorola is unrivalled in its ability to produce low-priced products that don’t make a significant impact. The Moto G62 may not look or feel special, but it’s easy to get used to in everyday situations.
The phone’s look, like its pricing, is just right. It doesn’t strike out as particularly portable, measuring 161.8 x 74 x 8.6mm and weighing 184g, but it’s also not overly cumbersome to hold.
The phone has a sturdy, unremarkable plastic chassis and a softly curved rear panel with a pleasingly smooth surface, making it seem both familiar and unremarkable. Frosted Blue, the colour of the review unit I received, is a bright but not garish choice, and Midnight Grey is another possibility.
This prototype suggests that neither material is very forgiving of sweaty fingerprints. The phone’s body is “water-repellent,” as Motorola puts it, so it can withstand the infrequent raindrop without the pricier certainty of an IP classification.
Just next to the power button on the right side is a fingerprint reader that seems to work alright most of the time but isn’t exactly lightning fast. The phone’s bottom is where you’ll find its 3.5mm headphone jack, USB Type-C connector, and one of its two speakers for stereo music when held in landscape orientation.
When put together, the Moto G62’s aesthetic is classic Motorola: reliable, secure, and comfortingly mundane. In other words, it’s exactly what the majority of people want for £200.
Screen:
- 5-inch Full High-Definition Plus LCD
- Refresh rate of 120 Hz
- True to form coloration
The Moto G62’s 6.5-inch screen is Full HD+ (1080 x 2400), which is great news because Motorola has established the unfortunate habit of outfitting some of its more cheap phones with small 720p displays in recent years. That makes a huge improvement in the phone’s usability.
Because it’s still just an IPS LCD, colours are muted and blacks are less inky than on even budget OLEDs. At maximum brightness, which I measured at a very unimpressive 438 nits when auto-brightness was disabled, though, it’s easy on the eyes.
With Motorola’s implementation of a full 120Hz refresh rate, navigating menus and websites is a smooth experience. At least, it is when the phone’s processor and memory aren’t generating annoying hiccups (more on that below).
The Saturated display option, which is the default, produces a slightly exaggerated profile that is more in line with the more saturated DCI P3 colour space when it comes to colour accuracy.
If you go to Natural mode instead, you’ll get a result that’s more true to the standard sRGB colour space, with a strong average Delta E score of 1.19, 99.1% gamut volume, and 97.1% coverage. In other words, while the display on the Moto G62 may not be very brilliant or colourful, it does a good job at representing content.
Details & Efficiency:
- An upgraded Snapdragon 480+ for 5G
- RAM Size: 4GB
- The New 5G Network
The Moto G62 from Motorola is powered by a lowly Snapdragon 480+ 5G processor. The Nokia XR20 and the Oppo A54 5G both use this entry-level chipset, but with a few overclocked cores.
The Moto G62 shares the same slow performance reputation as its predecessors, and its paltry 4GB of RAM doesn’t help matters. The Moto G62’s 64GB of internal storage space is below par, but at least there’s a microSDXC slot for expansion.
The Moto G62’s 5G connectivity is another standout feature. It’s not unheard of for a sub-£200 phone to have lightning-fast network speeds, but I haven’t seen one with a 120Hz display and that slightly-improved Snapdragon 480+ CPU before.
Forcing expensive 5G into such a low-priced phone, I would argue, will unnecessarily hinder its performance elsewhere. However, if you want the fastest possible connection for £200, you’d be wise to look elsewhere.
Cameras:
- 50 Megapixel Wide-Angle Camera
- 8 megapixel super-wide angle
- Irrelevant 2MP macro lens
The primary camera on the Moto G62 from Motorola is a 50-megapixel shooter with a 1/2.76-inch sensor and no optical image stabilisation. This is supplemented by an unnecessary 2Mp macro and an 8Mp ultra-wide. There’s a 16-megapixel camera up front for group photos.
This appears to be the same camera setup as the more affordable Moto G22, without the latter’s inclusion of a 2Mp macro sensor. In favourable daylight, the main camera can produce photographs with sufficient detail and colour accuracy, similar to what we saw with the Moto G22.
When illumination is low, as it often is indoors during the day, noise and blurriness become more noticeable. The images captured in the night mode are really subpar, featuring excessive grain and a dull overall appearance. The small sensor, lack of OIS, and subpar processing power make for blurry photos.
Battery Life & Charging:
- Power source with a capacity of 5000 mAH
- Potentially viable in two days
- Quite a sluggish 15W charge
The Moto G62’s 5000mAh battery is a welcome addition. Even with the phone’s limited hardware, you’ll have more than enough juice to get through a full day of heavy use. After a full day of work, I found that 4 hours and 30 minutes of screen time would get me through the day with a little over half a tank left over.
Considering that this was achieved with the 120Hz refresh rate always enabled, this is a very encouraging outcome. I would guess that two days of heavy use would be manageable with the auto setting set to default.
The PCMark Work 3.0 battery test never completed without giving me an error, which was a major setback. My test of a looping film played for 17 hours and 36 minutes before the battery died while in aeroplane mode. While not the best result, it holds its own against similarly priced smartphones.
The Moto G62 comes with the same sluggish charging brick that Motorola includes with its budget phones. The included power adapter is just 15W, the same as what comes with the Moto G22, and it took me 30 minutes to get to 21%. From dead to fully charged was a painful 2 hours and 44 minutes.
Software:
- Android 12
- Subtle and practical additions
- In only the case of sluggish hardware
When it comes to software updates, you can rest assured that Motorola phones will leave things as they are. Only the addition of a Motorola-branded clock widget and some stylish, unique wallpapers give away the fact that this is Android 12.
Even though it’s not an OLED panel, the business has also implemented a very handy always-on display. The Moto app is where you’ll find most of the significant settings, including shortcuts for using gestures, changing the look of the lock screen, and optimising your gaming experience.
Motorola’s Android UI is the one I’d most want to see replicated by other low-priced phone manufacturers. The Moto G62’s interface, like that of Motorola’s previous budget phones, is the biggest letdown.
It’s not a bug in the programme, but rather a flaw in the hardware, and it ruins an otherwise superbly polished and user-friendly experience.
Retail Cost and Availability
The Moto G62 retails for £199.99 (or €249.99) in the United Kingdom and Europe, respectively.
There is only the 4/64GB model available in the UK, but you can get it in either Midnight Grey or Frosted Blue. The Moto G62’s 120Hz display and other features are particularly impressive in the context of 5G.
