New motorola phone 2022: The best Motorola phones 2023: top Moto smartphones

A surprise new iPhone 14 and Galaxy S22 rival – Motorola Edge 30 Ultra review

TechRadar Verdict

The Motorola Edge 30 Ultra is the best-value flagship phone of 2022, with super-fast charging, a powerful processor, a premium design, a good-looking screen, clean software and more. It’s hard to find negatives with the device because Moto has gone all-out in every department.

TODAY’S BEST DEALS

Pros

• +

  Premium design

• +

  Super-fast charging

• +

  Powerful processor

Cons

• —

  Zoom camera could zoom further

• —

  200MP is just unnecessary

• —

  It makes other phones feel rubbish

Why you can trust TechRadar
Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test.

Two-minute review

If, at the beginning of 2022, we’d told you that one of the best premium phones of the year was to be made by Motorola of all brands, you probably wouldn’t have believed us – after all, the mobile stalwart is best known for making reliable cheap phones and the odd mid-ranger now and then.

But the Samsung Galaxy S22, iPhone 14 and Xiaomi 12 have all been put in their place in spectacular fashion, because the Motorola Edge 30 Ultra beats out all those popular flagship phones in almost every department, despite costing the same or less. 

It’s hard to truly emphasize just how much of a surprise this phone is. Sure, Motorola’s low-end phones are good, but the brand’s line of higher-end phones, the Edge line, hasn’t impressed us in a good few years.

Yet, the Motorola Edge 30 Ultra is such a good phone, with a fantastic value-for-money proposition and collection of specs, that it’ll make your Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra green with envy.

The feature that Motorola is shouting about most is the 200MP cameras – this is the first globally-launched smartphone to boast a sensor with this many pixels, and it rounds out an already-pixel-packed array with three other snappers.

The phone is good for photography, especially thanks to its inclusion of a telephoto lens (something we don’t always see, even at this price point), but the super-high-res camera isn’t even in the top three features of the phone.

Perhaps our favorite aspect of the phone is its design. The ‘waterfall’ curved-edge display makes it feel fantastic to hold, although the textured glass rear and perfectly proportioned width help too.

The display is top-notch, with a 144Hz refresh rate giving it an edge over the competition, and combined with a top-end Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 processor the phone is fantastic for gaming or other power-hungry processes.

Talking of power, the phone charges incredibly quickly at 125W and, unlike most other fast-charging phones, actually has a good battery life, easily lasting for a day of use between charges.

Every aspect of the Motorola Edge 30 Ultra is utterly premium, making for a fantastic user experience, and unlike most other amazing phones like this, you’re not paying an arm and a leg to get it.

If we had to point to a weak area of the phone, it’d probably be the camera. It’s not bad, but 200MP is just unnecessary and we’d have loved to see a zoom lens with a longer zoom than just 2x. But this is just a wish list for an even more impressive phone, and they’re not even that important, given that the phone is already so impressive.

It’s going to be hard for other phones to seem impressive, or even interesting, in the wake of the Motorola Edge 30 Ultra and all the ways it wows us. One thing’s for sure, Apple and Samsung both need to take note because Motorola has proven that it knows how to make an amazing smartphone.

Motorola Edge 30 Ultra price and availability

(Image credit: Future)

The Motorola Edge 30 Ultra will cost £749 – that converts to roughly $850 / AU$1,275, but we don’t expect to see the phone outside Europe, because Moto launches separate Edge handsets elsewhere.

A good way to contextualize the price is to compare it to other top-end flagships. At that price, this handset undercuts the iPhone 14 by a large margin (it costs $799 / £849 / AU$1,339) and beats out the Samsung Galaxy S22 too (that starts at $799 / £769 / AU$1,249) – in fact, of all the top-end phones on the market right now, only the $749 / £749 (roughly AU$1,320) Xiaomi 12 matches it.

However, it’s worth highlighting that the Motorola Edge 30 Ultra out-specs all of those phones. It actually has more in common with a Pro version of those devices, each of which costs a fair amount more.

The phone went on sale in September 2022, alongside a mid-range Fusion and low-end Neo member of the family, and many months after the standard and Pro models. As the name suggests, this is the highest-end device in the line.

• Value score: 5/5

Motorola Edge 30 Ultra design

(Image credit: Future)

The Motorola Edge 30 Ultra marks a return to the super-curved-edge display, or ‘waterfall display’ as it’s technically called, since Moto curiously dropped it for the second-gen Edge devices (yep, despite the name).

These curvy edges make the phone comfortable to hold, as they sit snug in the fold of your palm, without any angular edges digging in. 

The dimensions of the device clock in at 161.8 x 73.5 x 8.4mm – that’s average for this kind of device – and it weighs 198. 5g, which again is to be expected since phones generally hover around 200g. 

The phone has a glass front and back, and a metal frame. The rear has an attractive ‘sparkling’ texture, which makes it pleasing to look at (and ensures no fingerprints are being picked up), but it’s a shame that in the UK, the phone is only on sale in a dull black shade.

Breaking up the rear is a camera bump that’s stepped on several plateaus and stands out quite far at its tallest point. Still, we’ve seen far, far more prominent lens bumps, and the Edge 30 Ultra’s bump is inoffensive by comparison.

In terms of ports, you’re only looking at a USB-C one, with no 3.5mm headphone jack in sight (sorry, wired audio fans). This won’t be a surprise to anyone, since almost no top-end phones have audio ports anymore, but it’s still a shame. The power button and volume rocker are both on the right edge – we found them both within reach but some might find the latter a little too high on the edge – and the fingerprint scanner is embedded in the display.

No certified water resistance is perhaps the Ultra’s biggest shortcoming, which won’t be an essential in everyone’s eyes.

• Design score: 4.5/5

Motorola Edge 30 Ultra display

(Image credit: Future)

Of all its departments, it’s in the display that the Motorola Edge 30 Ultra acts its price, instead of exceeding what we expect from a phone at this price.

The handset has a 6.67-inch FHD+ display, which means the resolution is 1080 x 2400. Other than some super-cheap phones with lower-res displays, and a few top-end ones with more pixels, this is the resolution used by the vast majority of phones.

That’s okay, most smartphone content, including apps, streamed video and games, is at this resolution as a result. So it’s the highest resolution you really need on a phone.

One slightly surprising spec is the refresh rate, which refers to how many times per second the screen refreshes its image, and this affects how smooth motion looks. For a long time all phones used 60Hz, but now most, especially premium ones, use 120Hz – the Moto uses 144Hz, a super-high refresh rate reserved for a few premium games.

Combined with the processor, this makes the phone great for top-end mobile games, though you also notice the supremely smooth motion when you’re simply scrolling through lists or between pages on some other apps and on the home screen.

The display’s curved edges can affect the viewing area slightly. Content shown on these curves may appear slightly dimmer from the front (since you’re not looking at it face-on), however, we’ve seen curved-edge phones where this is far worse. There’s also a ‘punch-hole’ cut-out for the front camera, which breaks up the viewing area a little, but it’s very small, taking up only a fraction of the size that the iPhone 14 Pro’s Dynamic Island does.

• Display score: 4/5

Motorola Edge 30 Ultra cameras

(Image credit: Future)

How many megapixels are too many? Not 322MP, according to Motorola, because that’s how many its four cameras use in total.

The Motorola Edge 30 Ultra is the first phone in the world to use a 200MP main camera (well, unless you count the Chinese Moto X30 Pro, which the 30 Ultra is essentially a rebranded version of).

You might be wondering “isn’t 200MP overkill for a smartphone?” and you’d be completely right. It makes sense that Moto is using this spec as a big selling point, due to the 30 Ultra being the first phone using the camera, but it doesn’t actually bring that much to the photography experience.

By default, pictures taken aren’t 200MP ones. Instead, the phone uses a process called pixel binning, in which pixels in the sensor combine to create larger ones (which, due to their larger size, ‘see’ more light), to take 12.6MP shots. You can take 200MP shots if you prefer, or RAW ones, but these options will see you quickly eating through your storage space.

When we say that this 200MP camera doesn’t bring much to the experience, that means that photos aren’t hugely better than snaps taken on rival camera phones, but we’re certainly not saying that the camera is bad either.

Photos are generally bright and colorful, with lots of detail (obviously), though we do take issue with the lens – it seemed to distort images at the edges more than you usually see on a standard smartphone lens.

(Image credit: Future)

Two extra snappers round out the rear camera experience. First, there’s a 50MP ultra-wide snapper with a 114-degree lens, which is, basically as fine as most other ultra-wide cameras on smartphones. The insistence of high-resolution sensors paired with these incredibly situational lenses on many top-end camera phones continues to baffle, but it’s totally fit for purpose.

The third camera is surprising because it’s a 12MP telephoto lens that supports 2x optical zoom. We’ve seen a general shift away from zoom cameras from many phone brands over the last few years – in fact, Motorola is one of the many companies that barely uses them anymore – and even some similar-priced phones, like the Xiaomi 12 or OnePlus 10T, don’t have telephoto or periscope cameras.

The 2x zoom here isn’t fantastic, but it’s more than we expected. It lets you close the distance for distant shots, or get closer to the action for close-up or macro shots, which is better than simply relying on digital zoom (or cropping). Pictures looked good with a fair dynamic range.

We’re not finished with the cameras though, not even with high-res ones, because the selfie camera on the Motorola Edge 30 Ultra is a whopping 60MP unit (though it too uses pixel binning, capturing 15MP shots unless you really want 60MP ones).

This took good-looking pictures, but it’s usually software that’s most important for selfies (especially when it comes to Portrait mode) making a 60MP sensor a little redundant. Still, these snaps are fine for the ‘Gram.

Video recording goes up to 8K at 30fps or 4K at 60fps. This is great if you’re in the theoretical class of people who actually wants or needs to shoot at 8K, but most people will be fine with 4K or 1080fps, especially since the super-high-res mode heats up the phone quickly.

In terms of other camera modes, there’s the usual smattering of regulars like slow-mo video, panorama, night mode and so on, but nothing unique. That’s not a total surprise, as Motorola isn’t known for creating its own camera modes.

Camera samples

Image 1 of 5

(Image credit: Future)(Image credit: Future)(Image credit: Future)(Image credit: Future)(Image credit: Future)

• Camera score: 3.5/5

Motorola Edge 30 Ultra performance and specs

If you’ve gotten this far in the review, you’re likely expecting the Motorola Edge 30 Ultra to have the best possible specs in every department, and it’s no different when it comes to performance.

The phone packs the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 chipset, which is the most powerful processor used in Android phones as of late 2022.

This chip is useful for myriad tasks – recording high-res videos and capturing megapixel-filled photos is one example, but it’s great for many tasks besides. We spent a long time testing various games over our testing period, and the phone performed admirably, comfortably running high-graphics options and never lagging or crashing.

The 12GB RAM in the phone might help with this. This phone also comes with 256GB memory, something we’re going to highlight because it’s twice the 128GB that most rival phones start with (despite the prices that we’ve already highlighted), and for most people, 256GB will certainly be enough storage.

As we’ve mentioned, there’s no 3.5mm audio jack, so music fans will have to rely on the phone’s Bluetooth connectivity. The speaker does get quite loud, so it’s suitable for games and sometimes TV too, but if you want high-fidelity audio you’ll need to buy some wireless earbuds or headphones.

• Performance score: 4.5/5

Motorola Edge 30 Ultra software

(Image credit: Future)

As with all Moto phones, the Edge 30 Ultra uses stock Android instead of laying over a custom-built fork of the popular software.

This phone uses Android 12, which had a big focus on customization. The Edge 30 Ultra lets you change home icon shapes, user interface color schemes, fonts and more, though admittedly these are features Motorola already offered before Google got in on the fun.

This is, for the most part, your standard Android phone – Google Pixel phones and Nokia handsets use stock Android too, if you’ve used them. You can swipe down from the top for quick settings and a notifications list, or up from the bottom for your full app drawer.

While stock Android used to provide the cleanest and most convenient user experience of any phone, in recent years many companies have introduced useful extra features to give their devices the edge – OnePlus’ OxygenOS and Xiaomi’s MIUI are good examples. So while the stock Android here certainly is clean, you’re not getting any useful extra tools.

One small Moto addition is some extra gaming controls so when you’re playing games you can easily share screenshots, tweak your phone’s settings and toggle moody edge lights. However, we found that the button to open the control menu could often get in the way of gameplay unless you swiped it right into the corner.

There are also the enduring Moto Actions, gestures which enable shortcuts on your phone: a popular example is doing a karate-chop motion to turn on the torch.

• Software score: 4/5

Motorola Edge 30 Ultra battery life

(Image credit: Future)

One of the surprisingly top-end specs of the Motorola Edge 30 Ultra is that it charges at 125W.

That’s an incredibly fast charging speed for a smartphone, one only select devices exceed, and it means the phone powers from empty to full in well under half an hour – in fact, simply plugging the device in for a few minutes gave us double-figure increases in the charge percentage.

Fast-charging can heat up a phone quickly, but we found that if we unplugged the phone as soon as it powered to full, it generally wasn’t even plugged in for long enough to get hot.

The phone offers 50W wireless charging, a figure that seems weak in comparison to 125W but is still much faster than even the wired charging on Samsung or Apple rivals. This powers the phone in less than an hour if you have a compatible wireless power mat.

Usually, when we see super-fast-charging phones, the downside is that the battery life is poor – generally, companies have to trade off between the two. However, we were surprised that the Motorola Edge 30 Ultra’s battery life was pretty decent.

Through normal use, the handset could reliably last for a day of use, and even during heavier use, like long gaming sessions or video calls, it retained a surprising amount of battery compared to other contemporary smartphones.

Sure, you’d have to throttle your use considerably to get the phone to last for two days of use, and even Motorola, which often inflates its battery predictions, doesn’t call it a two-day phone. But as long as you charge your phone daily, the Moto Edge 30 Ultra will be fine for you.

• Battery score: 4.5/5

Motorola Edge 30 Ultra score card

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Attributes	Notes	Rating
Design	The Motorola Edge 30 Ultra has a premium build that feels great in the hand.	4.5/5
Display	The Edge has a good-looking screen with a higher-than-average refresh rate.	4/5
Performance	With a top-end processor and lots of available GB, you’ll find the Edge 30 Ultra great for performance.	4.5/5
Camera	The Motorola has a well-rounded array of cameras, though its zoom camera could go further.	3.5/5
Battery	This Moto has a decent battery life but its incredibly quick charging is a wonder.	4.5/5
Software	You’ll find stock Android here, with a few extra tweaks to give you extra functions.	4/5
Value	The Motorola Edge 30 Ultra is a steal for its price, and it feels like a phone twice its price.	5/5

Should I buy the Motorola Edge 30 Ultra?

(Image credit: Future)

Buy it if…

Hand-feel is important
If the feel of a phone in your hand is an important factor, you’re definitely going to want to pay attention to the Moto, as it matches the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra in terms of comfort factor.

You’re a gaming fan
Between the top-end processor and great-looking display, the Edge 30 Ultra is great for gaming, as evidenced by many hours of our testing period.

You want to feel like a bandit
The Motorola Edge 30 Ultra’s specs and price make it feel like you’re ripping off Moto, as you almost never see features this impressive in a phone at this price.

Don’t buy it if…

You don’t like curved-edge phones
Not everyone is a fan of curved-edge phones, especially with the risk of accidental touches, and if that’s you then you won’t like this device.

You like wired audio
This is one of the few Motorola phones without a headphone jack, and although wireless audio or USB-C converters can help, people who like their traditional wired audio may not be pleased.

You want a budget mobile
Even though the Motorola Edge 30 Ultra is great value for money, it’s certainly still boasting a premium price. If you’re expecting all Moto handsets to be cheap, like the brand is known for, you’re in for a shock.

Also consider

If you’ve somehow finished this Motorola Edge 30 Ultra review and don’t know what to buy… firstly, read it again. But if you’re certain that this isn’t the phone for you, here are some others to consider.

iPhone 14
Apple’s latest flagship is a little pricier than the Moto, but it’s more powerful too, though with fewer cameras, slower charging and a more blocky design, it’s not the perfect alternative.
Check out our full iPhone 14 review

Samsung Galaxy S22
This Android phone is smaller than the Moto, so it might appeal to compact handset fans, and its specs are roughly comparable, though it’s slower to charge and doesn’t have a design that’s looks anywhere near as premium.
Check out our full Samsung Galaxy S22 review

Xiaomi 12
This small Android phone isn’t as good in the camera department, but it does have some cool photography modes, including a great telemacro one. Its other specs are roughly the same.
Check out our full Xiaomi 12 review

• First reviewed September 2022

Motorola Edge 30 Ultra: Price Comparison

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Tom Bedford was deputy phones editor on TechRadar until late 2022, having worked his way up from staff writer. Though he specialized in phones and tablets, he also took on other tech like electric scooters, smartwatches, fitness, mobile gaming and more. He is based in London, UK and now works for the entertainment site What To Watch.

He graduated in American Literature and Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia. Prior to working on TechRadar, he freelanced in tech, gaming and entertainment, and also spent many years working as a mixologist. He also currently works in film as a screenwriter, director and producer.

Motorola Moto G82 | TechRadar

TechRadar Verdict

A phone that slightly undercuts most of its rivals on cost yet still includes a punchy OLED display and stereo speakers – but it isn’t top of the class for camera quality or gaming performance.

TODAY’S BEST DEALS

Cons

• —

  Camera OIS isn’t as useful as hoped

• —

  Weak for video and night-time photography

• —

  More power is on offer if you spend a little more

Why you can trust TechRadar
Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test.

Two-minute review

The Moto G82 is part of a venerable family. For years, the Moto G series made our job pretty easy. Looking for a budget Android? Then buy the latest Moto G – advice that has stood for years.

In 2022, though, there have been too many Motorola phones released for the average person to keep up, and there’s now much greater competition from brands such as Realme, Xiaomi and OnePlus. 

However, the essence of the old Moto G spirit lives on in the Moto G82. It’s a sensible, reliable and uncluttered phone that comes with a fairly large OLED screen, 5G mobile internet, a decent amount of storage and stereo speakers, all at an appealing price. 

This particular model is spiced up with OIS (optical image stabilization), but this doesn’t elevate the camera to anything like the level of the Pixel 6a. While OIS counters against taking blurry images indoors, the Moto G82 camera doesn’t perform brilliantly at night, plus has weaker hardware than some of its slightly pricier competitors.  

The phone’s Snapdragon 695 SoC is also soundly beaten by the Qualcomm and MediaTek chipsets seen in phones that cost just slightly more. 

If camera image quality in more challenging scenes is a priority, or performance in demanding games such as Fortnite, for that matter, you should check out alternatives such as the Google Pixel 6a, the OnePlus Nord 2T, Realme Neo 3T and Xiaomi Poco X4 GT before considering a Moto G82. 

However, we can’t ignore that all of those devices typically cost more than the Moto G82, which should help turn down the volume on the numerous slightly weaker points detailed in this review. 

Motorola Moto G82 price and availability

(Image credit: Future / Andrew Williams)

The Motorola Moto G82 5G was released in June 2022 alongside the Moto G62, a lower-end alternative housing a weaker processor, thicker body and an LCD screen in place of an OLED panel. 

The G82 costs £289.99/$499AU, and while not widely available in the US at the time of review, it’s expected to cost around $365.

• Value score: 4/5

Motorola Moto G82 design

(Image credit: Future / Andrew Williams)

• Plastic build
• Headphone jack
• IP52-certified water repellent

The Motorola Moto G82 5G isn’t an outright beautiful phone; but it doesn’t need to be. Its build is pragmatic and simple, with plastic panels all-round, barring the glass protection of the screen. 

Its finish, like several other recent Motorola devices, also appears to follow that thought process. A silicone case comes attached as standard. Take it off and the cold metallic finish looks a little too bold, the dotted pattern on the back as if it belongs further under the surface than it actually sits.

Putting the case back on disguises all this. A simple layer of silicone softens its appearance, and pushes the dotted pattern into the background where it belongs. Note that the Moto G82 doesn’t feel too thick with the case on either; at 8mm thick, it’s slimmer than some older phones in this series and the step-down Moto G62, which is 8. 6mm thick.

(Image credit: Future / Andrew Williams)

Case attached, the camera housing becomes the Motorola Moto G82 5G’s defining stylistic feature. An ultra-softened, rounded rectangle, the camera doesn’t come across as desperate to appear techy and advanced as some. That said, its “50MP” and “OIS” credentials are pasted alongside the lenses.

Any more coverage than the above and we end up over-analysing what is a fairly unadventurous but pleasant enough phone. 

The Motorola Moto G82 5G has a side-mounted fingerprint sensor that’s just half a beat slower than the best. It has a headphone jack and stereo speakers – one above the screen; another in the standard spot along the phone’s bottom edge.

Their output lacks low-frequency clout, but they don’t sound thin. As a pair they’re loud enough to let you listen to a podcast while cooking or having a shower. A stereo-style dual speaker array is, of course, always a blessing for YouTube, other video streaming apps and landscape-orientation games.  

In a similar vein, the Moto G82’s side-mounted fingerprint scanner doesn’t seem quite as high-tech as the in-screen style seen on a few rivals around this price. It’s fractionally slower than the very best, too; but, ultimately, it works perfectly well and has never failed to register a touch.

(Image credit: Future / Andrew Williams)

There’s some water-resistance, too. It’s described as “water repellent”, a term Motorola has used for years now, but this time there’s an IP52 rating attached. 

This is about as low as gadget water-resistance gets — the “2” figure tells us it can withstand water sprays up to 15 degrees from vertical. In the real world this equates to a bit of rain, so the device should really be treated as a non-water-resistant mobile. 

Finishing up the design traits, the Moto G82 has a 3.5mm headphone jack, and the SIM tray has space for either a microSD card or second SIM.

• Design score: 3.5/5

Motorola Moto G82 display

(Image credit: Future / Andrew Williams)

• 6. 6-inch 120Hz Full HD OLED panel
• Customizable color profiles
• Peak brightness could be better

The Motorola Moto G82 5G has a 6.6-inch 120Hz screen with an OLED panel. It’s the spec you ideally want to see at this price, for the best contrast and color available in an affordable phone. 

However, it isn’t the best display around. We found it reaches 650 nits in direct sunlight, which is noticeably lower than the 770 of the Realme GT Neo 3T. Did we find it outright dim outdoors? No – it’s largely fine, just not a category leader. 

We also found the color temperature a little cool at the default setting. This is common, since a cooler tone can make a screen seem brighter and punchier. However, the Moto G82 looks better once it’s been tweaked slightly.

You can switch the Moto G82’s color from “Saturated” to “Normal” in the Settings menu, and a temperature slider allows for a warmer or cooler appearance. 

Like some other OLED panels, the Motorola Moto G82 takes on a slightly blue-green tint at an angle. This lines up with reports we’ve seen that suggest the phone has an LG P-OLED panel rather than a Samsung one. The latest Samsung OLED panels tend to avoid this particular issue. 

This is a 1080p screen, and it looks sharp and clean. Even if you spend a lot more on a phone, the most obvious improvement you’re likely to see is higher peak brightness in direct sunlight — and even that isn’t a given.

• Display score: 4/5

Motorola Moto G82 software and performance

(Image credit: Future / Andrew Williams)

• Runs Android 12
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 chipset
• Motorola-specific shortcuts/gestures

The Motorola Moto G82 runs Android 12 and uses the classic Moto interface. This makes fairly light changes to the Google blueprint, meaning you get to see the changes made to Android’s Material Design style in version 12. 

Drop-down menu items are now housed in colorful bricks. You can change this color in the Moto app, to give Android a more distinct flavor.  

The Moto G82 also has Peek Display, an information screen that displays when the phone is, for example, picked up while “asleep”. It shows the time and battery life. 

Like other Motorola phones the G82 also supports gestures, such as jumping to the camera app with two quick twists of the handset. Or you can toggle the torch with a double karate chop-style movement. 

Android 12 feels largely slick and smooth in the Moto G82, although app loading and multi-tasking will seem marginally slower than a flagship Android. This phone uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 CPU, a mid-range chipset also seen in phones such as the Sony Xperia 10 IV and Realme 9 Pro.

While its CPU performance is good, the GPU – the graphics side – isn’t nearly at the same level as the Snapdragon 870, for example. This means some graphics settings won’t be available in certain high-end games, and those without rock-solid performance optimisation may suffer from a patchy frame rate at times. 

In Fortnite, for example, the Moto G82 is limited to the Medium graphics preset, and the 60fps mode available to some phones simply isn’t present in the Settings menu. This is largely because it wouldn’t be able to reach anything like that frame rate anyway. After playing a couple of rounds with the allowed settings, the phone did handle the game OK; but there are obvious frame rate drops when you take to the skies in one of Fortnite’s aerial vehicles. 

This somewhat limited gaming performance isn’t going to matter to everyone. However, some phones around this price, such as the Realme GT Neo 3T and Poco X4 GT, perform better.

• Software and performance score: 3.5/5

Motorola Moto G82 camera

(Image credit: Future / Andrew Williams)

• 50MP-led triple rear camera system
• Boasts OIS (optical image stabilization)
• Quality lags behind competitors

The Motorola Moto G82 has three rear cameras, a 50-megapixel primary, an 8-megapixel ultra-wide and a 2-megapixel macro. Like all 2-megapixel macros, the one here is very poor. 

Our primary uses the Samsung JN1, a budget sensor designed to capture 12. 5-megapixel pictures. It’s a lot less technically impressive than the great Sony IMX766 sensor seen in the OnePlus Nord 2T, or the Samsung GW1 of the Poco X4 GT. 

However, the Motorola Moto G82 also has optical image stabilization. This moves the camera lens slightly to counteract motion of the photographer’s hands. A few years ago, OIS was the only way to capture half-decent night images from a phone. But times have changed and night images these days are compiled using a whole stack of different pictures — a form of what is known as computational photography.

(Image credit: Future / Andrew Williams)

The Motorola Moto G82 doesn’t take particularly good night-time photos, which may make you question what the OIS is actually for. It isn’t required in good lighting, where the short exposure time makes handshake blur a non-issue. It does help you avoid blurry indoors images, though, when the exposure might extend to 1/20 of a second. But you can still get far better night-time results elsewhere.  

Night photos aren’t even close to those from the Google Pixel 6a, for example – or, closer in price, the OnePlus Nord 2T. Even when you use the Night Vision mode, made for low light, truly dark pictures remain pretty dark, detail is limited, and what detail is present tends to look fuzzy and vague. 

Don’t put too much stock in the Motorola Moto G82’s use of OIS. The budget would arguably have been better spent on a slightly better sensor. 

However, the Motorola Moto G82 can take reasonably good-looking pictures during the day. Colors are engaging but not overbaked, the Auto HDR does a solid job of lifting shadows out of the doldrums, and avoiding blown-out areas in objects such as bright clouds.

Camera samples

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A nice, bright image. There’s a slightly odd texture to the flatter blue areas in the sky, but most wouldn’t notice. (Image credit: Future / Andrew Williams)At times the G82 verges on making its pictures a touch too bright, but it helps them pop off the screen. (Image credit: Future / Andrew Williams)While it has OIS, the Moto G82 isn’t capable of taking good low-light photos. (Image credit: Future / Andrew Williams)In scenes such as this, you can see the strength of the Auto HDR software, which keeps the foreground bright without blowing out those lovely cloud textures. (Image credit: Future / Andrew Williams)The Moto G82 takes more vibrant images than the step-down Moto G62, despite having very similar hardware. (Image credit: Future / Andrew Williams)A slightly warm color temperature pairs well with nature scenes. (Image credit: Future / Andrew Williams)While the ultra-wide has fairly low-end hardware, the phone’s HDR optimization lets it create some charming images. (Image credit: Future / Andrew Williams)

Detail is generally fair, and the processing avoids the painterly appearance of some affordable phones. However, if you were to compare the Motorola Moto G82’s pictures with those of one of the best budget phone cameras – the Pixel 6a, for example – then you’d notice better texture reproduction and more confident-looking detail down at pixel level in rivals.  

This is, in part, because the Moto G82 has a sensor with a small surface area compared to its resolution. The Samsung JN1 is a 1/2.76-inch sensor, a little smaller than the 1/2.55-inch Sony IMX363 of the Pixel 6a (which also benefits from native resolution shooting), and dramatically smaller than the 1/1.56-inch Sony IMX766 of the OnePlus Nord 2T.

Both are at least slightly more expensive, but are alternatives to consider if you’re keen on having a phone that can take good pictures at night. 

The Moto G82’s 8MP ultra-wide camera suffers from the usual issues of secondary cameras in affordable phones. There’s significant loss of sharpness at the corners of the frame, and the lower dynamic range of the sensor is more likely to reveal the limits of the dynamic range processing, resulting in some blown out clouds in our test images. 

However, the ultra-wide can still take perfectly shareable pictures with reasonably rich color and enough detail not to appear instantly compromised when thrown up on a laptop-size screen.  

The Moto G82’s video is a flat-out disappointment. Chief among the complaints? It can’t shoot video at 4K resolution at all; 1080p is the max. 

You’ll only see software stabilization when shooting at a 30fps frame rate. There’s a 60fps mode, but this appears to be completely unstabilized, which is doubly disappointing when the phone has OIS. It doesn’t appear to be used at all in photo capture. 

We highly recommend sticking to the default 1080p/30 mode, since 60fps footage will look juddery if you don’t use a tripod, and the character of the image is far worse at 60fps. The picture looks significantly less detailed, and more aliased. 

The Motorola Moto G82 5G’s 16-megapixel front camera shoots 4-megapixel pixel-binned images by default. You can capture 16-megapixel pics using the “high resolution” mode, but we don’t think this mode is worth using. 

Pictures don’t look anything like four times as detailed – even in perfect lighting – and both dynamic range and image consistency are better if you stick to the 4-megapixel default. This isn’t a stellar selfie camera, but it’s solid enough to compensate for strongly backlit scenes and does OK with dimmer indoors lighting. 

• Camera score: 3/5

Motorola Moto G82 battery life

(Image credit: Future / Andrew Williams)

• Large 5,000mAh battery
• Supports 30W fast charging
• 50% charge in under 30 minutes

The Motorola Moto G82 5G has a 5,000mAh battery, the same capacity seen in a large and ever-increasing number of Moto-series phones. However, it’s good to see this capacity retained when this is a slightly slimmer handset than plenty of others in the Moto G family. 

Real-world stamina is good, but predictably doesn’t quite reach that of some rivals, such as the 60Hz Sony Xperia 10 IV and the old 720p Moto G50 5G, which have slightly less demanding components. Such phones can last almost two days, even with more demanding usage patterns. 

The Motorola Moto G82 5G is more likely to leave you with a solid but not mind-blowing 20-30% charge by the end of the day. However, there are a few techniques to tweak its longevity without switching on Battery Saver, which alters how the phone behaves. 

An OLED panel means the “Dark” UI mode and a dark or black wallpaper should reduce display power use a tad. You can also switch the screen refresh rate down to 60Hz, which we did on a couple of occasions when we knew a longer day of use was ahead. 

The Moto G82 also has good, although not remotely class-leading, fast charging. It supports 30W fast charging, and a 30W charger is included in the box. 

This takes the phone from flat to 50% charge in 27-28 minutes, and it reaches 100% after 80 minutes. The Moto G82 continues to draw a charge at a measly 4W for a while after, but when you’re running low on juice, the 2%-a-minute charge rate means just 10 minutes plugged in can see you right for a long night. 

There is, as is the norm at this level, no support for wireless charging.

• Battery score: 4/5

Motorola Moto G82 score card

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Attributes	Notes	Rating
Design	Thin design but plastic build, best keep the in-box case on.	3.5/5
Display	Nice 120Hz OLED panel could be brighter.	4/5
Software & performance	Clean UX but not the most powerful phone.	3.5/5
Cameras	OIS is nice but pictures are just OK.	3/5
Battery	Google longevity and decent fast charging speeds.	4/5
Value	A nice, low price for some premium features.	4/5

Should I buy the Motorola Moto G82?

(Image credit: Future / Andrew Williams)

Buy it if…

You want a good-value 5G phone
The Moto G82 is a good-value phone that provides a sharp-looking OLED screen, 5G and stereo speakers at reasonable cost. While there are a bunch of negative notes in our review, we’ve typically had to use slightly more expensive rivals to make such comparisons. It shows that although the Moto G series has lost much of the focus it used to have, the core concept of delivering a rock-solid phone for sensible money remains.

You appreciate a slimmer large-screen Android
Design dynamism isn’t really a Moto G82 trait. However, at 8mm thick, it’s noticeably slimmer than a lot of phones of this scale and price, including most older devices in the Moto G series. This makes it feel pretty good even with the silicone case attached, which we’d recommend keeping on from day one.

You want an OLED display
This is one of the cheaper phones with a Full HD OLED screen. While it isn’t the brightest in its class, it does have the rich character of those OLED emissive pixels, and is large enough to make games and streamed movies look great.

Don’t buy it if…

You demand good low-light photos
While this phone has OIS, it doesn’t take particularly good night-time images. You’ll see much better results from phones with better sensors and more advanced low-light shooting software. Images taken during the day can look good – but, again, are middle-of-the-pack at best.

If high-end gaming is a top priority
The Moto G82’s generalist approach to phone design means there are better options out there for gaming. Its Snapdragon 695 SoC can handle most games fine, but the Snapdragon 778G of the Real GT Master Edition has significantly better GPU power.

You want a phone with real design personality
Moto G series phones aren’t designed to blow minds, more to appeal to a wide audience. The G82’s appearance is fine but not eye-catching, and the shell is plastic aside from the glass screen protection. Some slightly more expensive phones such as the OnePlus Nord 2T come with glass back panels.

Also consider

The Moto G82 brings together a mix of technologies you wouldn’t usually expect to see at this price point but that doesn’t mean it’s ahead in its category. As such, here are a trio of alternatives that might suit you better if you’ve decided the Moto G82 isn’t for you.

OnePlus Nord 2T
A similarly clean user experience, paired to great performance and a surprisingly capable camera experience for the price.
Read our OnePlus Nord 2T review for more

Poco X4 GT
This phone is much better for gaming thanks to its seriously powerful MediaTek 8100 SoC. Charging is faster, too, although it isn’t as readily available as the Moto G82 in some countries.  
Read our Xiaomi Poco X4 GT review for more

Google Pixel 6a
If you’re able to spend significantly more, then consider the Pixel 6a. It has a better main camera, a faster processor and great water-resistance — plus a more distinctive design.
Check out our Pixel 6a review

• First reviewed September 2022

Motorola Moto G82: Price Comparison

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Andrew is a freelance journalist and has been writing and editing for some of the UK’s top tech and lifestyle publications including TrustedReviews, Stuff, T3, TechRadar, Lifehacker and others.

Motorola Razr (2022): is the game worth the candle?

The smartphone market is either dense or empty. Apparently, marketers have some kind of special calendar, in which the most successful days for launching new products are marked in red. And companies follow the schedule, no matter what happens.

Seriously, last week there were presentations of three companies at once. Samsung introduced new smartphones with flexible screens Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 and Z Flip 4. Xiaomi rolled out its answer in the form of Xiaomi MIX Fold 2. And on the same day as Xiaomi, the new Razr introduced Motorola. Thus, in a week, 3 companies at once showed new smartphones with a flexible screen. nine0003

I would like to ask: why do this? Obviously, this is too much, which is harmful for brands. Since people begin not just to look at the product, but immediately compare it with competitors. If you have a strong product that will kill everyone, or you are Xiaomi, which presents smartphones for the home market, where Samsung has zero share, then you can still do this. But if you are Motorola, which is trying to compete with Samsung in the US market and is completely beaten by it, and the Chinese market has a similar situation, but with Xiaomi, you need to quiet down under the bench and not flicker. nine0003

By the way, the only sign of sanity in history was shown by OnePlus, whose presentation was scheduled on the same day with Apple. Then the brand, not without self-irony, postponed the presentation, writing on social networks that they also plan to look at new iPhones that day.

If you’re wondering why dates collide like this, it’s for a pretty simple reason. Companies do not know well what other companies are doing. For example, many Huawei employees often did not hold a single Samsung in their hands, just as Samsung employees have never seen Xiaomi smartphones in person. Accordingly, it turns out that companies live in a vacuum bubble. nine0003

Table of Contents

• A little history of the new Razr
• Motorola Razr (2022)
  • Specifications
• Conclusion: Flip 4 or Razr 2022?

A little history of the new Razr

But back to Motorola. Over the past few years, the company has been doing well in the US home market, and in a number of foreign markets too. In a sense, Motorola is lucky. First HTC left, then Huawei, and recently LG. So Motorola is good at picking up breadcrumbs. nine0003

In November 2019, the company showed the first Motorola Razr (2019). A smartphone with a flexible screen that puts pressure on a sense of nostalgia.

The smartphone was not bad. First, unlike its main competitor in the form of Samsung’s Galaxy Flip, it did not have a gap between the halves. Second, the Razr had a good-sized external screen (2.7 inches versus the Flip’s 1.1 inches).

Razr 2019

Well, the main miscalculations were everything else. Unlike the Flip, the Razr had no flagship cameras, a Snapdragon 710 chipset, no 5G modem, poor screen quality, and build quality issues. Also the price tag was amazing. Most journalists who saw it live agreed that it was more of a concept than a finished product. nine0003 Galaxy Flip

Razr’s defenders said that the Razr from the 2000s was not distinguished by top-end hardware, but was more of an accessory. Let, but since then the role of the smartphone has changed dramatically. From a dialer and a music player, a smartphone has become a universal gadget for everything. And now even the most stylish guys are not ready to buy a smartphone simply because it is beautiful.

Functionality, both direct and imaginary, is important. As an illustration of the latter, we can take Samsung’s Galaxy Flip, where the company puts the top-end chipsets, despite the fact that there is no room for a proper cooling system and the smartphone «throttles» (throttling — a drop in performance under load) up to 40-45% of the maximum performance. nine0003

The first Razr, despite being introduced in November 2019, did not go on sale until the end of February 2020. So, when the second generation, the Motorola Razr 5G, was introduced in September, it was perceived as a bit strange. It seems that only the first generation went on sale.

Motorola Razr 5G

The new smartphone showed that Motorola does not learn from mistakes. There were still mediocre cameras, an average chipset (Snapdragon 765G 5G), but 5G appeared and the price became much more pleasant. nine0003

However, there was practically no reason to buy a Motorola Razr 5G compared to the Galaxy Flip. Samsung has won both in technical characteristics, and in price, and in perception.

Motorola’s other obvious problem is supply issues. Both times the company held presentations, and then the smartphone disappeared from view for so long that people simply forgot about it. The market got scanty lots.

Over the years (Motorola has taken a break during the pandemic), Samsung has only strengthened its leadership in the flexible screen smartphone segment. Let’s see if Motorola has found good reasons why the buyer decides to vote for the Razr with money. nine0003

Motorola Razr (2022)

So far, the new Razr 2022 is exclusive to China. At the same time, the exact date of the start of sales is not specified. And given the fact that the site does not have a complete list of characteristics, there is a suspicion that the smartphone is still being worked on. A mistake was made immediately in positioning: in all the pictures there are only fashionable girls. This can still be allowed by Samsung, which has a conditionally “male” smartphone Z Fold. But Motorola shouldn’t do that. It limits the target audience out of the blue. nine0003

In fact, there is a young man in one picture, and I didn’t notice him right away, because I thought that this was some kind of section about artificial intelligence assistant. This comrade looks painfully drawn.

Technical characteristics

• Processor : Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, ADreno graphics 730

Operating system : Android 12, shell 4.0

• Memory : 8/12 GB, total , no memory card slot
• Main screen : 6.7″ P-OLED 1080 x 2400 dots 144Hz 1 billion colors HDR10+
• External display : 2.7″ G-OLED 573 x 800 dots

Battery : Li-Po 3500 mAh, 33 W charging

• Main camera :
  • 50 MP, f/1. 9, (wide angle), 1/1.55″, 1.0µm, PDAF, OIS
  • 13 MP , f/2.2, 121˚ (ultra wide), 1.12µm
  • Recording 4K@30fps, 1080p@30/60/120fps, gyro-EIS
• Front camera : 32 MP, f/2.5, (wide angle), 0.7µm
• SIM card : 2 Nano-SIM
• 5G, Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5, NFC, Type-C
• Navigation : A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO, QZSS
• Sensors : fingerprint scanner (under the screen), accelerometer, gyroscope, proximity, illumination, compass
• Other : splash proof, no 3.5 mm jack
• Dimensions : 167 x 79.8 x 7.6 mm, weight 200 g
• Price : starting at $900

The new Razr has been significantly redesigned, although it retains the dimensions of the previous generation. So, the main screen is still 6.7 inches, and the external screen is 2.7 inches. But in a couple of years, flexible screens have taken a step forward, so Motorola (as recently Xiaomi) showed off new folding mechanisms that allow you to bend the device even more.

Let’s start with the external screen and design. The screen size remains the same, but the design has been improved. The smartphone has a camera with two lenses. If earlier they tried to disguise the cameras, now it is an independent design element. nine0003

It is not entirely clear what material the rear panel is made of. Looks like matte plastic. But I hope that Motorola will not make such a mistake. And it will be either frosted glass or metal (but most likely not).

It’s interesting how the Chinese sign cameras: 32 megapixels on Chinese posters turn into 3200 something in hieroglyphs. According to the characteristics of the camera, they seem to look decent.

But you shouldn’t expect anything special from the cameras anyway, because, frankly, Motorola has always had problems with photo processing algorithms: when blurring in portrait mode, the ears were rubbed if headphones were inserted in them, and the detail was lost in for noise cancellation. The new «moto» will probably be the same. Look at the example photo below. Motorola again boasts of «noise reduction». nine0003

Motorola did a great job with the screen. Now here the refresh rate is 144 Hz. This is a screen with 10-bit color depth, which certainly did him good. Support for Dolby Vision was not delivered, but at least there is HDR10 +. Plus, Dolby Atmos sound has been added, so the device probably sounds a little louder and richer than before.

If before Motorola professed pure Android, now it finally took up the mind. Still, pure Android is for geeks, and it’s inconvenient for a normal person to use it. I bought a smartphone, and there is not even a widget for the weather. Everything you need to look for and buy in the app store yourself. Now Motorola has its own shell, and the company is even trying to play with productivity modes. Actually, this is a development for tablets, which was also transferred here. Well, let. It will not be worse. nine0003

All the main characteristics of the smartphone were brought together in one slide. Here it is worth highlighting that they are finally using a top-end chipset. However, like the Galaxy Flip, you shouldn’t expect much performance here: the chipset is hot, and the smartphone is small. A proper cooling system is unlikely to fit in it.

For once, Motorola didn’t seem to mess up with the price. The price tag for the first model was exorbitant. The Razr 2022 is priced at $100 less than Samsung’s Flip 4.

Conclusion: Flip 4 or Razr 2022? nine0027

Frankly speaking, Motorola is still inferior to Samsung. So, Flip 4 has IP68 protection, the back panel is not made of plastic, but of Gorilla Glass Victus +.

Plus Samsung stressed that it has worked to make the smartphone better survive drops and scratches.

By the way, the glass back is needed, as it has built-in wireless charging. Plus, the smartphone itself can wirelessly recharge other gadgets. The batteries of both smartphones are tiny, but enough to charge the headphones. nine0003

Let Moto have a 144Hz screen and Samsung only 120Hz, but in terms of brightness and saturation it will be inferior to Dynamic AMOLED 2X, which is installed in Flip 4.