Motorola Moto G 5G | 2023 | Unlocked | Made for US 4/128GB | 48 MPCamera | Ink Blue, 163.94×74.98×8.39

This review is for the Motorola Moto G Power 5 G – 2024
All through 2024, this was regarded – by most professional review sites – as the best or at least one of the top three – choices of smartphones priced in the $300 range. Samsung’s A25 and a Nord phone I forget the model listed as close competitors.

Right now, you can get this phone for less than $180. It curb stomps the $200 competition from 2024 and 2025 – say Samsung’s A16. And it is also – arguably – a better phone than the 2025 Moto G Power 5G. The 2025 model of this phone costs $300 and is actually slower. It gets better water protection for 2025 but the processor is slower. Everything else carries over from 2024. If buying now saving $125 and getting the 2024 model seems smart.

It’s not the equal of a 2024/2025 flagship phone. But depending on what you need or is important to you, there is tremendous value here:
The screen is an LCD. But it’s a premium (IPS) LCD that gets plenty bright. I can read it outdoors just fine
The processor is a solid mid range choice. It isn’t as fast as the best – but it’s much better than the slower processors found on $200 or less phones.
It comes with 8 GB of memory – which is now the sweet spot for Android. The 4GB on $200 or less phones is just not enough anymore. The phone switches quickly between tabs and apps.
128 GB of storage – plenty for most users and you can expand the storage with an SD card
Battery is 5000 mAh and with the efficient CPU most users will have all day power.
Camera is admittedly a weak area for this phone – and Motorola phones in general. It is “good enough” for casual picture taking. Which is good enough for me.
Motorola gestures are wonderful. I’ve had a Pixel for the last four years and I’m soooo glad to be back to chopping for the light to come on and twisting to launch the camera.
It has a headphone jack and a built in FM radio tuner.

This phone is just an incredible value at the current price.

I will start off by saying I have no interest in $1000+ cell phones – to me they are disposable devices that get replaced every few years. That said, this is the perfect phone for my purposes. The coverage (carrier dependent), audio, display quality and speed are perfect for my needs. I use the this as – wait for it – a phone – as well for texting and taking some pictures, mapping directions, etc.
This is my 4th or 5th Motorola phone, and I have always been happy with the value proposition. Even through my former carrier the Motorola phones have always had much less bloatware than, say Samsung (ugh) which loads up their phones with all kinds of nonsense. When you buy it unlocked it comes with even less bloatware, and you can delete or disable most of it.
It is much faster than my old phone, which one would expect, with 8MB of RAM, and 128MB of internal storage. There are several things I like about this phone, a couple being that it still has a headphone jack, and also it will take a micro SD card for additional storage. Both of these features are found on very few phones these days. There are 2 features that are unique to Motorola on the phones I have had, including this one, that are REALLY convenient. You can open the camera app just by twisting your wrist, and you can turn on the flashlight by a chopping motion – no screen to wake up or app to start up – brilliant really.
Also, the battery life (5000ma) is phenomenal. I can use it all day, leave it overnight, and it will still have plenty of charge the next day. I really only charge it every other day. I will note that I turn off as many background processes as I can, don’t watch movies on the phone (really?), and in general use it as a tool, not a brain-sucking toy (editorial comment :-). If you want a well functioning device and don’t want to spend huge dollars this phone may be right for you.