motorola launched the moto g54 as the successor to last year’s g52 in India a few days back. This has several upgrades, such as a 120Hz screen, a faster 5G SoC, better camera, and lots more. Is this the best 5G smartphone around Rs. 15,000? Let us dive into the review to find out.
| Box Contents |
| Camera |
| Battery Life |
| Conclusion |
Box Contents
- moto g54 5G 8GB + 128GB in Midnight Blue colour
- 33W fast charger
- USB Type-A to Type-C cable
- SIM ejector tool
- Clear protective case
- User manual and warranty information
Display, Hardware and Design
Starting with the display, the moto g54 has a 6.5-inch Full HD+ 120Hz LCD screen with a pixel resolution of 2400 × 1080 pixels, 20:9 aspect ratio and a pixel density of about 405 PPI. The display is bright, since it has up to 560 nits peak brightness, and the sunlight legibility is good as well. The colours are vibrant as well.
The phone has 30 to 120Hz variable refresh rate and 240Hz touch sampling rate. It also has HDR support, which works for YouTube. Under the display options there are different options to adjust colours from Natural, and Saturated.
It has Active Area-Touch Panel (AA-TP) of 90%. There is Panda Glass protection for the display.
The phone has a punch-hole screen that houses an 16-megapixel camera. The phone doesn’t have a notification LED, but it comes with peek display option that lets you see interactive notifications and quick information while the screen is off, but it doesn’t act as always on display present in AMOLED phones.
It has a slightly thicker bottom bezel, which is fine in the price range.
In terms of placements, the power button, which integrates a fingerprint scanner, is present on the right side along with the volume rockers. The hybrid SIM and microSD card slot that accepts cards up to 1TB is present on the left side.
The 3.5mm audio jack, primary microphone, USB Type-C port and the loudspeaker grill are present on the bottom. The secondary microphone is present on the top and has Dolby Atmos branding.
The phone is 8.89mm thick and weighs just 192 grams, even though it packs a 6000mAh battery. This has premium Acrylic Glass (PMMA) back, so it offers a smooth finish and looks premium. The phone has IP52 ratings, so that the phone is resistant to dust, light rain and splashes.
Camera
- 50MP rear camera with f/1.8 aperture, OIS,
- 8MP ultra-wide / macro / depth camera with f/2.2 aperture
- 16MP front-facing camera with f/2.4 aperture
The camera UI is familiar with most Motorola smartphones that include a quick toggles between main camera and macro camera on the bottom, quick toggles for flash, timer, aspect ratio, and more. Other camera features include Night Vision, Portrait, Spot Colour, Panorama, Scan, Dual Capture, Slow motion, Time lapse, Spot Colour and Dual capture.
Coming to the image quality, daylight shots came out well with good dynamic range, thanks to Quad Pixel technology that gives you get 12.5MP output. HDR shots are better with improved dynamic range, and it is recommended to enable auto HDR. The 8MP ultra-wide is good, and the macro option with the ultra-wide is good as well, since this is an autofocus camera. The edge detection in portrait shots is good as well.
Check out the camera samples
The phone is capable of recording 1080p at up to 30 fps resolution from both front and rear cameras. OIS works well, and the phone also has EIS.
Software, UI and Apps
The moto g54 runs Android 13 with Android security patch for August, 2023. The company has promised an assured upgrade to Android 14 and 3 years of security upgrades for the phone. As usual, it is stock with added Moto features. There is nothing to mention regarding the software in specific, since it offers stock Android 13 experience with added features.
It comes with the usual My UX with Ambient Display option and gestures such as Quick capture, Fast flashlight, Three-finger screenshot, Sidebar, Double press power key, Press and hold power button.
Apart from the usual set of utility apps, Google apps, there are some apps and games, but you can install them easily. The version we have packs 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM, and there is also a 12GB RAM version. The version we have packs a 128GB UFS 2.2 of storage, and there is also a 256GB storage version. Out of 8GB RAM, you get 7.6GB of usable RAM, out of which about 3GB of RAM is free on boot with just the default apps running in the background.
Out of 128GB of internal storage, you get about 111GB of usable storage. We got sequential read speeds of about 864.42MB/s, which is good for a phone with UFS 2.2 in the price range.
Fingerprint sensor and Face unlock
The phone has a fingerprint sensor on the side. It immediately unlocks the phone just by keeping your finger so that you don’t have to press it, and it is obviously faster than the in-display fingerprint scanner. You can add up to 5 fingerprints. You can also use the fingerprint for app local and payments in apps. The phone also has face unlock, but it is not as secure as fingerprint.
Music Player, FM Radio and Multimedia
YouTube Music is the default music player with usual audio effects and equalizer, which can also be directly accessed from Audio Effects shortcut app. It also has FM Radio with recording. Audio through the stereo speaker is loud, compared to mono speakers that other phones in the range offer. It also has Dolby Atmos. Audio through earphones, is good as well.
It has Widevine L1 support, so you can play HD content on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and other streaming apps without any issues. HDR works for YouTube, but doesn’t work with Netflix.
Dual SIM and Connectivity
It has the usual set of connectivity features such as 5G with 14 (n1/n3/n5/n7/n8/n20/n28/n38/n40/n41/n77/n78) bands. Jio and Airtel 5G work out of the box, and also has 5G VoNR support. It also has dual 4G VoLTE, 4G carrier aggregation or 4G+, Wi-Fi 802.11 ac (2.4 + 5GHz), Bluetooth 5.3 and GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO and QZSS.
The phone also USB OTG support that lets you connect USB drives. Moving on, the call quality is good, and we did not face any call drops and the earpiece volume was loud. It doesn’t have NFC support, which you can’t expect in a phone in the price range.
The moto g54’s body SAR is 1.09W/Kg, and the head SAR is at 1.07W/Kg, well under the limit in India which is 1.6 W/kg (over 1 g).
Performance and Benchmarks
It is powered by MediaTek Dimensity 7020 6nm SoC, which is just a version of Dimensity 930. It has 2 x A78 CPUs clocked at up to 2.2GHz, 6x A55 CPUs clocked at up to 2GHz. This has IMG BXM-8-256 GPU and up to 12GB LPDDR4X RAM. This is a massive upgrade compared to Snapdragon 680 in moto G52.
The IMG BXM-8-256 GPU offers a smooth gaming performance even in graphic intensive games, but it does get a bit hot with long hours of gaming. It reached maximum 45º C in our testing indoors in Wi-Fi, but this might vary outdoors in 4G or 5G. We did not face any issues or frame drops in the graphic-intensive games like COD and BGMI, but the phone can’t handle Genshin Impact in high settings. That said, check out some synthetic benchmark scores below.
Battery life
Coming to the battery life, the phone packs a huge 6000mAh (typical) built-in battery, one of the biggest in the price range. It lasts for a whole day even with heavy use with 5G enabled and multimedia use, and more than a day with average use. For me, it lasted for about 2 days, and I got close to 7 and half hours of screen on time.
The phone has support for 30W fast charging, and it took about 1 hour and 40 minutes to charge from 0 to 100%, and 0 to 50% charge took about 45 minutes using the bundled 33W charger.
Conclusion
Starting at a price tag of Rs. 15,999, the moto g54 5G is a capable all-rounder compared to other phones in the price range. It has a large Full HD+ 120Hz screen, a capable processor that is also good for gaming, has a good camera, stereo speakers, long-lasting battery, and what not. Wish there was a 6GB RAM model to keep the starting price under Rs. 15,000 without any offers.
Alternatives
The Redmi 12 5G is a good alternative since it offers 8 GB + 256 GB in the range, but this lacks stereo speakers and an ultra-wide camera. You can also check the realme narzo 60x 5G at a cheaper rate if you need a bigger screen, but can compromise again on stereo speakers and an ultra-wide camera.
Pricing and availability
The moto g54 5G is priced at Rs. 15,999 for the 8GB + 128GB model and the 12GB + 256GB model costs Rs. 18,999. It will be available from Flipkart starting from September 13th at 12 noon.
There is also Rs. 1500 instant discount with ICICI Bank Credit cards, so the effective starting price is Rs. 14,499.
Pros
- Good display
- Clean UI without Bloatware or Ads
- Good cameras
- Stereo speakers, Dolby Atmos
- Excellent battery life, fast charging
Cons
- Promise of only 1 Android update