motorola launched the moto g34 5G as the successor to last year’s g32 in India earlier this week. This has several upgrades, such as a 120Hz screen, 5G support, a faster 5G SoC, and lots more. Is this the best 5G smartphone in the Rs. 11,000 range? Let us dive into the review to find out.
| Box Contents |
| Camera |
| Battery Life |
| Conclusion |
Box Contents
- moto g34 5G 8GB + 128GB in Ocean Green colour
- 20W fast charger
- USB Type-A to Type-C cable
- SIM ejector tool
- User manual and warranty information
Display, Hardware and Design
Starting with the display, the moto g34 has a 6.5-inch HD+ 120Hz LCD screen with a pixel resolution of 1600 × 720 pixels, 20:9 aspect ratio and a pixel density of about 269 PPI. This is a downgrade compared to the Full HD screen in the moto g32, but the HD screen in the moto g34 looks good compared to HD screen from other companies.
The display is bright, since it has up to 500 nits peak brightness, and the sunlight legibility is good. The colours are vibrant as well. It doesn’t have HDR support. Under the display options there are different options to adjust colours from Natural, and Saturated. It has Active Area-Touch Panel (AA-TP) of 89%.
The phone has a punch-hole screen that houses an 16-megapixel camera. The earpiece on the top doubles up as a secondary speaker. 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 button 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 just 8mm thick and weighs just 180 grams, even though it packs a 5000mAh battery. The Ocean Green version has a vegan leather back which looks a feels premium. It doesn’t get scratched even though when using it without a case.
The Charcoal Black and Ice Blue versions have a premium Acrylic Glass (PMMA) back, so it offers a smooth finish and looks premium. The phone has IP52 ratings, so that it is resistant to dust, light rain and splashes.
Camera
- 50MP rear camera with f/1.8 aperture, EIS
- 2MP macro camera with f/2.4 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, 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. This lacks an ultra-wide camera, which was present in the moto g32. Instead, this gets a 2MP macro camera, which is just average. The edge detection in portrait shots is good as well. Images from the 16MP camera is good. Low light images from the rear camera is decent, and the night mode helps.
Check out the camera samples
The phone is capable of recording 1080p at up to 30 fps resolution from both front and rear cameras. EIS works well. There is also Slow Motion option. You can also shoot 720p videos with the 2MP camera.
Software, UI and Apps
The moto g34 5G runs Android 14 with Android security patch for December, 2023. The company has promised an assured upgrade to Android 15 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 14 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. There are new Moto Unplugged that is something like Zen mode, Ready For that lets you pair your phone with other devices, and Family Space to create separate spaces.
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 4GB RAM version.
For the first time, motorola has added virtual RAM features that lets you expand the RAM by up to 8GB. This is enabled by default, but you can disable it. 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. The phone has 128GB UFS 2.2 of storage, out of which, you get about 111GB of usable storage.
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. It doesn’t have HDR support.
Dual SIM and Connectivity
It has the usual set of connectivity features such as 5G with 13 (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 5.2 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 g34’s body SAR is 1.08W/Kg, and the head SAR is at 1.03W/Kg, well under the limit in India which is 1.6 W/kg (over 1 g).
Performance and Benchmarks
The phone is powered by the Snapdragon 695 6nm SoC that you don’t find in a phone in the price range. This is a major upgrade from the Snapdragon 680 SoC in the g32. It has 2.2 x A78 CPUs clocked at up to 2.2GHz, 6x A55 CPUs clocked at up to 1.8GHz. It has Adreno 618 GPU that promises up to 30% GPU performance increase compared to the predecessor.
We did not face any issues or frame drops in the graphic-intensive games. The company didn’t mention if it has any cooling. 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 5000mAh (typical) built-in battery, same as the g32. It lasts for more than a day even with heavy use with 5G enabled and multimedia use, and last for 2 days with average use. For me, it lasted for over 2 days, and I got close to 7 hours of screen on time, thanks to the optimization.
Even though it comes with a 20W charger, it charges at 18W. It took about 2 hours to charge from 0 to 100%, and 0 to 50% charge took about 45 minutes using the bundled 20W charger.
Conclusion
Starting at a price tag of Rs. 10,999, the moto g34 5G is a capable all-rounder compared to other phones in the price range. Even though it only has an HD+ 120Hz screen, the quality of the screen is good. It has a capable Snapdragon processor stereo speakers, long-lasting battery, and what not. Wish there was an ultra-wide camera.
Alternatives
The Redmi 12 5G is a good alternative in the same price range with a Full HD screen, but this lacks stereo speakers and the SoC is not powerful.
Pricing and availability
The moto g34 5G is priced at Rs. 10,999 for the 4GB + 128GB version and the 8GB + 128GB version costs Rs. 11,999. There is a Rs. 1000 additional discount on exchange.
It will be available from Flipkart, motorola.in and will also available from retail stores starting from January 17th.
Pros
- Android 14 out of the box with promise of Android 15
- Smooth performance
- Clean UI without any bloatware or ads
- Good build quality, vegan leather back
- Stereo speakers, Dolby Atmos
- Excellent battery life
Cons
- HD+ display
- No ultra-wide camera