motorola launched the moto g04 last week, which replaces the moto e13, so this is the first phone from the company in the new g0x series. This has several upgrades, such as a 90Hz screen, thinner design, full Android 14, while retaining the same SoC. Is this the best budget 4G smartphone? Let us dive into the review to find out.
| Box Contents |
| Camera |
| Battery Life |
| Conclusion |
Box Contents
- moto g04 Power 8GB + 128GB in Sea green colour
- 10W 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 g04 power has a 6.56-inch HD+ 90Hz LCD screen with a pixel resolution of 1612 × 720 pixels, 20:9 aspect ratio and a pixel density of about 269 PPI. The HD screen looks good compared to HD screen from other companies.
The phone has a punch-hole screen that houses an 5-megapixel camera. The earpiece on the doesn’t work as a secondary speaker.
It has a slightly thicker bottom bezel, which is fine in the price range.
The display is bright, since it has up to 537 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.
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.
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 dedicated dual SIM and microSD card slot that accepts cards up to 1TB is present on the left side.
The primary microphone, USB Type-C port and the loudspeaker grill are present on the bottom. The 3.5mm audio jack is present on the top and has Dolby Atmos branding.
The phone is just 7.99mm thick even though it has a 5000mAh battery, and weighs 178.8 grams.
The phone also comes in Concord black, Satin Blue and Sunrise orange colours. It has a PMMA body that offers a matte finish on the back and the sides, and the phone doesn’t slip out of the hands. The phone has IP52 ratings, so that it is resistant to dust, light rain and splashes.
Camera
- 16MP rear camera with f/2.2 aperture, LED flash
- 5MP front camera with f/2.2 aperture
The camera UI is familiar with most Motorola smartphones that include shutter button on the bottom, quick toggles for flash, timer, aspect ratio, and more. Other camera features include Night Vision, Portrait, and Timelapse.
Coming to the image quality, daylight shots came out well with good dynamic range. HDR shots are better with improved dynamic range, and it is recommended to enable auto HDR. This lacks an ultra-wide camera or a macro or a depth sensor, but can handle portrait shots decently. Images from the 5MP camera are decent. Low light images from the rear camera are average. You can’t expect much in the range.
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.
Software, UI and Apps
The moto g04 runs Android 14 with Android security patch for January, 2024. The company has promised 2 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.
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.
motorola has also 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 7.79GB of usable RAM, out of which about 3.4GB 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 106GB 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 single bottom-ported speaker is decent. 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 4G with 1/3/5/7/8/20/28/38/40/41 bands, dual 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 ac (2.4 + 5GHz), Vo-WiFi, Bluetooth 5.0 and GPS, A-GPS, LTEPP, SUPL, GLONASS, and Galileo.
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.
The moto g04’s body SAR is 1.16W/Kg, and the head SAR is at 1.06W/Kg, well under the limit in India which is 1.6 W/kg (over 1 g).
Performance and Benchmarks
Coming to the performance, this is powered by an Octa-Core UniSoC T606 12nm processor. It has 2 x A75 cores clocked at up to 1.6GHz and 6x A55 core at up to 1.6GHz. It has Mali-G57 MP1 GPU with support for Open GL ES 3.2 and Open CL 2.0 graphics.
The performance is decent. Since the phone has 8GB of RAM, it doesn’t slow down when you open multiple apps in the background. Even though the CPU is slightly faster than the MediaTek Helio G85 present in the g24 Power, the Mali-G57 MP1 GPU is not as fast as the Mali-G52 MP2 GPU.
You can play casual games, but this is not a phone for graphic-intensive games. It gets a bit warm when gaming on 4G.
Battery life
Coming to the battery life, the phone packs a 5000mAh (typical) built-in battery. It lasts for a whole day even with heavy use with dual 4G enabled and multimedia use, and more than a day with average use.
The phone has support for 15W fast charging, but comes with a 10W charger in the box. It took about 1 hour and 50 minutes to charge the phone from 0 to 100%, and a 50% charge took about 50 minutes with a 15W charger. With a 10W charger, it should take slightly more time.
Conclusion
At a starting price of Rs. 6,999, the moto g04 does a good job for a budget phone, focusing on the design and the user experience. It has a large HD+ 90Hz screen, capable processor to handle most tasks, and a long-lasting battery.
Availability
The moto g04 is priced at Rs. 6,999 for the 4GB + 64GB version and the 5GB + 128GB version cost Rs. 7,999. It will be available from Flipkart, motorola.in and will also available from retail stores starting from February 22nd at 12PM
Pros
- Android 14 out of the box
- Clean UI without any bloatware or ads
- Good build, sleek design
- Excellent battery life
Cons
- Radios are average in UniSoC T606 SoC
- Average camera performance