Moto G24 Power smartphone review

Choosing a smartphone is never an easy task, especially when it comes to devices in the budget segment. Moreover, if you constantly use flagships, you get used to the good stuff, and a request to recommend something from the below-average segment, for 5-6 thousand hryvnias, causes difficulties, because phones that you subconsciously perceive as affordable and “optimal” often cost twice or even three times as much. Moto G24 Power belongs to the aforementioned budget category, and at the time of testing it costs 5799 UAH. We decided to “refresh” our knowledge of inexpensive smartphones and share our impressions of the model.

Specifications of Moto G24 Power

Equipment

Against the backdrop of a full-scale war and a subjective decline in the popularity of purely Chinese brands in Ukraine, Motorola’s return to the market came at the right time and seemed very appropriate. Over the past year, at least a couple of my colleagues and friends have upgraded to different Moto models.

In addition to a good balance of features-price-quality, all models were pleased with the excellent equipment.

Announced in early 2024, the Moto G24 Power is no exception, and it comes with a 33W power supply, cable, and silicone case.

Design

The appearance of Moto G24 Power can be described as practical. The manufacturer did not flirt with imitation of expensive materials and chose plastic as the main body material.

We tested the Ink Blue model, and there is also a silver-blue (Glacier Blue) version. The case is matte, tightly assembled, not marky. It is pleasant to use the device without the bundled case.

The dimensions are average. The smartphone is definitely not a record-breaker in terms of dimensions, but it’s not a compact solution either.

At the same time, there are elements that attract attention – a mini-jack on the top edge of the case, and a SIM and memory card holder that allows you to simultaneously install both NanoSIM and microSD (up to 1 TB). Such solutions have long since disappeared from mid-range and high-end smartphones, but they can be found in budget phones.

The same goes for the capacitive fingerprint scanner built into the power button. “It’s been there before” in more expensive smartphones, but it has disappeared and reappeared in affordable devices. By the way, the scanner works perfectly.

Overall, the design leaves a pleasant aftertaste. It can best be described as calm and restrained, the manufacturer did not try to make the camera modules visually too large or use other (cheap) tricks. At the same time, thanks to some elements, such as the front camera notch in the screen instead of its teardrop-shaped design, Moto G24 Power looks a little better than some competitors.

Screen

The smartphone has a 6.56-inch IPS screen with a resolution of 1612 x 720 pixels (269 PPI) and a refresh rate of 90 Hz. It occupies 84.97% of the front panel area.

In terms of settings, the screen has a standard list of parameters: refresh rate, color temperature, scale, theme, etc.

As for my own subjective impressions, this is an inexpensive screen. Perhaps I’m too used to AMOLED matrices, but I often lacked color saturation and contrast even in “bright” mode. This effect can be leveled out by raising the brightness to a sufficiently high level (75% or more), but it’s a bit much for the room, unless you’re used to using phones in this mode.

The situation is similar with the 90 Hz refresh rate – the difference between 90, 60 Hz and automatic modes is small.

At the same time, the maximum brightness level is enough to distinguish text on the street on a sunny day. I also don’t see any point in criticizing the display for its resolution – from a “working” distance the picture looks clear enough, because IPS matrices have a standard sub-pixel structure, and the text looks normal.

Platform and performance

The manufacturer has two similar models in its portfolio – Moto G24 and Moto G24 Power. They have identical design, platform, screens, and differ mainly in battery capacity (5000 vs. 6000 mAh).

But each of them can have a different amount of internal and RAM, and this is how the manufacturer decided to distribute the models in the lineup. In Ukraine, the regular Moto G24 is sold in a 4/128 GB configuration for 4799 UAH, and the Moto G24 Power is available with 8/256 GB (5799 UAH). But do you really need 256 GB of memory in the budget segment, especially when there is a separate memory card slot, especially since the memory type is only “basic”, i.e. relatively slow eMMC 5.1? We will talk about this further.

The hardware of Moto G24 Power is a system-on-a-chip Mediatek Helio G85 (MT6769Z). The processor is based on the 12 nm process technology, which is very common in the budget price segment.

The Helio G85 contains two “powerful” Cortex-A75 cores operating at 2.0 GHz and six energy-efficient Cortex-A55 cores (1.7 GHz). The built-in graphics are Mali-G52 MC2.

In terms of performance, the smartphone is not a revelation. Sometimes you get the feeling that Moto G24 Power could work a little faster, but in practice, the speed is at a level where you perceive it as normal given the price. It remains stable, typical applications open in about the same way, the programs themselves work fine.

In general, we can say that there are enough features for a typical set of popular instant messengers, applications from the Google ecosystem, navigation, simple games, etc.

We also note support for dual-band Wi-Fi 5, NFC, FM radio (headphones act as an antenna), and Android Auto.

Software and security

The Moto G24 Power runs on Android 14, and during testing the phone received one or two updates that brought the latest version of Google security patches (as of March 1, 2024).

The system’s interface is standard for Android, with a minimum of additions from the manufacturer – I only noticed support for proprietary gestures to quickly turn on the flashlight and launch the camera. They work well, but not perfectly – with a slight delay and not always clearly, several times I managed to turn on the flashlight instead of launching the camera.

There is also support for activating the screen when you pick up the smartphone, you can turn off and lock the screen by double-tapping on the desktop (but only lock it) and launch the camera by pressing the lock key twice. There is an “Active Display” feature.

Cameras

The main camera of the Moto G24 Power is equipped with a 50-megapixel sensor (f/1.8), autofocus, flash and supports Quad Pixel technology, which combines information from neighboring pixels to get the best result in the form of a 12-megapixel photo.

The second module is an optional 2 megapixel macro lens with a fixed focal length.

The Camera app’s interface is standard, with built-in Google Lens and support for Auto-HDR, night, manual, and portrait modes.

You can’t expect much from a camera in a cheap smartphone, and Moto G24 Power generally confirms this thesis. Photos often have natural colors and look good, although there are exceptions, for example, if there is a lot of greenery in the frame, it can look a little “acidic”.

Moving objects, difficult lighting conditions, dusk, or video shooting – the result can be unpredictable or predictably weak.

The front camera is generally more stable, although it has the expectedly modest performance (8 megapixels, f/2.0).

Sound

On the plus side, Moto G24 Power has stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos technology. The latter is more useful when using wired headphones, although it also works for external speakers.

The speakers are loud. The sound is a bit “hollow”, it lacks depth, but considering the price, it’s okay.

Operating time and charging

The main reason for the presence of the word Power in the name of the smartphone is the increased battery capacity to 6000 mAh, while the regular Moto G24 has a 5000 mAh battery, like most similar phones. At the same time, Moto has retained the usual dimensions, thickness, and weight of the body (9 mm and 187 grams, respectively).

The smartphone supports fast charging with a power of 30 W and comes with a corresponding charger (33 W). When paired with it, the phone charges faster, for example, in just an hour I managed to charge from 19% to 98%, while the smartphone charged much slower from the 65W GaN Anker Nano II power supply: 90 minutes from 6% to 83%, and another 40 minutes to 100%.

The manufacturer claims up to 48.8 hours of operation on a single battery charge, which is close to the truth – with average not very active use, Moto G24 Power can withstand two days of operation, and with minimal use it will work for almost 3-4-5 days. Disabling various additional functions like Active Display or activating the screen when you pick up the device will help you get the most out of the battery.

Competitors

Speaking of Moto G24 Power, it would be worth mentioning the alternative options available on the Ukrainian market, because I didn’t just talk about the difficulty of choosing a budget smartphone.

It is likely that in an electronics store, a buyer choosing a smartphone for up to 6 thousand hryvnias will be advised to buy the conventional Oppo A38 or Realme C53 – slightly older devices with smaller batteries and storage capacity, sometimes with a specific design, but visually better screens. Something similar in terms of characteristics, but from Samsung, will cost significantly more, or you will have to put up with a modest amount of memory.

The competition may also come from devices of the previous “season” of a higher price category that will be sold at a discount at the end of their life cycle – in this scenario, the variety of available offers will depend on the specific period, and the smartphone may have interesting competitors even from its own brand (for example, Moto G32). However, it should be remembered that such phones will run on an older version of Android, and may even be at the end of their software support cycle, if this point is important for the choice.

It’s worth noting that at the time of writing, Moto G24 Power is actually the most affordable smartphone on the market with 256 GB of internal storage. If we look at the battery capacity of 6000 mAh (let’s imagine that the buyer chooses a smartphone with the maximum operating time), then there will be options, but most of the more affordable offers will be from lesser-known brands, and some of them will be large “ruggedized” models.