Like clockwork, Motorola launched a new G series smartphone last month to take on the premium budget segment. I’m talking about the Moto G64 5G, which succeeds the Moto G54 from last year. The new smartphone is the first in the world to come with the MediaTek Dimensity 7025 SoC, but offers only minor improvements over its predecessor with hardly any design changes.
After using the phone extensively for about two weeks, here’s what I think of the Moto G64 5G. If you’re considering it as your next budget phone, then you should definitely read this review.
Moto G64 5G Price in India
I will quickly remove the price. The Moto G64 5G is currently on sale in India at Rs. 13,999 for the 8GB + 128GB storage variant and Rs. 15,999 for the 12GB + 256GB variant. Our review unit offered 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage.
Moto G64 5G is available in three color variants – Ice Lilac, Mint Green and Pearl Blue. I got the Mint Green variant.
Motorola continues to care about the environment and ships the Moto G64 in a plastic-free box. However, the box includes a plastic/silicone case inside. Apart from the case, the box contains the usual documentation, a SIM eject tool, a USB Type-A to Type-C cable and a 33W fast charging adapter.
Moto G64 5G Review: Design
As I mentioned at the beginning, there are no major design changes with the new Moto G64 5G compared to the Moto G54 5G. The only difference is that there is no black color option this year, with Motorola deciding to go the colorful way. The phone has a plastic frame that houses the power and volume buttons on the right edge, the SIM tray on the left and a microphone on the top. The bottom bezel houses a 3.5mm headphone port, a USB Type-C port, a second microphone, and a speaker.
The plastic back panel has a glossy finish and creates a pattern when the light hits it. There is a very familiar rectangular camera module on the back, placed in the upper left corner. The module protrudes and causes the phone to wobble when placed on its back. On the front, the phone now has a Gorilla Glass panel to protect the display, which still has thick bezels all around, especially at the bottom. At the top there is a cut-out with a hole for placing the front camera.
Overall, the Moto G64 5G feels similar to last year’s phone. It weighs 192 grams and is 8.9mm thick, almost exactly like the Moto G54. The phone has an IP52 rating for dust and water resistance, but I wouldn’t recommend exposing your phone to water or rain.
Moto G64 5G Review: Specs and Software
The Moto G64 5G comes equipped with the world’s first MediaTek Dimensity 7025 SoC, which is a slight improvement over last year’s model. The chipset is paired with an IMG BXM-8-256 GPU, up to 12GB of LPDDR4X RAM and 256GB of UFS 2.2 storage expandable via microSD card.
For connectivity, Moto G64 supports 14 5G bands with aggregation of 3 operators, dual SIM support with hybrid SIM tray, Bluetooth 5.3, dual-band Wi-Fi, GPS, A-GPS, LTEPP, GLONASS, Galileo, QZSS, NFC support , 3 .5 mm headphone port, FM radio and USB Type-C (USB 2.0) port.
The phone features a side-mounted fingerprint scanner located in the Power/Wake button. It’s a capacitive sensor that worked well during the review period. I encountered no problems with it and found it to be fast.
Like last year’s Moto G54 5G, the new phone packs a 6,000mAh battery and supports 33W fast charging.
Moving on to the software, Moto G64 5G comes with Android 14 based My UX on board. While you get the latest software, Motorola will only offer the Android 15 update to the phone. However, you will receive 3 years of security updates. In terms of features, the phone comes with Motorola features like Family Space 2.0, Moto Secure, Game Mode and several Moto apps. You also get a lot of bloatware in the form of pre-installed apps, GamesHub, entertainment and shopping apps. Fortunately, you can uninstall most of the bloated software on the phone.
Moto G64 5G Review: Performance
The Moto G64 5G comes with a slightly better MediaTek Dimensity 7025 SoC compared to the older model’s Dimensity 7020. Motorola claims the phone scored 500k+ on AnTuTu, and in my tests it managed a score of 4,94,364. In Geekbench, the phone scored 1012 points in the single-core CPU test and 2403 points in the multi-core test. Overall, the phone performed decently well in day-to-day use and I hardly encountered any lag or stuttering when opening apps, system animations, etc. This is also thanks to the screen.
Motorola has included a 6.5-inch IPS LCD display in the G64. The panel offers up to 120Hz refresh rate, full-HD+ resolution, 240Hz sampling rate and HDR10 support. As for brightness, the display is rated for 560 nits of peak brightness, which isn’t much. Indoors, the display gets bright enough not to use full brightness, but it’s not easy to read outdoors. The display offers natural and rich color modes, and viewing angles are good, with colors looking washed out at certain angles.
The Moto G64 5 G has a dual-speaker hybrid setup, with the earpiece acting as a second speaker. The sound quality is good enough, but it lacks bass and is not very loud. Call quality, on the other hand, is excellent. The phone offers two microphones.
Can you play graphics intensive games on Moto G64 5G? You definitely can, but not at full settings. I was able to play Asphalt 9 with very high graphics, but the game warned me that the phone does not actually support this mode. Casual games won’t be a problem though. You can also play BGMI and Call of Duty on medium settings.
In terms of thermal management, Motorola has done a good job. The phone did not heat up while playing games, using apps like Camera or even while charging.
The phone packs a large 6000 mAh battery that can easily last two days with normal usage. In our HD video test, the phone managed about 16 hours of screen time. Even with heavy use, you can expect the Moto G64 5G to last around a day and a half. Charging is slow despite support for 33W fast charging. It took me about 1 hour and 50 minutes to fully charge the battery from 0 percent.
Moto G64 5G review: Cameras
Now let’s talk about the cameras. The Moto G64 5G has a dual rear camera setup with a primary 50-megapixel sensor with f/1.8 aperture, quad-pixel combining and optical image stabilization. You also get an 8-megapixel ultra-wide camera with autofocus, macro mode and a 118-degree field of view. For selfies, there’s a 16-megapixel sensor with an f/2.4 aperture. The phone offers an easy-to-use camera app with multiple modes, including professional and night mode.
Image quality from the main rear camera is good in daylight. Colors are a bit oversaturated and there is a loss of detail when you zoom in. The ultra-wide camera also takes good photos in suitable lighting, but colors are inconsistent between the main and ultra-wide cameras. You’ll also notice less detail with photos. The phone offers 2x digital zoom, which is essentially a crop of the main sensor, and produces good images when the sun is out. The selfie camera can also take good images in daylight, but it’s not the sharpest and can be blurry at times.
In low-light conditions, the main camera can take decent pictures with night mode enabled. Without the mode, the photos are washed out with a lot of noise and artifacts. It’s the same story with the ultra-wide camera, but even the pictures taken with night mode aren’t that great. Check out some samples below.
Daylight video performance isn’t bad, but it’s not great either. Colors appear oversaturated and panning is not smooth. Stabilization is also decent. The phone can only shoot in 1080p resolution at a maximum frame rate of 60 frames per second. Low-light videos lack detail and have a lot of noise.
Moto G64 5G review: Verdict
The Moto G64 5G has a lot of competition in its segment. There’s the recently launched Realme P1 ( review ), which has a more powerful processor but only offers 8GB of RAM, no ultrawide camera, and a smaller 5,000mAh battery. Then you also have the Redmi Note 13, Vivo T3x and Samsung Galaxy A15, which cost roughly the same but fall short in most areas compared to the Moto G64 5G. The Vivo T3x offers a better processor and similarly sized battery, but again falls short in other important areas like cameras and RAM.
If you’re looking for a good budget phone with great battery life, a good display and a decent pair of cameras, then the Moto G64 5G is an excellent choice. While you might not get the best gaming performance out of this phone, it will still play all your favorite games as long as you turn down the graphics. Although Motorola only gave the Moto G64 5G a slight upgrade in specs, it’s still an easy phone to recommend.
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