Moto G Power 5G (2024) Review

Motorola is once again making its mark in the North American mid-range market with the arrival of the Moto G Power 5G (2024), a refinement over last year's iteration of the same device and a clear improvement to the Moto G lineup.

Available in two colorways, but with just one RAM and storage configuration, the device is still flexible enough that you can expand both by using a microSD card. For a mid-ranger, this is quite a solid option with a lot to offer.

The release date is set for March 22 and the phone will be available on most major and even smaller US carriers: T-Mobile, Metro by T-Mobile, AT&T, Verizon, US Cellular, Cricket Wireless, Straight Talk, Total by Verizon, Walmart Family Mobile, and Visible. Additionally, you will be able to purchase the device unlocked for $299.99 USD starting on March 29th from Amazon, Best Buy, and Motorola.com.

Along with this here Moto G Power 5G (2024), Motorola is also launching the cheaper vanilla Moto G edition. Check out our Moto G 5G (2024) review here.

Here's a quick rundown of the Moto G Power 5G (2024)'s specifications:

Improving upon last year's model, the phone's size has been slightly increased in both height and width, while retaining the same thickness. Additionally, compared to last year's iteration, the phone has gotten heavier by 16 grams, making this year's design a bit more to handle (keep that in mind if you prefer your phones on the lighter side).

However, the phone's design seems to have been thoughtfully updated in every respect. It has marginally sharper corners, comes in two distinctly chic color options (Midnight Blue and Pale Lilac), and most significantly, features a vegan leather back that is both noticeable, smooth, and matte — repelling those unsightly fingerprints.

While the rest of the phone does have a plastic frame, it does feel sturdy and well-constructed, giving users confidence in its durability. The overall aesthetic of the phone is sleek, modern, and minimal.

Also, while not waterproof, the phone is designed to be water-repellent, creating a barrier against moderate exposure to water such as accidental spills, splashes, sweat, or light rain. This does not mean that you can go swimming with it, as it is not designed to be submerged and has no official IP rating.

Aside from the device itself, inside the box you will find a USB type C charging cable, a SIM removal tool, and an item that is rarely included with phones nowadays: a 30W charging brick.

At 500 nits of max brightness, the IPS LCD display gets plenty bright for a mid-ranger; however, it is slightly difficult to view when outdoors in direct sunlight. With its Full HD+ (2400 × 1080) resolution screen, you have sharp text. Colors are also vibrant for an LCD screen and viewing angles are decent, but this is no OLED screen and that is one of the bigger compromises you make here. Good news is that you do get a variable 120Hz refresh rate for smooth scrolling.

The bezels are what you would expect from a phone in this category: not too large that you feel like you have stepped into a different era, but also not insignificant, especially at the bottom.

The buttons on the device are also par for the course. Separate up and down volume buttons are placed on the right side of the device above the power button, and a combined SIM and microSD card slot is positioned on the left.

The power button also doubles as a fingerprint reader, which I found to be accurate in my testing. In addition to fingerprint unlock, the Moto G Power 5G does feature face unlock as an alternative biometric security method.

Both rear cameras capture video at 1080p, but the main camera has the advantage that it can do both 60 and 30 frames per second, while the ultrawide can only capture 30 fps. The video quality isn't bad. It suffers from the same weaknesses as it does in photo mode, especially when it pertains to zooming. At 6x, the video absolutely broke down and is practically unusable. The optical image stabilization was decent for a mid-ranger, but it didn't quite get rid of all the movement from activities such as walking down a path.

Performance is pretty solid while performing several tasks, though I found that it stalled a bit when running too many apps and trying to switch between them. This is in spite of its octa-core, gaming- and multitasking friendly MediaTek Dimensity 7020 processor. However, it wasn't a deal-breaker for me, as the device still delivered decent overall performance.

As you can see in the benchmarks above, the Moto G Power 5G doesn't have the most impressive benchmarks, but it still performs well enough for everyday tasks. Ultimately, the benchmarks are just one piece of the puzzle when considering a device, and real-world performance is what truly matters.

The built-in storage default is 128GB; however, this can be expanded up to 1TB with the use of a microSD card. It is important to note that, in addition to the effects of RAM Boost, your available storage space can also fluctuate due to operating system files and updates.

The Moto G Power 5G comes with Android 14 out of the gate and will immediately prompt for a software update upon setting up, which will bring the phone up to the January 2024 security patch. As expected, the device uses the My UX skin on top of Android, which is very similar to Google's own Pixel UI skin. This made the experience of getting around the phone very familiar and simple. However, Motorola does have a few additional tricks up its sleeve when it comes to gestures and personalization features.

If I were to choose my favorite feature, it would have to be the Moto Actions, which allow for quick and easy access to commonly used functions with simple hand gestures. My favorite gesture is the "three finger screenshot" feature. It makes capturing screenshots so much easier.

Other honorable mentions would be the "chop chop" motion to turn on the flashlight and the "twist" motion to launch the camera app. As far as features that don't involve a gesture, I am a big fan of being able to create folders inside the app drawer for better organization and accessibility. I wish more stock launchers would include this feature.

Furthermore, Motorola has confirmed to us that the Moto G Power will receive one operating system upgrade and three years of bi-monthly security updates. This means that this device will be receiving up to Android 15.