Why I won’t buy another Moto G until Motorola fixes these 5 things

Motorola makes some fantastic handsets, ranging from its expansive foldable lineup to its pocket-friendly phones. Motorola’s budget handsets don’t cost you an arm and a leg just to give you a basic smartphone experience.

However, the Moto G series has started to feel like it hasn’t been able to outgrow its deficient past. There was a time when I would recommend a Moto G handset to a friend without a second thought for its clean Android experience, but not anymore.

The company will need to step up in a few critical areas to make Moto G phones worth recommending once again.

Sluggish performance from day one

We do expect budget phones and mid-rangers to start feeling slow after a couple of years of use — it’s not ideal, but that’s how it usually is. But what’s worse is when your phone has sluggish performance right out of the box. There’s no excuse for a new phone to be like that, yet some Moto G series phones feel slow from day one.

The Moto G (2025) with a MediaTek Dimensity 6300 processor scored well on benchmarks, but in day-to-day use, it felt insufficient. This not only mars the vibe of unboxing and using a brand-new phone but also raises serious questions about longevity. Even people investing in a budget phone want their devices to comfortably last more than a couple of years. Motorola needs to use better processors and improve its optimization to improve the user experience and longevity.

Increasing bloatware menace

Motorola built a reputation for offering a near-stock Android experience, which has been one of the primary reasons to recommend its handsets over those from Xiaomi and Realme (and sometimes even Samsung), which are often weighed down by heavier skins. However, the company has been following market trends for the past few generations by preinstalling unnecessary games and third-party apps. While you can remove several of them (which you shouldn’t need to in the first place), the bloat is leading to other problems on Moto handsets.

Online forums are riddled with users complaining about bloatware eating up precious memory, especially on entry-level variants with lower RAM capacities, like the 4GB RAM versions of some newer models. Sure, the problem isn’t unique to Moto G handsets, but it becomes more disappointing because you come in expecting a clean interface.

Short software update commitment

Budget shoppers are often more value-conscious, which also means they care about how long their phone lasts. While smartphone makers are racing to promise up to seven years of Android updates on their premium models, Motorola has so far lagged behind. Newer Moto G models do commit to at least a couple of years of updates, but that’s still not quite up to the mark for buyers who prefer keeping their phones for much longer.

Without a proper long-term update plan and a reliable rollout cadence, Moto G phone users are left with insufficient security patches and miss out on newer software features often reserved for pricier phones. In fact, many of the problems we discussed earlier could be easily solved if Motorola committed to a better update plan for its budget handsets. But year after year, the company doesn’t.

LCD panels instead of OLED

No doubt, LCD technology has improved multifold in recent times, but in parallel, OLED displays have also been increasingly replacing LCDs, even on budget smartphones. A lot of budget phones, such as the Samsung Galaxy A16, flaunt OLED screens for under $300. Meanwhile, Motorola has been stubbornly sticking with LCD panels, even on similarly priced models, while reserving its pOLED tech for pricier phones.

Pairing LCDs with a high 120Hz refresh rate may be a good idea for entry-level phones. But the first thing you notice on your phone is the display and color quality, not the refresh rate. While LCDs aren’t inherently bad, OLED panels offer better contrast, overall better appearance, and features like an always-on display — all of which go a long way toward making a phone feel more premium, even if its display refreshes at just 90Hz.

Weak secondary cameras

I don’t condone smartphone makers’ fad of stuffing cameras onto their budget phones just to have multiple lens rings on the back. That’s why I won’t even be bringing up the useless 2MP macro lens in the conversation. We sure can’t expect flagship-level performance from cheaper handsets, but I still expect a decent pair of rear cameras that do what they say on the tin. And we have seen Motorola do that — just not widely enough.

If the 2026 Moto G Power is anything to go by, the company can deliver acceptable camera performance with the primary and ultrawide lenses — the latter often takes the biggest hit. Other budget Moto phones aren’t as lucky, though, and I would definitely like to see this ultrawide sensor and the associated image processing make their way to more handsets.

Motorola used to make decent budget handsets, and they were often among the top phones people bought on a tight budget. But those Moto G series phones haven’t moved an inch since their golden era, and Motorola needs a serious reality check to bring its lineup up to speed with the competition.

Until we start seeing these changes, you’d be better off looking at several better alternatives.