Design and Build Quality
The Moto G Power (2025) has a flat back covered in eco-leather, which blends smoothly into the camera area. The frame is plastic, and the phone feels big and sturdy in your hand. Motorola really went all out with protection on this one. It's rated IP68/IP69, meaning it's protected against dust, water submersion, and even hot water. Plus, it meets a military-grade standard for extreme temperatures.
Display Features
This phone's display shows its budget nature a bit. It's a 6.8-inch LCD, not an OLED, but it does have a 120 Hz refresh rate. The screen is sharp enough and gets the job done. Blacks aren't as deep as on an OLED, and it doesn't support HDR video, but these aren't huge issues. What's not so great is that the backlight can be a bit uneven, and the screen is more reflective than an OLED, making it harder to see in the sun. Still, it gets pretty bright for an LCD, reaching about 550 nits manually and almost 1000 nits in auto mode. The 120 Hz refresh rate makes things smooth when you're using the phone, and it drops to 60 Hz when idle to save battery.
Audio and Security
The Moto G Power (2025) has a 3.5mm headphone jack and stereo speakers. The speakers are loud, but they can distort at higher volumes. To unlock the phone, you use a side-mounted fingerprint reader built into the power button, which works pretty well.
Storage and Software
You can get the phone with 128GB of storage, but you can expand that with a microSD card. The phone runs the latest Hello UI on top of Android 15. It's a lot like stock Android but with some extra Moto features. These features are in the Moto app, organized into categories like personalization, gestures, and security. There's also a Smart Connect Hub for connecting the phone to a PC, tablet, or display, which is pretty cool for a budget phone. Motorola plans to give the Moto G Power at least two major software updates and three years of security updates.
Performance and Battery Life
The phone uses a MediaTek Dimensity 6300 chipset, which is an entry-level 5G chip. In tests, the Moto G Power is on the lower end of its class. For a little more money, you can find phones with a lot more power. There aren't any thermal throttling issues, which is good, but it's definitely not a powerhouse. As for battery life, it's decent but not amazing. The phone has a 5,000 mAh battery and got an active use score of 11 hours and 56 minutes in tests. It supports 30W charging, but it doesn't come with a charger. With a compatible adapter, it charges to 51% in 30 minutes, and a full charge takes less than an hour and a half. It even supports 15W wireless charging, which is a nice surprise for a budget phone.
Camera Capabilities
The Moto G Power (2025) has two cameras on the back: a 50-megapixel main camera and an 8-megapixel ultrawide with autofocus. Autofocus on an ultrawide is rare at this price.
Main Camera
- Daylight Photos: These are okay. Colors are punchy, contrast is good, and dynamic range is wide. However, photos are generally soft, and fine detail is only good in well-lit scenes.
- Zoom Shots: 2x cropped zoom shots have very little fine detail and show some upscaling artifacts.
- Night Mode: The phone doesn't have automatic night mode. Without it, low-light photos are very soft, lack detail, and have a lot of noise and upscaling artifacts. Turning on night mode helps with sharpness and reduces noise, but jagged edges remain, and overall quality isn't great.
Ultrawide Camera
- Daylight Photos: Surprisingly good, with wide dynamic range and punchy colors. There's a lot of artificial sharpening, and sharpness and detail suffer in less-than-perfect lighting.
- Macro Shots: Since the ultrawide has autofocus, it can take close-up macro shots. These are pretty decent with enough light. Detail isn't amazing, but sharpness is okay.
- Night Photos: Extremely soft and lacking detail, with a lot of noise and upscaling artifacts. Night mode doesn't make a big difference here.
Selfies
Selfies from the 16-megapixel front camera are pretty good. Colors look natural, there's a good amount of detail, and dynamic range is wide enough.
Video Quality
All cameras on the Moto G Power (2025) only support 1080p at 30 FPS. Videos from the main camera are soft, a bit noisy, with washed-out colors and no fine detail. Ultrawide videos are even worse, extremely soft and barely usable. Electronic video stabilization is available but can look a bit floaty with occasional distortions.
Key Takeaways
- Pros:
- Durable design with IP68/IP69 rating and military-grade standard.
- 3.5mm headphone jack and stereo speakers.
- Expandable storage with microSD.
- Clean Android 15 experience with useful Moto features.
- Support for PC/tablet connectivity (Smart Connect Hub).
- Decent selfies.
- Wireless charging at a budget price.
- Cons:
- LCD screen with uneven backlighting and reflectivity.
- Speakers distort at higher volumes.
- Entry-level chipset with modest performance.
- Battery life is decent but not outstanding.
- Main camera photos are soft, especially in low light.
- Ultrawide camera photos are soft, especially at night.
- Video quality is generally poor.
Conclusion
The Moto G Power (2025) offers some interesting features for a budget phone, like its strong build and good software experience, plus it takes decent selfies. However, there's room for improvement with the screen, cameras, chipset, and battery life. If you're willing to spend a bit more, you might find other phones that do better in those areas.
