This review of the Motorola G82, one of Motorola’s mid-range devices, has been long in coming. It was first unveiled back in May of this year. But now that it has arrived and dropped below the $300 price point, the G82 is also a reasonably exciting device. There is a Moto G71s version for the Chinese market, and it is possible to argue that the G82 is a slightly improved Moto G71 5G for the international market.
Although the G71 5G and the G82 are very comparable, the latter offers a greater feature set in relation to the price. Additionally, this year’s G82 adds a new tier to Motorola’s Moto G series because the G81 wasn’t available in 2016.
Let’s examine the Moto G82’s specifications in more detail now that we’ve established its position in Motorola’s lineup.
At first sight, the Moto G82 appears to have the standard hardware for the asking price, including a 6.6-inch 120Hz OLED display, a powerful Snapdragon 695 SoC, and a basic memory combination of 6GB/128GB. If storage is insufficient, a microSD card is also available. Battery capacity of 5,000 mAh and compatibility for 30W fast cable charging is also in accordance with specifications for 2022.
Unusual for this class, the 50MP main camera has OIS, which is interesting. Although we applaud the firm for including optical stabilisation in its low-cost phones, we are a little concerned about the sensor size of 1/2.76″. That’s a little smaller than we had anticipated. Even so, specifications don’t always matter, particularly in the case of photography. The Motorola G82 might pleasantly surprise us because we’ve already encountered a few hidden treasures from the company.
Unusual for this class, the 50MP main camera has OIS, which is interesting. Although we applaud the firm for including optical stabilisation in its low-cost phones, we are a little concerned about the sensor size of 1/2.76″. That’s a little smaller than we had anticipated. Even so, specifications don’t always matter, particularly in the case of photography. The Motorola G82 might pleasantly surprise us because we’ve already encountered a few hidden treasures from the company.
In order to determine whether the Moto G82 is a good investment for your money or whether rivals like Samsung, Xiaomi, and Realme provide a better value, we advise reading the pages that follow.
Unboxing of Motorola G82
The phone is packaged in the typical box that includes the user instructions, a 33W charger, and a USB-A to USB-C cable for charging and data transfer.
For good measure, a clear silicone case is included as well.
Design
Like the other phones in the Moto G series, the Moto G82 uses the same design aesthetic. The G82 is very similar to the G62 in terms of dimensions. Interestingly, the G82 weighs 173g less and has a little larger display. That’s actually rather impressive for a 6.6-inch smartphone.
Of course, the fact that the device is entirely composed of plastic contributes to its lighter weight. Acrylic glass with a silky smooth finish makes up the back panel. Despite being slippery and prone to smudges, it feels fairly comfortable in the hand. We chose the White Lily option, which is slightly shimmery and not entirely white.
Nothing unusual about the camera island, which has the same appearance as the other Moto G phones. The three cameras are positioned atop a less prominent circular hump and are vertically aligned.
However, there is a slight hump that is plainly felt where the back frame’s curved edges meet the side frame. That is typical for low-cost mobile devices.
The fingerprint scanner is located on the right and doubles as the power button despite the front of the device having an OLED panel. It can be challenging to feel because it is relatively flat and virtually lies flush with the frame. However, it is naturally accessed with the right thumb, whereas the volume rocker needs to be slightly stretched.
The 3.5mm audio jack, USB-C connector, and one speaker grille are still located on the bottom. The other one is placed on top of the top bezel and functions as an earphone. Finally, there is a hybrid SIM/microSD slot in the SIM card tray, which is located on the left side of the frame and allows for either two SIM cards or a SIM card and microSD card combination.
Speaking of bezels, the Moto G82 has much smaller bezels than its brothers and also has a smaller chin than its siblings. The selfie cutout isn’t overt, and the front design is quite appealing. Maybe Motorola was able to trim the bezels thanks to the OLED display.
Overall, the design isn’t particularly distinctive yet it’s also not intrinsically good or terrible. It is similar to the majority of inexpensive cellphones. As usual, Motorola was able to include the water-repellent design while significantly reducing the weight, making it manageable and quite light. Perhaps a Gorilla Glass shield wouldn’t have hurt, given that the majority of competitors have one.
Display
The smartphone’s 6.6-inch OLED display features a small punch-hole in the centre for the front-facing camera. Although it supports frame rates up to 120Hz, no extra HDR certifications exist for it. Netflix does allow for full HD playback because Widevine L1 is supported. Standard resolution is 1080 x 2400 pixels.
In our testing, we obtained reliable results: the Moto G82’s display can reach a maximum brightness of 496 nits in manual mode and 690 nits under automatic mode in conditions of bright ambient light. The G82 has one of the brightest screens available thanks to this brightness, which is more than enough for comfortable outdoor use on a bright sunny day.
Color accuracy
The default colour option doesn’t have remarkable colour accuracy, but the Natural setting reduces average dE2000 to just 1.2 and maximum dE2000 to 2.2. No bluish whites, no overly saturated colours. Very good outcome there.
HDR mode
There are three different refresh rate modes for the HRR control: 60Hz, 120Hz, and Auto. The Auto one is the one we advise using even though their titles are fairly self-explanatory. The solution is really straightforward but highly efficient; when you touch the screen, the refresh rate is increased to 120Hz, and when you are not engaging with the phone, it dials down to 60Hz. Most of the apps we tried run at 120Hz on the display.
Battery life
The Moto G82 boasts a huge 5,000 mAh battery and a Snapdragon 695 SoC that uses little power. The battery life is outstanding as predicted because the OLED panel also contributes to energy conservation in some situations. No of the circumstance, the Moto passed each of our tests with flying colours, screen on or screen off. 130 hours of total endurance is a remarkable accomplishment.
Charging Speed
The Moto G82 boasts a huge 5,000 mAh battery and a Snapdragon 695 SoC that uses little power. The battery life is outstanding as predicted because the OLED panel also contributes to energy conservation in some situations. No of the circumstance, the Moto passed each of our tests with flying colours, screen on or screen off. 130 hours of total endurance is a remarkable accomplishment.
As per typical, that charges more quickly than Samsung’s competitors, whereas Realmes frequently provides faster charging in the same price range.
Bottom speaker’s
The Moto includes a set of stereo speakers, one of which serves as both an earpiece and the bottom speaker as is customary. The latter is obviously not as loud as the bottom one. However, overall loudness is not that bad. In our tests, the Moto G82 received -26.4 LUFS.
The setup’s quality isn’t outstanding, but it’s also not terrible. Although the bass seems to be weak, the sound is generally clear and the highs and mids exhibit little distortion at high volumes. Songs without a strong bass line tend to sound flat.
Software
The Moto G82 comes pre-installed with Android 12 from last year and has received very little customization from Motorola. Present are a few exclusive Moto features there, but the software team made no adjustments to the stock Android interface. Normally, we’d point out that the G82 uses an outdated OS version, but since Motorola debuted the mid-ranger in early 2022, we can’t really expect it to receive an update straight away. Having said that, Motorola’s Android updates, which used to be a major selling feature for its phones, have been running a little behind schedule lately.
However, there is still the advantage of having a clean Android, which is what many people want. It lacks the complex UI tweaks and is lightweight and recognisable. Nevertheless, Motorola has a few distinctive features that are present in all of the company’s devices.
The gadget functions without many glitches or slowdowns even with the Snapdragon 695 on board. In fact, compared to other Snapdragon 695-powered smartphones with bespoke Android skins, the Moto G82 feels to run a little more smoothly.
The user interface and overall design resemble stock Android. This features the brand-new fast toggles in the notification shade that resemble pills. Again, the automatic brightness toggle is missing, so you must delve deep into the settings menu to enable or disable the function.
Both the app drawer and the recent apps menu, which arranges apps in a carousel, remain unchanged. Though it might take some time to get used to, the iconography in the main Settings menu has been updated.
Motorola has, as is customary, provided a few helpful extras. All of them have been included to the Moto settings app, which organises them into categories. The first one is Personalization, where you may change typefaces, the arrangement of programme icons, accent colours, icon shapes, and themes.
However, the additions that are most helpful incorporate motions. The recognisable ones are present, such as the karate chop for the flashlight or the wrist twist for the camera app. Another option is the Power touch, which activates an additional app panel from the right side of the display when the power button is double-tapped. It functions exactly like other Android skins’ smart sidebar does.
In order to prevent the screen from going dark when you are halfway through an article, the attentive display keeps the screen on when the front camera identifies a face gazing at it. When the phone detects you are nearby and you pick it up, Peek Display illuminates the lockscreen. For motion detection, it makes use of the proximity sensor and the accelerometer.
Additionally, if there is a notice, you can quickly preview the text by tapping and holding on the notification symbol. Although the Always-on capability is almost as nice as the Peek display feature, we would have preferred to have the option to pick.
Not to mention, by pressing and holding the volume up or down key, the volume rocker keys can be used to switch tracks.
The Overcharge protection toggle in the Battery menu is a recently introduced feature. It will stop charging once it notices that the phone hasn’t been unplugged for three days in a row and keep the battery charged at a much healthier 80%.
It’s interesting to note that certain of Motorola’s Edge devices are missing the “Ready For” feature. The Motorola G82 has the exact same hardware as the Motorola Edge 30 Neo, except it lacks the Ready For screen casting feature. It might be a part of Motorola’s plan to differentiate its features.
Except for the startup of a few heavy programmes, which took a little longer than usual, we only observed a minor lag. The UI doesn’t feel distracting to the eye or tax the hardware with a lot of effects or animations.
Performance and benchmarks
The Moto G82 is powered by the Snapdragon 695, which is a generally well-liked CPU. We are rather certain of the performance we can anticipate from it. In Motorola Edge 30 Fusion on the hands terms of overall raw performance, it is a competent and effective mid-range chip. Its notable flaw is the constrained DSP, which restricts camera video capturing to 1080p.
In addition, you get a respectable octa-core CPU configuration with two 2.20 GHz Kryo 660 Gold and six 1.70 GHz Kryo 660 Silver cores, as well as a somewhat underwhelming but still adequate Adreno 619 GPU. Nothing groundbreaking, for sure, but still adequate.
We are unable to conceive of a reason to purchase the 8GB/128GB version of the handset given how little RAM affects user experience. The handset is available in two memory variants: 6GB/128GB and 8GB/128GB. The 6GB flavour was provided to us for this review.
The results demonstrate a proper implementation of the Snapdragon 695, and the majority of the competitors we chose for this comparison appear to be using either the same SoC or hardware with a comparable level of performance. Only the Realme 9 Pro+ stands out thanks to its Dimensity 920 processor, which consistently outperforms the Snapdragon 695 in testing.
Sustained Performance
Given that the Snapdragon 695 isn’t particularly demanding, maintaining pretty high clock speeds shouldn’t be a problem. The results from our sustained load, at least mostly, support this. The system ran for the first 20 minutes at nearly maximum clock speeds while under 100% CPU load before slowing down for the next 20 minutes.
The smartphone maintained roughly 80% of the CPU’s theoretical performance up to the end of the hour-long test, which is a respectable performance.
Camera
The Moto G82 has the same camera arrangement as its earlier this year’s Moto G62 and G71 less expensive siblings. The G82’s additional OIS is the only difference. It continues to rely on the low-end 50MP, f/1.8, 1/2.76″, 0.64 mm camera, which regrettably results in the G82 having one of the smallest sensors in this price range. In fact, of the direct competitors we chose for this evaluation, the Moto G82’s primary sensor is the smallest.
Additionally, there is the infamous 8MP, f/2.2, 1/4.0″, 1.12 m camera, which is a very popular configuration in the low-end and mid-range market.
A 2MP f/2.4 macro camera is included in the third camera. That is another popular option in this price range.
The front-facing camera is a standard 16MP, f/2.2, 1.0mm camera, just like the Moto G62.
Camera app
The phone runs Motorola’s Moto Camera app, version 6, which is downloaded and maintained through Google Play. When compared to the Moto devices we’ve examined in the past, there aren’t any significant UI changes. The so-called “hamburger menu” lists all of the possible modes, and the primary mode carousel saves the previous mode you used.
By swiping up from the shutter button, you may access additional settings for each Photo or Video mode.
We are pleased to announce that Motorola has finally corrected the inconsistent behaviour of the past, and the primary and ultrawide cameras now shoot in their native resolutions. There is no longer any pointless scaling. We also appreciate that the Macro camera has a separate toggle. Finally, in the default Photo mode, it appears in the viewfinder.
Daylight photos
Main camera
We are disappointed with the Moto G82’s performance in daylight. Most likely, the relatively underwhelming 50MP 1/2.76″ sensor is to blame. There is a lot of noise, particularly noticeable on flat surfaces like the sky. Check out the grass and vegetation for some sporadic detail.
The exposure is a little bit on the dark side, leaving some shadows underdeveloped. Some of the photographs with the cloudy sky have a typically grimy vibe. A blueish tinge can be seen in the majority of the photographs, which is likely the result of an inaccurate white balance.
Positively, fine detail appears crisp as long as the noise suppression mechanism isn’t malfunctioning, and overall sharpness is good.
It is difficult to recommend the 50MP setting. You do gain a little bit more clarity, but at the cost of additional noise, a more constrained dynamic range (HDR is not active in 50MP mode), and overall softness.
Ultrawide camera
As anticipated, the performance of the ultrawide is subpar. Although we weren’t expecting much because it’s a typical camera in this price range, we have seen better solutions.
The dynamic range is constrained, the exposure metering is not optimal, there is little fine detail, noise is abundant, and if you look closely enough, colour fringing can be seen.
Although the majority of 8MP ultrawide photos in this class, to Motorola’s credit, lack liveliness, the G82 offers adequate contrast and more vibrant hues.
Macro camera
Another typical camera seen on modern smartphones is a 2MP macro lens with fixed focus, however it takes poor-quality pictures. They require the best lighting circumstances, have poor contrast, lack detail (remember, it’s a 2MP camera), and have unsaturated colour. It’s challenging to suggest it unless you invest some time in post-processing to make them look presentable for social media.
Low-light photos
Main camera
Despite being poor, the low-light shots are generally good. Due to the large dynamic range created by nearly all pictures using HDR, The majority of the highlights are effectively confined, and enough detail is processed in the shadows. Outside of the shadows, sharpness is likewise fairly acceptable, contrast is good, and colours are vibrant.
Sharpness and detail may not necessarily be enhanced by the Night mode. In fact, we observed that the dedicated Night mode softens the appearance of objects in the shadows in an effort to reduce noise. In contrast to the default photo mode, colours are also drab. Your only real benefit will be brighter overall photos with better shadow detail.
Ultrawide camera
It is to be expected that after dusk, the ultrawide camera struggles to produce usable images. In addition to having a large amount of grain, they have a very low dynamic range and washy colors. There isn’t a Night mode for the ultrawide, which is a shame.
Potraite mode
Portraits are vibrant and have a convincing faux bokeh appearance, but we can still make out the deeper exposure and frequently soft subjects. Even in optimum lighting circumstances, sharpness remains unimpressive and fine detail is faded out. Better portraits have undoubtedly been seen in this price range.
Selfie camera
It’s hard to get a proper selfie outside ideal lighting conditions, as sharpness and detail are usually an issue. Almost all the samples we took were blurry to some extent, and the subject’s face looks somewhat flat in most scenes. We’ve definitely seen more consistent selfies in this price range. At least the colors are pretty realistic, although slightly dull at times. The faux bokeh effect seems pretty strong and rough around the edges, so we’d avoid that.
Video recording
The Moto G82’s primary camera can capture 4K video, but the ISP is limited to [email protected] because of this. Given that the Snapdragon 600 series from Qualcomm does not enable 2160p recording, this is really quite popular these days. However, stabilisation is possible.
We’ve turned off EIS for the 1080p video sample, making the field of view slightly larger. In terms of quality, we anticipated more. This video is softer than normal, even for a Full HD one, but we liked the colour rendition and dynamic range. The video maintains an excellent shadows/highlights balance despite the shifting overcast.
Our verdict
Motorola was able to assemble a smartphone with capable hardware that is well-balanced. The 6.6-inch OLED screen is colour accurate and becomes quite bright; the battery life is excellent; and the stock Android interface is appealing. The performance of the Snapdragon 695 SoC appears to be suitable for the price range.
Nevertheless, we are unable to endorse the Moto G82 without first researching what the opposition has to offer. Additionally, competitors frequently appear to have better camera performance because the main sensor in this camera is one of the smallest in its price range and produces subpar results. Additionally, we’ve seen under-display fingerprint scanners that are more comfier and modern with faster charging. The Moto G82’s side-mounted is acceptable, but it’s not as appealing as the under-display one.
Overall, the Moto G82 is deserving of a place on our list of under-€300 suggestions. The class average for camera image quality is below average. However, the G82 would make a good daily driver if cameras aren’t a top priority.