I remember when budget phones meant significant compromises, but the smartphone landscape has dramatically evolved. The Moto G Power 5G (2024) unlocked version represents Motorola’s latest attempt to redefine what we should expect from affordable devices. With wireless charging capability—a first for the G Power series—this $300 contender brings premium features down to the budget segment. According to Wired, the phone maintains an impressive 39% battery after 5 hours of screen time, but does this battery champion deliver a complete experience? I’ve spent time analyzing its specs and reviews to help you decide if this is the budget phone you’ve been waiting for.
Design and Build Quality: Premium Touches in a Budget Package
The Moto G Power 5G (2024) challenges budget smartphone expectations with its thoughtfully designed exterior. The vegan leather back provides a tactile experience typically reserved for premium devices, creating a sophisticated look while offering practical grip benefits. Despite housing a substantial 5,000 mAh battery and 6.7-inch display, the device maintains a reasonable 201g weight with balanced distribution that prevents hand fatigue during extended use.
Motorola has implemented a water-repellent design that offers protection against everyday splashes and light rain, though buyers should note the absence of an official IP rating for comprehensive water resistance. The color options—Midnight Blue and Pale Lilac—offer understated elegance that complements the device’s refined aesthetic approach.
The side-mounted fingerprint reader represents a practical design choice, positioning the sensor where your thumb naturally rests when holding the phone. This placement delivers consistently fast authentication without requiring awkward hand adjustments.
Display Performance: Smooth Scrolling with Some Limitations
The 6.7-inch Full HD+ IPS LCD display delivers a crisp 2400 x 1080 resolution that renders text, images, and video content with commendable clarity. One of the device’s standout features is its 120Hz refresh rate—an unexpected inclusion at this price point—providing noticeably smoother scrolling, animation transitions, and more responsive touch interactions compared to standard 60Hz displays.
Motorola has implemented Gorilla Glass 3 protection to shield against everyday wear and tear, offering reasonable resistance to scratches from keys and coins in your pocket. However, the display shows clear compromises in two critical areas: brightness output and viewing angles. The limited peak brightness creates visibility challenges in direct sunlight, requiring users to seek shade for comfortable viewing outdoors. Similarly, the restricted viewing angles mean content degrades quickly when the phone isn’t viewed straight-on, limiting shared viewing experiences.
Performance and Software: Everyday Reliability with Future Support
The MediaTek Dimensity 7020 processor forms the computational foundation of the Moto G Power 5G (2024), delivering balanced performance for routine tasks. The 6nm octa-core chipset, featuring two 2.2 GHz Cortex-A78 performance cores and six 2.0 GHz Cortex-A55 efficiency cores, handles messaging, social media browsing, video streaming, and productivity applications with minimal lag or stuttering.
Motorola provides 8GB of physical RAM with their innovative RAM Boost technology, which can dynamically allocate up to 8GB of additional virtual memory from storage when needed. This capability helps maintain performance when juggling multiple applications simultaneously. Storage needs are addressed with 128GB of internal space, expandable up to 1TB via microSD card—providing ample capacity for apps, photos, videos, and downloaded content.
The software experience centers around a clean Android 14 implementation with minimal bloatware, enhanced by Motorola’s signature gesture controls like chop-twice for flashlight and twist for camera. While the promise of an upgrade to Android 15 is welcome, the single major OS update policy falls short of competitors’ multi-year commitments. The three years of security updates provides longer-term protection against vulnerabilities.
Gaming performance proves adequate for casual titles but shows limitations with graphically demanding games, where frame rates may drop during intensive scenes.
Camera Capabilities: Versatile Setup with Daylight Strengths
The camera system on the Moto G Power 5G (2024) centers around a 50MP main sensor with f/1.8 aperture that captures impressive detail in favorable lighting conditions. Daytime photos exhibit good color accuracy, reasonable dynamic range, and sufficient detail for social sharing and casual photography needs.
Complementing the main sensor is an 8MP ultrawide camera that expands creative options through its broader field of view, ideal for landscapes, architecture, and group photos. This same lens doubles as a macro camera, allowing close-up photography of small subjects with surprising detail. The front-facing 16MP selfie camera delivers sharp self-portraits and performs reliably during video calls.
Video capabilities max out at 1080p resolution with 60fps frame rates, providing smooth motion capture for everyday moments, though lacking the 4K options found on higher-end devices. The camera system’s primary limitation emerges in challenging lighting conditions, where noise becomes more prominent and detail preservation suffers significantly.
Motorola’s camera software enhances the hardware with creative modes like spot color (isolating a single color while rendering the rest in monochrome) and a capable portrait mode that produces reasonably convincing background blur.
Battery Life and Charging: The True Power Player
Battery performance represents the definitive strength of the Moto G Power 5G (2024), living up to its “Power” namesake. The substantial 5,000 mAh battery easily powers through full days of intensive usage, maintaining approximately 39% charge even after 5 hours of screen-on time according to real-world testing.
This device marks a significant milestone as the first in the Moto G Power series to support wireless charging—a feature rarely found in budget smartphones. The 15W wireless charging capability adds meaningful convenience, allowing cable-free power replenishment at home or in compatible public spaces. For faster recharging, the included 30W TurboPower wired charging rapidly restores battery levels during short breaks.
Motorola’s intelligent battery optimization features work effectively behind the scenes, extending usage time without aggressively closing background applications or limiting functionality. This balanced approach ensures the phone remains responsive while maximizing battery efficiency.
Connectivity and Special Features: Surprising Premium Inclusions
The connectivity profile of the Moto G Power 5G (2024) surpasses expectations for its price category. Full 5G network compatibility ensures faster data speeds and future-proof connectivity across major carriers. The inclusion of NFC technology—another first for the G Power lineup—enables contactless payments through services like Google Pay, eliminating the need to carry physical cards.
Dual SIM functionality provides flexibility through both a physical Nano-SIM slot and eSIM support, allowing users to maintain separate personal and work numbers or utilize local SIMs while traveling without removing their primary card. Bluetooth 5.3 delivers stable connections to wireless earbuds, speakers, and other accessories with improved range and reliability compared to older standards.
Motorola maintains the increasingly rare 3.5mm headphone jack, accommodating traditional wired audio accessories without requiring dongles or adapters. The integrated FM radio receiver offers an often-overlooked entertainment option that functions without data consumption—particularly valuable in areas with limited connectivity or when conserving data allowances.
The Verdict: Budget Champion with Clear Priorities
The Moto G Power 5G (2024) unlocked version carves out a compelling niche in the budget smartphone market. Motorola has made smart choices by including wireless charging and NFC—features typically reserved for more expensive devices—while maintaining the series’ legendary battery life. The vegan leather finish adds a touch of class that belies its price tag. However, it’s not without compromises. The display brightness issues, limited camera performance in challenging conditions, and the promise of just one major OS update might give some buyers pause. That said, if battery endurance, clean software, and premium touches matter more to you than cutting-edge camera technology or multi-year software support, the Moto G Power 5G (2024) represents exceptional value at $300. For those seeking a reliable daily driver that won’t leave you hunting for a charger and includes unexpected premium features, this phone deserves serious consideration. It’s not trying to be everything to everyone—instead, it excels at being exactly what many budget-conscious consumers need.
