Motorola's 2024 Moto G 5G and Moto G Power 5G get new designs, speed boosts, and more
With little fanfare and no advance notice, Motorola has formally introduced not one but two new mid-range handsets earlier today. Just like their predecessors but unlike the Moto G04, G24, and G24 Power unveiled in recent months, the Moto G 5G (2024) and Moto G Power 5G (2024) are officially headed for the US.
The North American availability of these hot new budget-friendly devices is not only implied or vaguely confirmed, mind you, but fully detailed with release dates, price points, and even US carrier names.
Unlike the second-gen Moto G Power 5G, the third-gen (non-Power) Moto G 5G somehow manages to cost less than its predecessor while bringing quite a few important upgrades of its own to the table.
The Moto G Power 5G is bigger and faster but not costlier
Motorola's second-ever Moto G Power generation with support for 5G speeds is definitely not a radical departure from last year's first such edition, with the same old 5,000mAh battery under the hood and a seemingly unchanged 50MP primary rear-facing camera equipped with Quad Pixel technology.
But the phone's design appears to be refined in all the right ways, with slightly sharper corners, decidedly snazzier Midnight Blue and Pale Lilac color options, and more importantly, an eye-catching and smooth vegan leather build previously found only on pricier Motorola devices.
The Moto G Power 5G (2024) is set to cost $299.99 in a "universally unlocked" variant at Amazon, Best Buy, and its manufacturer's official US website starting March 29. That matches the list price of the Moto G Power 5G (2023), which comes with 6GB RAM and 256GB internal storage space.
Curiously enough, the 2024 G Power bumps up the memory to 8 gigs while reducing the storage to 128GB. That latter downgrade was probably necessary to keep the price at that reasonable level with a sized-up 6.7-inch LCD screen supporting 120Hz refresh rate technology and upgraded 30W charging speeds.
All in all, it's hard to argue with the value proposition of such an affordable jumbo-sized Android 14 phone that also packs a more than reasonably powerful MediaTek Dimensity 7020 processor. If you don't have $300 to spend on a new handset, look for the March 22 Cricket Wireless debut of the Moto G Power 5G (2024) and its "subsequent" availability at T-Mobile, Metro by T-Mobile, AT&T, US Cellular, Verizon, Straight Talk, Total by Verizon, Walmart Family Mobile, and Visible for your typical carrier deals and discounts.
The Moto G 5G 2024 is almost unbelievably affordable
Yes, this thing will become available unlocked in the US on May 2 at $199.99, but not before going on sale at T-Mobile and Metro by T-Mobile on March 21 and "subsequently" at Cricket, AT&T, Boost Infinite, Boost Mobile, Verizon, Xfinity Mobile, US Cellular, Consumer Cellular, Google Fi, Optimum Mobile, Cox Mobile, Straight Talk, Total by Verizon, Simple Mobile, Tracfone, Walmart Family Mobile, and Visible.
That's a spectacular list of carriers for a spectacular budget phone with a fluid 120Hz display measuring 6.6 inches, a nice and fast Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 processor under the hood, and incredibly enough, the same vegan leather design as the costlier Moto G Power 5G (2024).
The ultra-affordable Moto G 5G (2024) additionally packs a hefty 5,000mAh battery capable of charging at up to 18W speeds and an impressive 8GB RAM paired with a more than respectable 128 gigs of storage space.
Because there's obviously no such thing as a flawless low-cost smartphone, the 1612 x 720 pixel resolution of that 6.6-inch 120Hz LCD screen is... not great and the same goes for the 2MP secondary macro camera joining an otherwise great-sounding 50MP primary shooter on the back of the new and improved Moto G 5G. The handset also runs Android 14 on the software side of things right out the box, which is not always a guarantee in its price bracket.
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