TEST: Moto G30 – budget mobile with fast screen and large battery
Tested product: Motorola Moto G30
Award: SEK 1,999 at Lenovo
This year’s first two mobiles from Motorola, which were presented in February, the Moto G10 and Moto G30, are now available for purchase. In Sweden, the Moto G30 is available for purchase, initially only via Lenovo’s web shop, but we expect to see it on a broad front in Swedish stores soon.
Rating 4 out of 5
Opinion
Moto G30 delivers a good combination of smooth user experience and good value for money. The fast screen charms despite the lower resolution and the performance is enough, albeit not by much margin. A camera that is good for the most important as well as a convincing battery life is also positive.
Positively
- Comfortable and convenient.
- Nice feeling with fast screen.
- Good main camera.
- Pure Android with good extra features.
Negative
- 720p screen.
- Slightly slow storage.
- Wide angle and macro are less successful.
Motorola is now abandoning its traditional naming of
G series. We have previously seen Moto G5 G6, G7 and so on, with different additions, Pro, Power, Plus for different types of class. We are not entirely sure which of the previous generation Moto Gs the Moto G30 will be compared to. If we go by the price, we guess on the “regular” Moto G9.
This is a conveniently designed mobile that fits well in the hand. Half-size screen and shell in glossy plastic on the sides and back, as well as slightly raised glass that covers the entire front. The back piece shimmers with a light metallic sheen. It is available in two colors, and discreet black and the light purple model we tested, which is called Pastel Sky. At the back is a small and only slightly protruding camera panel, which is nicely framed with a chrome-gloss edge.
The edges of the screen are wide, with almost an extra centimeter at the bottom. The top edge of the screen has a teardrop-shaped flap for the selfie camera. This is something we have seen less of recently. Manufacturers instead prefer to hold the display panel. It’s entirely a matter of taste, both options take up little screen space and can interfere with viewing full screen video, but they are otherwise quite discreet.
Higher frequency, fewer pixels
As far as we can see, the Moto G30 is the cheapest mobile to date with a high-frequency screen of 90 Hz instead of 60 Hz. This means that interface navigation, browsing documents and web pages, gets a noticeable report and a more direct feel. In any case, if the screen, as well as the hardware that drives it, is good enough, which we think it is.
The screen shows no tendency to sluggishness or shading that can occur with some mobiles. The point response is also fast and direct, although we do not think that the sampling frequency for point is unusually high. In standard mode, it automatically switches frame rates and we never detect that it is in the wrong mode.
The screen itself is not remarkable, an ips with approved, but not extremely high brightness, and even neutral colors, but nothing extra in color range. However, it is low resolution, 720p wide instead of 1080p. This makes some details less clear. However, it looks good for the most part, as it is an ips screen and not an oled screen.
When we tested Samsung Galaxy A42 with 720p amoled we just noticed the graininess in the picture, but we avoid that here. On the other hand, a 90 Hz ips screen draws significantly more power than a 60 Hz amoled does, so we do not get the same fantastic battery, despite a battery of 5000 mAh. The Moto G30 still delivers mixed use for a couple of days without charging. The phone charges approved quickly with the included 20 watt Turbopower charger. You will not get wireless charging in this price range.
Can handle a lot, but not everything
The system circuit in the Moto G30 is a Snapdragon 662, the same as in the example Nokia 5.4 or Poco M3. It delivers stable performance for its price range, about a third of the computing power of a premium mobile, which is good enough for everyday surfing, navigation and media streaming. There is no service that can make mobile Office apps run smoothly, even heavier scar apps, image processing and games are things that do not give up.
The model that sells in Sweden has four gigabytes of frame memory. In this performance class, four gigabytes should suffice without you noticing any major negative effect. However, we would have liked to have seen a different storage solution. You get a lot of space with 128 gigabytes of built-in memory and space for micro sd cards of up to one terabyte, but storage is unusually slow, which means that larger apps can be handled by larger files. We would rather have seen less space and faster reading speeds.
The phone has four camera lenses on the back, but as with many other budget and mid-range mobiles, only three are particularly effective. One with standard focal length, a wide angle camera and a separate macro. The fourth camera is a depth vision support camera used for depth of field effect and some similar features.
Photographs nicely in most situations
The main camera is high class with 64 megapixels in the sensor, which in standard mode produces 16 megapixel photos with a high level of detail, smooth and realistic colors with nice dynamics. Possibly the images have a slightly harsh contrast. Photography in indoor light gets a cold and daylight-like color tone. But then we are picky, the camera delivers a lot of quality and also unusually good results in dark environments to sit in such a cheap mobile.
The wide angle camera and macro camera are less successful. Macros do not come as close to the subject as we would like and constantly deliver warm tones. The wide angle with its 8-megapixel sensor lacks the main camera’s fine dynamics, detail and depth in black image areas.
Without optical zoom, digital zoom with the main camera applies. It works and delivers good quality up to about 2x, but should not be used for the sake of simplicity. The camera can film in
1,080p with 60 Hz, but no more. Then it does an overall stable job with light and colors, but focus is difficult to control.
Android, and a little more
As always in Motorola’s mobiles, you can rent Android interfaces in original design, here Android 11, with few custom extensions. In the Moto app, we find a handful of options for customizing backgrounds, icon styles and extra gesture control options. Here we also find opportunities to activate interference-free game mode and a handful of other bonus features, which have different sound profiles; voice, extra bass and so on.
We do not know exactly what we are going to do with sound settings, because the phone has a mediocre speaker at the bottom. It is definitely not bad, but nothing that we do not get for it to be ready to upgrade if we change the sound profile. With headphones plugged in, however, the difference between the different sound profiles becomes more noticeable.
Motorola makes some interesting choices here. A 90 Hz screen with a system and hardware that does it justice. High-class camera, at least as long as we stick to the main camera, performance that is high enough, but not by a very large margin, and generous with storage. We like the whole, but have a hard time saying how it will stand up to other mobiles in the same price range that will be released in the spring.
Specifications
Product name: Moto G30 4GB XT2129-2
Tested: March 2021
Manufacturer: Motorola
System circuits: Snapdragon 662
Processor: 8th Cryo 260 2 GHz?
Graphics: Adreno 610
Memory: 4 GB
Storage: 128 GB, space for micro sd up to 1 TB
Screen: 6.5 inch ips, 720 x 1600 pixels, 90 Hz
Cameras: 64 megapixels + 8 megapixel wide angle + 8 megapixel macro, depth sensor with LED rear, 13 megapixel frame
Connections: USB 2.0 type c, 3.5 mm headset
Communication: 2g, 3g, 4g, wifi 5, bluetooth 5.0, a-gps, Galileo, nfc
Operating system: Android 11
Other: Dual SIM, fingerprint reader, water repellent (IP52).
Battery: 5000 mAh, 18h 20min online video (wifi, high brightness), about 18h mixed use (4g, low brightness, 90Hz), about 34h call (3g)
Size: 16.5 x 7.6 x 0.9-1 cm
Weight: 197 grams
Rec. Award: SEK 1,999
Award: SEK 1,999 at Lenovo
Performance
Antutu Benchmark: 178 562 points
Geekbench 5: 1 254 points
Geekbench 5 and core: 306 points
3dmark Sling Shot Extreme: 1,183 points
3dmark Wild Life: 384 points
Reading speed, storage: 303.55 MB / s