Motorola Moto G54 5G review: Nicely packaged budget phone

Since the beginning of 2023, Motorola, particularly in India, has been quite busy. It has launched several new phones covering multiple price bands to cater to all classes of the population.

Last month, it introduced the budget phone Moto G14 and now, it has unveiled another model Moto G54 5G with prices starting at Rs 15,999 in India.

I have been using it for a little over a week and here are my thoughts on Motorola's latest offering.

Build quality, design and display

The new Moto G54 flaunts a visually pleasing panel. Though it is made of a type of plastic material (Polymethyl methacrylate aka acrylic glass), the frosted glass effect with the 3D finish on the cover succeeds in creating an impression that G54 is a premium handset.

The midnight blue model, in particular, looks really pretty outdoors in the sunlight.

The company offers the device in two other colours-- mint green, and pearl blue. They are said to be good-looking devices too.

Also, acrylic glass is known for scratch resistance qualities, and Moto G54 is one of the few handsets in the mid-range class to get good protection against daily wear and tear.

. It comes with an IP52 water-resistant rating, meaning it can survive accidental water splash. Also, the display features a Panda glass shield against scratches when kept along with a pen or keys or coins in the pant pocket.

Also, the frosted glass finish does good in repelling fingerprint smudges to an extent and add to that, the company is offering transparent silicone case with a retail box for additional protection against cracking during accidental drops.

On the front, it flaunts a 6.5-inch full HD+ (2400×1080p) LCD screen, supports 120Hz refresh rate, and up to 560 nits peak brightness. The display is just bright enough outdoors to read and watch multimedia content under a shade, but under direct sunlight, you have to maximise the brightness to the tilt.

Also, with a dynamic refresh rate (30Hz-120Hz), the scrolling on web for news is a smooth experience.

. The side-mounted fingerprint works without any issues, and like in every review, I'd like to reiterate that this is the best biometric security system compared to in-display sensors, which require the fingers to be clean from sweat and dry at all times.

The new Motorola phone also comes with a hybrid dual-slot tray and this means, the owner has to decide on whether to have a second SIM or microSD card for extra storage.

. Also, the device features a Type-C port for charging and data transfer and a 3.5mm audio jack port, which has become a rarity in smartphones.

And, it features a loudspeaker at the base and is tuned by the Dolby Atmos system. It offers stereo sound effects and also supports Motorola Spatial Sound to deliver immersive sound delivery. Even when the volume is put to the max, the audio is stable and has very little distortion. It can liven any regular room with music at home, but be considerate so that others at home are not annoyed by the loud music.

. Performance

Under the hood, Moto G54 is powered by a 6nm class MediaTek Dimensity 7020 octa-core processor with IMG BXM-8-256 GPU, 8GB/12GB LPDDR4x RAM with 128/256GB UFS 2.2 storage (expandable up to 1Tb).

The new Motorola phone does a decent job with day-to-day chores without any hassles as such. As noted earlier, the variable refresh rate (30Hz-120Hz) ensures a smooth web and social media scrolling experience. Even with gaming, the phone is stable to an extent, but not made of extreme gaming for long hours.

It runs on clean Android 13-based My UX OS and is guaranteed to get the latest Android 14 OS. And, it will get three years of security software support.

. Also, it supports 5G cellular service offered by both Reliance Jio and Airtel in India. Furthermore, it supports VoNR (Voice over New Radio/5G) offered by Jio. It promises better voice quality during phone calls.

The best aspect of the new Moto G54 5G is that it delivers a long battery life. With a 6,000mAh capacity, it can easily give you more than a day even with long hours of multimedia consumption (watching reels) on social media platforms. When fully charged, you won't have to feel any anxiety about the device dying out before returning home at night.

It supports 30W Turbocharging and takes less than 90 minutes to fully charge from zero to 100 per cent. It can reach from zero to 50 per cent capacity in 30 minutes.

. Photography

As far as the photography hardware is concerned, it features a 50MP (f/1.8, OIS: Optical Image Stabilisation) + 8MP ultra-wide camera with LED flash, supports macro mode, and bokeh blur effect.

. It takes a pretty decent in the sunlight. The subjects in HDR mode look clear and the colours, particularly of flowers are brighter than natural. But, still the quality is really good.

. In close-up shots, the phone manages to deliver really crisp photos with minute details. As you can see the Honey Bee on the flower, is so clearly captured.

. With an ultra-wide angle mode, the phone does a fine job of capturing vast areas without using any software tricks of bending structures to accommodate more into the frame.

. With portrait mode, you have to show some patience to get the right focus on the subject and once locked, it manages to capture a good photo with a blur effect in the background.

. In the night mode, it takes decent photos. But, the phone takes some time to fully process the image and you should have a steady hand to get that perfect shot.

. On the front, it features a 16MP (f/2.4) camera. It takes pretty selfies in the natural sunlight and indoors with controlled light conditions too, it manages to deliver good.

. The colour of the human face looks natural, which surprised me a bit, as other phones tend to smoothen (read whiten) the face and make it unnatural. But, here it does a good job of getting closer to real colours.

. However, at night with very little light, you have to have a steady hand to get a decent photo.

. Both the front and primary cameras can record up to 1080p full HD videos at 30 frames per second. The video quality is okayish and on par with others in the same class of mid-range phones.

. Final thoughts

Motorola's latest offering-- Moto G54 5G is a neatly packaged phone in a really good design language. The frosted-glass back finish makes it look like a premium device and does even better with repelling fingerprint smudges.

Performance-wise, the device is decent; it works smoothly with day-to-day chores and even delivers a stable gaming experience to an extent. As with photography, it is on par with other brands in its class.

. In terms of battery life, it does a really good job here. It is optimised well to ensure the device can last more than a day under normal usage.

Motorola is offering the Moto G54 5G in three colours-- midnight blue, mint green, and pearl blue colour. It comes in two configurations-- 8GB RAM + 128GB storage and 12GB RAM + 256GB storage-- for Rs 15,999 and Rs 18,999, respectively.