With the recent 5G spectrum auction in India, 5G is no longer a distant pipe dream but is more like a nearing reality. And with that, the slew of 5G phones in India finally have a purpose – future-proofing a user’s purchase. It’s not implausible to assume that 5G will go live in India in a couple of years, so a user with a 5G phone today should be able to reap the benefits of this technology before their device’s life cycle ends. Motorola has introduced a new player to the sub-20K smartphone market – the Motorola Moto G62. In terms of specifications alone, the Moto G62 compromises on some key features in favour of incorporating 5G compared to the Moto G52. So, the Moto G62 is naturally missing some features such as the AMOLED display and 30 W fast charging that is present on the G52. However, in a sea of contenders, there appear to be some smartphones that provide 5G connectivity alongside the features the Moto G62 is missing out on. Will this prove to be a dink in the phone’s value proposition? Let’s find out that and more in our review of the Motorola Moto G62.
Motorola Moto G62 Review: Build and design
Motorola continues the “diet” it has been on lately with the Moto G62 weighing a modest 184 g. It’s great to see Motorola consciously attempting to keep a phone’s weight in check since it definitely improves a user’s quality of life. The phone is also pretty slim at 8.6 mm. It feels good in the hand for the most part, but the sharp side edges can dig into your hand, making it slightly uncomfortable when held for long periods of time.
The rear panel of the G52 is built out of PMMA plastic which has a glass-like finish, much like the Moto G42 we recently reviewed. The back panel is relatively resistant to fingerprints but it is quite prone to smudges. The phone comes with a TPU case inside the box, in case you don’t want to deal with the smudges. The rounded camera island looks fantastic; extremely premium, in our opinion. It definitely elevates the look of the phone. We received the Midnight Gray variant for review, which looks anything but garish, as certain budget phones look these days.
On the right side of the phone, you’ll find the volume rockers and the power button. There’s a capacitive fingerprint sensor embedded in the power button that is speedy and accurate, for the most part. The bottom of the phone houses the USB Type-C charging port, a speaker and a 3.5 mm jack while the top houses the second speaker. The speakers are Dolby Atmos-certified as well and sound great for the price with rich bass and full-sounding vocals. The left side houses the SIM tray which can house two nano SIMs and a microSD card up to 1 TB.
The bezels are pretty chunky on this device which dilutes some of the premium feel the rear panel gives this device. There’s a punch-hole cut out for the selfie camera and the display is topped with Panda glass for protection. The company says that the protective glass used equates to the protection provided by Gorilla Glass 3 though. The phone is also IP52-certified providing you with some level of protection from external elements.
Motorola Moto G62 Review: Display
Now, one of the areas the Moto G62 cuts corners and saves some bucks is the display. While the cheaper Moto G52 and G42 come equipped with AMOLED screens, the G62 only features an IPS LCD screen. The drawbacks of this are obvious – blacks aren’t as deep, battery life is slightly impacted, and colours are also not as vibrant as on the Moto G42.
The display is a 6.5-inch IPS LCD panel with Full HD+ resolution and 120 Hz refresh rate. The high refresh rate support makes scrolling through apps and websites a smooth affair. However, there are some 5G phones in the same price range that not only offer high refresh rate but also an AMOLED panel; for example, the Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G and the Poco X4 Pro 5G. The Note 11 Pro+ even comes with HDR10 support which is absent on the Moto G62. If content consumption is your primary concern, the competitors we mentioned offer more value for your money since you get 120 Hz refresh rate, an AMOLED display, and stereo speakers.
We understand Motorola’s reasoning for cutting corners, but faced with competition that provides far more in this pivotal area, the Moto G62 could seem like the less preferable option.
That aside, the display is crisp enough and has good viewing angles. Colours also look fairly accurate but not very vibrant. The display is rated at 600 nits of peak brightness but in our testing, at maximum brightness, we only recorded 220 nits of peak brightness. With Adaptive Brightness, the numbers should be higher in sunlight. However, we found the legibility of the screen in sunlight to be poor, something that competitors don’t struggle with as much.
The display, as mentioned before, isn’t HDR certified but it does come with Widevine L1 support, so you can stream HD videos on apps such as Netflix.
Motorola Moto G62 Review: Performance
The Moto G62 is powered by the Snapdragon 695 5G SoC that’s an upgrade over the Snapdragon 680 powering the G52 and G42. Although the Snapdragon 680 has higher clock speeds, in our observations, the Snapdragon 695 shows up with better AnTuTu and GeekBench scores. This is probably due to better instruction set architecture in the SD 695. The phone comes with 6/8 GB LPDDR4X RAM and 128 GB uMCP built-in storage.
Kicking things off with real-world usage, the Motorola G62 performed most tasks swimmingly; this includes texting, calling, social media, clicking photos, and web browsing. We received the 6 GB RAM variant for review and multitasking was a breeze as well with no significant lag or stutter even when running multiple apps simultaneously.
We also ran a set of benchmarks on this device. In AnTuTu, the phone beat out both the OnePlus Nord CE 2 Lite and the Redmi Note 11 Pro+ by a slight margin but in GeekBench, the phone lagged behind the other two by a slight margin. However, PCMarkWork, which simulates real-world tasks, saw the Redmi Note 11 Pro+ and Moto G62 bag similar scores but the OnePlus Nord CE 2 lagged behind significantly.
We also ran the CPU Throttling Test where the phone throttled to 87 per cent of its peak performance in 15 minutes, which is a pretty good score. In GPU tests such as 3D Mark and GFX Bench, the Moto G62 clocked in similar scores as the Nord CE 2 Lite and Redmi Note 11 Pro+. What this tells us is that the performance of the Moto G62 is as expected. It performs just as well as other phones in this price range, so if performance is your concern, it’s mostly all smooth sailing with the Moto G62.
For gaming as well, the Moto G62 performed admirably. We ran both Call Of Duty: Mobile and Asphalt 9 on high graphics and frame drops and stutters were minimal. Although, Asphalt ran only at 30 fps. Also, the phone got slightly warm when playing COD: Mobile for over half an hour though. Overall, this phone is a reliable performer under 20K and there’s not much it can’t get done. You may face some lag when playing intensive games such as Genshin Impact or when you’re rendering a video, but that’s about it.
As for the software, Motorola phones come with a near Stock Android skin dubbed MyUX. There’s minimal bloatware and the skin is very close to stock Android. The UI is clean and all third-party apps can be uninstalled. With the G62, users are assured a year of Android OS updates and three years of security updates. We would have frankly preferred at least 2 years of OS updates though.
Motorola Moto G62 Review: Cameras
The Motorola Moto G62 feature the same set of cameras found in the Moto G52 and G42. In our Moto G42 review, we mentioned being disappointed with the cameras, and we were hoping Motorola made some optimisations in the software, at least, to correct some of the misgivings of the camera stack. However, that wasn’t really the case. The rear camera stack is headlined by a 50 MP lens. You also get an 8 MP ultrawide shooter and a 2 MP macro lens. For selfies, there’s a 16 MP shooter.
In daylight, you get decent shots from the Moto G62 with enough detail and sharpness. Well-lit indoor shots also come out looking detailed. However, the dynamic range is mediocre. The shadows are often crushed and you lose out on some detail due to this. Additionally, in shots with tricky lighting, highlights are way too overblown, making the picture look unbalanced. Here are some image samples, do note these images are compressed for the website.
Portrait images look decent on this phone with good edge detection but there’s some softness in the shots. In low light, images are soft on details and there’s some noise added to the equation.
The ultrawide lens has even worse dynamic range and while the colours are consistent with the primary lens, you can get far better ultrawide photos from some similarly-priced competitors. The 2 MP macro lens is just there to make up numbers and doesn’t really output crisp images. There’s no stabilisation as well, so taking usable macro shots becomes even more of a task.
The selfie camera shoots good pictures in daylight but again, the highlights seem overblown at times. Low light selfies have quite a lot of noise as well. Video recording is available at 1080p at up to 60fps. Videos look pretty decent in daylight with good colours, but they failed to meet our expectations in low light conditions. The Redmi Note 11 Pro+ and the OnePlus Nord CE 2 Lite have more reliable cameras in the same price range, and if that’s your primary concern, you’d be better off going with these options instead of the Moto G62.
Motorola Moto G62 Review: Battery life
The Moto G62 draws power from a 5,000 mAh cell that provided impressive runtime. The phone can easily last users over a day without having to reach for the power cable. Our day consisted of running benchmarks, clicking photos and videos, gaming, web browsing and more, and the phone still had 22 per cent battery left at the end of this day.
So, it’s safe to say that the phone will easily power through 2 days of usage for light users and over a day for power users, which is excellent. We played a 4K video on loop at maximum brightness and the phone died only after 16 hours of this test.
However, when it comes to charging speeds, the Moto G62 falls behind the competition. The phone comes with a 20 W charger that took 2 hours and 15 minutes to charge from zero to full battery, which is arduously long in 2022. In contrast, the OnePlus Nord CE 2 Lite takes only 55 minutes to charge to full with its 33 W charger, while the Redmi Note 11 Pro+, with its 67 W charger tops up the battery in roughly 45 minutes.
Motorola Moto G62 Review: Verdict
The Motorola Moto G62 aims to be the 5G smartphone of choice under ₹20,000, but its misgivings in the camera and display segment maim the phone’s chance to be the obvious choice. While the Moto G62’s performance in day-to-day usage and gaming is reliable and the near Stock Android experience with minimal bloatware is enjoyable, it isn’t enough to compensate for its lacklustre camera performance. Additionally, the lack of an AMOLED display when 5G competitors offer the same is disappointing.
If future-proofing your device with 5G support isn’t something that’s integral for you, the Moto G52 is a better value proposition. While the camera performance is still not strong, the ₹1,500 price difference makes the faults of the camera system more palatable. And you also get an AMOLED display. However, if 5G is a necessity, there are options such as the OnePlus Nord CE 2 Lite and the Redmi Note 11 Pro+ that offers similar performance, AMOLED screens, and a more refined camera experience.
