motorola launched the moto g64 as the successor to last year’s g54 in India a few days back. This has almost similar specifications as the g54, but gets a slight SoC speed bump, and gets Rs. 1000 cheaper. Is this a good 5G smartphone under Rs. 15,000? Let us dive into the review to find out.
| Box Contents |
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Display, Hardware and Design
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| Camera |
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Software, UI and Apps
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Fingerprint sensor and Face unlock
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Music player and Multimedia
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Dual SIM and Connectivity
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Performance and Benchmarks
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| Battery Life |
| Conclusion |
Box Contents
- moto g64 5G 12GB + 256GB in Mint Green colour
- 33W fast charger
- USB Type-A to Type-C cable
- SIM ejector tool
- Clear protective case
- User manual and warranty information
The box of the phone has been changed, and the company says that it uses plastic-free packing.
Display, Hardware and Design
Starting with the display, the moto g64 retains the 6.5-inch Full HD+ 120Hz LCD screen with a pixel resolution of 2400 × 1080 pixels, 20:9 aspect ratio and a pixel density of about 405 PPI. The display is bright, since it has up to 560 nits peak brightness, and the sunlight legibility is good as well. The colours are vibrant as well.
The phone has 30 to 120Hz variable refresh rate and 240Hz touch sampling rate. It also has HDR support, which works for YouTube. Under the display options there are different options to adjust colours from Natural, and Saturated.
It has Active Area-Touch Panel (AA-TP) of 90%. There is Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection for the display, compared to Panda Glass in the g54.
The phone has a punch-hole screen that houses an 16-megapixel camera. It comes with peek display option that lets you see interactive notifications and quick information while the screen is off, but it doesn’t act as always on display present in AMOLED phones.
It has a slightly thicker bottom bezel, which is fine in the price range.
In terms of placements, the power button, which integrates a fingerprint scanner, is present on the right side along with the volume rockers. The hybrid SIM and microSD card slot that accepts cards up to 1TB is present on the left side.
The 3.5mm audio jack, primary microphone, USB Type-C port and the loudspeaker grill are present on the bottom. The secondary microphone is present on the top and has Dolby Atmos branding.
The phone is 8.89mm thick and weighs just 192 grams, even though it packs a 6000mAh battery. This has premium Acrylic Glass (PMMA) back, so it offers a smooth finish and looks premium. The build quality is solid, and I felt that it has improved from the g54. The phone has IP52 ratings, so that the phone is resistant to dust, light rain and splashes.
Camera
- 50MP rear camera with f/1.8 aperture, OIS,
- 8MP ultra-wide / macro / depth camera with f/2.2 aperture
- 16MP front-facing camera with f/2.4 aperture
- 50MP rear camera with f/1.8 aperture, OIS,
- 8MP ultra-wide / macro / depth camera with f/2.2 aperture
- 16MP front-facing camera with f/2.4 aperture
The camera UI is familiar with most Motorola smartphones that include a quick toggles between main camera and macro camera on the bottom, quick toggles for flash, timer, aspect ratio, and more.
Other camera features include Night Vision, Portrait, Spot Colour, Panorama, Scan, Dual Capture, Slow motion, Time lapse, Spot Colour and Dual capture.
Coming to the image quality, daylight shots came out well with good dynamic range, thanks to Quad Pixel technology that gives you get 12.5MP output. HDR shots are better with improved dynamic range, and it is recommended to enable auto HDR.
The 8MP ultra-wide is good, and the macro option with the ultra-wide is good as well, since this is an autofocus camera. The edge detection in portrait shots is good as well. motorola says that the ISP in the new Dimenisty 7025 chip has been improved offering better quality images.
Check out the camera samples
The phone is capable of recording 1080p at up to 30 fps resolution from both front and rear cameras. OIS works well, and the phone also has EIS, but the video gets zoomed a bit when stabilization is enabled.
Software, UI and Apps
The moto g64 runs Android 14 with Android security patch for February, 2024. The company has promised an assured upgrade to Android 15 and 3 years of security upgrades for the phone. As usual, it is stock with added Moto features. There is nothing to mention regarding the software in specific, since it offers stock Android 14 experience with added features.
It comes with the usual My UX with Ambient Display option and gestures such as Quick capture, Fast flashlight, Three-finger screenshot, Sidebar, Double press power key, Press and hold power button.
Apart from the usual set of utility apps, Google apps, there are some apps and games, but you can install them easily. The version we have packs 12GB of LPDDR4X RAM, and there is also a 8GB RAM version. The phone also has a RAM booster option to add up to 12GB of virtual RAM.
Fingerprint sensor and Face unlock
The phone has a fingerprint sensor on the side. It immediately unlocks the phone just by keeping your finger so that you don’t have to press it, and it is obviously faster than the in-display fingerprint scanner. You can add up to 5 fingerprints. You can also use the fingerprint for app local and payments in apps. The phone also has face unlock, but it is not as secure as fingerprint.
Music Player, FM Radio and Multimedia
YouTube Music is the default music player with usual audio effects and equalizer, which can also be directly accessed from Audio Effects shortcut app. It also has FM Radio with recording. Audio through the stereo speaker is loud, compared to mono speakers that other phones in the range offer. It also has Dolby Atmos. Audio through earphones, is good as well.
It has Widevine L1 support, so you can play HD content on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and other streaming apps without any issues. HDR works for YouTube, but doesn’t work with Netflix.
Dual SIM and Connectivity
It has the usual set of connectivity features such as 5G with 14 (n1/n3/n5/n7/n8/n20/n28/n38/n40/n41/n77/n78) bands. Jio and Airtel 5G work out of the box, and also has 5G VoNR support. It also has dual 4G VoLTE, 4G carrier aggregation or 4G+, Wi-Fi 802.11 ac (2.4 + 5GHz), Bluetooth 5.3 and GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO and QZSS.
The phone also USB OTG support that lets you connect USB drives. Moving on, the call quality is good, and we did not face any call drops and the earpiece volume was loud. It doesn’t have NFC support.
The moto g64’s body SAR is 1.09W/Kg, and the head SAR is at 1.07W/Kg, well under the limit in India which is 1.6 W/kg (over 1 g). This is the same as the g64.
Performance and Benchmarks
It is powered by MediaTek Dimensity 7025 6nm SoC, which is just an overclocked version of the 7020. It has 2 x A78 CPUs clocked at up to 2.5GHz, 6x A55 CPUs clocked at up to 2GHz. This has IMG BXM-8-256 GPU and up to 12GB LPDDR4X RAM.
The IMG BXM-8-256 GPU offers a smooth gaming performance even in graphic intensive games, but it does get a bit hot with long hours of gaming. We did not face any issues or frame drops in the graphic-intensive games like COD and BGMI, but the phone can’t handle Genshin Impact in high settings. That said, check out some synthetic benchmark scores below.
As you can see, it comes close to Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 in AnTuTu, beats it in Geekbench benchmark.
Battery life
Coming to the battery life, the phone packs a huge 6000mAh (typical) built-in battery, one of the biggest in the price range. It lasts for a whole day even with heavy use with 5G enabled and multimedia use, and more than a day with average use. For me, it lasted for about 2 days.
The phone has support for 30W fast charging, and it took about 1 hour and 40 minutes to charge from 0 to 100%, and 0 to 50% charge took about 45 minutes using the bundled 33W charger.
Conclusion
Starting at a price tag of Rs. 14,999, the moto g64 5G is a feature-packed smartphone in the Rs. 15,000 price range. Even though this might not be a huge upgrade to the g54 users, it is good as a standalone phone with a screen, good performance, battery life and a versatile camera experience.
Alternatives
The vivo T3x also offers a 6000mAh battery, and it is cheaper since there is a 4GB version. The realme P1 offers an AMOLED screen in the range, making it a good alternative.
Pricing and availability
The moto g64 5G comes is priced at Rs. 14,999 for the 8GB + 128GB model and the 12GB + 256GB model costs Rs. 16,999.
There is also Rs. 1,000 instant discount with HDFC Bank Credit cards, so the effective starting price is Rs. 13,999.
Pros
- Good display
- Clean UI without Bloatware or Ads
- Good build quality
- Good cameras
- Stereo speakers, Dolby Atmos
- Excellent battery life, fast charging
Cons
- Promise of only 1 Android update