Connect with us

Technologies

Moto G 5G (2023) Hands-On: Are the Trade-Offs Worth the Lower $250 Price?

The Moto G gets reinvented with a cheaper price, and it shows.

Advertiser Disclosure
Advertiser Disclosure
This advertising widget is powered by Navi and contains advertisements that Navi may be paid for in different ways. You will not be charged for engaging with this advertisement. While we strive to provide a wide range of offers, this advertising widget does not include information about every product or service that may be available to you. We make reasonable efforts to ensure that information in the featured advertisements is up to date, each advertiser featured in this widget is responsible for the accuracy and availability of its offer details. It is possible that your actual offer terms from an advertiser may be different than the offer terms in this advertising widget and the advertised offers may be subject to additional terms and conditions of the advertiser which will be presented to you prior to making a purchase. All information is presented without any warranty or guarantee to you.

The $250 Moto G 5G marks a big reimagining of the phone since last year’s more-expensive $400 model. This year’s Moto G 5G scales back on storage and cameras to help hit its lower price but steps up the refresh rate on its 6.5-inch display to a smooth 120Hz. All that, while keeping the 5,000mAh battery and its roughly two-day battery life, should make the phone a decent value for its price.

The Moto G 5G has 4GB of memory, runs on a Snapdragon 480 Plus 5G chip and comes with 128GB of storage. This is a decent amount of storage space for this price and can be expanded up to 1TB with a microSD card. The phone’s stereo speakers and headphone jack are also quite nice for when I watch videos or listen to music. It ships with Android 13, and like other Moto G phones, will get only one major software update to Android 14 along with three years of security updates

I spent a few days with the Moto G 5G so far, and, while it looks and feels like it’s fallen down a few rungs of the price tier, the phone might meet enough essential needs to satisfy most people. However, by no means does it punch above its weight. The Moto G 5G has 4GB of memory, runs on a Snapdragon 480 Plus 5G chip and comes with 128GB of storage. This is a decent amount of storage space for the price and can be expanded up to 1TB with a microSD card. The phone’s stereo speakers and headphone jack are also quite nice for when I watch videos or listen to music. It ships with Android 13, and like other Moto G phones, will get only one major software update to Android 14 along with three years of security updates.

The back of the Moto G 5G. The back of the Moto G 5G.

The Moto G 5G has a main 48-megapixel camera and a 2-megapixel macro camera.

Mike Sorrentino/CNET

However, when testing other features, I can’t help but compare this phone to the slightly more expensive $300 Moto G Power 5G — which includes quite a bit more for that extra $50. For instance, the Moto G 5G’s 6.5-inch display runs at a 720p resolution. Even though that screen animates smoothly with its 120Hz refresh rate, I find that the lower-resolution makes photos and videos look rather plain. The Power 5G runs at a 1,080p resolution at the same refresh rate, and in my review of that phone the display was a particular highlight.

Performance also seems to take a noticeable hit during my early tests, which could be attributable to the phone having 4GB of memory compared with the 6GB available on the Power 5G. Often when I test phones, during casual use I play games while taking calls or texting. I find that when a call comes through while I’m playing a game, in this instance Marvel Snap, that the game needs to reload itself after I answer the call. Lighter multitasking, however, has been fine, for instance reading news articles while I’m listening to music has not led to any noticeable issues.

The Moto G 5G also moves down from three cameras on last year’s model to two, with this year’s phone including a 48-megapixel main camera and a 2-megapixel macro camera. This is an area that cheaper phones often struggle, and my early photos taken by the Moto G 5G don’t change that opinion. Like other cheaper phones, photos taken in outdoor environments or indoor locations with good lighting come out OK, but without much detail.

The Public Theater taken on the Moto G 5G. The Public Theater taken on the Moto G 5G.

Outdoor photo taken on the Moto G 5G of the Public Theater.

Mike Sorrentino/CNET

Twister Air demo station Twister Air demo station

Indoor photo taken on the Moto G 5G at a Twister Air demo event.

Mike Sorrentino/CNET

The 8-megapixel front-facing camera is similarly serviceable, but photos look a little plain.

Photo of Mike Sorrentino taken on the Moto G 5G. Photo of Mike Sorrentino taken on the Moto G 5G.

Front-facing camera photo taken on the Moto G 5G.

Mike Sorrentino/CNET

I’ll reserve judgment after I have taken the Moto G 5G through more photo scenes, but my early indoor photos are comparable to the Moto G Power 5G — which is to say that they are fairly blurry and lack detail. Photos are usable but more for quick group chats and social posts.

Cocktail photo in kitchen Cocktail photo in kitchen

A cocktail photo taken at a friend’s house on the Moto G 5G.

Mike Sorrentino/CNET

The Moto G 5G’s 5,000mAh battery, however, easily lasted two days during my early tests, matching the performance that I saw on the Moto G Power 5G and the $200 Moto G Stylus. As we continue to test phones in the $300 price range, it has been comforting to see the 5,000mAh battery become a standard feature in 2023. However, I hope Motorola finds a way to speed up charging, as the Moto G 5G’s 15-watt max speed takes about 90 minutes to charge from 4% to 88%. It’s not awful, but is slow when compared with the 33-watt charging included on comparable phones like the OnePlus N300 and OnePlus N20.

Motorola has been releasing several phones over the last few weeks, with the Moto G 5G arriving alongside the $800 Motorola Edge Plus. The Moto G 5G appears to be offering a middle ground between the 4G-only Moto G Stylus and the Moto G Power. The main question as I continue testing is whether this phone’s trade-offs are worth the lower price, or if someone searching for a deal should consider paying slightly less for the Stylus or more for the Power.

Technologies

Why Wikipedia Is Losing Traffic to AI Overviews on Google

The beloved online encyclopedia has been dropping in pageviews over the last few months.

Wikipedia has seen a decline in users this year due to artificial intelligence summaries in search engine results. The growing popularity of social media also contributes to the traffic decline, according to a blog post from Marshall Miller of the Wikimedia Foundation, the organization that oversees the free online encyclopedia.

In the post, Miller describes an 8% drop in human pageviews over the last few months compared with the numbers Wikipedia saw in the same months in 2024.

«We believe that these declines reflect the impact of generative AI and social media on how people seek information, especially with search engines providing answers directly to searchers, often based on Wikipedia content,» Miller wrote.


Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.


Blame the bots 

AI-generated summaries that pop up on search engines like Bing and Google often use bots called web crawlers to gather much of the information that users read at the top of the search results. 

Websites do their best to restrict how these bots handle their data, but web crawlers have become skilled at going undetected. 

«Many bots that scrape websites like ours are continually getting more sophisticated and trying to appear human,» Miller wrote.

After reclassifying Wikipedia traffic data from earlier this year, Miller says the site «found that much of the unusually high traffic for the period of May and June was coming from bots built to evade detection.»

The Wikipedia blog post also noted that younger generations are turning to social-video platforms for information rather than the open web and sites such as Wikipedia.

Gerry Murray, a research director at IDC, a market data provider, says brands, publishers, and creators should be willing to rethink their approach to adapt to AI. 

«The new reality is that conversational AI does not refer users to websites,» Murray said. «It’s up to the publishing industry to find new ways to protect and monetize their content.»

When people search with AI, they’re less likely to click through

There is now promising research on the impact of generative AI on the internet, especially concerning online publishers with business models that rely on users visiting their webpages.

(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET’s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)

In July, Pew Research examined browsing data from 900 US adults and found that the AI-generated summaries at the top of Google’s search results affected web traffic. When the summary appeared in a search, users were less likely to click on links compared to when the search results didn’t include the summaries.

Google search is especially important, because Google.com is the world’s most visited website — it’s how most of us find what we’re looking for on the internet. 

«LLMs, AI chatbots, search engines and social platforms that use Wikipedia content must encourage more visitors to Wikipedia, so that the free knowledge that so many people and platforms depend on can continue to flow sustainably,» Miller wrote. «With fewer visits to Wikipedia, fewer volunteers may grow and enrich the content, and fewer individual donors may support this work.»

Last year, CNET published an extensive report on how changes in Google’s search algorithm decimated web traffic for online publishers. 

Continue Reading

Technologies

Microsoft Outage Brings Down Azure and 365

Continue Reading

Technologies

Don’t Miss the Chance to Get $40 Off This 3-Port 160W Anker Prime Charger

Charge three devices from a single AC outlet, including high-powered laptops.

As we welcome more and more technology into our homes, running out of places to plug it all in is a real problem. Homes have a finite number of AC outlets, so choosing a charger with multiple ports is a no-brainer. Thankfully, we can help you snag one of the most capable at a great price — but you’ll need to be quick.

This Anker three-port charger would normally set you back around $150, but you can save $40 and get yours for just $110 if you’re quick. We don’t know how long this deal will last, but the «limited time» label means it probably won’t be around for long.

You don’t need to be an Amazon Prime member to get this special price, and you don’t even have to enter any codes or clip any coupons, either.

Hey, did you know? CNET Deals texts are free, easy and save you money.

The good news continues when we move to the charger itself, too. It comes with three ports for a total of 160 watts of power — and a single port can charge at 140 watts. That’s enough for the M5 14-inch MacBook Pro and even its larger 16-inch relative, too.

There’s a handy display that shows you information on how the charger is performing, and the pins can be folded away to make the charger perfect for traveling. In fact, Anker’s charger is around the same size as a pair of AirPods Pro 3 earbuds, so it’s definitely portable.

Why this deal matters

You can never have too many chargers, and this one does the job of three. It isn’t cheap, to be sure, but with plenty of power on tap and a design that makes it great for taking on the road, it’s still a great buy. Add the 27% savings, and it’s going to be hard to beat.

Join Our Daily Deals Text Group!

Get hand-picked deals from CNET shopping experts straight to your phone.

By signing up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to receive recurring marketing messages at the phone number provided. Consent is not a condition of purchase. Reply STOP to unsubscribe. Msg & data rates may apply. View our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

Continue Reading

Trending

Copyright © Verum World Media