Technologies

Motorola Moto G (2026): 3 Things I Like and 2 That I Don’t

For a $200 phone, the latest Moto G has a lot going for it — but there are some quirks that budget shoppers should keep in mind.

The Moto G (2026) is Motorola’s latest affordable phone that isn’t the very cheap G Play or the slightly beefier G Power variant. The humble Moto G is a down-the-center handset with acceptable performance and admirable style. It doesn’t innovate too much from last year’s Moto G (2025), but it’s a nice-looking phone, even if it’s less powerful.

Motorola has refined its budget phones over the years, gradually incorporating features from premium handsets while making strategic compromises to keep the price low. However, at $200, this year’s Moto G is a decent value that, fortunately, doesn’t resemble a cheap device. It’s nice to bring out an affordable phone that doesn’t look like it’s sheathed in thin plastic that could break at the slightest drop.

Three things I like about the Moto G (2026)

1. Colorful rubber design

I’ve already spoiled it, but the Moto G’s design sets it apart from other $200 phones and is the first thing I like about it. The shiny metal sides are too reflective for my taste, but they blend well with the textured rubber material layered over the back of the phone. With a tasteful curve around the camera block and a subtle pattern, the material has a nice look and feel. Plus — and this is rare for a bold color — I actually like the fuchsia color and would pick it over the simpler black hue that the phone also comes in.

2. One decent camera

I also like the cameras. Although there’s essentially just the main 50-megapixel shooter, augmented by a 2-megapixel depth camera and an ambient light sensor, these components combine to produce good daylight photos and respectable low-light performance. I took some shots of an outdoor market as the sun set and a hotel lobby as daylight filtered in through the windows, both of which captured foreground detail and background sky. While I’d love the utility of an ultrawide camera, it’s far more important for the main camera to be refined to take good shots with decent light balance. The 32-megapixel front-facing camera is a nice upgrade on last year’s model, capturing selfies with light and a lot of detail.

3. OK software support for a $200 phone

Motorola has continued to support the Moto G with two years of Android updates and three years of security updates. While longer is always better, at least it gives owners a slightly longer runway to keep their phones for a few years until they need to upgrade to another safe option. It is, however, much shorter than Samsung’s six-year commitment on its comparably priced Galaxy A series. But then again, this phone costs $200 before discounts.

Two things I don’t like about the Moto G (2026)

1. An out-of-date-looking display

Some of the compromises that Motorola made to hit that $200 price genuinely inhibit the phone’s quality. First is the 6.7-inch display, which is actually respectably bright and shows good color, but the HD Plus resolution (1,604×720 pixels) is too low for modern phones. While nothing is blurry, the 720p maximum means text on apps and games can be noticeably pixelated. It’s rough to play a game like Dead Cells, which already has a pixelated visual style, when the low-resolution screen results in blocky on-screen text.

2. Not enough power

The second thing I dislike is the Moto G’s specs — specifically, the underpowered Dimensity 6300 chip and 4GB of RAM. Even doing something as simple as scrolling posts on X becomes choppy, ruining the smooth 120Hz maximum screen refresh rate. This can be mitigated somewhat by using the RAM boost option (Settings > System > Performance > RAM Boost), which borrows some of the included 128GB of storage to use as temporary memory — while it’s automatically on by default, it’s worth toggling it to manually use its maximum setting of 8GB. Even so, there’s still some choppiness in scrolling through content.

While there isn’t too much new in this year’s Moto G, camera upgrades and a svelte new exterior make it a phone that you won’t be embarrassed to pull out around company — nor to snap a pic of a friendly get-together. There’s always room for Motorola to improve on the basics, but for a $200 phone, the Moto G has a lot to offer budget-minded buyers.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Wednesday, Dec. 24

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Dec. 24.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? I’m Irish-American, but yet 6-Down, which involves Ireland, stumped me at first. Read on for all the answers.. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Wordle or Boggle
Answer: GAME

5A clue: Big Newton
Answer: ISAAC

7A clue: Specialized vocabulary
Answer: LINGO

8A clue: «See you in a bit!»
Answer: LATER

9A clue: Tone of many internet comments
Answer: SNARK

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Sharks use them to breathe
Answer: GILLS

2D clue: From Singapore or South Korea, say
Answer: ASIAN

3D clue: Large ocean ray
Answer: MANTA

4D clue: ___ beaver
Answer: EAGER

6D clue: Second-largest city in the Republic of Ireland, after Dublin
Answer: CORK

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

Technologies

Quadrantids Is a Short but Sweet Meteor Shower Just After New Year’s. How to See It

This meteor shower has one of the most active peaks, but it doesn’t last for very long.

The Quadrantids has the potential to be one of the most active meteor showers of the year, and skygazers won’t have long to wait to see it. The annual shower is predicted to reach maximum intensity on Jan. 3. And with a display that can rival Perseids, Quadrantids could be worth braving the cold to see it.

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

The show officially begins on Dec. 28 and lasts until Jan. 12, according to the American Meteor Society. Quadrantids is scheduled to peak on Jan. 2-3, when it may produce upwards of 125 meteors per hour. This matches Perseids and other larger meteor showers on a per-hour rate, but Quadrantids also has one of the shortest peaks at just 6 hours, so it rarely produces as many meteors overall as the other big ones.

The meteor shower comes to Earth courtesy of the 2003 EH1 asteroid, which is notable because most meteor showers are fed from comets, not asteroids. Per NASA, 2003 EH1 is a near-Earth asteroid that orbits the sun once every five and a half years. Science posits that 2003 EH1 was a comet in a past life, but too many trips around the sun stripped it of its ice, leaving only its rocky core. The Earth runs through EH1’s orbital debris every January, which results in the Quadrantids meteor shower.

How and where to see Quadrantids

Quadrantids is named for the constellation where its meteors appear to originate, a point known as the radiant. This presents another oddity, as the shower originates from the constellation Quadrans Muralis. This constellation ceased to be recognized as an official constellation in the 1920s and isn’t available on most publicly accessible sky maps.

For the modern skygazer, you’ll instead need to find the Bootes and Draco constellations, both of which contain stars that were once a part of the Quadrans Muralis. Draco will be easier to find after sunset on the evening of Jan. 2, and will be just above the horizon in the northern sky. Bootes orbits around Draco, but will remain under the horizon until just after 1 a.m. local time in the northeastern sky. From that point forward, both will sit in the northeastern part of the sky until sunrise. You’ll want to point your chair in that direction and stay there to see meteors.

As the American Meteor Society notes, Quadrantids has a short but active peak, lasting around 6 hours. The peak is expected to start around 4 p.m. ET and last well into the evening. NASA predicts the meteor shower to start one day later on Jan. 3-4, so if you don’t see any on the evening of Jan. 2, try again on Jan. 3.

To get the best results, the standard space viewing tips apply. You’ll want to get as far away from the city and suburbs as possible to reduce light pollution. Since it’ll be so cold outside, dress warmly and abstain from alcoholic beverages, as they can affect your body temperature. You won’t need any binoculars or telescopes, and the reduced field of view may actually impact your ability to see meteors.

The bad news is that either way, the Quadrantids meteor shower coincides almost perfectly with January’s Wolf Moon, which also happens to be a supermoon. This will introduce quite a lot of light pollution, which will likely drown out all but the brightest meteors. So, while it may have a peak of over 100 meteors per hour, both NASA and the AMS agree that the more realistic expectation is 10 or so bright meteors per hour.

Technologies

Today’s Wordle Hints, Answer and Help for Dec. 24, #1649

Here are hints and the answer for today’s Wordle for Dec. 24, No. 1,649.

Looking for the most recent Wordle answer? Click here for today’s Wordle hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Wordle puzzle is a little tricky, with a double letter that could confuse players. If you need a new starter word, check out our list of which letters show up the most in English words. If you need hints and the answer, read on.