Technologies

Moto G 5G (2023) Review: A Tough Buy, Even for $250

Motorola’s newest affordable phone provides plenty for $250, but you may want to consider cheaper options.

The $250 Moto G 5G is not a bad phone. It’s just that you might get more value looking around.

I kept returning to that feeling throughout my weeks reviewing the phone, despite the dramatically reduced price this year’s model hits compared with last year’s $400 Moto G 5G. For instance, I like the phone’s 6.5-inch 120Hz display. But the screen isn’t dramatically better than the 90Hz displays I see in $200 phones like the Moto G Stylus or the Samsung Galaxy A14 5G.

The 5G connectivity is noticeably fast compared with 4G-only phones like the Stylus, but the Moto G 5G’s slower Snapdragon 480 Plus processor coupled with 4GB of RAM aren’t quite enough to power resource-heavy multitasking that truly take advantage of 5G speeds.

Even though the Moto G 5G’s cameras are similar those on other Moto G phones, photos are hit or miss. Images come out nice in bright outdoor areas but struggle with getting detail in low-light environments. I took the phone on a sunny Central Park picnic and got a lot of vibrant photos that I’m super happy with. But the opposite was true when I took the phone to a Kim Petras performance thrown by Motorola, where my photos on the crowded indoor dance floor came out blurry, noisy and lacked a lot of detail. It’s typical for this price range, and is a similar issue across all of the Moto G phones that I’ve tested this year.

When I compare the Moto G 5G against phones that are just $50 more, I realize how much I’m sacrificing. If you can swing it, $300 phones offer a lot of perks that are worth the upcharge. The $300 Moto G Power 5G for instance doubles your available storage space to 256GB, which is the cheapest phone I’m currently aware of offering that much internal space. The $300 OnePlus Nord N30 5G can quickly recharge its battery from nothing to 100% in 45 minutes with its included charger. By comparison the Moto G 5G takes well over 90 minutes to do the same thing.

And whenever the Pixel 6A is on sale for $299 — its power, performance, photography and longer software support outshine all of these $300 and under phones.

The Moto G 5G tries to hit a strange middle ground between $200 phones and $300 phones, but I think it’s more likely you’ll spend slightly less money or slightly more money on a different phone. Again, that’s not to say the Moto G 5G doesn’t offer a lot for $250. It’s just that you can get a very similar phone and save $50, or get a substantially better phone by spending $50 more.

Moto G 5G design, specs, performance

The Moto G 5G is one of the cheapest phones I’ve seen that has a 120Hz refresh rate display. I found the phone animates very smoothly when reading websites, scrolling apps and playing games, and that’s quite appreciated even with the display’s lower 720p resolution. But like I mentioned earlier, due to that lower resolution I don’t feel like the screen looks that much better than the 90Hz 720p displays I see in phones that cost less. It also left me missing the more detailed 120Hz 1,080p displays I see on the $300 Moto G Power 5G and the OnePlus Nord N30 5G.

The phone’s otherwise basic design comes in two color options: Harbor Gray or Ink Blue. The display includes a hole punch for its 8-megapixel selfie camera. The back of the phone highlights its two cameras, a 48-megapixel main camera and a 2-megapixel macro camera. It’s a simple matte plastic design, which does pick up smudges.

Along the sides of the phone are a power button that doubles as a fingerprint sensor, a headphone jack, a SIM card tray and a microSD card slot. It continues to be notable that the headphone jack and microSD card remain standard features in this price range, as they are otherwise rare finds on more expensive phones.

The phone’s performance is adequate. I didn’t experience problems with most tasks such as making phone calls, reading articles, listening to music or playing games. However, more demanding apps might overwhelm the phone’s processor and 4GB of RAM, which I consistently experienced when I tried to play Marvel Snap while toggling between other tasks. The game reloaded whenever I switched apps, which was an issue because I usually like to play it while multitasking since Snap is a card game.

Those who just need a phone for making calls, sending texts, listening to music and reading news articles will likely be satisfied with the Moto G 5G. The phone’s 128GB of space should be plenty of room for storing apps, photos and media — but the option to expand with a microSD card means you can add more if you need to.

The issue with the Moto G 5G, however, is that its middling performance makes me question whether I get that much more value out of this it compared with the cheaper Moto G Stylus. In my Geekbench testing the Moto G 5G’s processor does run faster than the Stylus. Yet in real-world use, I felt like performance between the two phones was about the same — slightly sluggish but gets me through most tasks.

Geekbench 6 Benchmarks

Moto G 5G (2023) 740 1,790Moto G Stylus (2023) 448 1,471OnePlus Nord N30 5G 893 2,037Moto G Power 5G 878 2,206

Single-core
Multi-core

Note: Higher scores are better.

For some people, a faster data connection is worth the extra money. 5G networks are starting to hit a point of maturity where many devices benefit from faster video streaming and downloading while on the go. However, 4G LTE is still quite capable and ubiquitous. Unless you plan on tackling cloud gaming or have a lot of large files to regularly upload from your phone, there’s hardly anything yet that truly requires a 5G connection.

Another miss for me is that the Moto G 5G, like all Moto G phones, will receive only one software update and three years of security updates.

Moto G 5G photography

The Moto G 5G’s photos are colorful with plenty of detail when taken in daylight. While on that aforementioned Central Park picnic, both regular pictures and portrait mode photos came out vibrant with a pronounced bokeh effect on the latter. However, the mix of bright highlights, like clouds and shadows under the trees show just how limited the Moto G 5G’s dynamic range is.

Mike Sorrentino in Central Park with beer, taken on Moto G 5G.

I took the photo below with the 8-megapixel front-facing camera. This was inside of a well-lit elevator, but the photos has more details than I would have expected.

Below are closeups of pets and food, which look OK.

Chicken gyro wrap, taken on the Moto G 5G.

And here are the pictures that I took at that Motorola event with Kim Petras and Cirque Du Soleil. The Moto G 5G struggled to document the action so poorly that I switched to my personal phone to share photos with friends.

Kim Petras on stage at Motorola's event.

But these camera pluses and minuses aren’t isolated to the Moto G 5G. I had the roughly the same camera challenges across the Moto G Stylus, Moto G 5G and the Moto G Power 5G. Since you’re not getting better camera quality by paying more for the Moto G 5G, Motorola’s cheaper option could be the better choice as long as you don’t mind sacrificing 5G.

In my comparison photos below of the grass wall in CNET’s office, all three phones were similarly able to differentiate between the different shades of green featured in the decoration.

Grass wall photo taken on the Moto G 5G.

Grass wall photo take on the Moto G Power 5G.

While I’m still in the process of testing the $200 Samsung Galaxy A14 5G, I took a comparison photo of the same grass wall, finding the image quality to be a little more saturated by comparison.

Grass wall taken on the Samsung Galaxy A14 5G.

Moto G 5G bottom line

The $250 Moto G 5G does include a lot of value for its price. You get a 120Hz display at one of the cheapest prices I’ve seen so far, along with 5G compatibility. Its processor can stand up to most tasks, even if it struggles with some multitasking. And if your carrier ends up subsidizing the phone to a price that’s free or close to free, it’s a very appealing option for someone that just wants a basic 5G phone.

But if you aren’t getting a carrier subsidy, I recommend you either consider Motorola’s cheaper Stylus or phones that are $50 more expensive. The 4G-only $200 Moto G Stylus includes much of the same functionality as the Moto G 5G along with a built-in stylus, but it comes with 64GB of storage, a noticeable step down.

There’s a lot to gain from stretching your budget beyond the Moto G 5G’s $250 price, if you can. For example, the $300 Moto G Power 5G offers twice the storage, while the $300 OnePlus Nord N30 provides exceptionally fast charging.

The Moto G 5G does include many essential features that I want to see in a cheaper phone, but it just feels lost compared with other options in this price range. In some ways it’s so similar to $200 phone options, that it doesn’t stand out enough to justify the extra money. Yet it also doesn’t stand out enough at $250 when phones that cost just a little bit more are including tangible features that can increase how useful your phone can be.

Moto G 5G vs. Moto G Stylus vs. Moto G Power 5G vs. OnePlus Nord N30 5G vs. Google Pixel 6A

	Moto G 5G (2023)	Moto G Stylus (2023)	Moto G Power 5G (2023)	OnePlus Nord N30 5G	Google Pixel 6A
Display size, resolution	6.5-inch HD Plus LCD display (720p resolution); 120Hz refresh rate	6.5-inch IPS LCD; 1,600×720; 90Hz refresh rate	6.5-inch LCD display; 2,400×1,080 pixels; 120Hz refresh rate	6.72-inch FHD (1080p resolution); 120Hz refresh rate	6.1-inch OLED; (1,080 x 2,400); 60Hz
Pixel density	269 ppi	269 ppi	405 ppi	391 ppi	429 ppi
Dimensions (inches)	6.45 x 2.95 x 0.33 in.	6.41 x 2.91 x 0.36 in.	6.41 x 2.94 x 0.33 in.	6.51 x 2.99 x 0.32 in.	6.0 x 2.8 x 0.35 in.
Dimensions (millimeters)	163.94 x 74.98 x 8.39mm	162.9 x 74.1 x 9.2mm	163 x 75 x 8.45mm	165.5 x 76 x 8.3mm	152.2 x 7.18 x 8.9mm
Weight (ounces, grams)	189g (6.66 oz.)	195 g	185 g (6.52 oz.)	195g (6.97 oz.)	6.3 oz.; 178g
Mobile software	Android 13	Android 13	Android 13	Android 13	Android 12
Camera	48-megapixel main, 2-megapixel macro	50-megapixel (main), 2-megapixel (macro)	50-megapixel (main), 2-megapixel (macro), 2-megapixel (depth sensor)	108-megapixel main, 2-megapixel macro, 2-megapixel depth sensing	12.2-megapixel (wide), 12-megapixel ultra wide)
Front-facing camera	8-megapixel	8-megapixel	16-megapixel	16-megapixel	8-megapixel
Video capture	720p at 30 fps	1080p at 30 fps	720p at 60 fps	1080p at 30 fps	4K
Processor	Snapdragon 480 Plus	MediaTek Helio G85	MediaTek Dimensity 930	Qualcomm Snapdragon 695	Google Tensor
RAM/Storage	4GB + 128GB	4GB + 64GB; 4GB + 128GB	4GB RAM + 128GB; 6GB RAM + 256GB	8GB + 128GB	6GB RAM/128GB storage
Expandable storage	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	None
Battery/Charger	5,000 mAh (15W charging)	5,000 mAh (15W charging)	5,000 mAh (15W wired charging speed, 10W adapter included)	5,000 mAh (50W wired charging)	4,410 mAh capacity; 18-watt fast charging (adapter sold separately)
Fingerprint sensor	Side	Side	Side	Side	Under display
Connector	USB-C	USB-C	USB-C	USB-C	USB-C
Headphone jack	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	None
Special features	5G enabled, dual stereo speakers, Moto Gestures	Stylus, Moto Gestures	Estimated 38-hour battery life, Moto Gestures, stereo speakers	50W SuperVooc fast charging, 108-megapixel main camera, game mode, dual stereo speakers	5G-enabled, 18W fast charging, WiFi 6E, security updates for 5 years, Android OS updates for 3 years, dual SIM, IP67 water resistance
Price off-contract (USD)	$250	$200	$300	$300	$349 ($299 when on sale)
Price (GBP)	N/A, Converts to £195	Converts to £158	Converts to £240	Converts to £238	£349
Price (AUD)	N/A, Converts to £380	Converts to AU$295	Converts to AU$445	Converts to AU$443	AU$599

How we test phones

Every phone tested by CNET’s reviews team was actually used in the real world. We test a phone’s features, play games and take photos. We examine the display to see if it’s bright, sharp and vibrant. We analyze the design and build to see how it is to hold and whether it has an IP-rating for water resistance. We push the processor’s performance to the extremes using both standardized benchmark tools like GeekBench and 3DMark, along with our own anecdotal observations navigating the interface, recording high-resolution videos and playing graphically intense games at high refresh rates.

All the cameras are tested in a variety of conditions from bright sunlight to dark indoor scenes. We try out special features like night mode and portrait mode and compare our findings against similarly priced competing phones. We also check out the battery life by using it daily as well as running a series of battery drain tests.

We take into account additional features like support for 5G, satellite connectivity, fingerprint and face sensors, stylus support, fast charging speeds, foldable displays among others that can be useful. And we balance all of this against the price to give you the verdict on whether that phone, whatever price it is, actually represents good value.

Technologies

Worried About Prices? CNET Is Monitoring the Daily Tariff Impacts on 11 Key Products

CNET is keeping track of prices for several key products as prospects for the months ahead remain uncertain, including one popular TV speaker you might want to buy right now.

President Donald Trump continues to clash with companies over their reactions to his contentious tariff agenda. Last week, he demanded that Walmart eat the cost of the new import taxes after the company said its prices would go up by the summer. To close out this week, he’s threatened Apple with a 25% duty on its products if it doesn’t move manufacturing to the US, a prospect that has been widely dismissed as a fantasy.

The basic truth of the situation is that tariffs are almost certainly going to cause prices to climb, and with this piece I’ve been tracking just that: the daily effect of Trump’s tariffs on the prices of 11 popular products you might want or need to buy, whether it be a new phone, laptop or your daily coffee. So far, we’ve seen notable price hikes for the flagship Xbox game console, while everything else has, as Amazon claimed, remained steady aside from occasional fluctuations that might not be tariff-related. That sort of consistency is far from certain, however, given the recent warnings from major retailers like Walmart and Target.

CNET Tariff Tracker Index

Above, you can check out a chart with the average price of the 11 included items over the course of 2025. This will help give you a sense of the overall price changes and fluctuations going on. Further down, you’ll be able to check out charts for each individual product being tracked.

A recent tariff agreement with China, much-hyped by the White House, did significantly cut tariff rates against the US’s biggest trading partner. The new 30% rate is only temporary, however, and still historically high. It just looks more reasonable next to the ludicrous 145% rate that was previously in place. As those negotiations move along, companies continue to warn of impending price hikes in order to deal with the new tariffs, including Sony, which could potentially mean a price hike for its ever-popular PlayStation 5 consoles.

We’ll be updating this article regularly as prices change. It’s all in the name of helping you make sense of things, so be sure to check back every so often. For more, check out CNET’s guide to whether you should wait to make big purchases or buy them now and get expert tips about how to prepare for a recession.

Methodology

We’re checking prices daily and will update the article and the relevant charts right away to reflect any changes. The following charts show a single bullet point for each month, with the most recent one labeled «Now» and showing the current price. For the past months, we’ve gone with what was the most common price for each item in the given month.

In most cases, the price stats used in these graphs were pulled from Amazon using the historical price tracker tool Keepa. For the iPhones, the prices come from Apple’s official materials and are based on the 128-gigabyte base model of the latest offering for each year: the iPhone 14, iPhone 15 and iPhone 16. For the Xbox Series X, the prices were sourced from Best Buy using the tool PriceTracker. If any of these products happen to be on sale at a given time, we’ll be sure to let you know and explain how those price drops differ from longer-term pricing trends that tariffs can cause.

The 11 products we’re tracking

Mostly what we’re tracking in this article are electronic devices and digital items that CNET covers in depth, like iPhones and affordable 4K TVs — along with a typical bag of coffee, a more humble product that isn’t produced in the US to any significant degree.

The products featured were chosen for a few reasons: Some of them are popular and/or affordable representatives for major consumer tech categories, like smartphones, TVs and game consoles. Others are meant to represent things that consumers might buy more frequently, like printer ink or coffee beans. Some products were chosen over others because they are likely more susceptible to tariffs. Some of these products have been reviewed by CNET or have been featured in some of our best lists.

iPhone 16, 128GB
Duracell AA batteries, 24-pack
Samsung DU7200 65-inch TV
Xbox Series X
Apple AirPods Pro 2 with USB-C case
HP 962 CMY Printer Ink
Anker 10,000-mAh, 30-watt power bank
Bose TV speaker
Oral-B Pro 1000 electric toothbrush
Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i Chromebook, 256GB
Starbucks 28-ounce ground dark roast coffee

Below, we’ll get into more about each individual product.

iPhone 16

The iPhone is the most popular smartphone brand in the US, so this was a clear priority for price tracking. The iPhone has also emerged as a major focal point for conversations about tariffs, given its popularity and its susceptibility to import taxes because of its overseas production, largely in China. Trump has reportedly been fixated on the idea that the iPhone can and should be manufactured in the US, an idea that experts have dismissed as a fantasy. Estimates have also suggested that a US-made iPhone would cost as much as $3,500.

Apple has made several moves this year to protect its prices in the US as much as possible, like flying in bulk shipments of product ahead of the tariffs taking effect and working to move production for the American market from China to India, where tariff rates are less severe. This latter move provoked a response from Trump, given his noted fixation on the iPhone, saying last week that he «had a little problem» with Tim Cook over the move, claiming without evidence that the Apple CEO pledged to bring more manufacturing to the US. Cook and others close to the company for years say that the supply chains for its products are too complex to move manufacturing entirely to the US.

This week, Trump further threatened a 25% penalty rate against Apple products if it did not move manufacturing to the US. How that will play out is still unclear, but notably, foreign-made iPhones with 25% tax would still probably be much cheaper than iPhones predominantly made in the US.

Duracell AA batteries

A lot of the tech products in your home might boast a rechargeable energy source but individual batteries are still an everyday essential and I can tell you from experience that as soon as you forget about them, you’ll be needing to restock. The Duracell AAs we’re tracking are some of the bestselling batteries on Amazon.

Samsung DU7200 TV

Alongside smartphones, televisions are some of the most popular tech products out there, even if they’re an infrequent purchase. This particular product is a popular entry-level 4K TV and was CNET’s pick for best overall budget TV for 2025. Unlike a lot of tech products that have key supply lines in China, Samsung is a South Korean company, so it might have some measure of tariff resistance.

Xbox Series X

Video game software and hardware are a market segment expected to be hit hard by the Trump tariffs. Microsoft’s Xbox is the first console brand to see price hikes — the company cited «market conditions» along with the rising cost of development. Most notably, this included an increase in the price of the flagship Xbox Series X, up from $500 to $600. Numerous Xbox accessories were also affected, and the company also said that «certain» games will eventually see a price hike from $70 to $80.

Initially, we were tracking the price of the much more popular Nintendo Switch as a representative of the gaming market. Nintendo has not yet hiked the price of its handheld-console hybrid and stressed that the $450 price tag of the upcoming Switch 2 has not yet been inflated because of tariffs. Sony, meanwhile, has so far only increased prices on its PlayStation hardware in markets outside the US.

AirPods Pro 2

The latest iteration of Apple’s wildly popular true-wireless earbuds are here to represent the headphone market. Much to the chagrin of the audiophiles out there, a quick look at sales charts on Amazon shows you just how much the brand dominates all headphone sales. Earlier in the year, they tended to be noticeably cheaper on Amazon, but as now, they have steadily creeped back up towards their $250 list price.

HP 962 CMY printer ink

This HP printer ink includes cyan, magenta and yellow all in one product and recently saw its price jump from around $72 — where it stayed for most of 2025 — to $80, which is around its highest price over the last five years. We will be keeping tabs to see if this is a long-term change or a brief uptick.

This product replaced Overture PLA Filament for 3D printers in this piece, but we’re still tracking that item.

Anker 10,000-mAh, 30-watt power bank

Anker’s accessories are perennially popular in the tech space and the company has already announced that some of its products will get more expensive as a direct result of tariffs. This specific product has also been featured in some of CNET’s lists of the best portable chargers. While the price has remained steady throughout the year, it is currently on sale for $16 on Amazon, but only for Prime members.

Bose TV speaker

Soundbars have become important purchases, given the often iffy quality of the speakers built into TVs. While not the biggest or the best offering in the space, the Bose TV Speaker is one of the more affordable soundbar options out there, especially hailing from a brand as popular as Bose. This product has been one of the steadiest on this list in terms of price throughout the year, but it’s currently on sale for $199, potentially as part of Amazon’s Memorial Day sale. So, if you’re looking for an affordable, tariff-free TV speaker, now might be the time.

Oral-B Pro 1000 electric toothbrush

They might be a lot more expensive than their traditional counterparts, but electric toothbrushes remain a popular choice for consumers because of how well they get the job done. I know my dentist won’t let up on how much I need one. This particular Oral-B offering was CNET’s overall choice for the best electric toothbrush for 2025.

Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i Chromebook

Lenovo is notable among the big laptop manufacturers for being a Chinese company making its products especially susceptible to Trump’s tariffs.

Starbucks Ground Coffee (28-ounce bag)

Coffee is included in this tracker because of its ubiquity —I’m certainly drinking too much of it these days —and because it’s uniquely susceptible to Trump’s tariff agenda. Famously, coffee beans can only be grown within a certain distance from Earth’s equator, a tropical span largely outside the US and known as the «Coffee Belt.»

Hawaii is the only part of the US that can produce coffee beans, with data from USAFacts showing that 11.5 million pounds were harvested there in the 2022-23 season — little more than a drop in the mug, as the US consumed 282 times that amount of coffee during that period. Making matters worse, Hawaiian coffee production has declined in the past few years.

All that to say: Americans get almost all of their coffee from overseas, making it one of the most likely products to see price hikes from tariffs.

Technologies

What’s New in Anthropic’s Claude 4 Gen AI Models?

Anthropic said it’s using extra safety precautions with its heavy duty Claude 4 Opus model.

The latest versions of Anthropic’s Claude generative AI models made their debut Thursday, including a heavier-duty model built specifically for coding and complex tasks.

Anthropic launched the new Claude 4 Opus and Claude 4 Sonnet models during its Code with Claude developer conference and executives said the new tools mark a significant step forward in terms of reasoning and deep thinking skills.

The company launched the prior model, Claude 3.7 Sonnet, in February. Since then, competing AI developers have also upped their game. OpenAI released GPT-4.1 in April, with an emphasis on an expanded context window, along with the new o3 reasoning model family. Google followed in early May with an updated version of Gemini 2.5 Pro that it said is better at coding.

Claude 4 Opus is a larger, more resource-intensive model built to handle particularly difficult challenges. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said test users have seen it quickly handle tasks that might have taken a person several hours to complete.

«In many ways, as we’re often finding with large models, the benchmarks don’t fully do justice to it,» he said during the keynote event.

Claude 4 Sonnet is a leaner model, with improvements built on Anthropic’s Claude 3.7 Sonnet model. The 3.7 model often had problems with overeagerness and sometimes did more than the person asked it to do, Amodei said. While it’s a less resource-intensive model, it still performs well, he said.

«It actually does just as well as Opus on some of the coding benchmarks, but I think it’s leaner and more narrowly focused,» Amodei said.

Anthropic said the models have a new capability, still being beta tested, in which they can use tools like web searches while engaged in extended reasoning. The models can alternate between reasoning and using tools to get better responses to complex queries.

The models offer near-instant response modes and extended thinking modes.

All of the paid plans offer Opus and Sonnet models, while the free plan just has the Sonnet model.

The new models show Anthropic’s focus on building strong coding models, said Arun Chandrasekaran, a distinguished vice president, analyst at Gartner. «Anthropic’s Claude models have established strong leadership in the software engineering domain and the latest Claude 4 release extends that leadership.»

Anthropic triggers safety protocols with new Claude models

In launching the Claude Opus 4 model, Anthropic said it was taking increased safety precautions to reduce the risk of Claude being misused. In a blog post, the company said it hasn’t determined whether the model actually requires the protections of its ASL-3 standard but it is doing so as a precaution.

The safety precautions are specifically designed to prevent Claude from helping with developing chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear weapons. Anthropic said it limited attacks known as universal jailbreaks that let attackers get around existing protocols. «We will continue to evaluate Claude Opus 4’s CBRN capabilities,» Anthropic’s blog post said. «If we conclude that Claude Opus 4 has not surpassed the relevant Capability Threshold, then we may remove or adjust the ASL-3 protections.»

Chandrasekaran said the implementation of safety standards is worth noting. «This includes enhanced cybersecurity measures and prompt classifiers to mitigate risks associated with powerful AI systems,» he said. The new models show the company’s focus on balancing new technology with safety, he said.

Technologies

Today’s Wordle Hints, Answer and Help for May 24, #1435

Here are hints and the answer for today’s Wordle No. 1,435 for May 24.

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 put a certain song about footwear in my head. If you like to guess vowels first, this is the word for you. 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.