Motorola brings in a solid mid-ranger with a 90Hz display!!
Motorola smartphones are one of the best smartphones you can purchase if you want a clean Stock Android experience with a good set of cameras. Last year Motorola came with very good smartphones that include the Moto G 5G, Moto G9 Power, and just now recently, it came up with the Moto G10 and the Moto G30.
In the budget segment, the Moto G9 Power (Review) is a great offering as it has a good 720p display, a Snapdragon 662 chipset, a good set of cameras, and a larger 6000mAh battery which was pretty good for the price it is offered at and this shows the comeback of Motorola into the budget and the mid-range segment as we had previously seen with the older G-lineup of smartphones.
The Moto G30 is almost the same as the Moto G9 Power but brings some new features like a 90Hz display, a refreshing design, a slightly lower 5000mAh battery, an ultrawide camera which was missing on the Moto G9 Power and has the latest Android 11 running out of the box. So is the Moto G30 one of the best budget smartphones priced at Rs.10999 out there and is it worth buying?
Let's find out in the full review.
Moto G30 Design:
The Moto G30 sports a polycarbonate back like the G9 Power which is slightly curved towards the sides and the gradient finish at the back gives it a good grip while holding it in hand compared to the glossy finish on many smartphones. This back reflects or you can say changes color when held in different angles. It is available in two colors - Dark Pearl and Pastel Sky.
The Black Peral looks better and is easier to hold compared to the Pastel Sky which has a glossy back and catches more fingerprints. This back has a large rectangular camera module much like OnePlus and Realme that houses the quad cameras with a LED flashlight. The camera module has a slight hump but is not much felt but the metallic finish on it feels good and looks good.
Alongside the camera module lies a Motorola embossed logo that doubles up as a fingerprint scanner which on tapping unlocks the display. To the sides, there is a plastic frame that has the power button, volume buttons, and a dedicated button for the Google Assistant similar to found on many Motorola smartphones whereas the left side remains cleaner with a dual SIM card tray which is a hybrid slot.
At the bottom, there is a USB Type-C port, a loudspeaker grill, and a primary microphone whereas on the top, there is a secondary noise-canceling microphone with a 3.5mm headphone jack. For protection, the front display is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3 and has a P2i coating which makes it splash resistant against rain and spills of water.
The weight is around 200 grams which makes it slightly heavier considering the 6.5inches display and a larger 5000mAh battery. On the front, there is a teardown drop notch in the display which reminds me of a 2019 budget smartphone and has slightly thicker bezels to the sides. The one on the bottom of the display is slightly larger which tones down some look of the smartphone.
Moto G30 Display:
The Moto G30 has a 6.5 inches HD+(720x1600 pixels) IPS LCD display with a screen-to-body ratio of 20:9. This is a slight disappointment as many competitors like the POCO M3 (Review) and the Redmi 9 Power (Review) has Full HD+ displays but what it gets is a 90Hz refresh rate which is trickling down to many budget smartphones from flagships nowadays.
The display can be set to standard 60Hz to save battery and there is also an option of Smart Switch which automatically switches to either the 90Hz while gaming or back to 60Hz while viewing any content on the display. It is better to keep the display set to 90Hz for smooth scrolling or switching between applications.
This IPS LCD panel is good when you view contents on the display as it has good color reproduction with decent viewing angles. However, it may not be as good as say an AMOLED display which is found on the slightly higher priced Redmi Note 10 which has punchier colors and better viewing angles but misses out on a higher refresh rate. But still, the larger display is great for media consumption.
As usual, this display has support for HDR 10 and HDR10+ with Widevine L1 which means streaming HD contents from OTT platforms is easier. Coming to the brightness, the Moto G30 can go as bright as 468nits under direct sunlight and you can set the color temperature between Saturated, Natural, and Boosted where it is better to keep Saturated by default for more vivid colors on the display.
The display does impress with that 90Hz refresh rate but considering today's standards it lacks behind with that teardown notch and just a 720p display.
Moto G30 Performance:
The Moto G30 is powered by the Snapdragon 662 chipset found on the Moto G9 Power, Redmi 9 Power, and the POCO M3. This is a decent chipset considering the price segment at which it is offered as it handles almost all the tasks without any much problem but still there were minor stutters noticed due to that 90Hz refresh rate.
All tasks like scrolling through webpages, rendering of videos, and multi-tasking between applications felt smooth but playing heavy games like Call Of Duty Mobile, Asphalt 9 Legends felt a bit heavy on the display and had considerable frame drops and stutters when pushed at the highest graphics settings with the frame rate set to high but if you switch to medium graphics, the gameplay is smoother.
But if you want a better gaming smartphone, then the Mediatek Helio G85 powered Realme Narzo 30A would do better. However, the smartphone did not feel warm after extended hours of gaming, and Moto's GameTime provides some extra settings for a better gaming experience and you can block calls or notifications for more interrupting gameplay. There is also a 120Hz touch sampling rate present.
The Moto G30 is available only in one variant which is the 4GB RAM and 64GB storage which is good but Motorola could have provided a 6GB RAM variant also as the POCO M3 which is also shipped with the same chipset as the Moto G30 ships with a base RAM of 6GB which is priced slightly above the Moto G30. The RAM management is good but many times, certain apps reload.
In terms of benchmarks, the Moto G30 scored 301 and 1237 in single and multi-core tests in Geekbench 5.1 and 172667 in Antutu v8 which are very mediocre scores but this is what you can get on a budget smartphone. However, there is a hybrid slot also for storage expansion and if you are not a power user, the 64GB storage would do fine and casual gaming is well handled.
Moto G30 Software:
The best part of any Motorola smartphone is the Stock Android experience it provides a cleaner user interface with not much bloatware present except for some third-party applications and there are no ads present in the user interface something which is associated with Xiaomi or Realme smartphones in the mid-range and budget segment. So the Moto G30 runs on Android 11 out of the box.
So the one feature that makes the software experience of Motorola smartphones richer is the Moto apps. It has a feature called Personalization where you can change different icon packs, the layout of icons in the app drawer, or the home screen with changes in texts and fonts. And with these, we also have the usual Moto gestures seen on many Motorola smartphones in the past.
These gestures include karate chop to turn on/off the flashlight, twisting the smartphone launches the camera and there is also the three-finger swipe to take a screenshot. There is a new gesture where swiping from the edge of the display onto the display and back enables the split-screen and lift to unlock the smartphone works well with face unlock which is faster and the fingerprint scanner is also faster.
There is the Peek Display and Attentive Display where Peek Display works almost as the Always-On display which shows all the notifications and when you go near the display it lights up and the Attentive Display ensures there is no screen timeout as long as you are looking at the display. All the Android 11 features are present which include Bubbles, Device Controls, etc which is embedded into the power button, etc.
Motorola has its own section of What's New where all the Android 11 features are shown and as usual there is the navigation gestures, a system-wide dark mode that applies to all third-party applications, Digital Wellbeing, etc. In terms of Android updates, this smartphone is guaranteed another two years of Android updates also. Overall the software experience feels the best in the budget segment.
Moto G30 Cameras:
The Moto G30 has a quad-camera setup that houses the 64MP f/1.7 main camera where the sensor used is unknown, an 8MP f/2.2 ultrawide camera, a 2MP f/2.4 macro camera, and a 2MP depth camera. On the front, there is a 13MP f/2.2 camera. The camera application is very stock and offers almost all the features. There is an enhanced Pro Mode where you can control the exposure, white balance, ISO levels, etc.
The images from the main camera have good color saturation which is slightly on the warmer side and you get good contrast and dynamic range. The images look sharper with a good amount of detail but there is some amount of noise present. The white balance and the contrast are good still you can assume this camera outperforms cameras on the Redmi 9 Power and the POCO M3.
There is also the 64MP high-resolution mode which enables you to take 64MP images with sharper details and more accurate colors. It does apply more crop to prevent noise but when you zoom into the image, there is some amount of noise present and sometimes overexposure in the background is noticed.
At night, the images come out with good details and the dynamic range is also good. There is noise present and the details do not look sharp. The color inconsistency is quite present and the details in shadows are completely crushed. Turning on the Night Mode does improve the dynamic range slightly and improves the exposure and contrast thus reducing noise also.
Without Night Mode:
With Night Mode:
The 8MP ultrawide camera does basic work in terms of details which are good but the colors do not look as good as the main camera. The dynamic range is good but a lot of noise is present around the edges and the same goes at night where the details and the dynamic range are average. The images look softer and have a considerable amount of noise present. This camera does an average job.
The 2MP macro camera takes images with average details and the dynamic range is not so good with slightly washed-out colors and when you zoom, there is a lot of noise present as it lacks autofocus as this is a fixed focus camera. Instead, you can get better details from the main camera which does a far better job.
The 2MP depth sensor results in good portraits also. The images have a good dynamic range and the edge detection is perfect as the skin tones also look natural but there is some oversharpening present. The background blur needs some improvement because in many areas the subject looks as if it is away from the background too much but you do get some settings to tweak or change the background blur.
On the front, the 13MP camera does a decent job in terms of selfies with average dynamic range and the skin tones look slightly inconsistent as there is some oversharpening with a lot more noise present. The contrast is average and the same is the case in terms of portraits which results in good details but Motorola needs to improve the edge detection.
In terms of videos, the Moto G30 does not impress much as the main camera is only limited to 1080p at 60fps which results in videos with excellent details and good dynamic range. The stabilization is pretty good as there is no distortion and the noise is also lower. The videos from the ultrawide camera is limited to 1080p at 30fps which results in average dynamic range and a lot of noise present.
On the front, the 13MP camera does a decent job in terms of videos as there is a lot of noise present and the dynamic range is not so good. The skin tones look good and the color accuracy is average. The videos shot at night come out better with the dedicated Night Mode which results in some amount of noise and the dynamic range remains average. The portrait videos could improve with edge detection.
Overall, the cameras feel good and do a better job considering this is a budget smartphone.
Moto G30 Battery Life:
The Moto G30 has a 5000mAh battery which is a 1000mAh battery lower in capacity compared to the Moto G9 Power. This battery case easily lasts for two days with normal usage and the display set to standard 60Hz but when switched to 90Hz, the battery could easily last for one single day and a half, and if you use it heavily, then it can easily last for a single day with some charge left.
The smartphone has a bundled 20W fast charger included inside the box which takes around 2 hours 30 minutes to completely charge the smartphone and since Motorola has Stock Android you could expect better battery life compared to other budget smartphones.
Moto G30 Audio Quality:
The Moto G30 has only a single firing downwards loudspeaker which is quite loud but still pales behind the POCO M3 which sports a stereo speaker setup. However, there is a 3.5mm headphone jack that produces good quality sound, and above that, there is Dolby Atmos.
Verdict:
Overall, the Motorola has provided a good budget smartphone and brings some good upgrades over the Moto G9 Power. The build and design are good but not the best as it has a polycarbonate back and the display though having a 90Hz refresh rate is still an HD+ display. The cameras are good especially the main camera which does a good job and the extra 8MP ultrawide camera is a good addition also.
The Snapdragon 662 does most of the work fine when it comes to daily tasks and can handle heavy to light games with ease but games like Call Of Duty Mobile when played at the highest graphics settings there is a lot of frame drops noticed and the 4GB RAM feels slightly short and Motorola could have given a 6GB RAM model which could have been the right choice.
However, the one area where the Moto G30 stands out from the crowd is the software experience as it brings almost a Stock Android-like experience with less bloatware installed, and Moto-specific features like Gestures or the Peek Display make it a great user interface for daily usage. The battery life remains excellent but could have done with a slightly faster-charging solution.
So to sum it up, what you are getting is a smartphone that has a smooth 90Hz display, good performance, good cameras, and excellent software experience all combined is priced at Rs.10999 which is a good deal.
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