Has Motorola set the bar with the G82 in the mid-range segment?
Motorola G series of smartphones is one of the best smartphones in the mid-range segment ever since Motorola launched many smartphones with good specifications in both the G and the Edge series. Lately, Motorola came up with the G82 which feels like a good upgrade over the Moto G71 which has been a very good choice for people who want a Stock Android experience in the mid-range segment.The Moto G71 (Review) was a good smartphone with the Snapdragon 695 chipset that has support for 5G, a good pOLED display, and a decent set of cameras thus providing the Stock Android experience. The Moto G82 brings some perfect upgrades like a 120Hz pOLED display, the 50MP main camera (present on the Moto G71) has OIS, and more. So is the Moto G82 worth buying? Let's find out in the full review.
Moto G82 Design:
The Moto G82 sports a build and design similar to that of the Moto G52 (Review) where at the back you have a polycarbonate back that Motorola likes to call the PMMA-acrylic glass finish. This back has a slight gradient pattern where the back shines when light strikes at different angles if you choose the Meteorite Gray color variant. There is another color option - White Lily which has a plain look at the back.
The camera module is capsule-shaped that houses the triple cameras with a LED flashlight and does not feel protruded we also see the signature Moto logo. On the back, to the right as well as left, the smartphone has a curved design around the edges also so that it fits in the hands better. This back has an IP52 rating which makes it splash resistant up to some extent.
Around the sides, there is a polycarbonate frame that houses the power button and the volume buttons on the right side whereas the left side houses the hybrid SIM card slot that accepts either two SIM cards or one SIM card with a microSD card. At the bottom, there is a USB Type-C port, a 3.5mm headphone jack, a primary microphone, and a loudspeaker grille whereas the top has the secondary noise-canceling microphone only.
The smartphone weighs around 173grams which makes it quite light and is also 8mm thick around the sides. On the front, there is a single punch hole display with very minimum bezels around and this makes it look very good compared to some other smartphones that have slightly thicker bezels around the display in this price segment.
Moto G82 Display:
The Moto G82 sports a larger 6.6-inches Full HD+(1080x1920 pixels) pOLED display with a screen-to-body ratio of 20:9. Since this is a pOLED display, the color reproduction is very good and viewing angles are great. Unlike the Moto G71 which had only standard 60Hz, this display refreshes at 120Hz. The higher refresh rate does make things smoother on the display when you are multitasking.
However, there is also an Auto option where the display switches between standard 60Hz or higher 120Hz depending on the application usage on the display. You can switch to standard 60Hz for better battery life. Combined with the 120Hz refresh rate, there is a 360Hz touch sampling rate which provides faster touch responses during gameplay.
This is a 10-bit panel which means colors look much punchier compared to a standard 8-bit display. In terms of brightness, this display can reach a peak brightness of 750 nits which is good but still could have been better. However, sunlight visibility is very good. In terms of display settings, you can either switch to Saturated or Natural where Natural provides more realistic colors and Saturated provides vivid colors.
You can also set the color temperature to a warmer or cooler tone. Though having such a good display, there is no support for HDR on YouTube due to the limitations of the Snapdragon 695 chipset which powers this smartphone and this seems to be a big disappointment considering this is a mid-range smartphone but you do get Widevine L1 so you can stream HD contents on OTT platforms with ease.
But currently, as of now, Netflix does not support HDR content and Motorola hopefully fixes this issue in a future software update. Overall, the 10-bit pOLED display with a high refresh rate and minimum bezels around makes it one of the best for media consumption but the lack of HDR support is a big disappointment.
Moto G82 Performance:
The Moto G82 is powered by the Snapdragon 695 chipset which is also found on the Moto G71. In terms of daily performance, this chipset handles all the tasks easily without much problem. However, in terms of gaming, this chipset pales when compared to other smartphones having the Mediatek Dimensity 810 or 900 chipset.
In games like Call Of Duty Mobile, BGMI, etc, the smartphone ran smoothly at Smooth graphics and Ultra frame rate but after switching to HD graphics with High frame rate, there were some minor stutters noticed. However, after long hours, the back of the smartphone did not feel much warmer which is also due to the cooling system present that dissipates heat much faster.
In terms of the CPU throttling test, the smartphone could easily maintain a sustained performance of around 80-85 percent which is very good as there is no such throttling. In terms of benchmarks, the scores were good but not the best in the price segment. There are two variants present - 6/8GB LPDDR4X RAM with 128GB storage with uMCP storage speeds.
In terms of network connectivity, there is good carrier aggregation and also you have support for up to 13 bands of 5G. Overall, the performance is good but still, there are some micro stutters noticed in heavy tasks and gaming is not so good on the Moto G82.
Moto G82 Software:
Like all Motorola smartphones, the Moto G82 also runs on MyUX based on Android 12 out of the box. MyUX is almost Stock Android like we find on Google Pixel devices but had additional customizations from Motorola. MyUX provides a lot of customizations where you can change the icon shape and size, different themes, wallpapers, and also colors depending on the wallpaper applied to the home screen.
Other than this you get all the Moto gestures like a karate chop to turn on/off the flashlight, twisting the smartphone to turn on the camera, you can also double the power button opens the Power Touch where you can set some favorite applications for usage and three-finger swipe on the display takes a screenshot which you can edit also.
There is also the Attentive Display where the display does not turn off unless and until you are looking at it and Peak Display which shows the different notifications on the lock screen and you can click on the icon to get a preview of it. However, you do miss out on the Ready For feature which Motorola has only preserved for the Edge series of smartphones.
There is the ThinkShield security which provides a string security layer between both hardware and software. The biggest advantage of MyUX is that you do not get any sort of bloatware and ads in the user interface. In terms of software updates, Motorola has assured of another one year of Android updates and three years of security patches which is not the best as they could have gone for two Android updates.
Overall, the software experience is very good and one of the best in this price segment as it does not have any bloatware but the only issue Motorola needs to fix is the software update cycle which feels short compared to other brands in this price segment.
Moto G82 Camera:
The Moto G82 sports almost the same camera setup as the Moto G71 which includes the 50MP f/1.9 main camera, an 8MP f/2.2 ultrawide camera, and a 2MP f/2.4 macro camera. The one big difference between the Moto G71 and Moto G82 is that the latter has OIS which is a very rare feature found on smartphones in this price segment. The front camera is 16MP f/2.2.
The images from the main camera come out with a good dynamic range but details look softer slightly. There is a small amount of noise present in the background but the colors look natural without any such oversharpening. In terms of HDR images, the colors do look slightly overprocessed, and using the 50MP resolution, you get many better-detailed images but they do crop in to reduce noise.
At night, the main camera captures images with slightly softer details and dynamic range, and colors also look natural without any such oversharpening. The presence of OIS ensures very less noise in the background and if you turn on the dedicated night mode, it does provide much better details and the dynamic range is also very good.
The 8MP ultrawide camera does a decent job in terms of details as they look slightly softer and there is a considerable amount of distortion around the edges in the images. The dynamic range is good but there is some oversharpening taking place in the background. Similar is the case during the night as the details in images look softer and the dynamic range is just average.
The 2MP macro camera does a fine job in taking close-up images with average dynamic range, but since it is a fixed focus camera, the details look softer and colors also look washed out. You can always use the main camera and apply a 2x digital zoom by going closer to an object for better results. In terms of portraits, the edge detection is good but colors/skin tones look slightly oversharpened.
In terms of selfies, the 16MP camera does a good job in terms of dynamic range and details look good. But the colors do not look natural but rather have a dull look. There is some amount of noise present in the background and in terms of portrait selfies, the edge detection is good but slight oversharpening is present in the background.
In terms of videos, the main camera can only record 1080p videos at 60fps and there is no support for 4K video recording since the Snapdragon 695 chipset does not support it. The videos have a good level of details and dynamic range but colors look slightly oversharpened since there is OIS present, the level of noise is very less in the videos.
The ultrawide camera can also record 1080p videos at 30fps and the details look softer and have a lot of noise in the background. The front camera can record 1080p videos at 30fps and details look good but skin tones look slightly washed out. Overall, the cameras are decent for the price which could have been better.
Moto G82 Battery Life:
The Moto G82 sports a larger 5000mAh battery which is having a similar capacity as that of the Moto G71. In terms of heavy usage and the display being set to 120Hz, the smartphone easily lasted for one and half days which is very good considering the very well-optimized MyUX and RAM management. In terms of normal usage, you can easily get around two days and more battery life.
The standard screen on time was around 7-8 hours which is very good though it has a 5000mAh battery. However, in terms of charging, you are still getting a 30W fast charger that charges the smartphone for around 1 hour and 30 minutes which is very slow compared to the competition that provides 65/120W fast charging speeds.
Moto G82 Audio Quality:
The one big advantage that the Moto G82 has is the presence of dual stereo speakers compared to just a single speaker on the Moto G71. The dual stereo speakers sound very loud and have a good level of bass and clarity. However, the back of the smartphone does vibrate when sound is heard at the highest volume settings. You do also get a 3.5mm headphone jack and the sound output through it is very good.
Verdict:
Overall, the Moto G82 feels like a complete mid-range smartphone that brings all the necessary specifications like a nice 120Hz oPLED display for media consumption, Snapdragon 695 chipset that performs well in all the daily tasks, there is 5G support, good audio quality, good battery life, and excellent software experience. However, there are some areas where it leaves a lot to be desired.
The cameras are good but not the best though the main camera has OIS, the Snapdragon 695 chipset though performs well does not have HDR support in videos, and is not meant for heavy gaming, the build and design are polycarbonate instead of glass and the charging speeds are not the fastest. Motorola also needs to upgrade the software life cycle by providing more AndroidOS updates.
So compared to the Moto G71 which is priced slightly less than the Moto G82, is still a good buy if the high refresh rate and stereo speakers are not a big concern. But as an overall package, the Moto G82 feels like a good mid-range smartphone that provides the best software experience and other specifications.
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