Is this capable all-rounder from Motorola without 5G worth buying?
Motorola has been very successful in the global market with their different offerings in the respective price segment you have the E series in the budget segment, the G series that are most popular present in the mid-range and premium mid-range segments and the Edge series is the premium range of smartphones that have had a huge success with each of its iterations.
Talking about the Moto G series, the Moto G82 (Review) has been their latest offering that came with very good specifications and brought support for 5G with the Snapdragon 695 chipset. But things are slightly different this time as Motorola has come up with a premium smartphone in Moto G72 that brings a 120Hz pOLED display, a newer Mediatek Helio G99 chipset, a 108MP camera setup and more.
With the 5G smartphones from different brands being launched every now and then in the mid-range segment, can this 4G smartphone establish itself and is it worth buying?
Let's find out in the full review.
Moto G72 Design:
Like all Moto G series smartphones, you get a polycarbonate back which Motorola likes to call PMMA finish as the back has a glossy matte finish and is curved around the sides which makes it easier to hold in hands. However, this time the camera module looks slightly different compared to the previous G series of smartphones.
Instead of the pill-shaped camera cutout, this one has a squarish camera module just like the Moto Edge 30 Ultra and it houses the triple cameras with a LED flashlight. The camera module has a dual-tone colour which looks good. The camera bump is not protruding much which is good as the smartphone will not wobble when kept on a flatter surface.
This back also has the Motorola logo in the middle but here it does not double up as a fingerprint scanner as you get an in-display one. The back has an IP52 rating which makes it splash-resistant up to some extent. The Moto G72 weighs around 166 grams which makes it much lighter to hold in hand. Around the sides, there is a power button and volume buttons to the right whereas the left side has the hybrid SIM card slot.
At the bottom, there is a USB Type-C port, a loudspeaker grille, a primary microphone and a 3.5mm headphone jack which is a good addition. On the top, there is a secondary noise-cancelling microphone only with the Dolby Atmos logo. On the front, there is a single punch-hole display with almost minimum bezels around the sides, making it look striking.
Moto G72 Display:
The Moto G72 sports a 6.6-inches Full HD+(1080x2400 pixels) pOLED display with a screen-to-body ratio of 20:9. Since you get a pOLED display, the viewing angles are great and colour reproduction is very good. The presence of uniform bezels makes it look appealing since most of the smartphones in this price segment have thicker bezels around the sides.
This display has support for a 120Hz refresh rate which makes multitasking on the display much smoother and faster. However, this refresh rate is not an adaptive one but you get three different options to choose from - 60Hz, 120Hz and Auto. Switching to Auto, the refresh rate either scales between 60Hz or 120Hz depending on the content on the display.
If you want better battery life, then switching to 60Hz is a better option. Combined with the 120Hz refresh rate, you get a massive 576Hz touch sampling rate which provides faster touch responses during gaming and other activities. In terms of brightness, the display on the Moto G72 can reach a peak brightness of 1300nits which is very good and you also get good visibility under direct sunlight.
The display has two different modes to choose from - Normal and Saturated where the former has realistic colours on the display and covers the sRGB colour space whereas the Saturated mode provides slightly punchier colours and covers the DCI-P3 gamut. Since this is a pOLED display, you get an optical in-display fingerprint scanner that works accurately and fast.
The display is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3 which is good. The display does not have support for HDR on YouTube as of now but you do get support for Widevine L1 so you can stream HD content on OTT platforms like Netflix, Prime, etc. but Netflix currently does not have support for HDR on the Moto G72. Motorola has claimed that it will fix this issue in a future software update.
Moto G72 Performance:
The Moto G72 is powered by the latest MediaTek Helio G99 chipset which has 2x2.2 GHz Cortex-A76 cores with another 6x2.0 GHz Cortex-A55 cores coupled with a Mali- G57 MC2 GPU. This chipset is a 4G chipset based on an efficient 6nm process and is a small upgrade over the MediaTek Helio G95 chipset. In terms of daily tasks, the smartphone handles all the tasks with ease.
In terms of gaming, the smartphone can handle all heavy games with ease like BGMI, Apex Legends, etc. BGMI can run only on HD graphics with High frame rates or Smooth graphics with Ultra frame rates which are not the best in this price segment but still the gameplay is very smooth, but after long hours, you do notice some very minor stutters but still, it is negligible.
The back of the smartphone does not feel warm which is good and in the CPU throttling test, the smartphone could achieve a sustained performance of around 85-90 per cent which is excellent as there was no thermal throttling detected. The benchmark scores came out good but still, they were lower compared to the Snapdragon 695 chipset used on the Moto G82.
The Moto G72 is available in only one variant - 6GB LPDDR4X RAM with 128GB storage with UMCP storage speeds. However, only the 6GB RAM variant is present and Motorola could have provided an 8GB RAM variant. Overall, the performance is good but the gaming performance is not so good but decent.
Moto G72 Software:
The Moto G72 runs on the latest MyUX based on Android 12 out of the box. You get a clean Stock Android experience with no ads or bloatware present and you see a Pixel-like user interface. There are a lot of customizations present in the Moto app like you can change icon shape and size, different wallpapers and themes, and also there are a lot of Moto gestures are present that comes in handy.
Some of the gestures include a karate chop to turn on/off the flashlight, twisting back and forth to open the camera, a three-finger swipe on the display to take a screenshot, etc. Double tapping the power button reveals the Power Touch feature where you can set some of your favourite applications. However, you do miss out on the Ready-For feature that is present on Moto Edge smartphones.
There is also ThinkShield which acts as a security layer between both hardware and software. There is Attentive and Peek Display where Peek Display lights up the lock screen when a hand is nearby and Attentive Display does not let the display turn off as long as you are looking at it. There are Android 12-specific features like an enhanced Privacy Dashboard, Material You theme engine, etc.
In terms of software updates, the Moto G72 is assured to get another AndroidOS update and three years of security updates which is not the best in this price segment since other brands do offer at least two major AndroidOS updates.
Moto G72 Cameras:
The Moto G72 houses a triple camera setup that includes a 108MP f/1.7 Samsung HM6 sensor for the main camera, an 8MP f/2.2 ultrawide camera and a 2MP f/2.4 macro camera. On the front, there is a 16MP f/2.5 camera for selfies.
The images from the main camera come out with a good level of detail that looks sharper and you get good dynamic range and contrast. Turning on HDR, the images have saturated colours and the noise is very less in the background. By default, the images are saved in 12MP but if you use the 108MP mode, the images have slightly softer details but noise is not present.
At night, the images come out with an excellent dynamic range and noise is very low in the background. The details look good but have slightly softer details and exposure takes a hit and details in shadows look blown out. With the Night Mode turned on, the images come out with slightly sharper details and restore the blown-away highlights.
The 8MP ultrawide camera does a good job in terms of dynamic range but the details look slightly softer and have a lot of noise in the background. However, you get a larger 119-degree field of view so all the subjects are captured but around the edges, there is a lot of distortion present. At night, the images have a decent dynamic range and there is a considerable amount of noise present.
The 2MP macro camera does an average job in details that look softer and have a lot of noise and washed-out colours. In terms of portraits, the edge detection and dynamic range are good but the level of background blur needs some improvement. The skin tones have a natural colour and noise is also very less present.
In terms of selfies, the front camera takes some images with natural colours in the background and the dynamic range is also very good. The noise is very less in the background and the contrast is good but when it comes to night, the subjects do have slightly blown-out highlights. The portrait selfies come with a decent level of background blur but you get good dynamic range and edge detection.
The main camera can only record 1080p videos at 60fps as there is no support for 4K video recording and the ultrawide camera can record 1080p videos at 30fps. The videos from the main camera come out with good dynamic range but the details look softer and there is a considerable amount of noise in the videos switching to 1080p at 30fps, the videos come out with better dynamic range and less noise.
The videos from the ultrawide camera have details that look slightly softer but you get good dynamic range and colours that look natural. The videos from the front camera come out with good details that look sharper but skin tones look slightly overprocessed and since there is no EIS, the videos have a lot of noise present.
Moto G72 Battery Life:
The Moto G72 houses a larger 5000mAh battery which is good considering the pOLED display and normal usage that includes casual web browsing, streaming social media and other lighter muli-tasking between applications with the display set to 60Hz, the smartphone easily lasted for two days with some charge left but with heavy usage, the smartphone could last only one day and a half.
With heavy usage that includes playing heavy games, rendering videos, running benchmarks, etc. the smartphone lasted a single day with some charge left with the display being set to 120Hz and switching to 60Hz, it could easily last for one and a half days. The standard screen-on time was around 6-7 hours which is very good.
In terms of charging speeds, the Moto G72 is bundled with a 33W fast charger which can charge the smartphone from 0 to 100 per cent within 1 hour and 20 minutes. The Moto G72 takes around 30 minutes to charge from 0 to 55 per cent which is good but another 45 per cent takes around 50 minutes. These speeds are not the best since other smartphones do support faster 65W charging in this price segment.
Moto G72 Audio Quality:
The Moto G72 has support for dual stereo speakers with the sound coming equally from the top earpiece and the bottom speaker. The sound quality is very good and since there is Dolby Atmos, the sound quality comes out very good. The 3.5mm headphone jack is present so you can use all the earphones or headphones for an immersive sound experience.
Verdict:
Overall, the Moto G72 is a great mid-range smartphone that brings a good design, a 120Hz pOLED display for media consumption, a powerful Mediatek Helio G99 chipset, a 108MP camera setup and a larger 5000mAh battery that provides good battery life. On top of it, there is Stock Android present which provides a clean software experience without any bloatware or ads.
However, this smartphone lacks one thing support for 5G which is a big disappointment since there are a lot of 5G smartphones in the market in this price segment. Though good performance in terms of gaming, it is still not as good as other smartphones. But if you want a smartphone with all the good specifications by compromising on 5G and gaming, then the Moto G72 is worth buying.
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