What you need to know
- Motorola today introduced the Moto G50.
- It's a cheaper counterpart to the Moto G100 which also broke cover today.
- 5G is a big selling point for this phone, but Moto's also pushing 2 days of battery life as another.
Motorola today quietly introduced the Moto G50. It's not quite the headline grabber than the Moto G10, the first Moto G with a Snapdragon 800-series processor is, but it is a phone that also exists.
Specs-wise, it's nothing too out of the ordinary for cheap Android phones. So you're getting a big 6.5-inch screen, 4GB of RAM, up to 128GB of storage with Micro SD expansion, and a 5,000 mAh battery with 15w fast charging (if you get the right accessory). You'll find the required triple-camera layout here, complete with the 48MP main camera, the 8MP ultra-wide, and a 2MP macro lens.
There's 5G here too, which's backed by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 480, a chip introduced to bring 5G to lower-end phones like this one. This means that there are compromises as well, and the screen is the biggest one. There's no 1080p as you'd expect on a phone of this size, instead, you'll be getting a less pixel-packed 720p HD.
There is some logic there. Phones with more pixels to push are more power-hungry, and the 90Hz display that Moto opted for instead would likely not be active on all screens. It'd normally be a dealbreaker, but when writing a Nokia 5.4 review earlier this month, Android Central's Jeramy Johnson noted that 720p was perfectly fine at a similar size. At the very least, buyers have the option of simply getting another phone, but we'll have to go hands-on with the G50 before we can pan or praise.
The G50 will be available sometime this year in Steel Grey and Aqua Green for under $250 if leaks are to be trusted.
