Motorola Moto G84 Review: Bright, Bold, And Capable

It's taken me a little while to write this Moto G84 review, partly down to being something of a specifications snob. It meant I needed to realign my expectations of Motorola's affordable handset from using a $1,000+ smartphone most of 2023. A step up from its siblings, the Moto G84 packs an AMOLED display, a hefty 12GB of memory, and is powered by Qualcomm's reliable, if unexciting, Snapdragon 695 processor. For a phone that costs £250 (~$318), does the Moto G84 make its mark in the budget-conscious segment? Let's find out after the break in our review.

I admit it. I'm a sucker for a phone with a vegan leather finish on the rear panel. There's something about not worrying about either scratching or smashing the glass panel. It's never cold to the touch and always feels comfortable in the hand.

As with Motorola's Razr+, the Pantone-certified Viva Magenta (Red) colorway combined with the vegan leather finish makes for a vibrant rear panel. While the frame is plastic, it feels solid enough in the hand, and the edges are nice and smooth. I didn't bother using the official case that came in the box, and these images were taken after around two months of usage.

Unlike many modern smartphones, the rear camera housing doesn't protrude overly much, and even the Motorola and Pantone logos add something to the overall design.

Hardware

Performance

It may be affordable, but the Moto G84 packs a 6.5-inch OLED panel with FHD+ resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate. Whether it's photos, videos, or gaming, the display's output is excellent (up to 1300 nits), with vibrant colors and a high enough brightness level that going outside in the sun isn't an issue. The in-display fingerprint reader

The processor, on the other hand, is what we would call adequate. The Snapdragon 695 5G does the job without complaint but is not the fastest processor around. Booting up the G84 is a little on the slow side, and the chip also impacts how quickly you can focus when using the camera, although the shutter speed is as quick as you like.

Luckily, 12GB of RAM is on hand to help smooth things out, especially when multitasking, which is pretty slick at switching between apps, tabs, and games for a phone at this price point.

With IP54 certification, the Moto G84 is water-repellent. If you are outdoorsy, you'll need to consider spending more on IP68 water and dust resistance.

Battery

Battery life is up there with the best, and you'll be hard-pressed to get the Moto G84's 5,000mAh unit to cry ‘uncle' before a second day of usage is done when using adaptive brightness. If you need the 120Hz refresh rate on at all times, you'll whittle this down to a single day's usage. When the battery finally hits empty, the 30W TurboPower wired charging will get it back to 100% in a little eighty minutes.

Software

Running Android 13 out of the box with Motorola's MyUX overlay running on top, the Moto G84 offers a somewhat stock-like experience. There is virtually no bloatware to speak of other than the Motorola Notifications app, which is pretty pointless and, unfortunately, can't be uninstalled. That aside, the whole software experience is one of minimalism, and everything is where you would expect to find it.

The one negative in the software department is that you can expect Motorola to upgrade the Moto G84 to Android 14, and that's it unless you resort to unofficial means such as custom ROMs. It's a shame that Motorola isn't better when it comes to rolling out updates to its phones, and it is certainly an area where it needs to improve.

Camera

Unusually for a phone in this segment, the Moto G84 doesn't feature any of those pesky 2MP sensors that are present to make up the numbers. Instead, you'll find a 50MP main camera and an 8MP ultra-wide lens, which is also responsible for macro photography.

As you might expect, in good lighting conditions, the Moto G84 can take some fabulous shots, but in lesser-lit scenarios, it doesn't quite excel. That being said, night-time imagery was still more than good enough for social media purposes.

As you can see from the images above, in good lighting conditions, it's difficult to tell that they weren't taken by a more expensive smartphone. Even the selfie picture of yours truly which was taken by the 16MP front-facing camera truly looks pretty good, with the background showing a decent level of bokeh effect.

However, the attempt at taking a coastline shot with the ultra-wide lens during nighttime resulted in a somewhat murky effort, fine for a quick glance, but any level of scrutiny will discover a certain vagueness to the image. At closer range, though, the cameras perform better with the dolphins being shown in detail when using Night mode.

Overall, the Moto G84 can produce some excellent imagery; just don't expect the best results when using the ultra-wide lens.

Verdict

The Moto G84 is an interesting phone, considering that it carries an RRP of £250 (~$318) but is often reduced to just £199 (~$250). The excellent OLED panel with 120Hz refresh rate, the capable cameras, and up to 2-day battery life with a higher charging speed than the Pixel 8 Pro are features you'll notice day after day. While we would have liked to see a better processor, the Snapdragon 695 5G chipset does what it needs to do without complaint.

All told, the corners that Motorola cut with the Moto G84 aren't glaringly obvious other than the presence of the aging Snapdragon 695 5G processor and the miserly promise of a single OS upgrade, although there is a commitment to offering three years of security patches.

If you can snag Motorola's Moto G84 at the £199 deal price, it offers even greater value over its immediate rivals, and you'll need to spend a bit more to get more from the likes of the OnePlus Nord 2T or Honor's Magic 5 Lite.

You can pick up the Moto G84 in Marshmallow Blue, Midnight Blue, and the vivacious Viva Magenta (red) directly from Motorola's online store and Amazon below.