The $300 Moto G Power Is the Lowest-Priced Motorola Phone Worth Buying

The $300 Moto G Power is the lowest-priced Motorola phone that I can confidently recommend from the company’s 2025 lineup. Even after using it for several weeks, the Moto G Power never frustrated me while performing any of my regular tasks. If you’re already a Motorola fan, this phone is a great option that can handle the basics without breaking the bank. 

This might not sound like high praise, but compared to the sluggishness I felt when testing out the $200 Moto G, that extra $100 goes a long way. The Moto G Power provides enough additional power to allow for smooth multitasking, video calls, gaming at low graphics settings and can take decent photos of food in bright settings as well as concerts in darker settings.

Charging speed is a particular highlight; the Moto G Power’s battery went from 0 to 61% during my battery test when powering it up with the 30W wired charger, which is actually a hair faster than last year’s edition of the phone. That’s accompanied by 15W wireless charging but, like most Android phones, you’ll need to get a third-party case if you want to use the phone with magnetic Qi2 chargers. 

Fast charging is particularly helpful considering the Power has a large 6.8-inch 1,080p display that runs at a 120Hz refresh rate, which could drain the battery down during more intensive use. This display makes it easy for streaming videos, texting and light gaming, but it doesn’t provide particularly vivid HDR-like colors like I’ve seen on other $300 phones like the OnePlus Nord N30. But that’s largely an OK trade-off for a lower priced phone.

The phone’s MediaTek Dimensity 6300 processor performed only slightly better than the $200 Moto G (with the same processor) in my benchmark tests, which include the more graphically intense 3DMark Wild Life Extreme test, and the more computationally focused Geekbench 6.0. 

Outside of gaming, I didn’t encounter any issues. I had no trouble with my usual routine of watching YouTube, browsing websites, and taking video calls. However, the phone did struggle to maintain 60fps while running the Marvel Snap card game at medium settings. The phone’s 8GB of memory — twice the 4GB available on the Moto G — likely helps the phone run more efficiently in daily use. This is a stark contrast to Moto G which I found barely usable without enabling Motorola’s RAM boost feature that converts a portion of storage into virtual memory. The Power works quite well using the default “AI” mode for assessing how much is needed.

Photos taken by both the rear camera setup (50-megapixel wide and 8-megapixel ultrawide) and the 16-megapixel selfie camera get the essentials of my photos but largely lack finer detail.

For instance, this closeup of a macaroni and cheese dish taken outside shows you the dish, but we’re not getting much of the cheesy roux or of the breadcrumb details. In fact, everything around the dish seems blurry.

I took the phone with me to see Kylie Minogue at Madison Square Garden, and considering I’m sitting at the back of the arena, I do think the phone was able to capture a few details of the singer with her dancers. This is the kind of photo that even more expensive phones would struggle with, so I’m glad it didn’t completely dissolve into a blurry mess.

The front camera also exceeded my expectations when taking a selfie. I used the selfie light — which is painfully obvious in the glare of my glasses — but most of my face and shirt looks crisp in the photo. My hair does blend in with the darkness, and there’s noticeable image noise around me. But still, these are challenging conditions even for phones in the $500 price range, so for $300, it’s not bad at all. 

The cameras can also capture 1080p video at 30fps resolution, which was enough to capture footage of the band Anberlin at a different show I attended last week, but admittedly that footage also wasn’t very detailed. It’s enough to quickly store the memories, but I wouldn’t want to play them back on a TV.

While I didn’t submerge the Moto G Power during my testing, I appreciate that its IP68 and IP69 ratings suggest it would easily survive drops into a sink or pool. But even a durable exterior can’t mask one of its biggest weaknesses; Motorola’s relatively short software and security support timeline. The phone will only get two years of major Android updates and three years of security update support. While I have yet to test Samsung’s new Galaxy A lineup, one of the Moto G’s biggest competitors, Samsung is promising six years of software and security updates by comparison. It’s a policy that I hope Motorola reconsiders, as the Moto G line could become an even broader option for phone buyers concerned about the ongoing news of tariffs that could increase the cost of electronics. 

As long as you can keep your expectations in check about the phone’s three-year lifespan, the Moto G Power could be a viable option for anyone who just needs a basic phone without the additional frills.

How we test phones

Every phone CNET’s reviews team tests is used in the real world. We test a phone’s features, play games and take photos. We examine the display to see if it’s bright, sharp and vibrant. We analyze the design and build to see how it is to hold and whether it has an IP rating for water resistance. We push the processor’s performance to the extremes using standardized benchmark tools like GeekBench and 3DMark, along with our own anecdotal observations navigating the interface, recording high-resolution videos and playing graphically intense games at high refresh rates.

All the cameras are tested in a variety of conditions, from bright sunlight to dark indoor scenes. We try out special features like night mode and portrait mode, and compare our findings against similarly priced competing phones. We also check out the battery life by using it daily as well as running a series of battery drain tests.

We take into account additional features like support for 5G, satellite connectivity, fingerprint and face sensors, stylus support, fast charging speeds and foldable displays, among others that can be useful. We balance all of this against the price to give you the verdict on whether that phone, whatever price it is, actually represents good value. While these tests may not always be reflected in CNET’s initial review, we conduct follow-up and long-term testing in most circumstances.

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