Which Motorola Phone Should You Buy?

If someone asked what kind of pet you want, you’d probably say a cat or a dog. In this analogy, Motorola phones are hamsters. They’re still cute and definitely pets, but not necessarily the first or second one that comes to mind. The company’s Android smartphones often play third (or fourth) fiddle to the likes of Samsung and Google. If you’re an interested buyer, picking the best Motorola phone can be tough because the company launches many models in a year. I’ve tested almost every one of them, and in this guide, I break down the pros and cons and steer you toward my favorite Moto models—including the famed Razr flip phone.

Check out our mobile buying guides for more, including the Best Android Phones, Best Samsung Phones, Best Cheap Phones, Best Pixel Phones, and Best Phones With a Headphone Jack.

Updated February 2025: We’ve added the Moto G Power 2025 and Moto G.

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The Pros and Cons of Buying a Motorola

Moto G Power (2024)

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

Here’s what’s WIRED and TIRED about Motorola phones. This breakdown can help you decide whether to stick with Moto or buy something else.

Motorola phones have a simple Android interface. This means the company hasn’t done much to gunk up the software. It’s simple and easy to use. There’s increasingly a lot of bloatware, but you can easily uninstall almost all of it.

They have good battery life. The company stuffs big batteries into these slim phones, and they’re frequently able to eke out close to two full days of use on a single charge with average use. The newer devices aren’t as long-lasting as some prior models but they can still go more than a day.

There’s broad carrier support. While some Android phone brands have inconsistent carrier support in the US, Motorola phones often work on most if not all networks (the company lists carrier support details in the Specs section of all its phones). They all work on the big three—T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon. Make sure you buy them unlocked.

The prices dip quite often. Never buy a Motorola phone at its MSRP. They almost always go on sale a few months (or weeks) after launch, sometimes at steep discounts.

Motorola’s software updates are lackluster. The company is slowly improving here—it promises to deliver three Android OS updates and four years of bimonthly security updates to its high-end smartphones but still lags behind its peers. Most of the Moto G phones only receive one OS Android update—though this is changing in 2025 with new devices getting two upgrades—along with three years of security updates. Fewer updates mean consumers miss out on new Android features quickly. Even if a phone is promised updates, they take a long time to arrive.

Some Moto G phones lack NFC. Near-field communication (NFC) sensors enable tap-to-pay on your phone, allowing you to use contactless payments at participating retailers so you can leave the wallet at home. Motorola for a long time skimped on this perk even as competitors included it, though this isn’t as much of an issue anymore as newer models have NFC.

The cameras are lackluster. Among the things putting Motorola behind the likes of Samsung and Google are the cameras. Moto phones can take fine photos but they’re eclipsed by their peers. Motorola made some improvements with its high-end phones but it’s still behind.

There’s no always-on display. Most Android phones have a setting you can toggle on if you want an always-on display that will show a clock on your screen even when the screen is “off.” Motorola has Peek Display, which requires you to move the phone or tap the screen to see anything. It’s not a big deal, but it’s a feature you might miss if you’re coming from another phone. The 2024 Razr devices finally broke the mold with always-on displays, but it’s still not present in other devices.

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Note: Motorola will likely unveil a new Razr this spring—in March or April according to rumors—so I recommend holding off on purchasing the Razr+ 2024 if you can.

If you’re going to buy a Motorola and money isn’t much of a concern, it should be a statement phone like the Razr+ (2024). This third-gen folding flip smartphone (7/10, WIRED Recommends) is much more refined, adding features you’ve come to expect in a modern-day handset, like an IPX8 water resistance rating that keeps it safe from dips in the pool and a bright 165-Hz OLED screen that is easy to read in sunny conditions. And yes, you can flip open the phone to answer a call and flip it shut to end it.

When closed, the enlarged 4-inch OLED cover screen can show you notifications, apps, and handy widgets to check the weather, calendar events, and news. It even lets you play some fun mini-games. You can use the superior primary cameras—typically on the “back” of the phone but are now at the front—to snap selfies and see previews on this external screen. They’re some of the sharpest selfies you’ll snap.

Open it up and there’s a 6.9-inch screen that functions like a standard phone. There’s still a crease on the screen where the device folds, but I didn’t find it annoying. It’s powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 chipset, a slightly lesser-performing processor versus the flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 found on other high-end Android devices in 2024. That said, performance was smooth, thanks to the 12 GB of RAM, even when playing games. You get other standard-fare accouterments like NFC for tap-to-pay via Google Wallet, wireless charging, and 256 GB of internal storage.

This Razr+ exclusively uses Motorola’s new Photo Enhancement Engine, which the company says uses artificial intelligence to produce better images. Indeed, these photos are some of the best you’ll snap on any Motorola phone, but it’s still playing catch up with much of the competition. Photos take some time time to process too, so you’ll have to get used to that. It’s not a perfect camera system, but I was generally happy with most of the results.

I wish Motorola didn’t get rid of the ultrawide camera—it was easy to snap selfies with other people using the front screen as a preview on its predecessor, but now it’s harder to fit more people in the frame with the default 50-MP main camera. It was replaced by a 2X telephoto, and while I typically like zooming in, the zoom level isn’t impressive and the quality is so-so.

There’s a 4,000-mAh battery on the Razr+ and it’ll get you through a full day with average use, but heavy users most likely will need to top up before the day’s end. That’s just about the only main gripe I have with this phone. It’s super fun and satisfying to use, looks great—especially in the new hot pink color—and runs pretty well with a solid camera system. My pro tip? Wait for a sale.

This is the cheapest folding phone you can buy in the US, especially on sale. Compared to the Razr+, the Razr (7/10, WIRED Recommends) has a slightly smaller front screen. You can’t see as much information at a glance but it’s still big enough to view some apps, notifications, and access widgets. Inside is a similar OLED 6.9-inch screen with up to a 120-Hz refresh rate. It retains the ultrawide instead of the telephoto, and the camera system is overall solid—not horrible, not amazing. The 4,200-mAh battery does last longer than the Razr+, though the device falls short in performance. Powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 7300 with 8 GB of RAM, I just encountered more sluggish behavior that sometimes made it annoying to use.

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The Best Trad Moto Phone

This phone is frequently on sale for $300, and it’s a no-brainer for anyone on a budget. You get a large 6.6-inch AMOLED screen with a 144-Hz screen refresh rate and speedy performance thanks to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 chipset. It’s not a flagship chipset but enough to deliver snappy app launches and lag-free gameplay, and it’s leagues better than the performance you’ll find on the other Motorola phones featured below.

It has all the basics from NFC so you can pay with your phone via Google Wallet, plus an IP68 water resistance rating, ensuring it won’t succumb to a drop in the pool. It supports wireless charging, comes with 256 GB of storage, and packs some pretty loud Dolby Atmos stereo speakers. I used it as my daily phone for two weeks and it performed remarkably well. The 5,000-mAh battery comfortably lasts a full day with average use and often can go well into the second day before a top-up. Use the Edge heavily and it’s firmly in the charge-once-a-day territory.

I do have a few gripes though. The Edge uses a so-called waterfall display, where the glass on the front curves into the edges for a more immersive look. It certainly looks fancy, but I’ve had several moments where my fingers holding the phone’s edges disrupted an action I was trying to complete with my other hand. This has long been an issue on phones with curved screens. It’s easy to get used to and adjust your grip quickly, but it’s annoying.

Second, the 50-MP main camera has a bit of shutter lag, which can be frustrating when you’re trying to capture moving subjects (like my dog, who won’t sit still). The pics you can get out of it are solid, perfectly acceptable images during the day. The contrast is a little too strong sometimes, and it doesn’t handle high-contrast scenes all that great, but there’s good detail. In low light, you’ll encounter a few more blurry photos due to that shutter lag and shaky hands, but if the conditions are right, you can get some sharp, in-focus shots. This is where a phone like the Google Pixel 8A handily beats the Edge 2024.

Unfortunately, Motorola promises only two Android OS upgrades (up to Android 16) and three years of security updates to the Edge 2024. The Pixel 8A will get seven years of software support. This is one of Motorola’s biggest weaknesses, but this may not be as much of an issue at its frequent $300 sale price. If you’re wondering about a successor, the Motorola Edge launched in June 2024, so you can expect a follow-up this summer.

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Best Moto G Phone

I would buy the Motorola Edge 2024 at its $300 sale price over the newer Moto G Power 2025 (7/10, WIRED Recommends), but that’s why you should wait for this phone to go on sale. A few months after the Moto G Power 2024 launched, it dipped as low as $250—if the same happens again here, that’d make the 2025 model a better proposition.

Last year’s Moto G Power was fantastic. It introduced wireless charging—a rarity on a sub-$300 phone—had good performance, and checked off many boxes. This year’s version retains much of that and adds even more: it’s now IP68/69 rated, meaning it will be fine in heavy rain and even submerged in water for some time. Motorola is also promising two Android OS upgrades for the first time on a Moto G, giving these budget phones a slightly longer shelf life.

Unfortunately, it took two steps forward and one step back: the performance took a slight hit. The MediaTek Dimensity 6300 chipset inside delivers decent speed, but the stutters are more noticeable. It’s not frustrating to operate, but I wish it was as fluid as the 2024 Moto G Power.

If you can deal with that, this is still a capable and attractive budget Android phone. I like the green color and the fake leather texture on the back, which gives this phone some character. The 6.8-inch LCD is sharp and bright, and you get a fingerprint scanner, a 3.5-mm headphone jack, and a microSD card slot. The 5,000-mAh battery can last a good while into a second day with average use, though heavy usage ended my days with around 30 percent left.

The camera system consists of a 50-megapixel main camera, an 8-MP ultrawide, and a 16-MP selfie camera. Photos from the primary shooter are adequate, even in low light, though skin tones and colors can be off. The ultrawide and selfie cameras are only worth using if it’s daytime or you have lots of light. Much of this is par for the course with phones in this price bracket.

If its performance was a smidge better, this Moto would be a home run. It’s worth considering if money’s tight, but there will inevitably be a sale to make the price more palatable.

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Other Good Motorola Phones

Motorola Moto G 2025

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

I suggest you stick to the phones above, but if your budget is tight, the phones below are OK buys.

Moto G 2025 for $200: The new Moto G 2025 straddles the line of annoying and capable. Its performance—powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 6300 and 4 GB of RAM—is sluggish. It can visibly take a few seconds for some apps to load. Sometimes it’s fine and manageable, and other times I find myself glaring off into the distance waiting for the phone to work. The cameras are passable, the battery can last more than a day, and the LCD 6.7-inch display is adequate. This phone will eventually go on sale for $150 or $170, so try to wait for the discount. It will thankfully get two OS updates and 3 years of security updates.

Moto G Stylus 2024 for $250: The Moto G Stylus doesn’t feel drastically different from the Moto G Power 2024. It’s just as nice with the vegan leather back and delivers relatively smooth performance with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 chipset and 8 gigs of RAM. The main perk here is the stylus. You can pull it from the bottom of the phone to jot notes, sign documents, or doodle when bored. The phone shares many similar specs as the Power but here you’re treated to a superior OLED panel that offers deeper blacks and richer colors. Other upgrades include 256 GB of storage, dual stereo speakers, and a nicer camera system. It still only gets one OS update (to Android 15), and it’s worth noting that a successor will likely arrive in May.

Motorola Edge 50 Pro for £400: The Motorola Edge 50 Pro (7/10, WIRED Review) is a midrange contender with a triple-lens camera, silky smooth screen, and lightning-fast wired and wireless charging in a compact waterproof body, but limited software updates and a lack of processing power let it down. Available globally (except in the US and Canada), it’s worth a look for Motorola stans.

Avoid These Phones

Moto G Play 2024

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

You should avoid buying any other Moto G phone from 2024 or earlier. They likely won’t get any more Android version updates, and the prices aren’t drastically different from the latest models.

Moto G Play 2024 for $110: It works on 4G LTE only and doesn’t have NFC for contactless payments, not to mention it receives only one Android OS update. Still, this Moto G Play delivers reasonably decent performance for the money. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 feels quick, the 6.5-inch LCD is plenty bright, and there’s even a 90-Hz screen refresh rate. It’s unclear if Motorola is planning a successor in 2025 as the Play is among the first to arrive in the lineup and it’s been absent. Either way, a year since launch, I don’t think the Moto G Play 2024 is worth it anymore.

Motorola Edge 2023 for $300: The 2023 6.7-inch Motorola is now the same price as the 2024 model, and there’s no good reason to buy this dated model anymore.

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The Competition

Google Pixel 8A

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

Motorola’s top competition comes from Google, Nothing, and Samsung. If you asked me what phone to buy, I’d point you to the Google Pixel 8A ($499). It has most of the features folks want in a smartphone—including wireless charging. Nothing is expected to launch its Phone (3a) series soon, and they’ll be worthy contenders at similar prices. You should also consider the CMF Phone 1 ($239) if it works on your network.

If your budget can stretch, consider the Galaxy S24 FE ($650), the OnePlus 12R ($500), or even the iPhone 16e. But your best bang for your buck? That’d be hunting for used flagship phones from the prior year. Make sure you check sites like Swappa, Back Market, and Gazelle.

Read our Best Cheap Phones and Best Android Phone guides for more options.

Our Favorite Motorola Features

Photograph: Motorola

Moto Gestures: One of the first proper smartphones I bought was the Moto X, and that’s when (then Google-owned) Motorola debuted Moto Actions, which let you use physical gestures to trigger some features on the phone. They are still very much a part of a Motorola phone’s identity, even if they’re now called Moto Gestures. You can head to the Moto app on the phone to find all of them or go to Settings > Gestures. The ones I use most often are the double-chop gesture to trigger the flashlight and the double-twist action to launch the camera.

Moto Connect: Formerly known as Ready For, this isn’t available on the cheaper Motorola phones. It lets you wirelessly connect the phone to a nearby display, where you can see mobile apps, use your phone as a webcam, and share files. If your Moto is supported, you can find it by heading to Settings > Connected devices > Ready For. If you’re connecting it to a PC, you’ll need to download the desktop client (Windows only), or the Ready For Assistant if you’re connecting an Android tablet. If you’re using a TV, it needs Miracast support to connect wirelessly, but you can use a USB-C or HDMI cable as well.