Moto G62 review: a budget 5G phone that covers the basics

The Moto G62 wants to be the best cheap phone you can buy today: the 5G-enabled handset follows the well-established Motorola trend for delivering to those on stretched budgets, so this will definitely appeal if you don't want to spend too much cash on a handset.

In this comprehensive Moto G62 review we'll tell you everything you need to know about this phone, from how the specs translate into real-world performance, to how much battery life you can expect, to the quality of the photos and videos that it can capture.

By the time you've finished reading, you should know whether or not the Moto G62 is the phone for you. If you need some more ideas about your next smartphone purchase, you can also check out our guides to the best Android phones on the market at the moment.

Moto G62: price and availability

The Moto G62 is out now and available to buy for £199 in the UK (check the widgets embedded on this page for the best online deals available) – at the time of writing you can pick it up from retailers including Amazon, Argos, and Motorola itself. The phone isn't on sale in the US.

Moto G62 review: design and display

The Moto G62 doesn't bring any shocks or surprises as far as it's design goes – this is fairly standard budget phone fare. Motorola has squeezed in a 3.5mm headphone jack here, along the bottom of the phone next to the USB-C slot and a speaker, and you get another speaker at the top of the phone. The volume and power buttons are down the right-hand side, and the power button doubles-up as a fingerprint sensor too.

There are two colours on offer for the Moto G62: Midnight Grey and Frosted Blue. We had the latter for our review unit, and think it's the more interesting of the two. The light blue finish on the plastic back has a nice shimmer to it, with the Motorola logo tastefully done in white, and the rear camera module neatly arranged in the top left corner. It feels like a solid and durable handset when you pick it up, with a soft, matte finish on the back.

The phone is described as "water-repellent", so it'll survive a few splashes – but probably not much more than that. Full water- and dust-proofing does of course cost money, and you rarely get it on a phone at this price. The overall dimensions of the phone are 161.8 x 74 x 8.6mm, and it weighs 184g, so it's a little bit thicker and a little bit heavier than something like the Samsung Galaxy S22. We should also mention that you get a basic plastic case in the box with the phone, as well as a charging cable and plug.

There's a 6.5-inch, 1080 x 2400 pixel IPS LCD screen, so lots of room for your apps to stretch out. The bezels are a little on the chunky side but they're fine really, and there's a small circular cut-out at the top for the selfie camera. While the screen isn't particularly bright or vivid, it gets the job done, and it's sharp and responsive – it boasts a 120Hz refresh rate, for ultra-fluid scrolling and animations, which is good to see at this budget level.

Moto G62 review: performance and battery

The Moto G62 is fitted with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 Plus processor, 4GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage, which you can expand via the microSDXC slot if required. Those are very modest specs, reflected in low Geekbench scores of 545 (single-core), 1687 (multi-core), and 1072 (OpenCL). This phone will run all the games and apps you need it to, but it won't run them particularly quickly.

You wouldn't be expecting lightning-fast performance on a budget phone like this, but we are dealing with a pretty slow phone here. It's certainly not unusable, but you'll notice a degree of sluggishness and a bit of stuttering every now and again – especially when you're pushing the phone by jumping between multiple apps or running mobile games that are particularly demanding.

There is at least 5G here, which means you can connect up to next-gen cellular speeds wherever the upgrades have been rolled out. It's also worth mentioning that the stereo speakers on the Moto G62 come with Dolby Atmos support – that's not particularly common, especially on budget phones, and it means you can expect audio that's above par when playing tunes or watching movies on the handset.

Battery life is great, and definitely one of the main reasons to pick this handset, along with its affordability. Streaming video (with the screen at maximum brightness) drops the battery by 10 per cent an hour, so you're looking at around 10 hours in total. In more general use, you'll easily make it through a busy day thanks to that 5,000mAh battery, and perhaps get two days out of it with careful use. There's no wireless charging support on this phone though, and wired charging tops out at 15W.

Moto G62 review: camera and software

On the back of the Moto G62 there's a triple-lens camera setup, comprising 50-megapixel main, 8MP ultrawide, and a 2MP macro camera. Around the front is a 16MP selfie camera. There's no optical zoom here then, but you do get plenty of camera modes and options to pick from, including a Pro mode that gives you more control over settings like white balance. For video, you can shoot up to 1080p quality at 60 frames per second.

There are really no surprises with the camera performance: you can get decent-looking shots with the Moto G62, especially when the light is good. Colours are well balanced, details are relatively sharp, and the shutter is quick, so this phone is more than good enough for snapping pictures of your pets or kids. The auto HDR mode works well too, keeping darker and lighter areas of images carefully calibrated.

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That's not to say you won't notice the difference between photos taken on this phone and photos taken on flagship handsets, particularly in more challenging conditions – think less light, or faster-moving subjects. These aren't the sharpest, richest, most detailed images we've ever seen, but if you're looking for something that can reliably take adequate pictures for your social media feeds, then this fits the bill.

Motorola never messes around much with Android, and to be honest that's perfectly fine with us. The phone comes with Android 12 on board, and the expectation is that an Android 13 update will arrive before too long. There's very little in the way of bloatware here – and you actually get a rather attractive custom home screen widget showing the time and the weather – but there are a couple of Moto apps that we could live without.

Moto G62 review: verdict

Not everyone wants to spend a small fortune on a smartphone, and if you're shopping with a budget that matches the price of the Moto G62 then you're not going to find many devices that give you more bang for your buck. 

We've reviewed many Moto phones in the past, and nothing is really changing – which might be a good or a bad thing, depending on your point of view. These handsets can be relied upon for big screens, clean software, value for money and good battery life, while on the flip side you have to settle for some compromises in terms of the display quality, the performance levels, and the capabilities of the cameras.

If you're after something that's going to comfortably take care of the basics without too much trouble, and that can be relied upon for a couple of years, then this fits the bill. If you need the best possible performance and camera quality, you'll have to look elsewhere (and probably spend more too).

While the Moto formula hasn't changed much, the standard is always improving – the G62 is faster, thinner and lighter than the older Moto G50, for example. That's progress in a way, and while we can't get too excited about what the Moto G62 brings to the table compared with other phones on sale right now, it certainly gives you a lot of smartphone for not much money.

Also consider

The budget end of the smartphone market is absolutely packed with options: the Realme 9i, for example, is about the same price as the Moto G62, but comes with an even bigger screen. You miss out on 5G connectivity, so it's not the phone to get if you need something that's fully future-proofed, but you might prefer the quirky take on Android that you get with Realme phones.

It's always worth considering spending a little bit more when it comes to smartphones. Okay, the Google Pixel 6a is twice the price of the Moto G62, but it's still not all that expensive – and you get a better screen, faster performance, better cameras, and the software extras that Google gives the Pixel phones (including more regular updates).