Motorola Moto G62 5G review: The new budget Moto to beat

The Motorola Moto G62 5G is the latest entry in Motorola’s haphazardly numbered range of affordable smartphones. Rather than getting lost among the crowd, the G62 5G bridges the gap between its ultra-budget siblings and the pricier mid-range models in an effort to create a balance between cost and performance.

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It’s not a perfect phone, with a couple of issues holding over from the ultra-budget end of the spectrum, but considering how cheap it is, these minor problems are easy to overlook. If you want 5G connectivity, great performance and impressive battery life for the best price possible, the Moto G62 5G should be on your list.

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Motorola Moto G62 5G review: What you need to know

With the Moto G family growing exponentially, it can be difficult to tell exactly what differentiates one from another. In terms of the lineup, the Moto G62 5G comes in as the natural successor to the Moto G50, retailing for the same price and bearing very similar internals. The updated octa-core 2.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 Plus chipset is backed by 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, with microSD expansion also supported.

As well as the 5G connectivity indicated in its name, the Moto G62 5G has a fair few new additions. the display is still only an IPS panel but the resolution has been upped from the G50’s 720p to 2,400 x 1,080, and the refresh rate has been boosted to a silky smooth 120Hz. There’s also fast charging, via the included 15W charger, powerful Dolby Atmos stereo speakers, and the stock Android 12 OS, meaning a cleaner UI and less irritating bloatware to sift through. Not a bad haul for £200.

Motorola Moto G62 5G review: Price and competition

The Motorola Moto G62 5G costs £200, slotting into the Moto lineup between cheaper models like the G22 (£150) and G31 (£170), and more expensive options like the G82 (£290) and the G200 (£400). It also sits shoulder to shoulder with the Moto G50, which offers exceptional battery life for £200 but has a lower resolution screen and weaker cameras.

Outside of the myriad Motos, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 gets you a vibrant AMOLED screen for the same £200, provided you’re happy to forgo 5G for another couple of years. The Nokia G50 is also £200 but while it offers a larger 6.82in screen, it falls short of the Moto G62 5G with its middling display quality and camera array.

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Motorola Moto G62 5G review: Design and key features

Even the most penny-pinching Moto phones manage a fairly sleek physique these days, so the Moto G62 5G looks pretty decent for a phone that costs this little. Available in Frosted Blue and Midnight Grey (reviewed here), the Moto G62 5G’s build has been tightened compared to the Moto G50, slimming down to 165 x 74 x 8.6mm and weighing 8g lighter at 184g. There’s still no official IP rating but the design is said to be “water-repellent”.

The bezels surrounding the screen are fairly slim – there’s a bit of a chin but it isn’t chunky – and the top-centre selfie camera is innocuous enough. The plastic back has a slight sheen to it, giving the look of a more premium metal or glass panel, without the greasy fingerprint-collecting surface. The triple camera array is neatly tucked in the top-left corner, arranged in a discreet elliptical module that still allows the phone to sit flat without too much wobbling.

Something we weren’t a fan of in our Moto G50 review was the rear-mounted fingerprint sensor, so it’s good to see it moved here to the power button on the right-hand side. There’s also face unlock, which was a little sluggish compared to pricier models but worked well enough to be worth the inclusion.

On the left, you’ve got a dual SIM tray, which can either hold two nano SIMs or one alongside a microSD card. The bottom edge is home to the USB-C charging port, a 3.5mm headphone jack and one of the stereo speakers, with a matching speaker on the top edge.

Motorola Moto G62 5G review: Display

The 6.5in IPS panel used in the Moto G50 may return here but the resolution has been boosted to 2,400 x 1,080 (FHD+), bringing the pixel density up to a much more acceptable 405ppi. The refresh rate is also now 120Hz, so whether you’re scrolling through social media or playing phone games, your experience should be smooth and stutter-free.

The display is set to the ‘Saturated’ colour mode by default, but as is often the case, the ‘Natural’ option provides a more faithful palate, with an sRGB gamut coverage of 94.5% and 96.4% volume. The black level and contrast ratio aren’t quite as impressive, measuring 0.25cd/m2 and 1610:1, respectively, but they’re decent enough at this price. The same is true of the 424cd/m2 peak brightness, which isn’t the best but still held up well in direct sunlight.

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Motorola Moto G62 5G review: Performance and battery life

The Moto G62 5G runs on an octa-core 2.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 Plus processor, which is the beefed-up version of the Snapdragon 480 used by both the Moto G50 and Nokia G50.

The upgrade proves effective here, delivering multi-core scores that pull 5.6% ahead of the Moto G50 and outstripping the Nokia G50 by more than 10%. The Xiaomi Redmi Note 11’s Snapdragon 680 processor is the closest challenger, coming in just 1% slower than the Moto G62 5G.

In general usage, things were remarkably swift for the price. There’s the odd micro pause when opening more intensive apps but for the most part, scrolling through social media and switching between apps is suitably fluid.

The Moto G62 5G’s hardware also proved powerful enough to run Shadowgun Legends smoothly when it was locked at 30fps. Even when I switched it up to a maximum of 60fps, the phone didn’t struggle beyond getting a little warm.

At first glance, the red bars may look like the Nokia G50 and Moto G50 outstrip the Moto G62, but their lower resolutions just require less power, allowing for a better frame rate in the on-screen compute tests. Look to the off-screen orange bars and you’ll see things even out – an unsurprising result, as all three use the Adreno 619 GPU. The Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 runs on the slightly inferior Adreno 610, which accounts somewhat for it trailing 86% behind the others.

While the Moto G50’s 720p screen helped it last for over 25 hours in our test, the improved 1080p panel used here is more power hungry. Coming in at a hair over 21 hours, the Moto G62 5G still puts in an impressive display, edging just ahead of the Nokia G50 and the Xiaomi Redmi Note 11. The provided 15W fast charger isn’t particularly flashy but should still take the massive 5,000mAh battery from empty to full in less than two hours.

Motorola Moto G62 5G review: Cameras

Another shakeup from the G50 is the triple camera array. The main lens is slightly upgraded to a 50MP (f/1.8) number, the macro camera is cut back to 2MP (f/2.4) and the depth sensor is dropped in favour of a much more useful 8MP (f/2.2) ultrawide. While the value of the latter two is questionable – as is often the case with extra lenses in this price bracket – the main camera is fairly decent, with plenty of detail. The colours are a little muted, but overall it’s good enough for the price.

It doesn’t do too badly when digitally zoomed in, either. The macro camera is fine, if not great, and the zoom works well up to a point. You won’t get much quality if you go as high as 8x, but the 3x magnification and below retains enough detail in the stonework to be useful if you absolutely can’t get any closer.

Going the other way yields acceptable images too; the brickwork is a little smoothed out for my liking but the ultrawide at least avoids any further loss of vibrancy in the colours.

Shooting in full darkness is a non-starter – the night sky is full of noise and all detail goes out the window – but the camera fares reasonably well in low light, capturing enough of this nautical sunset scene to make out the individual masts and dock beams.

The 16MP (f/2.2) front-facing camera is the best of the ancillary lenses, with enough detail in good light conditions to suit all your video call and selfie needs. The portrait mode does a decent job of picking out fine hair when inserting the background blur, keeping sharp, clean lines that help the subject stand out.

Video is capable of capturing 1080p footage at up to 60fps, up from the 30fps cap of the Moto G50, and also falls into the camp of “good enough for £200”. The stabilisation held up well to some intentional shaking and the auto exposure transitions when moving from darker to lighter scenes were effective.

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Motorola Moto G62 5G review: Verdict

Some of the drawbacks of the more budget G-series models are still present here – the screen is still just an IPS panel, the RAM and base storage are on the lower side and it lacks an official IP rating – but the balance between price and features offered makes these issues niggles rather than dealbreakers.

If you’ve got a hard budget of £200 and you want to get the most bang for your buck, the Moto G62 is a solid bet. It’s the best value offering from the Moto G line we’ve seen so far, and an impressive budget entry in the market at large.

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