This Moto G64 is Motorola’s latest addition in the lower mid-range price segment. It's the first smartphone to feature the MediaTek Dimensity 7025 processor, and it comes with a 6000 mAh battery.
Before we dive into everything this phone brings to the table, it is worth considering what Motorola is aiming to deliver with the G64.
For lower-budget phones, it is a little unfair to expect major features or experiences that stand out. As users or customers, we are generally looking for balanced phones that can more or less keep up with all our needs.
So, with a starting price of Rs 14,000, does the Moto G64 strike the right balance?
Motorola G64 Unboxing
The Moto G64 comes in an eco-friendly, plastic free box that looks clean and aesthetic. In addition to the handset, we get a 33 W Turbo charger and a USB cable, a sturdy protective cover, along with the standard guidebooks and a SIM ejector tool.
Motorola G64 Design
The Moto G64 colours include Pearl Blue, Ice Lilac, and Mint Green which is what we checked out for our review. The phone sports an acrylic plastic body with a matte finish that's great at keeping fingerprints at bay. Under the light, the back gives off a subtle shimmer, which adds a sleek and stylish touch.
The phone is also quite lightweight and the curved edges really help make for a comfortable grip.
On the sides, you'll find the power button, quite conveniently placed, which also doubles as a fingerprint sensor. You can find the volume buttons right above.
There's also a headphone jack, microphone, a USB-C charger port, and a speaker at the bottom. The SIM tray is placed on the side, while the Camera module is placed on the top left corner at the back.
The bezels are mostly minimal, although the chin is thicker than the rest. The phone also boasts an IP52 water-repellent design, which is a nice plus.
Motorola G64 Display
The Moto G64 comes equipped with a 6.5-inch Full HD+ IPS LCD screen, protected by Gorilla Glass 3, and offers a 120Hz refresh rate.
It's not a bad screen, but IPS panels just don't quite measure up in 2024, especially when other phones in the same price bracket come with AMOLED displays.
As a result, the colours on the G64 aren't as vibrant and can seem somewhat flat. However, it manages to maintain a decent balance overall
The Moto G64 also offers a peak brightness of just 560 nits on paper, but surprisingly, using the phone outdoors wasn't a problem at all.
The actual in-hand experience, with its adequate brightness, feels better than the specs might suggest, making everyday tasks like browsing or watching videos quite pleasant. Plus, the 120Hz refresh rate ensures a smooth interaction, making swiping and scrolling incredibly satisfying.
Accompanying the display are a pair of Dolby Atmos-tuned stereo speakers, which is always a nice addition. They can get quite loud and offer above-average clarity.
However, the phone ends up vibrating when playing anything too loud, and the best way to go about it is to not use the speaker at full volume, which honestly is a bit of a bummer.
Motorola G64 Camera
The camera system consists of a 50MP main camera with OIS, an 8MP ultra-wide lens that also supports macro mode, and a 16MP front-facing camera.
We noticed a tendency for the main camera to overexpose photos in both bright and low-light conditions. Photos taken with the 2x zoom while not as overexposed, tend to be a bit noisy.
Portrait mode's edge detection is decent, but there's room for improvement, especially compared to the selfie mode. However, the portrait mode also tends to oversaturate colors and adds warm undertones of yellow and red right after the photos are processed.
This is also noticeable in the selfie camera and to some extent in pictures taken with the main camera in 1x and 2x modes, as well as the macro lens.
This is when I started playing around with the beauty mode to check for presets and instead, I found what is possibly a bug. The beauty mode is set to “Smart Adjust” by default, but even if you do change it to the “original” setting and exit the menu, it goes back to the default mode on its own. The only way to click photos otherwise, is to not exit the menu, but in that case, you can’t really change between modes seamlessly.
Video recording is capped at 60 FPS in Full HD resolution. You can also toggle OIS on or off and it does a decent job at stabilization. However, I did notice some struggles with maintaining exposure even in videos.
Motorola G64 Performance
Under the hood, the Moto G64 specifications include a MediaTek Dimensity 7025 chipset, and it is the first smartphone to do so.
The base model has 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, while the top model, which is what we are reviewing today has 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage.
This is quite generous for the sub- ₹ 20,000 price segment.
I also ran some benchmarks on the Moto G64, and Antutu gave it a score of 420,552, which is fine but nothing spectacular.
Fortunately, real-world performance is better and the phone can easily handle the day-to-day stuff without any hiccups. I also played BGMI on this phone on Max settings in HD resolution and High FPS, in addition to Smooth Ultra preset which naturally is a better fit for a phone from this price segment.
The experience in Smooth Ultra was definitely better, and there weren’t any noticeable frame drops at all. Rather the gameplay was very smooth, and in short, casual gaming is more than impressive on this phone.
The phone does not even heat up much and the core temperature hovers around 35°C on average.
Additionally, this phone features power optimization modes like Turbo, Balanced, and Battery Saving. I toggled between Turbo and Balanced modes during gameplay and didn't observe any noticeable differences in FPS. The game ran smoothly in both settings.
Motorola G64 Software
The Moto G64 runs on the latest Android 14, topped with My UX. One of the highlights here is the minimal bloatware—what little there is, can be easily uninstalled.
It’s quite refreshing to find such a clean user interface in the lower mid-range segment, making it a strong selling point for this phone.
Interestingly, the phone comes with pre-loaded folders for different app categories like gaming, shopping, and entertainment. However, these folders are empty, and Motorola simply provides recommendations for you to download the apps yourself.
On the flip side, Motorola could definitely improve their software update policy.The Moto G64 only comes with one year of Android updates and three years of security updates, meaning it will only be updated to Android 15.
Ideally, Motorola should extend this to at least two years of Android updates to make the phone more future-proof.
Motorola G64 Battery
The Moto G64 boasts a massive 6000 mAh battery, which is very impressive for its price range. A full charge can comfortably last you a day and a half with light usage.
If you're using it more intensively, you'll still get around 6 hours of screen time, which is a pretty solid feature of this phone.
The phone also comes with a 33W Turbo charger, which supports fast charging. It takes about 1 and a half hours for the Turbo charger to juice this phone up from 1% to 100%.
Motorola G64 Review: Verdict
Overall, the Moto G64 certainly stands out as a sturdy and well-rounded phone. But who exactly is this phone for?
Well, that really depends on your needs. If you're after a phone with consistent camera performance, an AMOLED display, and a longer software update policy, then this might not be the pick for you.
However, if you're looking for a well-rounded phone at Rs 16,000, especially since you can get the top model for this price—the Moto G64 makes a strong case.
It offers very decent performance, a long-lasting battery and a pretty clean software experience
