The Moto G redefined the budget segment of smartphones over a decade ago. With a clever combo of up-to-date specifications, funky design and interesting colourways, the early generations of Moto G models redefined expectations from affordable Android smartphones. Despite a slew of lacklustre releases during its ownership transition to Lenovo, the Moto G has always remained a safe choice for everyone.
Hence, when Motorola shipped the Moto G96 to our mailbox, our expectations were high. Compared the usual collection of China-bred affordable smartphones, the Moto G96 promises a clean Android experience with a fancy design, popping colourways and a decent set of specifications. With a curved-edge 144Hz display and an IP68 water and dust resistance, it makes the entire package a lot more enticing.
With a starting price of Rs 17,999, this baby Moto G takes on the likes of Redmi Note 14 5G and the recently launched Samsung Galaxy M36 5G. Is it a better deal than these devices? Let’s find out.
Motorola Moto G96: Design and Display
Motorola has mastered the vegan leather finish on its phones and the Moto G96 is a great example. The back panel is well sculptured, especially with the camera hump and the lens decor, with the subtle sensor detailing adding to the exquisite feel. The curved edge display adds to the glamour, with the curved sides making it comfortable to hold. The tactility of the buttons may not be up to satisfactory levels but the choice of colours makes up for it – our unit came in the nicely made PANTONE Grener Pastures. The presence of an IP68 certification assures that this Moto G can survive our hot and humid climate with ease.
The Moto G96 also impresses with its vibrant 6.6-inch Full HD+ OLED display – it delivers a punchy colour reproduction with deep blacks and high contrast. You get wide viewing angles and ample brightness for good sunlight legibility. The optical fingerprint scanner seems a little slow but it does the job as advertised.
Motorola Moto G96: Performance and Software
Motorola is using its favourite Qualcomm chip to take care of performance needs – the Snapdragon 7s Gen 2. Seen earlier on entry-level Moto Edge devices, this chipset is now capable of delivering reliable performance to affordable mid-range phones. Coupled with 8GB RAM as standard and a choice of either 128GB or 256GB storage, the Moto G96 is adequately equipped. With Android 15-based HelloUI on the device, this Moto G96 has ensured a consistently smooth and lag-free user experience during our test phase. Be it browsing through social media apps or playing a bunch of casual indie games, we did not encounter any major deal-breaking experience with this handset.
As is the norm with Motorola, the Pixel-inspired Hello UI interface remains among the best in the segment, sharing the top spot with Samsung’s One UI. The interface is clean, well-designed and relies on slick animations to deliver a good experience. There’s the usual Glance AI lockscreen bloatware but unlike Samsung, you can turn it off on the Moto G96 – thanks, Motorola. The presence of unique Moto gestures continues to impress me.
The G96 also left us impressed with its network reception performance. Call performance has been good and the same can be said for the mobile data aspect.
Motorola Moto G96: Camera performance
Motorola phones are not exactly the first choice for photographers, but the Moto G96 manages to provide a decent setup for casual photography. The G96 features a 50MP Sony Lytia 700C camera with OIS and an f/1.8 aperture. Our test revealed detailed and vibrant photos in good lighting conditions, although with the saturation turned up by several notches. Low-light performance is decent for its class, ensuring the same saturated colours and higher HDR to keep the photos looking bright and spicy.
The 8MP ultrawide shooter comes with autofocus and macro photography – the two modes that are decent for use on brightly lit days. The 32MP selfie camera can do 4K video recording and offers clear and sharp images in most lighting situations.
On the whole, the Moto G96 provides a reliable pocket camera for a phone in this price segment.
Motorola Moto G96: Battery and Charging
With a 5,500mAh battery and the power-efficient Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 chipset, the Moto G96 can easily last an entire day and leave some juice for getting through the first half. This is despite running the phone on 5G networks with the 144Hz refresh rate enabled. With the auto refresh rate option enabled, we noticed a slight increase in battery power reserves.
Sadly, Motorola is only offering a regular 33W wired charging solution instead of its faster systems usually available on lower-end Moto Edge models. The 33W adapter takes close to 1.5 hours to fill up an empty battery. Motorola provides the 33W charging adapter in the box as standard, which is a respectable decision.
Motorola Moto G96: Conclusion
The Motorola Moto G96 has its fair share of pros and cons but when you consider its sub-Rs 20,000 price tag, it ends up looking like a good deal. The lack of fast wired charging and average camera tuning leaves room for improvement. However, the presence of a punchy 144Hz OLED display with trendy curved edges, the nice-to-touch vegan leather finish on the back panel, a water and dust resistance build, a consistently smooth user experience and a reliable battery life make the Moto G96 an easy recommendation for someone seeking a feature-rich Android smartphone experience. For a phone that costs Rs 17,999, the Moto G96 is a solid deal to consider over the Samsung Galaxy M36 and Redmi Note 14.
