Moto G & G Play (2026) review

Display

The display is arguably one of the Moto G (2026)'s and Moto G Play (2026)'s main weak spots on paper. Sure, you get a fairly roomy 6.7-inch diagonal, but that's pretty much where the positives end. Motorola has opted for an IPS LCD panel, which feels a bit underwhelming in 2026, especially now that OLED has become common even in the budget segment.

Resolution doesn't help its case either - it's only HD+ (720 x 1604 pixels), which is actually a downgrade compared to the Moto G Power (2026). At this screen size, pixel density lands at around 262ppi, and the result is a picture that simply isn't all that crisp.

We ran our standard set of display measurements, and the numbers came out acceptable, but nothing to write home about. We measured just over 500 nits with the brightness slider maxed out, and a peak of 948 nits in auto mode for the Moto G (2026). The Moto G Play (2026) got similar results at 920 nits in auto and 496 nits in max auto mode. That's enough for indoor use and most everyday scenarios, but under direct sunlight you'll definitely find yourself wishing for more.

The display on the Moto G (2026) and Moto G Play (2026) can refresh at up to 120Hz. Unlike their Moto G Power (2026) sibling, however, they can not go down to 30Hz. The lowest they will do is 60Hz. Hence, the "Efficiency first" refresh rate mode simply locks the refresh rate to 60Hz. The basic logic for the other two modes ("Hyper smooth" and "Smart and balanced") is basically the same - you get a higher refresh rate while interacting with the display, and it drops down to 60Hz when idling. The difference is that in the default "Smart and balanced" mode, the phone is a lot more conservative with going up to 120Hz and tends to favor 90Hz more often. In the final "Hyper smooth" mode, you rarely ever get 90Hz and most of the time the phone stays at 120Hz, but does still occasionally drop down to 60Hz.

Unfortunately, high refresh rate gaming is very inconsistent with this automatic switching setup.

The bigger issue, though, is pixel response time - and it's not a good look. On this particular LCD, the pixels are noticeably sluggish, which results in heavy smearing and ghosting. And it doesn't really matter which refresh rate you pick either - you still get visible trails, especially around slower-moving objects and while scrolling through text.

We honestly thought that things were bad in this department on the Moto G Power (2026), but somehow the display on the regular Moto G (2026) and the G Play (2026) looks worse in person. It might be due to the lower resolution.

The Moto G (2026) and G Play (2026) lack any HDR support. On a more positive note, they are certified for the highest possible Google Widevine L1 DRM, allowing services like Netflix to offer up FullHD streams.

Battery life

The Moto G (2026) and Moto G Play (2026) have identical and pretty big 5,200 mAh batteries. Of course, that is not huge by modern standards, and it's not sporting any advanced chemistry either. Going into our standard battery testing, we expected to see very similar results to the Moto G Power (2026) - a fairly safe assumption given that both devices use the same MediaTek Dimensity 6300 chipset and have identical 5,200 mAh batteries.

However, the vanilla Moto G (2026) and the Moto G Play (2026) managed to significantly outgun the Moto G Power (2026) in the battery endurance department. They did great across the board in all tests, and frankly, our best explanation as to why it did so much better than the G Power (2026) has to be the different LCD.

Charging speed

The Moto G (2026) supports 30W TurboCharge charging. Motorola's charging tech uses a standard Type-C to Type-C cable and seems to be based on PD, but does still have some proprietary bits. Since there is no charger in the box, we tested with a 68W Moto charger.

As for the Moto G Play, it supports Motorola's slowe 18W chargign and it shows in the charging results.

The Moto G (2026) is not a particularly fast-charging device. Fifteen minutes on the charger got it from 1% to 25%, and thirty minutes resulted in a 48% charge. A full top-off took an hour and fourteen minutes, which, surprisingly, is notably faster than the Moto G Power (2026), and that's despite the fifteen and thirty minute times being nearly identical.

In terms of battery protection features, the phone can limit its charging to 80% so as to preserve battery health for longer. This can either be done on a fixed schedule, or you can let AI learn your usage patterns and adjust top-offs accordingly automatically.

Speakers - loudness and quality

The Moto G (2026) comes with a stereo speaker setup, pairing a bottom-firing main unit with a second speaker above the display that also doubles as the earpiece. The Moto G Play (2026) seems to borrow the exact same speaker setup. As is usually the case with this kind of arrangement, the two channels aren't perfectly matched - the bottom speaker is clearly the louder one, so balance isn't ideal.

Sound quality, however, is respectable for the class. It's not exactly impressive, but you do get clean mids and mostly distortion-free highs. The sound stage isn't particularly wide or full, though it remains perfectly acceptable for a budget phone.

One area where the Moto G (2026) and Moto G Play (2026) do excel is sheer volume - they get really loud. If your main priority is being able to hear your ringtone or notifications reliably, they won't let you down.

These phones also support Dolby Atmos, complete with a couple of adaptive EQ modes, several presets, and a full manual equalizer for those who want to fine-tune their own sound profiles.

Use the Playback controls to listen to the phone sample recordings (best use headphones). We measure the average loudness of the speakers in LUFS. A lower absolute value means a louder sound. A look at the frequency response chart will tell you how far off the ideal "0db" flat line is the reproduction of the bass, treble, and mid frequencies. You can add more phones to compare how they differ. The scores and ratings are not comparable with our older loudspeaker test. Learn more about how we test here.

Connectivity

The Moto G (2026) has at least one thing going for it - it is a pretty cheap 5G device. It supports SA/NSA 5G connectivity on its singular Nano-SIM slot. Beyond that, it also has eSIM compatibility, which is a nice addition. For location, the phone supports GPS, GALILEO and GLONASS. Local connectivity is handled by pretty basic dual-band Wi-Fi ac/5, plus Bluetooth and NFC. There is a 3.5mm audio jack on board and an FM radio receiver.

The Type-C port is backed up by a simple USB 2.0 data connection, which means a theoretical maximum throughput of up to 480 Mbps. There is USB OTG/Host support, but nothing fancier like video output via Alt mode.

The list of onboard sensors is surprisingly extensive. There is an st lsm6dsv accelerometer and gyroscope combo, a qst qmc6308 magnetometer and compass combo, a sensortek stk3a5x light and hardware proximity combo, and there is even an stm Ips22df barometer.