Motorola G45 5G Review
The Motorola G45 stands out with a design that feels far more premium than its price suggests, making it one of the best-looking phones not only under ₹15K but also under ₹20K. It offers a clean software experience, smooth performance for everyday tasks, 5G support, and decent cameras for its price range. While it does have some drawbacks, such as low display brightness and slower storage speeds, these issues are minor and unlikely to be deal breakers for potential buyers.
There’s never been a more opportune time to grab a budget 5G smartphone; with capable options available at under ₹10,000 from several smartphone OEMs in India. Having already reviewed the Realme C65 5G (review) and the Lava Blaze 2 5G (review), I was cautiously optimistic when Motorola sent me their latest budget 5G contender – the Motorola G45 5G. Clad in vegan leather with Motorola x Pantone hues, the phone looks stellar. However, given the competitive ₹10,999 (₹9,999 after discount) price tag, there are bound to be some compromises. My job is to tell you if these compromises are potential deal breakers. So, let’s delve into my detailed review of the Motorola G45 to know more.
The Motorola G45 5G borrows design cues from its diverse portfolio of (more expensive) smartphones save for the flat plastic frame; a majority of Motorola’s portfolio features a curved frame. The soft touch vegan leather on the back and the seamless camera bump are inspired by Motorola’s Edge series of smartphones, giving it a distinctly premium look – something that’s pretty rare at this price.
The vegan leather rear panel doesn’t just enhance aesthetics, but it also makes the device more comfortable and grippy. The side-mounted fingerprint sensor is accurate and fast, and the buttons have decent tactility too. The phone houses stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos support that sound crisp and loud, especially when compared to the mono speaker setups on the Realme C65 5G and Lava Blaze 2 5G.
There is some ingress protection; you get an IP52 rating but compared to the Realme C65’s IP54 rating, this feels a tad lacklustre. It also means you are going to have to be wary of using your phone during rains. A few positives in the build section include a handy 3.5 mm audio jack and expandable memory up to 1 TB via microSD card.
For your viewing pleasure, Motorola has incorporated a 6.5-inch IPS LCD display with HD+ resolution and 120 Hz refresh rate, which is pretty standard fare. You get 120 Hz support, which is a step up in comparison to another great option in this segment – the Lava Blaze 2. However, the bezels, particularly the chin, are quite thick. As for display protection, you get Gorilla Glass 3 on the Motorola G45 5G.
Now, the display doesn’t support HDR but you do get Widevine L1 support, so while HDR content is out of reach, you can view your shows in HD on OTT platforms. The display looks good with decent viewing angles and vibrant colours. However, the contrast levels are not comparable to an AMOLED display.
The brightness levels are also a bit too low for my liking. In our tests, the display managed to hit 482 nits under direct sunlight with Auto Brightness turned on, and indoors, the maximum brightness levels hover at around 220 nits. So, naturally, on bright days, the display legibility takes a hit. I had to cover the display to view messages on sunny days, so you may face some issues here. So, the display is a bit of a hit-or-miss on the G45, but that’s the case with most 5G phones at this price; it’s nothing out of the ordinary.
Powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 6s Gen 3 processor, the Motorola G45 5G fares well when handling basic day-to-day tasks. It is equipped with 4 or 8 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage. However, the read and write speeds are considerably slower than the Lava Blaze 2 which impacts data transfer speeds and app opening times.
In benchmarks, the Motorola G45 5G performs admirably with good scores in tests like AnTuTu, GeekBench, and PCMark. Its GPU benchmark scores are excellent as well. Additionally, even after 15 minutes of running the demanding CPU Throttling Test, the phone showed no signs of throttling, which is excellent.
This phone is not for gamers, but if you decide to run some basic games like Candy Crush, it’s going to handle them well. However, with games like BGMI and Call of Duty: Mobile, there are frame drops throughout the game. This is consistent with the performance of phones like the Lava Blaze 2 and Realme C65 5G.
As for software, the budget G45 5G impresses with Motorola’s Hello UI, which is known for its fluidity and lack of bloatware. It comes with ]Android 14 and a guaranteed upgrade to Android 15, along with three years of security updates. There’s barely any bloatware, but I did find three unremovable folders – GamesHub, Entertainment, and Shopping – that “suggest” apps to download. It’s basically an ad, but compared to phones like the Realme C65, this is definitely the lesser of the evils.
Adding to the relatively clean software is support for nifty Motorola features like Smart Connect and Family Space. Smart Connect is only available on the 8 GB variant, the 4 GB variant gets the older ‘Ready For’ application. Regardless, the option of having this useful feature at a very affordable price is a huge point in its favour.
The Motorola G45 5G features a humble 50 MP + 2 MP dual camera setup with one primary camera without OIS and one nominal macro shooter. For selfies, you get a 16 MP shooter. The phone supports 1080p videos at 30 fps on both front and rear cameras.
In daylight, the Motorola G45 outputs aesthetically-appealing photos with saturated colours and good detail. The detail in the shadows, however, misses the mark at times. As for portraits, the phone does a good job for the price, with warm human skin tones and a decent portrait cutout. Close-up photos have a good natural bokeh effect but the detail is a bit soft, especially if your subject is moving since the phone doesn’t have OIS support.
Selfies look decent in both daylight and low-light but the skin’s textures can get a bit too smoothed out in some scenarios. As for low light photos from the primary camera, there’s quite a bit of noise but that’s expected at this price range.
The Motorola G45 is equipped with a 5,000 mAh cell with support for 18 W fast charging. However, you get a 20 W TurboPower charger out of the box. Now, the phone doesn’t have class-leading battery life. You get about one full day of usage at medium usage, while some other budget phones go up to the two-day mark.
The phone lasted 13 hours and 42 minutes in the PCMark Battery test, which is decent. I got about 5 hours of screen-on time with heavy usage which included benchmarking, clicking photos, watching shows on OTT platforms, and more. So, overall, the battery life is good, but it’s not close to being the best. As for charging, with the slow 18 W charging, the phone takes a lengthy 1 hour and 36 minutes to charge from 0 to 100 percent.
The Motorola G45 stands out with a design that feels far more premium than its price suggests, making it one of the best-looking phones not only under ₹15K but also under ₹20K. It offers a clean software experience, smooth performance for everyday tasks, 5G support, and decent cameras for its price range. While it does have some drawbacks, such as low display brightness and slower storage speeds, these issues are minor and unlikely to be deal breakers for potential buyers. Overall, the Motorola G45 is a well-rounded budget phone that provides excellent value for money and poses strong competition in its price segment.
