The Motorola G85 is a solid budget smartphone that stands out with its premium design, vibrant display, and decent camera setup. If you frequently consume content on your smartphone, the Motorola G85 is one of my top recommendations under ₹20,000 thanks to its superb display and stereo speakers. However, it does lag behind in raw performance compared to some competitors. So, if top-notch performance is your main priority, you might want to consider alternatives like the Realme P1 or CMF Phone 1.
The Motorola G85 is the latest addition to Motorola’s budget-range lineup, promising a blend of premium features and affordability. Starting at ₹17,999, it seeks to stand out in a crowded market, competing with budget contenders like the CMF Phone 1 (review), Realme P1 (review), and OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite (review). With highlights including a curved pOLED display, a 50MP camera, and stereo speakers, the G85 promises a blend of stylish design and high-end features that are uncommon in this price range. But does it truly stand out amid the growing array of value-for-money smartphones? Let’s explore the details to find out.
The Motorola G85 punches way above its weight class in terms of design. It is hard to believe that this phone costs merely ₹17,999, given its slender look, relatively slim bezels, and curved body. It stands out with its premium design, featuring a plastic frame and a vegan leather back. In my opinion, the only phone that could compete with the Motorola G85 in terms of looks under ₹20,000 is the CMF Phone 1. The Motorola G85 has a more elegant look while the CMF Phone 1 looks industrial and quirky.
Despite its budget-friendly price, the phone feels sturdy and decently well-built. The vegan leather back not only adds a touch of elegance but also provides a good grip, making it comfortable to hold. The phone is available in three colour variants – Olive Green, Urban Grey, and Cobalt Blue. I got the Olive Green variant for review, and while it looks stunning, the vegan leather material feels way cheaper than what’s used on the Edge 50 series.
At just 7.6 mm thick and weighing 173 grams, the G85 is impressively lightweight, especially considering its massive 5,000 mAh battery. The curved contours of the phone make it extremely comfortable to hold even over longer periods. The IP52 rating leaves something to be desired since competitors like the Realme P1 offer a higher IP54 rating, which is exponentially better in cities like Mumbai that experience heavy rainfall.
One of the standout features of the Motorola G85 is its 6.67-inch pOLED curved display with a 120Hz refresh rate. The display is vibrant and bright, with a peak brightness of 1600 nits, making it easy to use even under direct sunlight. However, as per my testing, the Motorola G85 doesn’t reach its claimed peak brightness numbers. The phone touched 1,002 nits under direct sunlight on High Brightness Mode, which is still good enough for outdoor legibility.
One thing that’s missing is HDR support. The phone does not support HDR content on OTT apps. However, given the inexpensive price tag, it can be overlooked as there is Widevine L1 support allowing support for HD content. HD content looks good on OTT platforms, and the Dolby Atmos-enabled stereo speakers add to the immersive experience.
The display is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5, which adds a layer of durability against scratches and minor drops. The 120Hz refresh rate ensures smooth scrolling and a more responsive touch experience, which is particularly noticeable when navigating through apps.
Under the hood, the Motorola G85 is powered by the Snapdragon 6s Gen 3 chipset, paired with up to 12GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage. The Snapdragon 6s Gen 3 is essentially a rebranded Snapdragon 695, the same chipset that powered its predecessor, the Motorola G84. So, there’s no significant upgrade in performance. Nevertheless, this chipset handles everyday tasks such as browsing, social media, and light gaming smoothly.
However, it may struggle with more demanding applications and heavy multitasking. It lags behind more powerful competitors like the Realme P1 and CMF Phone 1, both of which are priced lower than the Motorola G85. As a result, the value proposition for those who prioritise performance diminishes significantly.
The performance disparity between the Motorola G85 and its competitors is evident in its benchmark results. The phone scores lower on AnTuTu, GeekBench, and PCMark Work compared to the CMF Phone 1 and Realme P1. Fortunately, it doesn’t throttle excessively; it only throttles to 80 per cent of its peak performance after 15 minutes of running the CPU Throttling Test, which is good.
In GPU benchmarks, the Motorola G85 falls significantly behind its competitors. The CMF Phone 1, priced at just ₹15,999, outperforms it in GPU performance by a significant margin, offering smoother gameplay for intensive games like BGMI or Call of Duty: Mobile.
On the bright side, the phone’s UI is impressive. The Motorola G85 runs on Motorola’s near-stock Android UI, known as Hello UI, which is clean and easy to navigate. While there are a few third-party apps, it’s still less cluttered compared to the Realme P1. Motorola has also included some useful features such as Family Space and Moto Unplugged, which enhance the user experience. The Smart Connect feature, one of my personal favourites, allows you to mirror your phone on other devices like laptops or desktops, adding to its versatility.
The Motorola G85 boasts a dual-camera setup on the back, featuring a 50MP Sony LYT-600 primary sensor with Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS) and a secondary ultrawide camera that also doubles as a macro shooter. You also get a 32 MP front camera for shooting selfies.
The primary camera performs well in good lighting conditions, capturing detailed and vibrant images. The OIS helps in reducing blur, although it still struggles in low-light scenarios. Portrait photos look good with decent skin tone reproduction and good edge detection. The ultrawide camera could be better, as there are instances of HDR blooming in some shots, but it’s decent for the price.
The front camera is adequate for selfies and video calls. It even captures close-to-natural skin tones, which surprised me. Video recording is capped at 1080p at 60 fps, which is disappointing as the CMF Phone 1 overshadows it with 4K video support. But then again, the CMF Phone 1 misses out on an ultrawide shooter and instead opts for a depth shooter.
My biggest gripe here is the noisiness of low-light shots; the camera could be better optimised for this as I’ve seen phones with the Sony LYT-600 perform better in low light.
The Motorola G85 is equipped with a 5,000mAh battery, which provides mediocre battery life. This surprised me as budget Motorola phones usually have excellent battery endurance. With moderate usage, the phone provides 5.5 hours of screen-on time on a single charge. In our 4K video loop test, the phone only lasted 690 minutes or 11.5 hours, which is much lower than competitors like the CMF Phone 1 and OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite.
The 33W fast charging support is standard fare at this price point. It took 1 hour and 16 minutes for the phone to charge from 0-100 per cent, which is decent but it lags behind the OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite’s 80 W charging speeds.
The Motorola G85 is a solid budget smartphone that stands out with its premium design, vibrant display, and decent camera setup. If you frequently consume content on your smartphone, the Motorola G85 is one of my top recommendations under ₹20,000 thanks to its superb display and stereo speakers. However, it does lag behind in raw performance compared to some competitors. So, if top-notch performance is your main priority, you might want to consider alternatives like the Realme P1 or CMF Phone 1. For those that prioritise battery life and fast charging, spending an additional ₹2,000 on the OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite could be worthwhile, though it also falls short in performance, similar to the Motorola G85.
