Motorola’s G15: a decent phone for the fiscally challenged

Smartphones are the modern-day glue that keeps our lives on track. Organising a catch-up with mates? Text them! Need food, just call Uber Eats! Lost? Google Maps to go! In short, smartphones are an indispensable part of our existence. Isn’t it a crying shame that they’re now so stupidly expensive?

This conundrum must have been weighing on Motorola’s mind when they launched the G15. Priced at a wallet-pleasing $269, it gives you everything you need from a smartphone: a decent display, a good time, a long time (thanks to its sizeable battery), a usable camera and a solid design. But were corners cut to get there?

The G15 is unmistakably a Motorola device. From behind, it looks a hell of a lot like their super impressive flagship, the Moto Edge 50 Pro, thanks to the rear camera module bump and faux-leather rear. Unlike many similarly priced devices, the G15 feels reassuringly solid and, best of all, good to hold in the hand. The review unit was finished in what Moto’s marketing team calls Gravity Grey, but Iguana Green can also be had.

Spinning the G15 around, its front gives the first hint of its affordable DNA. There are visible bezels and an LCD (instead of AMOLED) display. At 165.67 x 75.98 x 8.17mm, it weighs in at 190g, which lends it some solid heft. You also get an IP54 rating, which means it’ll handle the jandal in the rain; just don’t go swimming with it.

Another surprise is the size of the LCD display, a roomy 6.72 inches. It also has a crisp FHD+ resolution, which isn’t typical at this price point. While you don’t get the punch and contrast ratio of AMOLED, the display is bright, and there’s also an Extra Brightness feature should you ever need it under sunlight glare. On a less positive note, the display is only capable of a 60Hz refresh rate, but unless you’re a gamer, that isn’t likely to be an issue.

It has stereo speakers and support for Dolby Atmos. That said, Dolby Atmos has become an overhyped and misused audio spec/marketing term. In non-home theatre equipment, it often translates into little more than EQ and minor sound processing tweaks. While the stereo speakers are a nice addition, headphones are where the G15’s audio really shines. To this end, it has an old-school 3.5mm socket jack for wired cans, which, let’s face it, often tend to sound better than their Bluetooth counterparts.

The other area where the G15’s budget bones move into focus is with its chipset. In this case, the silicon driving everything is a MediaTek Helio G81, a dated 12nm chip. While fine for basic use, the paltry 4GB of RAM limits the phone’s usefulness for demanding apps/multitasking. If email/web, socials, phone calls and texts are your primary uses, the G15 will perform more than capably. If AI, gaming, and other CPU/RAM-heavy apps are your thing, you might want to look more at a device with a stronger spec.

The cameras do, however, acquit themselves well. The basic camera setup consists of a 50mp f/1.8 main shooter, a 5mp ultra-wide sensor, and an 8mp snapper around the front. While its camera isn’t in the same league as Samsung’s Galaxy S25, it captured acceptable HDR photos in daylight and indoor conditions. Considering the sub $270 sticker price, I was pleasantly surprised by natural-looking colours and decent detail levels. A lack of optical or electronic image stabilisation meant that low-light shooting saw a loss of saturation and detail. Slower shutter speeds in low light conditions meant that even minuscule movements resulted in blurred images. That said, Moto has baked in a Night mode, which goes some way towards fixing this, but there’s still some pixel noise. Considering the sticker price, the G15’s main shooter is not half bad.

The same can’t be said for the 5mp ultra-wide shooter, which seems to be more of an afterthought, given its lack of detail/colour accuracy. Image processing helps a bit, but as with the front 8mp selfie shooter, some over-sharpening of its lower-resolution photos is sometimes noticeable.

The news is good on the battery front, though. Moto thoughtfully packed a 5200mAh cell into the G15. Combined with a less demanding CPU and 60Hz screen, I managed to constantly get two days of battery life with moderate usage. This is a definite bonus compared to the daily charge nature of most flagship phones. With heavier use, I had to charge it in the evening, but given the specs and the phone’s intended audience, this probably isn’t a likely issue for most. As is the case nowadays, Moto hasn’t bundled a power brick, and its 18W wired charging translated into 1 hour 45 minutes before the G15 was fully charged.

With so many Android phones slathered in custom interfaces and bloatware, the G15 uses Motorola’s mostly vanilla Google-like UI. Unlike many other devices at this super affordable price, Moto’s UI allowed Android 15 to shine, and it’s something that other phone vendors should learn from.

If that’s the good news on the software front, the news regarding futureproofing isn’t quite so great. Moto has not committed to future Android versions for the G15 and only two years of security patches. Given how Samsung has stepped up to keep its budget phones up to date, this is disappointing and is something buyers need to be aware of.

So, the verdict? The G15 is ultra-affordable yet feels a lot less like a compromise than so many other similarly priced smartphones. While the lack of OS updates and an underpowered CPU limit its appeal to those who just want the basics without breaking the bank, it is a solid choice that budget-conscious buyers should definitely consider.

https://www.motorola.com/nz/smartphones-moto-g15/p