This is a solid phone that although priced as an entry-level device at A$399 – available at retailers such as JB Hi-Fi – offers features that you’d find exclusively in premium phones only a few years ago. This is where Motorola is pushing the market – forcing manufacturers to offer much more at rock-bottom prices. There’s no scrimping on quality or features in this device and if Motorola keeps going at this pace, it’s going to more than rattle the smaller players in the market while forcing those higher up the chain not to get complacent.
– Large, edge-to-edge screen with vibrant display
– Strong battery life and quick charging time
– Audio quality could have a little more bass and depth
– Device design is neat, though it does not come across as unique
Motorola, now the third-largest smartphone company in Australia, is eager to capture an even bigger share of the market. To its advantage, it’s got a great mix of new devices that appeal across the spectrum – from the A$1,699 Razr 50 Ultra 50 flip phone to the Edge 50 Pro which comes in just below the A$1,000 mark.
The Lenovo-owned brand is now making a play for introducing phones packed with high-end hardware and software capabilities, but at more accessible price points. With the new sub-A$400 Moto G85 5G, it may have just shifted the goalpost altogether for other manufacturers.
We were sent a review piece, and the first thing we noticed as soon as we tore through the box’s packaging seals and powered on the device, is a beautiful edge-to-edge display – typically, phones at this price point would shy away from offering something at this calibre.
The 6.7-inch pOLED curved display blends harmoniously with the ultrathin frame. The 2400 x 1080 FHD+ display with a 120Hz refresh rate has a peak brightness of 1,600 nits, which in real-world terms means that the display details remain sharp and easily visible even in brightly lit areas and outdoors.
Flip the phone over and you’ll see that the camera island sits nearly flush with the phone. Place the phone on its back on a flat surface, and it’s elevated only in the slightest bit towards the camera area.
The screen responsiveness is great. It was reactive to light flicks when switching between apps, and was good even when I was typing more furiously on the device.
As part of the sign-up process when setting up the device, the device asked me whether I was setting it up to use for myself or a child – a reasonable assumption when you consider that you might be prepared to give your pre-teen or teen a sub-A$400 dollar phone rather than a more expensive device.
Although I didn’t choose the child option, I suspect Motorola would add a few safeguards for me as a parent to have over the device if I were to select the child option.
There are added layers of security worked into the phone which were all activated during the setup process. These include a numerical security code, fingerprint access and facial recognition.
While built-in apps include Fitbit, Google One and Google Wallet, among others, as part of the setup Motorola even suggested downloading specific third-party apps such as LinkedIn and Adobe Scanner.
Once the general setup was over, I used the in-built Motorola app to personalise my phone. It allowed me to choose the icon shapes (I prefer round), the wallpaper and notification colours. Part of the customisation options also include customising app layouts – it can range from a 3×2 layout to a more densely packed 5×4 layout if you’re someone who downloads dozens of apps.
Another app I found to be quite useful was the Moto Unplugged which encourages a digital detox. Select a time frame, say 1 hour, and a set number of essential apps (for example, calls and messages) that you want to have access to during that period. When activated, all the other apps will be unavailable. You can, should you give in to temptation and want to check out that viral video, manually end your digital detox session by entering your passcode and restoring access to all your apps.
YouTube videos render superbly across the big edge-to-edge screen, and watching those videos highlights another key feature of the phone – this is a Dolby Atmos phone and Motorola claims that the stereo speakers produce 4x more powerful bass. Personally though, I didn’t find the bass enough on speakers. The audio quality was good, and particularly loud on full volume, though it somewhat lacked depth and bass.
As for the camera, Motorola has swapped out Samsung sensors and instead replaced it with Sony Lytia 600 Sensors along with Quad Pixel technology. The selfie camera has been bumped up to 32MP, from 16MP in the G84.
The main camera here is 50MP, and if you want to use it to the maximum effect, select the Ultra Res option on your phone and you’ll get as clear and crisp a picture as possible with this device.
An 8MP camera supports ultra-wide shots and captures a wide field of view when triggered. The Night Vision mode of the camera really does do a great job of capturing images in low-light conditions.
Once you capture your images, the Magic Editor allows you to seamlessly edit out images with the help of some AI technology.
On the subject of AI, you can use Gemini on this device too. Snap a product and use natural language conversation to ask the chatbot things about the item. I took a partial image of my keyboard with the HP branding just about visible in the picture and asked Gemini to identify the computer’s manufacturer – it did so correctly.
If you are going to use this device for work purposes, one of the most useful apps on this device is Smart Connect with which you can sync it to an external display including a PC or tablet and easily transfer files too.
I have an HP laptop and all I needed to do was download the Smart Connect app on it, scan the QR code on my PC with the phone camera, and my phone and PC were synced.
I could mirror my phone and have my PC display a separate vertical screen with whatever was present on the G85’s screen. The Virtual phone feature allowed me to use my PC to completely control the phone using my mouse, including activating the phone’s camera from my PC. For work video calls, you can even use the rear high-res video camera of the G85 as your video camera, and your PC as the main display for the video call. Smart Connect also allowed me to simply drag and drop files to easily share them between the PC and the phone.
The phone features a Snapdragon 6s Gen 3 processor, 8GB RAM, and 128GB of built-in storage – which can be upgraded up to 1TB with the help of a microSD card. Although the device ships with Android 14, Motorola has committed to offering one major Android update – Android 15 is expected in the next few weeks – and three years of security updates. This means that Motorola expects you to be able to comfortably operate this phone for at least three years, which is a welcome move when you consider tactics that some phone manufacturers use to force their devices to become obsolete quicker and compel users to upgrade their phone every year. The fact that Motorola has done this for an entry-level device is commendable.
When it comes to charging this device, it ships with a 33W TuboPower charger and a USB Type A to USB Type-C cable. Using Motorola’s cable and charger, managed to charge the device from 0-30 per cent in 15 minutes flat.
In 30 mins, the phone charged up to 57 per cent. The 5,000mAh battery is plenty enough here too. You can easily get an entire day out of the device on medium usage which would typically include watching a few videos, taking calls, scrolling through social media or emailing.
This is a solid phone that although priced as an entry-level device at A$399 – available at retailers such as JB Hi-Fi – offers features that you’d find exclusively in premium phones only a few years ago. This is where Motorola is pushing the market – forcing manufacturers to offer much more at rock-bottom prices. There’s no scrimping on quality or features in this device and if Motorola keeps going at this pace, it’s going to more than rattle the smaller players in the market while forcing those higher up the chain not to get complacent.
– Large, edge-to-edge screen with vibrant display
– Strong battery life and quick charging time
– Audio quality could have a little more bass and depth
– Device design is neat, though it does not come across as unique