Motorola Moto G84 5G review: Great quality, low price

Motorola Moto G84 5G review: Quick summary

Motorola has managed to pull off a phone that looks and feels more expensive than its sub-$400 price point, thanks to its sleek finish (in both vegan leather and PMMA resin). With a great all-round performance and stunning display, it’s also a good size for watching videos without being too big, and is nice to hold, thanks to its slim and lightweight design.

 

• The cameras delivered a decent job overall, you do miss the higher quality results you’d get with a more expensive phone.
• The rather fast and zippy performance, with up to 120Hz refresh rate, makes for smooth scrolling without noticeable overheating.
• It offers a great battery performance that can easily last a couple of days of moderate usage, plus fast charging is quick and a fast charger is included in the box.

Moto G84 5G pros and cons

Pros:

Slim, lightweight and a good size without being too big
Great battery with fast charging
Clear and vibrant display

Cons:

Rather basic cameras
Macro mode and portrait mode a little hit and miss
Built-in speakers lack a little depth and bass

Motorola overall customer satisfaction rating for smartphones: ★★★★

Buy Moto G84 5G

Phone	Features	Storage Size	Price
	Moto G84 5G 6.5-inch FHD+ pOLED display Rear cameras: 50MP main + 8MP ultrawide Front camera: 16MP 5,000mAh battery Snapdragon 695 5G processor Midnight Blue, Marshmallow Blue and Viva Magenta colours colours	256GB	$399	Shop now
			^^View important information

 

Motorola Moto G84 5G features and specs

Motorola’s G series has offered a range of great quality phones for a cheaper price point, and the Moto G84 5G is no exception, especially thanks to its sleek design.

Offering 5G connection for under $400, along with a great display and built-in speaker experience, it’s a phone built for entertainment and keeping up with your day-to-day life — proving that a quality smartphone doesn’t have to be too expensive.

Motorola Moto G84 5G design

Motorola has kept the design for the G84 5G very simple. It’s rather slim and lightweight, with squared edges. It’s available in a dark Midnight Blue and lighter Marshmallow Blue, while I was supplied with the Pantone Viva Magenta version in a soft vegan leather finish (Midnight Blue comes in a smooth plastic PMMA finish). You’ll also get a clear jelly case included to keep your phone free from scratches and smudges. It’s a phone that looks and feels much more premium than its price point.

Motorola Moto G84 5G functionality

I found the Moto G84 5G was comfortable to hold, thanks to its slimmer and lighter build, while its 6.5-inch display size strikes a good middle ground between larger phones and more compact devices. You’ll also get an under-screen fingerprint scanner — a change from the side button fingerprint scanners more commonly seen with cheaper phones.

I found both fingerprint and facial recognition rather quick and seamless to unlock, and the positioning of the fingerprint scanner was easy to reach. While the lock and volume buttons were placed a little too high up the phone than what I’m used to, I still found it an easy phone to use, especially considering how lightweight it is.

Motorola Moto G84 5G display and audio

The Moto G84 5G includes a 6.5-inch Full HD+ pOLED display with up to 120Hz refresh rate, along with stereo speakers and Dolby Atmos. The screen quality is clear and vibrant without the picture being overly saturated. Whether you’re playing games, scrolling social media or watching video, the G84 5G offers a great screen experience.

This is also backed up by some quality built-in speakers. While you will get a clear sound and immersive experience, I found the sound was a little flat and didn’t have as much depth and bass as you would get from a more expensive phone. However, it didn’t detract from the experience and was mostly only noticeable with music.

Motorola Moto G84 5G cameras

You’ll get a dual rear camera setup with 50MP main lens camera and 8MP ultra-wide camera plus Macro Vision, along with a 16MP front-facing camera. It’s a fairly simple camera setup with a decent amount of features, without many flashy extras — but you will get cameras that can get the job done, especially for the price.

Outdoor photos had great clarity to them and colours were rather true to life, but could be muted at times. I was especially impressed with its capture of the sky in different conditions — overcast days tend to be difficult to balance between the sky and the rest of the image, but I found it did a good job in these conditions. Indoor photos offered similar results, with rather vibrant colours in good lighting, although it wasn’t quite as clear in lower light conditions and you can get some noise in your photos.

I was impressed with how the Moto G84 5G handled night time, with a reasonable amount of brightness to the photos. Switching over to night mode and you get a good boost to your shots and great clarity, especially when there is a light source present.

While there’s a Macro Vision mode available, there’s not dedicated macro camera, and I found that macro mode was a bit of a let down. You will be able to capture some good closeup detail, but there’s not much clarity to it, and I found it also struggled to focus on the subject — it’s a mode that is handy to have, but doesn’t really deliver what you would hope it does.

Portrait mode was also hit and miss. I was able to get some good portrait shots but found the processing a bit slow at times. This means capturing a subject that moves (like a dog or cat) can take a lot of time and patience. You’ll get a good background blur which adds some nice depth, but it does tend to blur around the subject too, especially where any hair or fur is. I also found that the subject wasn’t quite as clear as what you see from more expensive phones, but the price is really the trade-off in this case.

The video quality was decent, but the picture quality in some conditions wasn’t the clearest; once again, for the price point, it’s to be expected. I found the video’s auto focus was pretty good and was able to create some nice depth to the background.

Overall, the Moto G84 5G offers a decent quality camera performance that can get the job done. However, for more serious photo takers, or if you’re after a higher-quality camera performance, you’ll need to look elsewhere (and at phones with a bigger price tag).

Note: Images taken on the Moto G84 5G have been digitally compressed for web.

Motorola Moto G84 5G performance

Motorola has packed in a Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 5G processor which includes 5G connectivity. While you won’t get the premium performance of a more expensive phone, I found the Moto G84 5G did an excellent job at keeping up with my needs. Testing out its 5G connectivity, I was able to reach an average speed of up to 457.76Mbps using the Optus 5G network.

It was quick and seamless when scrolling and I found it kept up with intense use, such as gaming and switching between apps. I also didn’t notice it running particularly hot. For the price point, the Moto G84 5G offers a strong performance that can easily keep up with your needs.

Motorola Moto G84 5G battery and charging

The Moto G84 5G includes a big 5,000mAh battery with up to 30W fast charging and comes with a 33W fast charger in the box. Using the supplied charger, I was able to get from 0% to 100% in one hour and 25 minutes, with 10 minutes of charging getting the battery up to 20%.

The battery holds up well, with around eight hours of moderate usage (social and web browsing, video streaming, gaming and regular idle periods) draining 30% of the battery, while very light usage can stretch the battery out to several days without charge.

One hour of Netflix drained 6% of the battery, while 20 minutes of HD YouTube drained 2%. Gaming drains it much faster, with a 3% battery drop while playing 18 minutes of a moderately intense game.

Motorola Moto G84 5G price

The Moto G84 5G is priced at $399 AUD RRP and is available from a range of retailers including The Good Guys, JB Hi-Fi (with Marshmallow Blue exclusive to JB Hi-Fi), Harvey Norman, Officeworks, Bing Lee, Big W and Amazon online.

Motorola Moto G84 5G phone plans

If you plan to buy the Moto G84 5G, you’ll need to buy it outright and pair with a SIM-only phone plan. Whether you’re after a cheap plan with only a small amount of data, or you’re after a plan with big data inclusions, there are plenty of prepaid and postpaid phone plans to choose from. You can use our free SIM-only phone plan comparison tool to see a wider range of plans.

Should I buy the Motorola Moto G84 5G

While the Moto G84 5G offers an all-round great performance, it is let down by the quality of the cameras and the slower processing of the camera app. However, you also have to keep in mind the price point. For a phone under $400, you expect that the cameras and processor will not be the same quality as what you get from a phone that costs at least $1,000 more.

I found that the size of the phone, especially how slim and lightweight it is (and the premium-feeling vegan leather finish and stunning Viva Magenta colour), along with the great quality display, were real standouts for me and made it a great phone to use. Ultimately, if you’re after a phone that does a good job at the basics, and you’re looking for 5G connectivity under $400, the Moto G84 5G is worth considering.

Scroll to the right to view above table on mobile

Related phone reviews

Motorola Edge 40

A premium-feeling phone with a curved screen for under $700, the Motorola Edge 40 offers a quality all-round performance, great cameras, stunning display and ultra-fast charging, with a sleek and stylish design.

Read the Motorola Edge 40 review

Motorola Razr 40

The cheapest flip phone currently on the market, Motorola combines all the benefits of a compact flip phone with a quality performance. With a high refresh rate and great quality main display for a smooth and vibrant viewing experience, plus a great camera setup, the Razr 40 delivers quality folding tech for a cheaper price.

Read the Motorola Razr 40 review

Product used for review/testing was a free sample provided by Motorola.