The Motog53 5G stands as Motorola’s latest mid-range offering, providing a 120hz refresh rate, 5G capability and a sleek and minimalist design that is comfortable to hold and fits perfectly in both your hand and pocket. It’s admittedly been a while since I last used a Motorola phone, but I was quite surprised at how much I enjoyed my return. For a mid-range phone to offer such high-end features, complete with an impressive battery life and generous A$329 price point, it’s a great device with a 3.5mm audio jack at the bottom that made working out with the Sennheiser IE 200’s a good time.
While the lack of wireless charging felt like an odd omission, this was the only real downside I could find. The camera is crisp and sharp, taking great photos with an added dual-screen mode that lets you take shots and video from both cameras at the same time. The Motorola Motog53 5G may be a mouthful to say out loud, but provides a feature-packed phone that makes it an ideal option for almost any everyday user.
Design
The Motorola Motog53 5G is a sleek design with a 6.5″ screen that fits comfortably in your hands. The ink blue option is beautiful and compliments the durable plastic shell of the phone’s body. The top left rear corner houses a 50mp camera complete with two lenses while the standard front punch hole camera and Motorola M symbol on the back return. The matte back also finish stops fingerprints and smudges from appearing after longer stretches in the hand.
On one side sits the volume control and a fingerprint sensor, a very welcome addition for me personally, given I’m an iPhone user. The bottom of the phone features a 3.5mm audio jack and a USB-C charging point. The fingerprint sensor doubles as a lock button as well as volume control buttons which also control the power and resetting of the system. It’s nothing new, but certainly intuitive and reliable enough to appease most users and different sized hands for an easier reach of the thumb.
Screen
The 6.5 inch, 120hz screen is surprisingly gorgeous, providing a great way to watch videos, play games and browse Instagram. The screen is bright and colourful and is definitely one of my favourite features of this phone. The HD display is great for gaming, and while the 720p resolution isn’t the greatest, it doesn’t throttle the hardware, keeping the frame rate crisp. Motorola has confirmed that the Moto G53 5G is water resistant; but without an IP rating, I wouldn’t be taking this in the shower anytime soon.
Screen brightness caps out at 600 nits which works well indoors, but is not fantastic outside. This mainly affects text in brighter conditions. The IPS LCD panel has a resolution of 720 x 1600 pixels, allowing for a passible display while usually translates in this case to the extension of an already impressive battery.
Performance
The Moto G53 5G comes packed with a Qualcomm SM4350-AC Snapdragon 480+ 5G, which feels like a given for a phone within this price range. Android 13 keeps things feeling generally fresh and modern, while notifications are held in the smart Lock Screen and can easily be accessed or muted without having to unlock your phone. The Moto app also allows you to completely customise the phone to your preferred settings, which is a nice touch. You can then arrange for different motions to turn the flashlight on and off and take photos. It can also detect motion when you put your hand near the phone screen to show notifications.
There is a dedicated game mode when you are playing games that will not allow any notifications to come through and change the CPU so it doesn’t overheat the system. The Dolby Atmos support for the sound does help when making calls on speakerphone and listening to music with no headphones and while it rarely changes the experience, it does nudge it in the right direction. The dual speakers sit at the bottom of the phone. The 4GB of RAM and 120GB of storage also feels par for the course, even if the RAM feels like the culprit for dips ion performance, particularly during gaming sessions. Thankfully, storage can be expanded with a micro SD card, a true win for mid-range and entry-level phones alike.
Camera
The 50mp camera on the back takes the perfect shot for a phone at this price point. It allows for solid performance, but does rely heavily on the right lighting. As you can imagine, the problem reveals itself in low light situations, as it simply struggles to blur out the noise in the photos. With the lack of an ultra-wide lens, users will instead have to resort to the standard lens and additional 2MP macro cam on the back for those closer shots. The front camera provides an 8mp selfie lens, but lacks an auto-focus option.
The beauty of the camera is in the app and broader software, which offers a range of different modes including Portrait, Ultra Res, Group Selfie and my favourite Dual Mode, which allows for both photos and videos to be taken from the front and back cameras at the same time. Inside the app, you can also control the white balance and exposure for the back camera.
Battery
As with most phones that pack a 5,000mAh battery, you’ll find more than enough to get through a day of heavy use. I used this for a solid week as my daily driver, listing to music, streaming video content and browsing the internet consistently with both Facebook Messenger and Instagram almost always running in the background. Even so, I was still left with almost 50% left at the end of the day. The phone was also able to give me consistent speeds in 5G on the Telstra network and I never had a moment without a signal across the Melbourne CBD and Ballarat regions.
Verdict & Value
The Motorola Moto G53 is the perfect entry point in price and features if you are looking for a attempts to redefine the mid-range phone. Packed with premium features like a 120hz refresh rate, stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos support and a quality body complete with a back matte finish, it feels well-made device. Battery life is solid and can easily get through a day of solid use with music, photos, videos, apps, games and calls holding out during a busy holiday week. While the phone lacks wireless charging support, the fresh Android 13 operating system with Moto app keep things modern while allowing you to customise aspects of the phone to your liking. At A$329, it’s the perfect price for the multitude of features and general reliability that the Moto g53 offers.
FOUR STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Highlights: Sleek design; Premium matte backing; Reliable battery life
Lowlights: Lack of wireless charging, 4GB of RAM can chug at times; Start-up speed is slow.
Manufacturer: Motorola
Price: A$329
Available: Now
Review based on unit supplied by Motorola.
