Moto G Play: The Best Budget Phone for Everyday Use

This new smartphone from 2023 packs a 6.12-inch, 90Hz display with a hole-punch camera, a 5,000mAh battery, triple cameras, a microSD slot for extra storage, a headphone jack, and water resistance—all for just $169. Sounds amazing, right? But there’s got to be a catch, right?

Look, I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: good phones are getting cheaper, and cheap phones are getting a lot better. This video is all about the second part—cheap phones that are surprisingly solid. The one I’m looking at today is the Moto G Play. If you’ve been keeping up with Motorola, you’ll know they’ve been quietly cranking out some great budget phones for a while now.I just had to find out for myself—how does a phone that costs a tenth of what I normally spend measure up?

So, let’s start with the basics. It’s a big phone, which I actually really like. It has a 6.5-inch, flat 90Hz LCD display. It’s not the sharpest screen I’ve ever seen—it’s 720p, so sometimes I can see the pixels—and it’s not super bright. The viewing angles aren’t great, and the bezels are a little thicker, especially on the bottom. There’s also a slight light falloff around the hole-punch camera at the top. But here’s the thing: can you really complain about this at this price? It’s more than enough for texting, web browsing, navigation, using apps, and scrolling through social media. It does what it needs to, and that’s not where the catch is.
But what about the build? You’ve probably picked up that it’s a pretty big phone, but it’s also made of plastic. But honestly, the layout is perfectly fine. Like, you’ve got the port and the speakers at the bottom, there’s a headphone jack at the top, and you have bonus expandable storage alongside the SIM card tray right where it belongs. And on the back, yes, that is a decently-fast fingerprint reader right in that classic Motorola dimple spot. So it’s laid out well; it absolutely does not bend or creep or anything weird like that. Plus, you might have heard plastic is absolutely not the end of the world when it comes to a smartphone build. Obviously, the premium ones will really like to feel more premium and heavy, so glass will do that. But this is often more durable than glass if you drop it. And some people like a lighter-weight phone when it is this big. Also, it is still water-resistant. I can’t say waterproof; it’s IP52, but it’s water-resistant. So, the build, that’s not the catch.

So, about the battery—what’s the deal with that? Honestly, for a cheap phone, it’s really impressive. It’s got a 5,000mAh battery powering a 720p display, which means you’re easily getting a day and a half of use, maybe even two if you’re not on it all the time. You’ll get around seven hours of screen time, no problem. The charging is only 10W, so it’s a bit slow, and there’s no wireless charging, but at this price? I’m not bothered by that. Just plug it in overnight, and you’ll be good to go.

As for the software, it’s actually really solid too. It’s almost identical to Motorola’s $1,000 Edge phone. You’re getting near-stock Android with a few Motorola features thrown in. It’s going to feel a lot like a Pixel when you’re navigating quick settings, notifications, and the launcher, but with Motorola’s own little tweaks. There are some extra settings in the menu, plus a Moto app where you can adjust gestures and features they’ve perfected over the years—like the double-chop flashlight, three-finger screenshot, the peek display for quick notifications, and even swiping down on the notification panel using the fingerprint reader. The only thing missing is the double-twist to open the camera, but that’s probably because the camera isn’t the standout feature on these budget phones.

Speaking of the camera, it’s… functional. The triple-camera setup is definitely trying to look premium, but the top one is a 2MP macro camera, and the bottom is a 2MP depth sensor for portraits. Honestly, the 16MP main camera is what matters, and it does its job. It takes decent photos and videos, especially if you’ve got good lighting. It won’t win any awards, but for $169, it’s pretty solid. This phone makes calls, sends texts, gets you where you need to go, plays games, browses the web, and can even take decent pictures and record 1080p video. And at this price, that’s pretty impressive.

At first, I wasn’t sure if the depth camera would actually be used when taking portrait-mode photos. But when I covered it up and tried to snap a portrait shot, the phone definitely noticed, so at least it’s doing something. The issue came when I took the photo and cranked up the background blur. The cutout shape is just… weird. Honestly, if you zoom in even a little, it looks pretty awful. It’s honestly so bad it’s almost funny. It feels like they just said, “Let’s save some processing power and use the zigzag cutout method we learned in preschool.”

But here’s the thing—it’s not about the build quality, which is fine, or the battery life, which is actually great. It’s not even the cameras or the software. The real problem is how slow this phone is. Like, really slow.

Inside this phone is a MediaTek Helio G37 chip paired with just 3GB of RAM. Other phones using this chip include the Techno Spark 9, Infinix Hot 12, and HONOR X7a, all of which are priced under $150. So yeah, it’s a budget chip, and that’s why it’s in this phone. To give you some context, the iPhone 14 scores this on Geekbench, while the Moto G Play scores this. So when I say it’s saving processing power by cutting corners on portrait cutouts, I’m not kidding—it just doesn’t have the power to do much. I’m not just talking about high-end games, either. The phone is slow across the board. Scrolling through apps and moving around the UI is just sluggish all the time.

So, I mentioned earlier that this phone has a variable 90Hz display, but to be honest, it took me a while to even notice because it barely hits 60Hz most of the time. It’s constantly freezing and stuttering. Unlocking it takes forever, apps open slowly—not just big apps, but even basic ones. The Settings app, for example, takes way too long to load, and searching through it is even slower. Some of this could be due to slower storage, so it’s not all the fault of the chip, but the experience overall is just slow. The thing is, this phone is noticeably slower than most in a lot of areas. Taking pictures? Slow. Typing? Slow. Browsing? Slow. And if you want to do anything like gaming or photo editing, forget it. Honestly, this might be the slowest phone I’ve used, and it’s always reminding me of that, which makes using it pretty frustrating.

The more I’ve been using this phone, the more I’ve found myself wondering: is it better to go for a brand-new budget phone like this one, or pick up an older flagship that used to be expensive? This phone here costs $169 brand new. But then there’s the OnePlus 7 Pro, which you might remember—it was one of my favorite phones when it came out. It was $669 when it launched in 2019, but you can easily find it for under $200 secondhand now. When you compare the Moto to the OnePlus, the difference is huge. The OnePlus 7 Pro, even though it’s a few years old, has a much better processor (Snapdragon 855), so the performance is smoother with faster storage and more RAM. The display is a way nicer OLED screen: sharper, brighter, and actually hits that 90Hz refresh rate consistently. Plus, it has more built-in storage, though it’s not expandable, and the camera setup is way better with a primary, ultra-wide, and zoom lens. It also feels a lot more premium with its glass body compared to the plastic of the Moto. The Moto does have a 4,000mAh battery, which is on par with the OnePlus, but the OnePlus has Warp Charging, so you’re getting 30W wired charging—something the Moto can’t match.

It seems like the consensus is pretty clear, but one big advantage of the budget phone is that, since it’s brand new, it’ll likely get software updates for a longer period of time compared to the older phone. Of course, this is just a general rule—Motorola, for example, isn’t always great with updates, so it depends on the specific phone. But phones like the Samsung A14 5G, which have a similar price and specs, are probably going to get more updates than a Motorola. The thing to keep in mind is that even if a flagship phone promises 3-4 years of updates, after about 3 years, it no longer has the edge over a budget phone in that regard. So, the OnePlus 7 Pro is likely done with updates, while the Moto might still have some left.

It’s kind of funny how some people don’t really think about software updates. Some even avoid them, which isn’t great—those security patches are actually pretty important. But when you look at it from a purely update standpoint, the newer phone has the advantage by default.

But, here’s the kicker in favor of the older phone: the environment. Buying an older phone that’s built to last and getting an extra 2-4 years out of it is actually better for the environment overall. Fewer new phones being bought means less e-waste, so that’s definitely a plus for the old phone.

As I’ve been thinking about the whole debate between old flagship phones and newer budget models, I’ve realized that the cheaper the phone, the more I’d prefer an older flagship. For instance, at $169, based on how this phone has been for me, I’d definitely go for an older flagship instead. You can find decent options around $200, like this one or even a used Pixel 5. Second-hand phones can still be great. But once you get to around $400, it starts getting a bit trickier. There are still reasons to pick an old flagship, but at $600, you can find some really great new phones with the bonus of ongoing software updates. It’s hard to beat something like the Pixel 7 at that price. So that’s how I see it.

Bottom line: when it comes to price, I’d take an older premium phone over a newer budget one.