Motorola has recently brought out the Moto G22 which sits firmly in the budget end of the market. This is not the first time we have reviewed devices from Motorola we have covered the Moto E7i Power & Moto Razr 5G If your looking for a budget-friendly device the Moto G22 is available currently for £146 but I warn you now keep your expectations in terms of what this phone has to offer in terms of features and the camera.
First Impressions
Motorola in the past may have produced devices that surprise you in terms of the cost and what you get for your money. In the case of the G22 there, won’t be any surprises but if you consider the camera, overall phone performance and display it might leave you a little disappointed hence me telling you to keep the expectations low.
When testing the phone out for the last few weeks you do notice the performance issues such as the lag when moving from app to app or when playing games on this phone really does struggle.
Unboxing the G22 comes with a USB-C charge cable and a sim card pin.
I passed this phone over to my photo expert James who was not very positive about the camera performance which you can read later in this review. That aside for one second the display is also low-res and never gets bright enough and these aspects are why the phone is so cheap.
The only shining light about this phone is the battery life it is massive and can last up to 2 days if you are modest in usage. This phone is also well built and will handle the odd drop if the worst was to happen. This phone is ideal for someone who uses the phone for its core use calls and text and do little else this phone will tick your boxes.
Design
The Moto G22 design-wise actually comes with nice curved edges and feels well built. The phone is a little on the chunky side and 8.5mm in thickness. The phone is made of plastic but actually does not feel on the cheap side in terms of build. On the rear, you get the Motorola logo and the camera bump in the top left but does protrude a bit from the case you put the phone in.
The phone comes in two colours cosmic black or iceberg blue. I have seen the phone in both colours and in this review got the comic black to test and it’s actually quite nice to look at I would even go as far as saying it has a premium feel to it.
On the phone, the power and volume controls are all positioned on the right-hand side of the phone. The power button actually has a fingerprint sensor built into the power button and it works fairly well.
The rear of the phone has a USB-C port and speaker grill and to top this off you get a 3.5mm headphone jack positioned at the top of the phone perfect for those who prefer a wired audio experience.
What you will notice about this phone is Motorola state its water repellent but the fact there is no mention of an IP rating I would be careful when using the phone near water or down the beach this summer on holiday.
Overall it’s not the worst looking phone on the market and will stand its own on looks compared to the likes of Realme, Oppo or even the elite such as Samsung. Am afraid this is where all the compliments make a sudden halt.
Display
The G22 has a 6.5 inch LCD display that has a resolution of 720 x1600 pixels. What it offers is a display that lacks sharpness and is not exactly that bright. Even if you ramp up the brightness to max it can be tricky to see even in daylight.
Moving around the screen the bezels are not that tick so that is a small positive. The only cut out on the screen is where the selfie camera sits. On the bright side, the refresh rate is 90Hz over the expected 60Hz.
Performance
The Moto G22 comes with a MediaTek Helio G37 processor and comes in with 4GB of RAM and can offer either 64GB or 128MB of internal storage. You can also use a MicroSD card up to 128GB of extra storage is required. The G22 runs on Andriod 12 which is the most current operating system and the specs mentioned are very basic which matches the low price tag of this phone. The 90Hz refresh rate means moving through menus and switching between apps is not too much of an issue but you will experience a little lag.
In terms of performance scores the Geekbench 5 scores come in at the following:
- Single-core: 171
- Multi-core: 960
- Vulkan: 89
These scores are some of the worse we have seen since we started What Gadget. This just goes to show this phone is simply for the basics and those who are not concerned about a phone with a slower speed. Playing games on this phone is a no go with very long loading times.
The G22 does not come with 5G which if being honest did not overly concern me as 5G is still very much in the early days of the rollout.
Software
The G22 comes with Android 12 which is the most up to date version on the market. You get the usual moto home screen giving you a chance to look at the time and weather which is useful to have.
The phone comes with all the normal apps you come to expect as well as device help and Motorola notifications both apps feel a little pointless. What you do have in an interactive wallpaper app that provides some animated options that are actually quite cool.
Battery Life
As mentioned at the start of this review the main shining light is the battery life it comes with a 5000mAh capacity battery that offers up to 2 days of use the main reason for this is the phone has a low-resolution screen and what is under the bonnet does not drain much of the battery.
In testing, I watched an episode of the Wrestletalk podcast on Youtube and bright brightness to the max with volume at medium and it only reduced the battery by about 6% which was very impressive. When it’s time to charge the phone it uses a USB-C cable and charging adapter and charges your phone using a 15W charge so a full charge takes about 3.5 hours. It will come as no surprise the phone is not Qi-compatible.
CAMERA REVIEW BY OUR CAMERA EXPERT JAMES ROBERTSON MILLIGAN INSTAGRAM – @LIFESIZEPHOTOGRAPHY
On paper, the camera on the Moto G22 looks like it’s hot to trot, with its quad-cam on the rear boasting 50mp you would think it would give you some pretty tidy photos hey! well, you would like to think so when stating that number!
So, the readers should know me by now, if your new here’s a little bit about me, so I am a photographer and a Phonetographer, and the editor of this great publication gives me the phones to test the camera capabilities, over the last couple of years I have tested some epic phones for what gadget and some not so epic phones, So! where does the G22 sit with me…. unfortunately, not so epic I’m afraid, I shall now explain why..
So back in the early noughties Motorolla was the must-have phone packed full of features and cutting edge designs, they also led the way with the camera capabilities, believe it or not, the camera was better than Samsung’s… back then… so you would think over the years with technology advancing Motorolla would advance with this and would be up there with the best of them. However, for some reason, they appear to have stayed still and not moved with the market or demands, and one of the demands is the camera in a phone, that seems to be where the competition is but Motorolla just hasn’t done this and I can’t think why!
They have gone to the effort to put a quad-cam on the G22 so why not open it up and utilise it?? I understand that the G22 is a low budget handset but there are plenty of other low budget handsets on the market that would blow this one away!.
So, as they say, the proof is in the pudding so let’s see some shots from this 50mp camera in action!
Portrait, those that have read my previous reviews will know I love portrait, I love the sharpness of the subject, the way the colours come out and the subtle background blur you get that really makes your subject stand out. Once again my trusty model decided that he wanted to pose for this, how did the picture come out… not great. The subject, my model was a little out of focus, the background blur looks awful and the picture is just not sharp, crisp, or clear and the colour just didn’t want to come out.
Selfie Camera: the all-important selfie! we all love a selfie we all like to have a little pose off for our socials before we go out and for that all-important Facebook profile picture, the G22 boasts a 16mp front-facing camera so you think it would be pretty good right… wrong, again no clarity, no high colour resolution and the background beyond the subject is just not there… although my grey beard seems to stand out well!!
Macro: so what is Macro, macro is when you get up close and personal you get excellent detail and clarity, the G22 has Macro shooting.. has it? questionable… when I decided to take a photo of what is a vibrant purple pot plant expecting a great resolution, colour and detail I was sadly disappointed it looks more like I have an unsteady hand after a few JD and cokes the night before and used full zoom!
Pro Mode – with Pro mode you would expect to have the same result as a DSLR camera on a point and shoot again with excellent colour, clarity, detail and sharpness, again no… just come out looking flat with no true tones and colours.
Standard mode, point and click – so where are we with this.. pictures were taken in the evening about an hour before sunset so there is still plenty of daylight, so you would expect a decent outcome with plenty of true colours, great definition and results because this is a 50mp camera right! sadly not. pictures were dull, flat, lack of light coming in and showing on the outcome with poor definition and just failing to get the vast true reflection of the colours.
Conclusion of the G22 camera.
Where do I start, okay so its standard with its features same as any other handset, however, they just haven’t done it on this, it struggles to focus, and the pictures are lifeless, and a little grainy, I know it states 50mp but it’s more like an early days camera phone when they were first introduced to mobiles.
I really thought Motorolla would have nailed it, as I said earlier yes it’s a budget handset but there are other handsets priced around the same with cameras that will put this to shame. the G22 just didn’t do it for me, I think even if you downloaded a free photo editor such as Snapseed you couldn’t really improve the outcome. With a market that is heavily dictated by the camera capabilities, Motorolla needs to improve this otherwise they will fall into the shadows and not come out!
Verdict
The Moto G22 is an affordable but very basic phone it looks good and will cover all the basics for you but it’s for a user who simply wants to text or call and that is about it the display is really basic and you will struggle to get the screen to the right brightness.
The phone does not indicate an IP rating so be extra careful near any pools of water or the bath as this phone might not survive. This phone also got the worse benchmark results we have seen on a device its not fast and you will struggle with multiple apps open or multiple browser tabs this phone will struggle. Also if you are a gaming fan this phone provides you with long loading times paired with a low res display it’s not something I would recommend for someone who likes mobile gaming. Also watching films will also be a disappointment due to the 6.5 inch 720×1600 pixel LCD display means films just do not look as sharp as they do on other devices in and around this price point.
The phone was at 100% brightness it’s just not bright enough.
Last but not least the camera they have put a quad-camera set up with a 50MP camera at the rear and a 16MP camera at the front and if am completely honest it performs really poorly. My camera expert James did not enjoy using the phone, as seen in his camera review above.
However, it’s not all bad I know you might be surprised to hear me say that the G22 is well built and comes with a nice curved edge design, fingerprint scanner and 90Hz refresh rate. In terms of the operating system, it uses Andriod 12 which gives you an up to date OS to use every day but this phone is designed for those who enjoy the basics of life and did not want a complicated phone.
The shining light on the phone is the battery life which is fitted with a 5000mAh battery that depending on use could last 2 days mainly due to the fact there is not much taking the power away the specs are basic and the screen is low res.
So overall, if you want a basic phone with fantastic battery life to simply call, text or WhatsApp this phone will do the job. Want it for anything more complicated like gaming or multi-tasking on your phone this is simply not for you.
If the budget is key at £146 it won’t leave a dent in your pocket mainly because you will never take it out of your pocket. Lots of work to be done by Motorola with their next budget device.
Product Rating:
Design: 4.0 out of 5.0 stars
Features: 2.0 out of 5.0 stars
Performance: 2.0 out of 5.0 stars
Battery Life: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars5.0
Camera: 2.0 out of 5.0 stars
Value For Money: 3.0 out of 5.0 stars
Overall Rating: 3.0 out of 5.0 stars
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