Motorola Moto G50 5G Review: Affordable but average

When I was a kid, we had an old ‘mushroom pink’ coloured van that we’d pile into every day. ‘Pinky’ would get us to school, to violin practice, our friends' houses and even family holiday road trips. 

Pinky was not glamorous; there were no bells and whistles, no leather upholstery or CD player, she was a cheap car that looked the part, and I was sometimes jealous of the cool zippy cars that my school friends' parents drove. But Pinky got us everywhere, without fail. She was reliable, and was part of our family for much longer than any of us anticipated. Pinky got the job done, without fuss. 

The Moto G50 5G smartphone is the Pinky of smartphones. It does the job and offers a reliable device with 5G connectivity and a good battery life. You’re just unlikely to show it off to your friends, but rather ask your parents to drop you off a few houses down the street.

Moto G50 5G display

Out of the box, the Moto G50 feels chunky, and in the world of smartphone design, this usually equates to feeling less-than-luxe. Add on the plastic cover that comes with it, and you’ve got a cheap and cheerful smartphone that emphasises the ‘cheap’. It’s thick, too, and can feel cumbersome in small hands. The back colour is nice though, in ‘meteorite grey’.

It’s all very standard - a running theme you’ll find with the Moto G50 - when it comes to features and design; a fingerprint sensor halfway up the right-hand side, 3.5mm headphone jack, USB C-port, two microphones, and a single speaker.

Moto G50 5G camera

Let’s cut to the chase; this is not a phone camera that’s going to wow you. It’s not even going to whelm you. On the scale of ‘whoah’ to ‘uh-oh’, the Moto G50 firmly sits in camp ‘meh’.

The rear camera hardware consists of a 48MP standard lens and 2MP macro lens. The front camera is 13MP. It’s all very standard.

In excellent settings, such as outside with an abundance of natural light, the Moto G50 can produce some nice images. Selfies look okay with enough lighting, but any light behind you will completely wash out images. And as for the 8x zoom - it’s blur blur blur.

The camera doesn’t capture motion too well either; I have loads of images of fluffy cloud-looking blurs that are supposed to be my mum’s dogs.

There are standard live filters to choose from; my favourite being the black and white ‘vogue’. Cinematic mode lets you create fun little gifs, where you can select the area of the video you want in motion and keep the rest still, which entertained me for a good ten minutes. It really struggles in low-light settings, and night mode does little to help.

Are there any ground-breaking features of the Moto G50 camera? Nah.

If a great camera is on top of your list of priorities for a phone, the Moto G50 will disappoint. 

Moto G50 5G performance

The standout here for the Moto G50 is battery life. This bad boy easily lasts a day (and well into a second) on 4G before it needs a recharge thanks to its 5000mAh battery. As 5G use is something that can put a phone battery through its paces, having a decent battery life is crucial for any device that touts itself as a 5G phone.

The Moto G50 is powered by a MediaTek Dimensity 700 processor, meaning it joins a slew of other budget and mid-range phones that use the MediaTek Dimensity 700 processor, like the Samsung Galaxy A22 5G.

There's nothing especially remarkable about the performance of the Moto G50. It runs on the Android 11 operating system, which you'd expect, and the display has a 90Hz refresh rate for smoother motion. 

Moto G50 5G - Final thoughts

This is the phone to buy if you simply use your phone for making calls, basic online browsing and want a 5G connection, but would like something a little fancier (and more futuristic) than a classic Nokia brick. This is not the phone for content creators or amateur photographers, nor is it the phone for those who want a zippy processor or ‘wow’ factor.

The Moto G50 5G is for those who prefer function over finesse, who don’t mind a cheap phone that does what it says on the box. And at just $399, Motorola is gearing up this phone to cater for an audience who don’t need bells and whistles, and if that’s you, the Moto G50 will do the trick just nicely.

Just quietly though... if you've got an extra $100 to play with, the Motorola Edge 20 Fusion is a smarter buy.

Moto G50 5G camera samples

Kate Reynolds

Digital Content Editor

Kate Reynolds was a Digital Content Editor at WhistleOut.

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