Moto G54 Review: A Reliable Daily Driver Under Rs 20,000

At a starting price of Rs 15,999, Motorola has introduced another offering in its budget-friendly ‘G’ series — the G54. It joins a myriad of smartphones in the sub-Rs 20,000 price segment. So, what does it do differently to stand out? The Moto G54 is powered by a MediaTek Dimensity 7020 chipset and comes with up to 12GB RAM. It offers a 50-megapixel primary camera with OIS, which is something not very common. And, it tries to be a complete package by packing a beefy 6,000mAh battery. So should you buy it? Find out in our review.

Moto G54 Review: Pricing in India and storage variants breakdown

The Moto G54 is available in two configurations and can be bought from Flipkart.

8GB + 128GB: Rs 15,999 – It’s good to see many OEMs choosing the 8GB RAM option as the base variant. This configuration should suffice almost everyone.

12GB + 256GB: Rs 18,999 – This variant is clearly aimed at power users. However, at this price, the competition is intense. And we’ll delve into that shortly.

Moto G54 Review: Design and display

• The Moto G54 design does not do much to attract your attention but is available in interesting colour options

• It sports a 6.5-inch IPS LCD display

The Moto ‘G’ series has been following the same design approach since last year, and the G54 does not deter much. While it does not look flashy or as attractive as other devices in the segment, the subtle colour choices make it modern enough. It’s available in Mint Green, Pearl Blue, and Midnight Blue. The back panel is made out of PMMA, which looks like matte glass at first glance. While the material seems sturdy, the back reverberates while playing loud music.

With an 8.89mm thickness and curved edges, the phone is fairly ergonomic. Despite a beefy battery, Motorola has managed to somehow keep the weight at 192 grams, which is commendable. Moreover, the phone is also IP52-rated for splash resistance. It’s not entirely water resistant, however, so we would recommend keeping it away from water bodies. While we haven’t faced any cracks or scratches at the back, using the TPU case found inside the box is recommended.

1 of 2

Turn to the back, and you will notice that the camera module uses a different finish. It protrudes slightly, making the phone wobble when kept on flat surfaces. The right side of the Moto G54 features the volume rocker and a power button that also doubles up as a fingerprint scanner.

The biometric authentication is quick and works flawlessly. The buttons have good tactile feedback, but the placement is a bit higher, making it tough to reach.

The top portion has a secondary microphone, while the left side has the SIM tray. The Moto G54 also gives you an option to add a microSD card of up to 1TB. The bottom portion of the phone is home to a headphone jack, a secondary microphone, a USB Type-C port, and a speaker grille.

1 of 2

The front side of the device is graced by a 6.5-inch IPS LCD display. Since the panel runs at 120Hz, scrolling through the UI was smooth and responsive. While Motorola claims the display can go up to 560 nits, our lux meter could only register 256 nits peak brightness. Despite this number, outdoor legibility was fairly good. As for a protection layer, the phone uses Panda Glass.

While all that is good, the bezels on the handset are on the thicker side, especially the bottom one. Luckily, it does not hinder your content-viewing experience much. Speaking of which, the Moto G54 comes with Widevine L1 certification, so watching full HD content on OTT platforms is not an issue.

It’s worth mentioning that LCD panels in the current crop of smartphones have been fairly decent in terms of colour reproduction. The Moto G54 also falls in the same category with a panel that is capable of producing good colours. Sadly though, the viewing angles could have been better, as there is noticeable discolouration.

By default, the display is a bit saturated. If you prefer a neutral approach in terms of colours, a setting under the display tab can help you tweak that. While the blacks are obviously not as deep as on AMOLED tech, shows such as Breaking Bad and Ragnarok looked good in darker scenes.

The stereo speaker setup is something most smartphones tend to skip, and it is good to see the Moto G54 rocking (pun intended) in this department. The speakers get loud enough and do not crackle at higher levels. However, the previously mentioned issue with the back panel wobbling on flat surfaces can get a bit annoying if you tend to use the phone without a case.

Moto G54 Review: Performance and software

• The phone is powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 7020 processor

• It runs Android 13 with minimum bloatware

The Dimensity 7020 chipset is based on the 6nm fabrication process. As of writing this review, there are no other phones in the Indian market utilising this chip. The octa-core processor comes with a maximum clock speed of 2.2GHz. The Moto G54 uses LPDDR4X RAM and UFS 2.2 storage tech.

The benchmark scores here put the Moto G54 in an exciting position. While it gets an edge over the previously launched Moto G73 (Review) — it also supersedes the Snapdragon 695-powered Moto G84 which costs Rs 18,999. Moreover, it also beats the Realme 11 5G (First Impressions), which comes with the Dimensity 6100+ SoC. While all scores are commendable in this price segment, the multi-core score on the Geekbench 6 was especially impressive.

We did not notice any lags or stutters in daily usage. The device manages multi-tasking and switching between multiple apps well. Moreover, the RAM management is on par with other devices in the market, making sure you can resume work from where you left off.

1 of 3

While it’s not pegged as a gaming smartphone, the Moto G54 can run games like BGMI and Call of Duty: Mobile. The former can go up to HD graphics settings and High framerates. You can go up to Ultra framerates using the Smooth graphics preset. It performs well, without any major stutters.

The Moto G54 boots MyUX based on Android 13 out of the box. The software is clean for the most part, barring a few unnecessary bloatware games such as Candy Crush, Magic Tiles 3, and Carrom Disc. Besides this, you get a barrage of Motorola apps. The brand promises three years of security patches. But, on the downside, it only pledges one major software upgrade.

Moto G54 Review: Cameras

• It sports a dual-camera setup at the back

• The front shooter uses a 16-megapixel sensor for selfies

It’s good to see premium features such as Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS) trickle down to budget smartphones. The images captured on the Moto G54 are detailed and overly vibrant at times. The post-processing tends to boost greens in the images, to the extent it looks artificial. The primary camera leans a bit towards the warmer tones, with the dynamic range being consistent in most situations.

1 of 2

Human skin tones are also portrayed well, with a bit of red hue. The ultra-wide angle camera works a bit differently with the post-processing choosing cooler tones. Photos come out well but lack adequate details. The secondary camera also doubles up as a macro shooter. And, because of the 8-megapixel shooter, close-up shots look good.

Daylight Camera Samples - Moto G54

1 of 11

In low light, the image quality falters with over-sharpened details and a bunch of noise. This worsens with the ultra-wide angle snapper. The 16-megapixel selfie shooter also captures detailed photos but tends to introduce red tones in dim conditions. Under good lighting conditions, it can capture decent and serviceable photos.

Selfie and Low-light Camera Samples - Moto G54

1 of 9

Moto G54 Review: Battery life and charging

• The Moto G54 packs a 6,000mAh battery

• You get a 33W charger in the box

Most smartphones in this price segment are equipped with a 5,000mAh battery. The Moto G54 goes a step above by shipping with a slightly larger battery, that has proved to be quite reliable in our usage. We easily got two days of usage out of the phone with moderate to high usage.

The phone clocked north of seven hours of screen time in our usage. This kind of battery life could be very useful for elderly parents who find charging a phone a tedious job.

The included 33W charger can take up to an hour and a half to fully charge from zero.

Moto G54 Review: Verdict

At Rs 15,999, Motorola has nailed the pricing of the G54. The phone packs an impressive battery that can easily last two days. While most OEMs stick to the 8GB RAM mantra, Motorola tries its hands at a 12GB RAM variant, which is impressive.

While the Moto G54 gets almost all the things right, the use of an LCD display could be a drawback for some. Regardless, the output on the display is fairly decent, but if you are an avid multimedia enthusiast, an AMOLED display such as the one on the Samsung Galaxy M34 might entice you. But, the G54 gets an upper hand over most of the other smartphones in the audio department.

The performance is on par with the competition and is quite reliable for daily usage and a bit of gaming. The iQOO Z7 (Review) beats the G54 in this section, but sadly the phone does not seem to be listed anywhere as of now.

The software situation is fairly sorted with minimum bloatware and to an extent clean experience, but the one-year software promise is irksome. At least a two-year commitment would have been the way to go, especially considering brands like Samsung are promising multi-year Android updates.

Not just the phones mentioned above, there are plenty of other powerful options in this price range. If you prefer faster charging, for example, the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite (First Impressions) or the Realme 11 5G could be worthy contenders

All in all, if you are looking for a dependable smartphone in the Rs 20,000 bracket and don’t mind an LCD display, the Moto G54 deserves serious consideration.