Moto G73 Review: The Value Proposition For Most People

Moto G72 was one of the phones we recommended last year to anyone looking for a solid mid-range phone for under Rs 20,000. The idea behind this was simple – offer the best price-to-features ratio, which it did to an extent. But, no matter how eye-catching the package was, buyers were put off by the fact that it skipped 5G. But now, the company’s latest addition in the ‘G’ series Moto G73 is out. But, just like its predecessor, it lacks one crucial thing (and no, it’s not 5G). What’s that? Read our review till the end to find out.

Moto G73 Review: Design and build quality

• The phone comes in Lucent White and Midnight Blue.
• It has IP52 certification for dust and water resistance.

The Moto G73 follows the typical Moto design philosophy with a curved polycarbonate panel. It follows a ‘function over fashion’ approach, but some may find it boring. Its glossy, matte finish invites fingerprint smudges, and its slim
frames make it super-slippery to hold.

The camera module is inspired by the Moto Edge 30 Ultra to command a premium presence, and it houses dual cameras with an LED flashlight. The camera bump slightly sticks out of the panel, which is a good thing as the smartphone doesn’t wobble on flat surfaces.

On the right, you get the volume rocker and just below it is the power button that houses the fingerprint scanner as well. The left hosts a hybrid SIM card tray, offering you a choice between two nano SIMs or a microSD card with one SIM. The top of the phone is nearly clean, with a secondary microphone along with Dolby Atmos branding, and the bottom bears a primary microphone, a USB Type-C port, a speaker grille and a 3.5mm headphone jack.

The Moto G73 has IP52 certification for dust and water resistance, and it successfully withstood all the nasty Holi colours and water splashes last month.

Moto G73 Review: Display and audio

• This phone packs a 6.5-inch FHD+ LCD Display with a 120 Hz refresh rate.
• The G73 also comes with Dolby Atmos support.

To tingle your visual senses, the Moto G73 sports a 6.5-inch FHD+ resolution LCD panel at the front with a centrally-placed punch hole cutout. Even though the panel isn’t bad in terms of quality by any means, we feel Motorola could have at least provided an AMOLED panel, just like its predecessor. In fact, for the same price, the iQOO Z7 offers a much better 6.38-inch Full HD+ AMOLED display.

But let’s look at the greener side, the G73 offers a variable refresh rate between 30Hz and 120Hz, which varies according to the content played on the screen. For reference, the Z7 refreshes at 90Hz.

The device has Widevine L1 certification so that you can stream your favourite content on OTT platforms in 1080p and YouTube videos in HDR. We revisited Stranger Things on Netflix with it, and the G73 got through the binge session fine, but we did miss the punchy, vibrant colours of an AMOLED panel. Changing display settings to Saturated did help.

It carries forward some legacy from the G72, though, in the form of dual stereo speakers. The output was plenty loud but lacked the low-end thump, especially when listening to music in the shower. For cinema enthusiasts, the G73 also provides Dolby Atmos support.

Moto G73 Review: Performance and software

• It features India’s first Dimensity 930 processor.
• MyUX has some impressive privacy and security features.

The Moto G73 is the first phone in India featuring the MediaTek Dimensity 930 SoC. It is paired with 8GB of LPDDR4x RAM and 128GB of internal storage.

On AnTuTu v9, Moto G73 scored 408851, whereas, on Geekbench 6, the phone achieved a decent score of 701 and 1926 in single and multi-core tests.

About real-life performance, this phone was pretty smooth and fast while handling all of our day-to-day tasks, such as scrolling through social media and taking photos and videos on a very frequent basis. Even while playing games, we observed only a few minor hiccups here and there.

The only downside to the chipset is its limited imaging power, that’s because the Dimensity 930 can’t do 4K video recording.

On the software side, the Moto G73 comes with Android 13 based on MyUX out-of-the-box. Over the years, Moto has developed a reputation for providing a close-to-stock Android experience on its devices. This clean experience is one of our favourite things about it.

With the G73, Moto has also worked on a few privacy and security features, such as Moto Secure, a dedicated app that acts as a hub for accessing all privacy-related features. These include a privacy dashboard, managing individual app permissions, and tweaking privacy controls.

To lock apps, you can use Secure Folder functionality, whereas Stealth Mode lets you hide sensitive data and even change app icons. To throw off snoopers, you can also use the PIN Pad Scramble feature, which jumbles the sequence of the Numpad.

The new Family Space app also helps in those instances when you want to limit the amount of access when sharing your smartphone with kids.

Talking about the updates, Moto G73 is assured of getting an Android 14 update, with three years of security updates. Admittedly, this is slightly behind what the competition is offering, but we guess it is what it is for now.

Moto G73 Review: Camera

• It packs a 50-megapixel primary sensor that features two-micron ultra-pixel technology.
• The phone can record videos at 1080p at 60fps.

To keep things interesting in the camera department, Motorola did something that most phones in the segment don’t do, and we really liked it.

Instead of opting for a triple camera setup like most of the competitor devices, where one of them is mostly just a gimmick, the G73 offers a very clever dual camera setup.

The setup includes a 50-megapixel undisclosed Samsung primary sensor and two-micron ultra-pixel technology. Accompanying this is an 8-megapixel ultrawide camera that doubles up as a macro and triples as a depth sensor for portrait shots.

The primary sensor performs fairly average in the daylight – the images were sharp and crisp, but the colours were a bit too punchy for our taste. It has good dynamic range and well-exposed highlights, but sometimes, it produces over-saturated results in HDR. Photos clicked in portrait mode didn’t have accurate cutouts, especially in the nighttime.

Because of its low resolution, the secondary camera clicks images that appear too soft, regardless of lighting conditions.

Talking about low light pictures, the larger two-micron ultra pixel lets in more light within the sensor, hence offering decent pictures.

The videos were over-sharp and slightly too saturated. The device lacks OIS, and that’s not surprising for the price, but you do get EIS which does an okay-ish job of stabilising 1080p videos.

Moto G73 Review: Battery

• With a 5000mAh battery, Moto G73 is easily a one-day phone
• It does not have wireless charging capability.

The Moto G73 packs a 5,000mAh battery pack, which has become the norm for smartphones. It offers a day’s worth of battery with moderate use, which should be sufficient for most users.

But, stepping away from the norm is the bundled 30W Turbo Charger, which takes about an hour and 25 minutes to take the G73 from 0-100% charge.

We wish Moto shipped a faster charging solution because the competition is slowly starting to up the ante.

Moto G73 Review: Verdict

The Moto G73 5G is our go-to recommendation for those interested in a nice, clean and secure Android experience alongside 5G connectivity, all-day battery life and decent performance on tap in a package priced under Rs 20,000. Further, it has a non-pretentious camera system that can click some decent shots day and night alike.

But, as with all things God created in his infinite wisdom – it’s not perfect. The lack of an AMOLED panel, slow 30W charging and no support for 4K video recording can make some buyers look the other way. If you think these are mighty important, we’d like to bring your attention to the iQOO Z7 5G (Review) and Poco X5 5G.