Motorola developed the very first commercial mobile phone back in 1983 and played a pivotal role in establishing the cellular infrastructure the modern mobile phone industry is built on.
In 2011, Motorola separated its smartphone manufacturing business from the rest of the company. It first sold this to Google which went on to sell it to Lenovo, the current owner of the Motorola handset brand.
What to consider when choosing a Motorola phone
Shopping for a Motorola smartphone can be quite a formidable task. Motorola is one of the most prolific manufacturers in the modern market with more than a dozen different handsets lining store shelves, and it's not always clear what differentiates them or why you should pick one over another.
Fortunately, demystifying the many options is a simple matter of knowing what to look for. Below, you'll find a primer on the key features to consider when comparing Motorola smartphones. Armed with this information, you should have no trouble finding the handset best suited to your mobile life.
Motorola takes a relatively uniform approach to storage with its smartphones. The majority come with either 16GB or 32GB of onboard storage, and all feature a microSD card slot for adding more storage on top of that. The only significant difference between handsets is how much expandable storage each supports: some can only take microSD cards of 128GB or less, while others can handle cards as big as 2TB.
There's no denying that watching movies and playing games is better on a bigger phone screen, but there are definite downsides to lugging around a phone with a massive 6-inch display. Not only do larger phones tend to chew though battery power faster than their smaller brethren, they don't play so nice with tight pockets or slender hands.
Motorola skews towards portability in this regard, designing its phones with displays in the 5- to 5.5-inch range. While this somewhat limits their appeal as entertainment devices, it allows Motorola to deliver better battery life at a more affordable price point.
Unlike Apple and Samsung, Motorola makes phones specifically for people on a budget. Even the high-end Motorola handsets typically launch for less than $500, and you'll find plenty of options available for much cheaper than that. If you're looking to cut costs even further, some Australian mobile carriers offer Motorola smartphones on contract, though the range is currently quite limited.
Despite their budget price tags, nearly every Motorola smartphone includes a 3.5mm headphone jack. This is a distinct advantage over many of the latest premium smartphones from brands like Apple and Samsung, and it could well be a deciding factor for those who use their phone as their primary music device.
Keeping strangers and criminals from stealing the personal information stored on your phone is just as important in a budget smartphone as it is in a premium handset. Motorola recognises this. Most of its smartphones include a fingerprint sensor for locking your phone more securely than it would be with a simple PIN code, and more recent handsets also feature voice recognition for further protection against potential data thieves.
Setting appropriate expectations is necessary when comparing mid-range and budget smartphones like those from Motorola. You're not going to get the massive megapixel counts and ultra-high fidelity that some premium handsets offer, but you'll still find plenty of capable cameras suitable for basic photography.
"Capable" is exactly what Motorola delivers with its smartphone cameras. None of its handsets offer outstanding photo quality or a wealth of features, but they all perform well enough for phones at their respective prices.
If fast mobile Internet is a must, odds are you've compared network providers like Optus and Telstra to see which one offers the best speeds in your area. Network quality isn't the only factor that impacts your mobile browsing experience, however. Smartphones themselves play a role in how fast your connection is since they are only capable of handling a finite amount of network traffic at any time.
This limit is defined by a phone's network category. Motorola handsets range from Category 4 up to Category 9, with lower categories reflecting slower maximum speeds. To learn more about the practical impact these categories can have on Internet speeds, check out our guide on Network Category speeds.
As a new and relatively advanced technology, wireless charging is largely limited to handsets at the premium end of the market. Motorola doesn't buck this trend, eschewing wireless charging in favour of its proprietary fast-charging technology dubbed "turbopower". Available in almost all of its recent handsets, turbopower is capable of supplying hours of charge to Motorola's smartphones in just fifteen minutes, plus it automatically adjusts electricity output to avoid overcharging and reducing the lifespan of the phone's battery.
One of the biggest advantages mid-range and budget smartphones have over premium handsets is their stamina. Smaller screens and weaker processors typically require less juice to function, resulting in longer battery life even when battery capacity is identical.
This is very much the case with Motorola's smartphones. Recent handsets have little trouble surviving a full day of use, and some are even capable of lasting two days if your usage is relatively light. For Aussies who don't have time to detour via a power point every few hours, this is a strong point in Motorola's favour.
Unless you live and work in a sterile cube, you're going to have a tough time keeping your phone from the occasional water-related mishap. Whether it's a spilled drink or a sudden storm, you don't want your shiny smartphone rendered impotent by an errant droplet of H2O. Water resistance, then, should be high on your list when shopping for a new handset.
Sadly, Motorola's approach to water resistance is less than ideal. Rather than buildings its handsets with official IP-rated water resistance, it only applies a water-repellent coating capable of withstanding a light drizzle. Some handsets don't even feature any sort of waterproofing at all. This is a notable knock against Motorola, and is worth keeping in mind if your phone spends a lot of time exposed to the elements.
If you're looking to buy a Motorola smartphone, it's important that you go in understanding the kind of performance they're capable of. As budget to mid-range devices, you're not going to get the slickest experience in 3D games or other heavy-duty apps, and you may find yourself waiting for some apps to load a little more often than you'd like. That's just par for the course for handsets at this price range, and you won't do any worse with Motorola than any other mid-tier manufacturer.
That said, it's worth taking time to read reviews of a prospective Motorola smartphone to get a clearer idea of how it performs under real-world use. Benchmarks are also useful for seeing how a particular handset fares against the competition, which is why we include them in all our smartphone reviews.
Looking for a Motorola phone on a plan?
Aussie telcos tend to focus on premium smartphones with their contract plans, leveraging the appeal of paying a $1,000 handset off in smaller instalments to sell their mobile services. As such, you won't find many of Motorola's budget smartphones available on contract here in Australia.
However, you can buy a Motorola phone outright and connect it to a SIM-only plan. Check out the table below to compare postpaid SIM-only plans:
Matt Sayer is a technology writer and editorial engineer for Finder, combining industry expertise with data-driven solutions to help people make better decisions. His extensive portfolio spans investigate reporting on the roll-out of 5G, statistical analysis on the legacy of E3 and guides for popular products like mobile phones and smart speakers. Matt has a Bachelor of Computer Science from RMIT University and is passionate about finding ways that technology can better our lives.
Motorola's Moto G5 Plus provides a large screen and solid performance at a highly attractive price.
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