affordable all-rounder with an interesting price

Motorola has a large portfolio of devices; smartphones in all flavors. The Moto G20 was also recently added to this list. An affordable smartphone with everything you need. Is it enough to score well? We test the Moto G20 in the extensive review.

Moto G20 review

Previously, Motorola’s G-series was nice and clear in terms of naming. In the meantime, that has all become a bit more complicated and numerous devices have been added to the G-series. In the G series you have different gradations, and the Moto G100 is the most extensive in the series. We have already discussed this device in the Moto G100 review. We are curious whether the Moto G20 will also come along, and we have tested that for you in recent weeks.

Sales package

Motorola delivers the Moto G20 in the familiar box form; a rectangular package. What is included is quite clear; an adapter, charging cable, sim needle, some paperwork and the device itself. When you take the device out of the packaging, there is immediately a silicone case around it that you can use to protect the device. A great package with everything you need.

Design and interface

We have the Moto G20 here in the color Breeze Blue, a beautifully executed color. The device has a 6.5-inch IPS LCD screen with an HD+ resolution. It has a refresh rate of 90Hz. On a positive note, the screen can be dark enough in the evenings; We don’t often see that dark, which is nice. What is less is that in full sun the brightness is not enough to make the screen easy to read, something we often see with devices in this price range. I also find the brightness sensor too sensitively adjusted. Sometimes it happened that he got a little upset by the varying amount of light falling on the sensor.

Do you remember the devices with an LED notification? That is usually a long time ago. With the Motorola Moto G20 we again find an LED notification light, at the top right of the device. This lights up while charging, but also alerts you to new messages or notifications. Very handy. Only the white color is supported for the light.

On board the device we see a slot for the SIM card or memory card on the left. The right side of the phone is full of keys. This is because the power button and the volume button are located here. There is also a button above it. This sends you directly to the Google Assistant, with which you can start a voice command. I like it better that it’s above the volume key than that it’s on the left side of the phone; you accidentally press it less often now.

It had been a while for me that the fingerprint scanner was on the back. On the more recent models I tested, they were on the side or integrated into the screen. However, you quickly get used to it, and it remains a great place for a scanner. The fingerprint scanner of the Moto G20 does its job quickly and you can store multiple fingers. At the back we also see the quad camera, which we will come back to later in the review of the Moto G20.

At the top we see the 3.5 millimeter audio jack; at the bottom there is space for the speaker and the USB-C connection.

Interface

Motorola uses the My UX skin for the interface design, which is pleasant to use. No difficult menus or busy design, just nice and clear. On the left tab you have access to the Google Discover feed. The apps menu can be opened with a swipe from bottom to top. Despite the price of the device, everything runs at excellent speed.

A very strong feature of the Motorola devices is the presence of the Moto Actions. With this you can, for example, shake the device to open the camera, or turn your wrist to start the flashlight. Although the separate ‘Moto Actions’ app is missing, you can still use the gestures. For this you have to go to settings > system > gestures. There you will also find settings to, for example, quickly take a screenshot or that the volume of the ringtone goes down with an incoming call when you pick up the device.

Communication: calling, chatting and surfing the internet

As mentioned earlier in the Moto G20 review, this phone has dual-SIM support. If you insert a second SIM card, this will be at the expense of the space for a memory card. The Moto G20 gives you access to the 2G, 3G and 4G network. Calling and texting go through the well-known apps from Google. This means that you can directly use the dialer, messaging app and keyboard app from Google itself. These work fine and are self-explanatory.

You can also use the Internet excellently on the Moto G20. All you need to do is start the Chrome browser on the device. It is nice that Motorola has not cut back on the WiFi networks of the phone for its price. You can use both a 2.4GHz and a 5GHz WiFi network. Furthermore, the G20 offers support for Bluetooth and GPS. The budget device also offers NFC on board, which is a handy addition for mobile payments, for example.

Multimedia: music and film

The Motorola Moto G20 is of course not a high-end model, but the phone is fine for watching a video. The screen is clear, although the brightness could certainly have been higher. In the evenings, watching a movie is very pleasant, because the brightness can be very low. For the music lover, the Moto G20 has a 3.5 millimeter connection. In addition, there is even an FM radio on the device. A connected headset serves as an antenna.

What strikes me about the Moto G20 is that the sound quality is not bad at all. There is a good balance between high and low tones, especially for a device in this price range. In addition, the volume can be loud enough to enjoy your music well.

Camera: photo and video

Four cameras sit on the back of the Moto G20. This is a 48-megapixel main camera, 8-megapixel wide-angle lens, a 2MP macro lens and a 2MP depth sensor. An LED flash is also incorporated in the same module. The camera app is self-explanatory and pleasant to use. The fact that the Moto G20 is not the fastest is also reflected in the camera app. It takes a while for the camera to start up. Then the fun can begin.

We see that Motorola has made some adjustments to the camera. The many functions that we know from other Motorola devices, such as the spot-color function, can no longer be found on the Moto G20. You can use different filters, the manual mode and there is a night mode.

We always review the photos we shoot with a review device on the big screen. Only then will you get a good idea of ​​the photo quality. Given the price of the Moto G20, you should not have too high expectations. What strikes us is that on cloudy days the sky is mainly white, that the drawing could be better and that on sunny days the photos are a bit faded. In general, we can conclude that the photo quality scores sufficiently given the price. The wide-angle lens is a handy addition, although a photo is often not sharp at the edges. In the evenings the quality is obviously very poor. The special night mode puts a green haze over the photo.

A photo we took with the Moto G20 can be found below. More photos can be found in the online photo album.

Selfie and video

The selfie camera of the Moto G20 shoots the images with the 13 megapixel front camera. The photo quality is sufficient. You can also film in up to 1080p Full HD+. The video quality is decent; the sound is quite monotonous. You can switch to the wide-angle lens while filming. You can watch the video we shot with the Moto G20 below.

Performance: battery, speed and memory

No Snapdragon or MediaTek chipset, but an octa-core processor from Unisoc. If you switch from a considerably more expensive device to the Moto G20, it takes some getting used to, but it was honestly not too bad for me. The Unisoc chipset performs tasks properly. The speed cannot be compared with an expensive flagship, but I did not find the device disturbingly slow. You do notice that certain tasks take a little longer, but you pay for that. The Motorola has 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage on board. The memory can be expanded with a memory card up to a maximum of 1TB.

Endurance

Not a powerful processor that requires a lot of power and a hefty 5000 mAh battery. That must be a perfect combination, right? We’ve used the Moto G20 in a variety of conditions. It is clear that the battery life of the smartphone is completely fine. With fairly intensive use we get two days without any problems, and a screen-on-time of about 8 hours.

I do have to add a caveat to that. I’ve noticed that the phone has strict power management. This means that many processes are dormant in the background. I didn’t notice this with emails, WhatsApp messages and the like, but it often happened that apps from Telegram and notifications from my tasks app did not come in at all. You can solve this by turning off the optimization for those apps in the battery settings. Once that was done, the battery life was still excellent and you could just do two days on one battery charge. Charging is done with 10W.

Update Policy

We asked Motorola about the Moto G20’s update policy. We’ll start with the Android updates; the device does not have to expect it. This means that the phone will only run on Android 11. Considering the price, that’s not a huge disaster, but it’s a shame. In terms of security updates, Motorola promises a security update for the duration of two years once a quarter. That is absolutely the minimum.

Rating

In recent weeks I have been walking around with the Moto G20, a device of roughly 150 euros. A big difference with the devices I often like daily driver use. Still, it certainly didn’t disappoint me. The Moto G20 is not the fastest, but I certainly do not find it slow. In addition, it does everything it is supposed to do and you have a great battery life. The camera shoots reasonable pictures and the phone is complete, including 5 GHz WiFi and NFC. It is a pity that there is no Android update and that the maximum brightness on sunny days falls short. If you can live with this, then the Moto G20 is an excellent, affordable smartphone.

You can buy the Moto G20 at: Coolblue, Bol.com, Belsimpel, MediaMarkt and Mobiel.