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Nov 29, 2023

Motorola G53 5G review: falls short of affordable expectations

Despite a big screen, decent battery life and budget price tag, the Motorola

Despite a big screen, decent battery life and budget price tag, the Motorola Moto G53 5G struggles to stand tall amid the low to mid-range Android crowd.

It seems there's a Motorola handset for every budget and every occasion, so many that it can be tough to determine which is the right fit for your pocket. There are 21 handsets in the Moto G series alone, which appears to be Motorola's low to mid-range offering – a step up from the E series but not up there with the Edge series.

The new Moto G53 5G follows on from last year's Moto G51 5G (the G52 didn't come to Australia), although it also has a lot in common with the Moto G 62 5G. While they both sported $399 price tags, the Moto G53 5G manages to bring it down to $329. In return, you make several sacrifices which could frustrate many people.

The stretched 20:9 aspect ratio always makes for a tall phone. I questioned whether Motorola had gone a little too tall with the Moto G51 5G's 6.8-inch display standing 170.5 mm tall, but the 6.5-inch Moto G53 5G reigns this into a more manageable 162.7 mm.

That might not sound like much, but shaving almost 1 centimetre off the height, as well as shedding a few grams, makes a big difference to the handset's centre of gravity and how comfortably it sits in your hands without the risk of losing your grip.

Visually, dropping the screen back to 6.5 inches isn't likely to bother most people. It's still a generous amount of screen real estate. The bigger concern is that the screen resolution has dropped significantly, from 2400×1080 pixels to only 1600×720 – so basically dropping from Full HD 1080p to HD 720p.

Admittedly the screens are different sizes but, using dots per inch to compare apples with apples, reveals it the Moto G53 5G has almost halved the resolution from 444 dpi down to 267 dpi.

The result is a screen that is noticeably less sharp, even if you don't have an eye for detail. If you’re switching to the Moto G53 5G from a phone with a better screen it will likely frustrate you, but if you’re not – which is possible in this price bracket – then you’re unlikely to appreciate what you’re missing out on. Even so, you’re entitled to expect a better.

Support for a 120 Hz refresh rate is an impressive inclusion in a phone at this price, but forgoing this in favour of a higher screen resolution would offer more bang for your buck.

Looking beyond the screen, on the right-hand side of the handset you’ll find a large power button. It doubles as a fingerprint reader but, if you’re right-handed, it actually makes more sense to use your right thumb (there's also support for Android's Face Unlock).

The power button is higher than the halfway point of the handset, with the volume buttons above it, which reduces the likelihood of the tall phone overbalancing in your hand as you reach for the buttons.

At the bottom of the handset, you’ll find a USB-C port for charging, along with a 3.5 mm headphone jack. It also features stereo speakers.

Like most Motorola handsets, the Moto G53 5G comes with a transparent protective case that offers some scratch and impact protection but doesn't seem overly robust. The handset has a "water-repellent" design.

The Motorola Moto G53 5G ships with Android 13, with minimal bloatware, and Motorola says it will get a few years’ worth of updates.

Under the bonnet, you find a Snapdragon 480+ 5G chipset with 4 GB of RAM – which is fine for day-to-day tasks but is going to struggle with more demanding apps. It's frustrating that it's scaled back from 6 GB in the Moto G51 5G.

As for storage, 128GB onboard is sufficient, if not overly generous. Thankfully, the microSDXC expansion slot handles up to 1 TB cards.

It's a 5G chipset, as the name suggests, which ensures you can take advantage of Australia's fastest mobile broadband networks. That said, like most, it only supports sub-6 GHz 5G networks and not faster millimetre wave. Once again, it would be worth sacrificing 5G to pick up improvements in other areas.

The fact that the Moto G53 5G isn't a powerhouse and doesn't feature a super-sharp screen works to your advantage when it comes to battery life. That generous 5000 mAh battery should easily be able to go more than 24 hours before recharging if you don't push it too hard.

When you do need to top up, there's no support for wireless charging. It only comes with a 10W charger and there's no fast charging support, so a full recharge takes a few hours.

When it comes to photography, you only get a dual rear camera array – consisting of a 50 MP primary shooter and 2 MP macro. You’re forgoing the third 8 MP ultrawide lens you’ll find on some other models. On the front you’ll find an 8 MP selfie camera, again falling short of what you find on similar Motorola models.

The GeekBench 6 benchmarks tell an unsurprising story considering the spec sheet. The phone scores 736 on the CPU single-core test and 1809 on the multi-core. That's about par for the course amongst its rivals, in similar territory to the Samsung Galaxy A22 5G or A52 5G.

As a result, the Motorola Moto G53 5G only has enough grunt to satisfy people with simple needs. It will cope with day-to-day tasks but struggle with much more, especially when it only has 4 GB of RAM.

When it comes to photography, that 50 MP camera figure sounds impressive but we all know by now that megapixels aren't everything. The phone's picture quality once again reflects its midrange price tag, due to a small sensor and small pixels. It particularly struggles in low-light conditions.

The Motorola Moto G53 5G smartphone really misses the mark, which is unusual for Motorola which is pretty good at delivering value in this price range. In an effort to shave a few dollars off the price tag, Motorola has delivered a handset that is a big step down from its last few handsets in this category range. Especially when it comes to the quality of the screen.

If you can find a good price on the older Moto G51 5G, it will serve you a lot better in many ways than the new Moto G53 5G.

Ultimately, this phone is for people on a tight budget who are content with some compromises.