With countless smartphone companies jumping into the 5G bandwagon like crazy, the market is now flooded with one 5G phone after the other. Like them, Motorola, has joined the fray with its Moto G51 5G.
In a highly competitive phonemarket segment, the Moto G51 wants your attention. Can it grab it?
The Moto G51 5G is the first smartphone in the world with a Snapdragon 480+ chipset, boasting of a 120Hz FHD+ display, a 50MP triple camera setup, and 5G support—and it costs only P9,795 during the Lazada Epic 10th Birthday Sale (March 27 to 29) from its original SRP of P11,495.
With a 5G phone as affordable as the G51, is there enough value for that price?
Read on.
The Moto G51 is a big phone—weighing 208 grams and measuring 170.5mm in height and 9.1mm in thickness. Folks with small hands will find it hard to use the G51 with one hand, but that’s just about it. Many customers actually don’t mind a phone’s size as long as it delivers the goods.
Its 6.8-inch display has good color reproduction and contrast and well-defined screen output.
The 120Hz high-speed refresh rate and a 240Hz touch sampling rate allows smooth scrolling while game animations should respond smoother than a standard screen. There are other options like Adaptive brightness toggle, color profiles (Natural, Saturated, and temperature tuner), system-UI theming options, Dark Theme, Night Light, Attentive Display, split-screen, screen recorder among others.
As for the audio, the G51 comes with a downward-firing single speaker and a headphone jack, good for listening in a small area. You can also turn up the volume to the max and sound is acceptable. But if you want an enhanced audio experience, you can choose from a variety of sound profiles within Dolby Atmos settings.
The fingerprint scanner that is part of the power button is the cool biometric option in dark environments, when facial recognition is impossible.
The phone is also water resistant, but just to be sure, don’t test it. We didn’t.
Battery
The Moto G51’s big size maybe due to its big 5000mAh cell. Our unit lasted for a little over two days with casual phone use, occasional videos, internet surfing, calls and text. If you want to extend the phone’s power, there is a battery saver option, too, or bring down the refresh rate to 60Hz to squeeze out more juice. There is also an overcharge protection, and adaptive battery option. Charging time though will last slightly above 2 hours.
Camera
The main camera (50MP) produces photos that are punchy, generally sharp, and with pleasant colors, that you can share instantly in your socmed accounts.
The ultrawide camera makes photos are often soft, lack dynamic range and detail, which is okay from a budget 5G phone, while selfies are decent enough with good detail, especially when proper lighting conditions are met.
Camera features are Portrait, Night Vision, Pro Mode, Slow-Mo, Timelapse, Panorama, Spot Color, Dual Capture, Cinemagraph (GIF-maker), and videography up to 1080p at 30 fps.
The Night Vision is where the G51 is at its weakest, but not a deal breaker. Besides, why shoot photos with low light when you can do it with enough lighting?
But connectivity and performance are where the G51 is a winner.
Call reception is good from the two-mic and earpiece setup. Moto G51 sports dual SIMs although it is a hybrid slot.
There is support for 4G VoLTE as well as 5G. The device is also equipped with 3CA carrier aggregation, 4×4 MIMO,Bluetooth 5.1, VoWiFi, dual-band WiFi ac, NFC, GPS, and a USB-C 2.0 port.
As the the world’s first Snapdragon 480+ phone, the G51 is a breeze to use for the usual everyday tasks—surfing, taking calls, texting, watching videos for long hours and occasional gaming.
There is also cool feature for gamers—Gametime, which has a screen recorder, quick-access app shortcuts, an option to disable auto-brightness, block notifications, and calls when you want an uninterrupted gaming time. The unit also doesn’t heat up when gaming, at least for an hour’s use.
Verdict
The Moto G51 is a very decent 5G phone that has lots of value—a 50MP triple camera setup, Snapdragon 480+ processor, multiple 5G bands, 5000mAh battery and a 120Hz FHD+ display.
Its best feature however isn’t the one found on the phone, but on your wallet. A 5G phone below P10,000? Count us in!