After being available for pre-order for the past couple of days, Motorola’s new budget smartphone — the Moto G Power (2022) –is on sale in the U.S. via Motorola’s retail channels. The phone, originally announced in November, was until now, was only available for purchase through Metro by T-Mobile, Verizon, Boost Mobile, and Xfinity Mobile. Before making it to the U.S., this budget smartphone was already on sale in select overseas markets. As evident from the (2022) suffix, this is the latest edition of the Moto G Power lineup and logically succeeds last year’s model — the Moto G Power (2021).
Motorola’s G series smartphones are positioned as affordable, feature-loaded devices that usually have a value for money tag attached to them. And by the looks of it, the Moto G Power (2022) is no exception. If you’re wondering what the “Power” tag signifies, it’s Motorola’s way of branding smartphones with larger than average battery capacity. In the case of the Moto G Power, it’s a 5,000 mAh cell.
If you were considering buying a budget smartphone in the next few weeks and were considering a Motorola device, here’s everything you need to know about the Moto G Power. Below, we also tell you what’s new on the 2022 edition of the phone compared to last year’s model.
What has changed from the Moto G Power (2021)?
The Moto G Power (2022) and its predecessor — while sharing the same form factor and an affordable price tag — seem to have taken their respective cues from entirely different schools of thought. Listed below are the key differences between the phones.
Beginning with the design, the Moto G Power (2022) has a vertically stacked, left-aligned triple camera system as opposed to the center-aligned square-shaped camera array on the 2021 edition. While both phones get fingerprint scanners, the Moto G Power (2022) gets one on the rear panel, while the 2021 edition integrates the scanner with the power button on the side panel. The 2022 edition of the phone has a centrally positioned hole-punch for the camera, while the 2021 edition gets a left-aligned hole-punch for the selfie camera. Here are the camera specs for each phone:
- Moto G Power (2022): 50MP primary camera, 2MP macro, and 2 MP depth camera
- Moto G Power (2021): 48MP primary, 2MP macro, and 2MP depth sensor
Does the Moto G Power (2022) get a better processor?
The Moto G Power (2022) uses a MediaTek Helio G37 chipset instead of the Snapdragon 662 processor that was found doing duty on the 2021 iteration. While the move to MediaTek may not make the average smartphone buyer happy, both these chipsets — at least on paper — offer almost equivalent performance.
The internal storage capacity for the base variant of the Moto G Power (2022) starts at 64 GB and goes up to 128GB for the top variant. The 2021 edition of the phone only came in 32 GB and 64 GB variants. Both phones offer expandable storage using microSD cards and come in a single RAM option: 4GB.
While the battery capacity remains unchanged at 5,000 mAh on both devices, the 2022 edition loses support for 15-watt fast charging. Interestingly, both devices have 10W chargers in the box, but you could technically charge the 2021 model faster using a supported fast charger.
The Moto G Power (2022) has a slightly smaller display (6.5-inches) than the 6.6-inch panel on the 2021 variant. And even though the display resolution remains the same, the 2022 edition gets an upgrade in the form of support for a 90Hz refresh rate. Even with the slightly smaller display, the 2022 edition of the phone is slightly larger in size. At 203 grams, the Moto G Power (2022) is slightly lighter than the outgoing model that weighed 206.5 grams.
Lastly, being the newer of the two phones, the 2022 edition of the phone has the upper hand as far as software is concerned. The newer phone runs Android 12 out of the box, unlike the Moto G Power (2021), which came preinstalled with Android 11.
Pricing and availability
The Moto G Power (2022) is already on sale and can be purchased unlocked from Motorola USA. As mentioned in the beginning of the article, the device is also available through Metro by T-Mobile, Verizon, Boost Mobile, and Xfinity Mobile.
Shipping for the retail version of the phone is expected to begin on March 18, 2022. The base 64 GB variant of the phone starts at $199, while the 128GB option will cost $250. There are two color options on offer; Ice Blue and Dark Grove. As for the 2021 edition, the 32GB variant of that phone starts at $169, going up to $179 for the 64 GB variant.
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